Theology: New Testament and Related Literature: Medicine

[Volume 2] The international congress Ancient Medicine in its Socio-Cultural Contextheld at Leiden University in April 1992 aimed at promoting an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to problems of health and disease in the Greco-Roman world. This approach envisaged the study of the place and the development of medical theory and practice against the background of ancient society, culture and mentality. At the same time attention was paid to the ways in which topics and images borrowed from medicine are used in non-medical contexts. In this way the congress intended to stimulate the comparison of recent results of a strictly medico-historical approach with contributions from classical philology, social history, archaeology, history of religion and philosophy as applied to the Ancient World.This book contains most of the papers read at the Congress, many of which have been revised and further elaborated in the light of the discussions they provoked.The following topics are addressed:- Individual and collective reactions to diseases- The place of medicine within the framework of ancient science and its relation to philosophy- Interactions between religion, magic and healing- The varied roles and status of doctors and other medical practitioners in their social environment- Women, children and sexuality- The role of medical themes in literature- Linguistic and literary aspects of medical texts

Hippocrates, said to have been born in Cos in or before 460 BCE, learned medicine and philosophy; travelled widely as a medical doctor and teacher; was consulted by King Perdiccas of Macedon and Artaxerxes of Persia; and died perhaps at Larissa. Apparently he rejected superstition in favour of inductive reasoning and the study of real medicine as subject to natural laws, in general and in individual people as patients for treatment by medicines and surgery. Of the roughly 70 works in the 'Hippocratic Collection' many are not by Hippocrates; even the famous oath may not be his. But he was undeniably the 'Father of Medicine'. The works available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Hippocrates are the following. Volume I: Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment. Volume II: Prognostic. Regimen in Acute Diseases. The Sacred Disease. The Art. Breaths. Law. Decorum. Physician (Ch. 1). Dentition. Volume III: On Wounds in the Head. In the Surgery. On Fractures. On Joints. Mochlicon. Volume IV: Nature of Man. Regimen in Health. Humours. Aphorisms. Regimen 1-3. Dreams. Volume V: Affections. Diseases 1-2. Volume VI: Diseases 3. Internal Affections. Regimen in Acute Diseases. Volume VII: Epidemics 2 and 4-7. Volume VIII: Places in Man. Glands. Fleshes. Prorrhetic I-II. Physician. Use of Liquids. Ulcers. Haemorrhoids and Fistulas. Volume IV also contains the fragments of Heracleitus, On the Universe.

Galen of Pergamum (129-?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivaled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively embraced theory, practical knowledge, experiment, logic, and a deep understanding of human life and society. His treatise Hygiene, also known as "On the Preservation of Health" (De sanitate tuenda), was written during one of Galen's most prolific periods (170-180) and ranks among his most important and influential works, providing a comprehensive account of the practice of preventive medicine that still has relevance today. Also included in this two-volume edition are two shorter treatises on the relationship between health and wellness. Thrasybulus explores the theoretical question of whether hygiene is part of medicine or gymnastics, and in so doing delineates the interrelated roles of doctors and physical therapists. On Exercise with a Small Ball strenuously advocates that activity's superiority to all other forms of exercise.

This is the eleventh and final volume in the Loeb Classical Library's complete edition of Hippocrates' invaluable texts, which provide essential information about the practice of medicine in antiquity and about Greek theories concerning the human body. Here, Paul Potter presents the Greek text with facing English translation of Diseases of Women 1 and 2, which represent the most extensive accounts in the Hippocratic collection of female reproductive life, the pathological conditions affecting the female reproductive organs, and their proper terminology and recommended treatments. A lexicon of therapeutic agents is included for reference. The works available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Hippocrates are: Volume I: Ancient Medicine. Airs, Waters, Places. Epidemics 1 and 3. The Oath. Precepts. Nutriment. Volume II: Prognostic. Regimen in Acute Diseases. The Sacred Disease. The Art. Breaths. Law. Decorum. Physician (Ch. 1). Dentition. Volume III: On Wounds in the Head. In the Surgery. On Fractures. On Joints. Mochlicon. Volume IV: Nature of Man. Regimen in Health. Humours. Aphorisms. Regimen 1-3. Dreams. Volume V: Affections. Diseases 1-2. Volume VI: Diseases 3. Internal Affections. Regimen in Acute Diseases. Volume VII: Epidemics 2 and 4-7. Volume VIII: Places in Man. Glands. Fleshes. Prorrhetic 1-2. Physician. Use of Liquids. Ulcers. Haemorrhoids and Fistulas. Volume IX: Anatomy. Nature of Bones. Heart. Eight Months' Child. Coan Prenotions. Crises. Critical Days. Superfetation. Girls. Excision of the Fetus. Sight. Volume X: Generation. Nature of the Child. Diseases 4. Nature of Women. Barrenness.

This book sketches and illustrates in detail the range of understandings of the human condition and remedies for ills that prevailed when Jesus and the apostles - as well as their successors - were spreading the Christian message and launching Christian communities in the Graeco-Roman world. Healing played so prominent a part in Jesus' ministry as depicted in the New Testament that it is important to understand that aspect of his appeal in the context of the ways in which it was understood by Greeks, Romans and Jews of the time. Some saw sickness as the result of magic performed against the victims by enemies, others as the work of demons. Some saw health as the result of ordering life according to nature, emphasising the beneficial effects of natural substances. Jewish attitudes, for example, ranged widely over the centuries from hostility towards physicians to regard for them as men endowed by God with special knowledge for human benefit.

In this book Dr Flemming includes new translations of some of the works of medical practitioners from Celsus, writing during the reign of Tiberius, to Galen, whose career ended under the Severans, and puts their ideas about women's bodies in their social and philosophical contexts. Relations between women and medicine are now a major area of historical enquiry, but the Roman imperial era, despite the plentiful material it offers and the critical role it plays in the formation of the Western medical tradition, has received less than its fair share of the attention. This bookseeks to redress the balance as it investigates female involvement in the manifold medical activities of the Roman world: how women fared as practitioners and patients, how they were understood and described in the copious medical writings of the period, and what effects those understandings anddescriptions had in wider society. Dr Flemming examines both the contribution of medicine to gender in the Roman Empire, and the contribution of gender to medicine, and argues that the particularities of the Roman relationship between the two has much to reveal about how systems of sexual differencework in general.

Galen of Pergamum (129-?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivaled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively embraced theory, practical knowledge, experiment, logic, and a deep understanding of human life and society. New to the Loeb Classical Library is Method of Medicine, a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Galen's greatest and most influential works. Enlivening the detailed case studies are many theoretical and polemical discussions, acute social commentary, and personal reflections.

Galen of Pergamum (AD 129-?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivaled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively embraced theory, practical knowledge, experiment, logic, and a deep understanding of human life and society. In the three classic works in this volume, On the Constitution of the Art of Medicine, The Art of Medicine, and A Method of Medicine to Glaucon, Galen covers fundamental aspects of his practice in a lucid and engaging style designed to appeal to a broad audience.