Tammy Nguyen

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Ancient Greek Medicine
Ancient Greek Medicine

• Tammy Nguyen

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Table of Contents 1
Table of Contents
Hippocratic Oath (General)
The Invention of Medicine
Asclepius God of Medicine
Hippocratic Oath (Greek)
Other Gods and Goddesses
Hippocratic Oath (Current)
Pythagoras
Aristotle
Hippocrates
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Table of Contents 2
Table of Contents
Herophilus of Chalcedon
Galen
Timeline
Erasistratus
Greek Medical Vocabulary
Dioscorides
Bibliography
Asclepiades
The End
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The Invention of Medicine
The Invention of Medicine

• "...But save me. Take me to the ship, cut this
  arrow out of my leg, wash the blood from it with
  warm water and put the right things on it - the
  plants they say you have learned about from
  Achilles who learned them from Chiron, the best
  of the Centaurs."-The Iliad of Homer, Book XI

• According to Greek mythology, when Chiron, a
  centaur, was injured by Hercules, he created
  medicine to heal himself .
• Chiron supposedly taught the art of healing to
  Asclepius, a Greek hero who became the Greek god
  of medicine and healing, which became the source
  of all medical knowledge among the Greeks. Chiron
  also taught Achilles, who was thought to have
  some special medical knowledge.

Asclepius
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Asclepius
Asclepius

• Asclepius was the son of Apollo and Coronis and
  is thought to be an actual famous historical
  figure for his medical knowledge.
• Healers and those who were ill would give homage
  to him in prayers and healing ceremonies. Temples
  were created across the Mediterranean in his
  honor. Those in dire need of healing would often
  travel to those temples to make sacrifices, pray,
  or even spend the night.
• The most important temple was at Epidaurus. There
  were many inscriptions that recorded cures for
  lameness, baldness, worm infestation, blindness,
  etc. There was also a cult of Asclepius at the
  temple.
• Asclepius is often identified by a staff with a
  single snake around it. In ancient Greece, the
  snake symbolized rejuvenation and healing.

More information on Ascelpius CLICK
HERE!
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Other Gods and Goddesses
Other Gods and Goddesses

• Apollo- In the Illiad Apollo was mentioned as the
  bringer and reliever of plagues
• Hera, the protector of women, and Artemis, the
  protector of childbirth, were often called upon
  in prayers during childbirth.
• The goddesses Hygieia (Health) and Panaceia
  were the daughters of Asclepius and considered a
  guardian of health.
• All are called upon in the Greek translation of
  the Hippocratic Oath.

More information on Apollo CLICK
HERE!
Apollo
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Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras

• Born in 580 B.C.E
• Pythagoras is important to Ancient Greek medicine
  because it was believed that he advocated a
  healthy existence through a specific vegetarian
  diet.
• Pythagoras refused to allow his follower to
  consume beans because they released an odorous
  gas, which was not a healthy existence.

More information on Pythagoras CLICK
HERE!
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Hippocrates
Hippocrates

• There is little information on what was
  supposedly the first physician named Hippocrates.
  However, there is evidence that the name
  Hippocrates encompasses a group of teachers at a
  famous medical on the island of Cros.
• Hippocrates is usually credited with the
  monumental step of removing divine notions in
  medicine and using observations of the body as a
  scaffold for medical knowledge.
• Hippocrates resisted the idea of divine
  intervention concerning disease, but instead
  believed that the cause of disease was an
  imbalance of the four bodily humors (fluids)
  which were blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow
  bile.
• The Hippocratic Corpus, is a collection of
  writings that is credited to Hippocrates, it is
  assumed to be by several authors scatter over
  several centuries, and contains about sixty works
  on topics including diagnosis, epidemics,
  pediatrics, nutrition, and surgery. The books
  began a tradition of studying the cause of
  disease rather than looking only at the symptoms
  when finding a cure.

More information on Hippocrates CLICK
HERE!
The Hippocratic Oath
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The Hippocratic Oath
Hippocratic Oath General
Hippocratic Oath

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The Hippocratic Oath is one of the most widely
known Greek medical text, which requires a
physician to swear to the healing gods that he
will follow certain ethical standards such as not
assisting in euthanasia or abortion. Estimated to
be written in the 4th century BCE, it is not
known for sure who or what group of people
started and wrote the oath but there is evidence
of strong influence from the followers of
Pythagoras and Hippocrates.
Greek Translation
Current Hippocratic Oath
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Current Hippocratic Oath
Current Hippocratic Oath

• You do solemnly swear, each by whatever he or
  she holds most sacred
• That you will be loyal to the Profession of
  Medicine and just and generous
• to its members
• That you will lead your lives and practice your
  art in uprightness and
• Honor
• That into whatsoever house you shall enter, it
  shall be for the good of the
• sick to the utmost of your power, your holding
  yourselves far aloof from wrong,
• from corruption, from the tempting of others to
  vice
• That you will exercise your art solely for the
  cure of your patients, and will
• give no drug, perform no operation, for a
  criminal purpose, even if solicited, far less
• suggest it
• That whatsoever you shall see or hear of the
  lives of men or women which is not
• fitting to be spoken, you will keep inviolably
  secret
• These things do you swear. Let each bow the head
  in sign of acquiescence
• And now, if you will be true to this, your oath,
  may prosperity and good repute be ever
• yours the opposite, if you shall prove
  yourselves forsworn.
• Approved by the American Medical Association.

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Greek Translated Hippocratic Oath
Hippocratic Oath- Translation from Greek Text

• I swear by Apollo Physician, and Asclepius and
  Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and
  goddesses,
• making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill
  according to my ability and judgment this oath
  and the covenant
• To hold him who has taught me this art as equal
  to my parents and to live my life in partnership
  with
• him, and if he is in need of money to give him a
  share of mind, and to regard his offspring as
  equal to my
• brothers in male lineage and to teach them this
  art- if they desire to learn it- without fee and
  covenant to
• give a share of precepts and oral instruction and
  all the other learning to my sons and to the sons
  of him
• who has instructed me and to pupils who have
  signed the covenant and have taken an oath
  according to the
• medical law, but to no one else.
• I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit
  of the sick according to my ability and judgment
  I will keep
• them from harm and injustice.
• I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if
  asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to
  this affect.
• Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive
  remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my
  life and my art.
• I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers
  from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such
  men as are
• engaged in this work.
• Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the
  benefit of the sick, remaining free of all
  intentional
• injustice, of all mischief and in particular of
  sexual relations with both female and male
  persons, be they free
• or slaves.
• What I may see or hear in the course of the
  treatment or even outside of the treatment in
  regard to the

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Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle
More information on Aristotle CLICK
HERE!

• In relation to Ancient Greek medicine, Aristotle
  is famous for his writings on human and animal
  anatomy. His writings show that he believed in
  direct observation. In his writings he has many
  anatomical comparisons between species through
  dissection.
• Aristotle wrote extensively on animal life (both
  sexual and asexual reproduction) and his
  observations of marine invertebrates such as the
  octopus were very accurate and could have only
  been done through direct dissection

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Herophilus of Chalcedon
Herophilus of Chalcedon

• Born in 320 BCE.
• A Greek physican, he was the first anatomist,
  practicing in Alexandria, where human dissections
  were permitted.
• His discoveries were recorded in On Dissections,
  and included the difference between sensory and
  motor nerves, and observations of the liver,
  retina, and ovaries.
• He also studied the brain, which he thought to be
  the site of intelligence, and the alimentary
  canal (named the duodenum),
• He also believed that bleeding a person had
  therapeutic value because of Hippocrates idea of
  the four humors.

More information on Herophilus CLICK
HERE!
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Erisistratus
Erasistratus

• Erasistratus was born in 304 BCE
• He was a Greek anatomist who furthered
  Herophilus investigations.
• He studied the cerebrum, cerebellum, nerves, and
  the valves of the heart.
• He distinguished between arteries and veins and
  suggested that air carried from the lungs to the
  heart was converted into a spirit and distributed
  by the arteries.
• He believed in a tripartite system of humors
  consisting of nervous spirit (carried by nerves),
  animal spirit (carried by the arteries), and
  blood (carried by the veins).

More information on Erasistratus CLICK
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Dioscorides
Discorides
Dioscorides

• Dioscorides of Anazarbus was born in was a Greek
  physician born in southeast Asia Minor.
  Throughout his life, Dioscorides traveled across
  the Greek and Roman world trying to find
  medicinal substances
• Between 50 to 70 C.E., he wrote his important
  work, known in Latin as De materia medica, a five
  book study focused upon the "the preparation,
  properties, and testing of drugs."

More information on Dioscorides
CLICK HERE!
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Asclepiades
Asclepiades

• Born in 124 BCE
• Asclepiades was a Greek physician who was born in
  Prusa and studied at Alexandria.
• He opposed humoralism and introduced into
  medicine Democritus' atomic theory. He believed
  that inharmonious movement of atoms caused
  disease and was cured by restoring harmony, which
  included practices such as diet, friction,
  bathing, exercise, inducing vomiting, and
  bleeding.
• Through his character it was reported that he
  made Greek medicine honorable in Rome through his
  good graces.

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Galen
Galen
Galen

• Galen received his medical education in Smyrna
  and Alexandria and became famous as a surgeon to
  the gladiators of Pergamos. Over time, he was
  summoned to Rome to be the personal physician of
  the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He would spend the
  rest of his life in the Roman court and create
  numerous amounts of writings on medicine until
  his death.
• Galen took Hippocrates idea of the four humors
  and integrated the anatomical knowledge of
  Alexandrians such as Herophilus of Chalcedon.
• A supporter of observation and reasoning, he was
  one of the first experimental physiologists,
  researching the function of the kidneys and the
  spinal cord.

More information on Galen CLICK HERE!
Galen demonstrating on a pig
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Timeline
Timeline...

• 700 B.C.E.- Homer writes of Apollo in The Illiad,
  the bringer and reliever of plagues
• 600 B.C.E.- Thales begins questioning nature and
  physics
• 580 B.C.E.- Pythagoras born at Samos (promoted a
  specialized vegetarian diet to aid in health)
• 460 B.C.E.- The Hippocratic Corpus begins its
  formation
• 384 B.C.E.- Aristotle born (wrote about human and
  animal anatomy)
• 334-325 B.C.E.- Alexander the Great conquers
  Egypt, the Middle East and Western India,
  extending Greek influence.
• 330 B.C.E.-100 C.E. Alexandria serves as a center
  for Greek scholarship in medicine.

• 320 BCE- Herophilus of Chalcedon (first
  anatomist)
• 304 B.C.E- Erasistratus is born (continued the
  work of Herophilus)
• 146 B.C.E.- Greece become a Roman colony.
• 129 B.C.E.- Asclepiades of Prusa is born
  (believed that diseases occurred because of an
  imbalance in the human body)
• 40 C.E. Dioscorides is born (writes De materia
  medica, the first books of pharmacology)
• 129 C.E.- Galen born (integrated Hippocrates
  four humors with ideas fro Alexandria, first
  experimental physiologist)

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Greek Medical Vocabulary
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From the National Institute of Health
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Bibliography
Bibliography

• Ancient Greek Civilizations. eMuseums. 16 Dec.
  2004 lthttp//www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aege
  an/culture/greekmedicine.htmlgt.
• Demand, Nancy. Medicine in Ancient Greece. 19 May
  2000. Indiana University. 16 Dec. 2004
  lthttp//www.indiana.edu/ancmed/greekmenu.HTMgt.
• Greek Medicine. 16 Sept. 2002. National Institute
  of Health. 16 Dec. 2004 lthttp//www.nlm.nih.gov/h
  md/greek/gt.
• History Medicine Through Time. bbc.co.uk. 16 Dec.
  2004 lthttp//www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/h
  istory/medicine/ancientandgreekmedicinerev4.shtmlgt
  .
• Jenkins, Neil, Sumair Mirza, and Jason Tsang.
  Picture Gallery. 2004. MythNet. 15 Dec. 2004
  lthttp//www.classicsunveiled.com/mythnet/html/pics
  10.htmlgt.
• Leadbetter, Ron. Asclepius. 3 Mar. 1997.
  Encyclopedia Mythica. 15 Dec. 2004
  lthttp//www.pantheon.org/articles/a/asclepius.htm
  lgt.
• Weissten, Erik. Herophilus of Chalcedon.
  WORLDFRAM Research. 16 Dec. 2004
  lthttp//scienceworld.wolfram.cgt

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The End