Head

Use in the book

Critias says that Charmides recently complained of a heavy head when getting up in the morning. That provides the socially acceptable reason to call him over. The actual cause, duration, severity, and treatment outcome are never established. Nothing warrants explaining the symptom as a hangover, a moral defect, or a particular disease.

The head then occupies the middle of Socrates' analogy: sore eyes require attention to the head, and the head requires treatment of the whole body. Critias later jokes that the trouble in the head is a godsend if it forces an improvement in the youth's mind as well. The joke depends on the movement from physical occasion to intellectual benefit, without identifying head and soul.

Once the question becomes the nature of temperance, the original complaint falls out of the record. The ending returns to the charm, not to a medical report that the headache has vanished. This absence is part of the frame's transformation and should be preserved in any summary of its outcome.

Places to read

1. 155bCritias reports the morning heaviness and proposes the medical pretext
2. 156b–157a2Eyes and head are linked to body and soul in the therapeutic analogy
3. 157c–dCritias welcomes mental improvement occasioned by the head complaint

Translation in this edition

The translation gives “his head feels rather heavy” at the first report and later uses “trouble with his head.” This should not be rephrased as intellectual weakness: the Greek is describing the bodily complaint that occasions discussion.

ἀλγέω

Attested: ἀλγῶν (algōn). Suffer pain; the example concerns someone whose eyes hurt and whose treatment must also address the head. References: 156b. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀλγέω. See Head and headache.

βαρύνω

Attested: βαρύνεσθαί (barynesthai). To feel heavy or weighed down; Charmides reports heaviness in his head on rising in the morning, prompting the proposed treatment. References: 155b. Lexical identification: lemma: βαρύνω. See Head and headache.

κεφαλή

Attested: κεφαλὴν / κεφαλῆς (kephalēn / kephalēs). Head; the site of Charmides’ morning heaviness and the proposed remedy, before Socrates makes its treatment depend on the soul’s condition. References: 155b. Lexical identification: lemma: κεφαλή. See Head and headache.

ἀνιστάμενος (anistamenos)

Getting up; the morning action associated with Charmides’ head complaint. References: 155b. Lemma: ἀνίστημι. See Head and headache.

ὀφθαλμοῖς (ophthalmois)

Eyes; the bodily organ figures in Charmides’ gaze and in the doctor’s analogy of eye, head and body. References: 155d. Lemma: ὀφθαλμός. See Head and headache.

Use in the book

The Timaeus narrative contrasts rational revolutions in the head with psychic rulers around the breast. Failure to use the former contributes to its explanation of animal transformation. Elsewhere the division of psychic activities among head, chest, and liver is distinguished from division of soul itself.

Places to read

1. I.47.1.6Revolutions in the head are associated with rational activity.
2. I.49.25a.9The head is a bodily site of activity rather than a part possessed by incorporeal soul.

Translation in this edition

“Head” is direct; identify which theory assigns it a particular psychic role.