CHAPTER X I 



The Pharmakos and Medicine 1 



YEARS ago I began to wonder why the Greek 

 scapegoat or outcast of the festival of the 

 Thargelia was called a Pharmakos. I could not under- 

 stand what connection there could be between the Greek 

 words (p&pfiuxov and (pupfAccxzuoo and the scapegoat that 

 many have called the Human Medicine. However, the 

 matter passed out of my mind till I got a copy of the 

 second edition of The Rise of the Greek Epic, and there 

 Professor Murray's remarks in Appendix A brought the 

 matter back to me. Professor Murray seemed to believe 

 it was probably a foreign word, and, noting the long a 

 in the Ionic, suggested that in Attic the a was short 

 from analogy with (pdp^uKov. This seemed to imply 

 that he regarded Pharmakos, the scapegoat, as differently 

 derived from $up(/tUZOV, the drug. Nevertheless, on page 34 

 of the Greek Epic he speaks of the Pharmakos as Human 

 Medicine, which to my mind is a very late interpretation 

 of the word. It certainly is a difficult problem to con- 

 nect Pharmakos with a word for a drug or a man who 

 used a drug, a pharmacist or physician. But following 

 the clue which suggested a foreign origin, I sought for 

 some other word in the same area which might suggest 

 where it came from. I now believe that the original word 



1 The Pharmakos, " Folk-Lorc," vol. xxvii. 2, pp. 218-224. Vide Preface. 



2 55 



