DiotimosReading Desk

Medicine soul and body

Immortalizing

ἀπαθανατίζειν (apathanatizein)

Apathanatizein is a causative infinitive, “to make immortal.”

From the book

Charmides

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordApathanatizein is a causative infinitive, “to make immortal.”
  • In the CharmidesThe claim heightens the authority of the Thracian doctors from whom Socrates says he learned his charm.
  • In this edition“Who are said even to make one immortal” preserves the evidential restraint and intensification.
  • A place to readSocrates reports the doctors’ extraordinary reputation before explaining the charm.

Meaning

Apathanatizein is a causative infinitive, “to make immortal.” In its sentence it depends on legontai, “they are said,” and is qualified by kai: the doctors are reputed “even” to immortalize. That grammar matters as much as the unusual verb.

Use in the book

The claim heightens the authority of the Thracian doctors from whom Socrates says he learned his charm. Their reputation exceeds curing a headache and even ordinary bodily health. Yet no explanation, demonstration, or argument for immortality follows. The reported instruction concerns the soul's priority in therapy and the production of temperance through beautiful words.

Herodotus' account of the Getae supplies a useful comparison: immortality language there concerns their understanding of death and going to Zalmoxis. Plato's compound verb may recall that ethnographic language, but the local text does not identify its precise ritual mechanism. It would be particularly misleading to cite this infinitive as an argument in the Charmides for the soul's natural indestructibility. No such argument is supplied here.

Places to read

  1. 156dSocrates reports the doctors’ extraordinary reputation before explaining the charm

Translation in this edition

“Who are said even to make one immortal” preserves the evidential restraint and intensification. Turning it into “who make the soul immortal” both removes the reporting qualification and inserts an object the Greek does not specify.

ἀπαθανατίζω

Attested: ἀπαθανατίζειν (apathanatizein). Make immortal; a reported reputation of Zalmoxis’ doctors, not a demonstrated therapeutic achievement. References: 156d. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀπαθανατίζω. See Immortalizing.

Source note

Compare Herodotus 4.94–96 for the Getae and Zalmoxis: online source. The comparison does not settle the literal force of Plato’s medical fiction.