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Show Notes: The House of Atreus; https://www2.classics.upenn.ed…gedy/media/atreustree.gif Tantalus; In the third book of Lucretius Referenced In the 8th Isthmian Ode of Pindar In the plays of Aeschylus; Of which the Oresteia contains the following; The Agamemnon (Text of the play) [See also The Browning Version] The Libation Bearers The Eumenides Iphigenia; In Lucretius (he calls her Iphianassa) And also; Don's translation and commentary on The Letter to Menoikeus Nates compilation of The Princi…

Lucretius and Pindar mention the stone, but without explaining it. In both cases they are describing a fate narrowly avoided.

There is also that strange passage in the Hippocratic Oath enjoining its reader not to cut those who "labour beneath the stone". This is generally interpreted as being a kidney stone (which, incidentally, Epicurus suffered from). Apparently Hippocrates felt that kidney stones were the domain of surgeons, not of the physicians he was instructing. It is possible that Hippocrates really was as high-minded as all of that, but to my juvenile ear upon first hearing or reading those words, the "stone" …