Tag: ancient Greece
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The Greeks in Italy: History and medicine
Beginning around the eighth century BCE, Greek settlers established colonies along the southern coast of the Italian peninsula, notably in Cumae, Neapolis (Naples), Tarentum (Taranto), Sybaris, Croton, Rhegium (Reggio Calabria), and Syracuse. The region became known as Magna Graecia (“Greater Greece”), reflecting the strong influence of Greek culture, language, religion, and learning. Greek colonists, merchants,…
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Theopompus of Chios and public health in antiquity
Theopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician who lived from c. 380 to 315 BCE. He was not a physician, yet his works offer a window into how the ancient Greeks understood health, disease, and contagion. Born on the Aegean island of Chios in c. 377 BCE, he spent his early youth in Athens with…
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Hesiod: The creation of the world
Even the most educated members of our generation who have read many of the ancient Greek classics may not be familiar with Hesiod’s works, the Theogony and the Works and Days. Written at about the same time as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad (around 700 BCE), they reflect the Greek rather than the Hebrew or Mesopotamian…
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Plato: Medical
Plato, the Athenian philosopher of the fourth century BCE, is remembered chiefly for his dialogues on ethics, politics, and metaphysics. Yet embedded within his philosophical works are numerous reflections on medicine and the human body. Living in a time when Greek medicine was undergoing a transition from superstition to rational observation, Plato drew on contemporary…
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Father of art history
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) was an art historian who revolutionized how we understand, categorize, and appreciate ancient art. His aesthetic theories on ancient Greek profoundly influenced European culture, literature, and philosophy. Born in Stendal, Brandenburg, he grew up in poverty as a thin, pale, and frequently ill child, perhaps reflecting the chronic malnutrition and repeated…
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Democedes, “the most skillful physician of his time”
The renowned Greek physician Democedes of Croton is remembered for his expertise and influential role in the courts of ancient rulers. His father was Calliphon, a priest, physician, and of such savage temper that he caused Democedes to leave Croton and sail away to the island of Aegina. There he set up a medical practice…
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The snake, the staff, and the healer
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel Introduction In some ancient cultures, especially around the Near East, the snake was involved in healing. Today this seems counterintuitive. There are as many as 130,000 deaths from snake bites worldwide each year and three times that number of amputations and severe disabilities. Ophidiophobia is one of the more common phobias,…
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The influence of the text De Arte Gymnastica on the resurgence of medical gymnastics in Renaissance Italy: Girolamo Mercuriale (1530–1606)
Philippe CampilloDaniel CaballeroLille, France The physicians of ancient Greece were aware that muscular exercise was a source of health and strength, as well as achieving corporal beauty through a balanced relationship between different parts of the body. Ancient statues, such as those of Polykleitos (460 to 420 BC), attest to how such beauty and harmony…
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Burnout: Are we looking at it through the wrong lens?
Elizabeth CerceoCamden, New Jersey, United States The epidemic of burnout seems to afflict ever more populations as it insidiously creeps into the workplace of everyone from nurses to teachers, from medical students to seasoned clinicians, from Amazon to Apple. As physicians, we are trained to identify a condition, make a diagnosis, and prescribe a treatment.…
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Latin and medicine
Noah DeLoneMiami, Florida, United States Language is the cornerstone of our ability to communicate as humans and underlies the prose of our medical discourse. The words we select can be indicative of our background, training, and intentions. It should come as no surprise that a robust knowledge of one’s own language is essential to good…