Thucydides and the Plague at Athens

Abstract

Thucydides’ account of the plague at Athens in 430 BCE is the first naturalistic and secular representation of epidemic disease and its effects. In sharp contrast to contemporary ideas of plague as divine punishment, he presents it as a natural event, within a historical narrative that excludes all trace of supernatural influence. He is equally sceptical of the premature claims of the doctors, seeking to impose their theories of health and sickness on a complex situation. Thucydides’ careful empirical observations lead him both to new ideas about the nature of communal bonds and social behaviour, and to a sceptical view of the very existence of the divine; plague reveals the fragility of society and the absence of any meaning in the world beyond what we can construct ourselves.