A Practitioner of Medicine, of Sorts
Picspam time! This one is for hc_bingo, and fills the 'Healers' (wild card) prompt on my hurt/comfort bingo card.
It's possible that I may have got a teeny bit carried away with this one. What can I say? Pythagoras in healer mode is very photogenic :-)
A Practitioner of Medicine, of Sorts
While Pythagoras is undoubtedly the brains of the gang, it has to be said that his knowledge of triangles and mathematics is seldom very useful in an adventure scenario. What is very useful, however, is his extensive knowledge of healing. So here’s a pictorial look at Pythagoras and his healing skills.
Within five minutes of Jason meeting Pythagoras, he is already on the receiving end of some emergency first aid.
And this rather sets the tone, as Jason has a tendency to get injured a lot, and most of the time Pythagoras is the one who ends up patching him up again.
It’s probably fair to say that through his association with Jason, Pythagoras’ field first aid skills have improved tremendously. He certainly gets a lot more practice after he starts adventuring with him. But it’s not just Jason who benefits.
In fact, Pythagoras seems to be the go-to healer for pretty much everyone who associates with them. And, for that matter, any random strangers who happen to need help.
Pythagoras even manages to treat his own injuries. After being attacked by a magically summoned monster, his arm was still covered in open cuts when Jason left him alone, but by the time Jason came back it was bandaged, implying that Pythagoras cleaned and dressed his own wounds, one-handed, since the injury is on his arm.
Largely due to his association with Hercules and Jason, Pythagoras is also particularly adept at treating arena-related injuries.
As well as first aid, Pythagoras has a lot of knowledge of potions and herbs, which comes in handy when his friends get sick, or cursed.
He is also quite good at identifying what potions or poisons have been used on people, simply by examining what is left of the vial. Who needs forensics when you have Pythagoras?
He’s so good, in fact, that in one episode Pythagoras gets his very own healing and potion-making montage.
He knows how to create a sedative so powerful it will knock out a grown man in seconds. He wasn’t expecting to be the first test subject, though.
Although apparently Hercules isn’t the only one prepared to use powerful sedatives on his friends - Pythagoras isn’t above drugging his friends when necessary.
Despite all his skill and knowledge as a healer, though, there is one area in which Pythagoras is a little lacking. He may be capable of saving your life and treating your injury, but don’t expect him to be particularly comforting when he does it. It’s safe to say that his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired.
Much as he hates to admit it, there are occasionally limits to his abilities. The time when Hercules managed to fix Jason’s shoulder when Pythagoras couldn’t is something he doesn’t like to talk about.
There was also the time when Atalanta healed Jason, but since she cheated and used magic that probably doesn’t count.
Besides, Pythagoras was probably rather jealous of her impressive herbs and potions collection.
And there was also the time when The Oracle took over the treatment of Ariadne, but again, she uses magic. Also, by the time The Oracle got involved, Pythagoras had already spent several days successfully keeping the queen alive with only his field medicine skills, so that probably doesn’t count either.
And besides, the queen of Atlantis was mortally injured, and yet even when they had returned to the city, they continued to let Pythagoras treat her. Clearly there was no palace physician, and no better trained healer in the whole of Atlantis apart from Pythagoras (who is, let’s face it, a part time healer, part time adventurer, full time maths geek, and therefore obviously he is highly qualified to treat the queen when she’s mortally injured). Damn, he really is that good.
But to finish, let’s take a look at one last time when one of his friends was injured. Icarus had been shot at, plummeted out of the sky, crash landed, and quite possibly had broken bones and concussion.
What did Pythagoras do to treat these very serious injuries? He kissed him.
Perhaps he has been working on that bedside manner, after all.