CLAS3051 Lecture 3

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CLAS3051 Lecture 3

• Pre-rational Medicine in Near East and Greece

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Interplay Between Greece, Egypt, Babylon, etc.

• In Archaic period (900 500 BC) major influence
  on Greeks
• Civilizations of Great antiquity to the Greeks
• Commerce

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Egyptian Medicine

• Information recorded in written text, using
  hieroglyphs, on papyrus (pl. papyri) documents

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Papyrus

• Reed-like plant
• Grows in Nile delta
• Pounded into sheets
• Written upon with black sticky stuff

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Preservation of Papyri

• In ideal dry conditions of desert
• Last for thousands of years
• Treasure hunt in late 19th, early 20th centuries

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Ebers Papyrus (LI.1)

• Dated to 1500 BC!
• ?Some content as early as 3000 BC
• Begins with spells
• Other sections less magical i.e. diseases of the
  head

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What Concepts of Medicine Does it Represent?

• How does one become ill?
• How does one become better?
• What forces are at work for and against us?

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Hearst Papyrus (LI.1)

• Bancroft Library near perfect fake?
• Roughly same date as Ebers pap.
• coprotherapy from copros 'dung'
• What process is taking place?
• How is this like the prayer in the Ebers pap.?

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Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets

• cuneiform lit. means 'wedge-shaped'
• preserved through firing of clay in disasters
• 3000 BC onwards

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Sumerian Incantations

• LI.4 How is it like Egyptian ones?
• LI.5-6 on what principle do they operate?

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Greek Pestilence from gods

• Artemis and Apollo, brother and sister
• Here, killing children of Niobe
• Bringers of disease

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Zeus's Role

• Also brings sudden death
• Blindness to Polyphemus

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Healing Cults

• Amphiaraus and Asclepius
• How did these work? LI.21

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Asclepius

• Human son of Apollo
• Taught by Chiron
• Over-used magical arts
• Killed by Zeus, but made a god
• Associated with snake, staff

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Temple Complex of Asclepius at Epidaurus

• Best known for this well-preserved theatre
• This a late (4th c. BC) addition
• Not crucial to its healing function
• Testament to prosperity of 'cult'

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Location of Epidaurus
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Sanctuary of Asclepius

• What happened here?
• LI.22-23 myth and legend
• LI.24-26 contemporary accounts

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Evidence from Inscriptions

• Sometimes called 'epigraphic' evidence from Greek
  for 'carving upon'
• Tens of thousands of these documents
• Records of healings at Epidaurus
• Form of advertisment

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Votive Offerings

• Repayment to the gods
• Often in shape of limb or organ
• Here probably in thanks for restored health of
  child

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Surgery at Epidaurus

• Bronze medical instruments found at site
• See LI.23,25

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Evidence from Manuscript Tradition

• Books copied through the ages
• By 9th c. AD, looked like this

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Spread of the Cult of Asclepius

• Came to Athens in late 5th c. BC

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Organization of Asclepius Cult

• So-called Asclepiadai, travelling priests of god
• LI.29 shows agreements between these groups

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Mixing of Scientific Medicine with Religion

• Cult influenced by Hippocratic medicine?
• Hippocratic by cult practices?
• What distinguished these?
• Which was preferable to Greeks?