Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:00:24.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - On Flesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2023

David H. Camden
Affiliation:
St Paul's School, New Hampshire
Get access

Summary

This chapter proposes solutions to some longstanding problems surrounding the anthropogony of On Flesh. First, it shows how the author’s three main principles of the hot, the cold, and the wet reflect widely attested beliefs about the effects of heat and cold on bodily fluids. After that, it argues that the author’s two supplementary principles of the “fatty” and the “glutinous” are derived from a traditional dichotomy between bile and phlegm. The upshot of these observations is that the author of On Flesh uses the microcosm of the body as a tool for understanding the macrocosm of the universe. For this author, the natural world is primarily a reflection of the body (not the other way around), and it is specifically medical knowledge that gives him insight into the cosmos. Just as Eryximachus claims to have acquired his awareness of the universal power of eros “from medicine, our art” (ἐκ τῆς ἰατρικῆς, τῆς ἡμετέρας τέχνης, Pl. Smp. 186a), so the other cosmological doctors viewed medicine as a privileged starting point for contemplating the universe as a whole.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece
First Principles in Early Greek Medicine
, pp. 176 - 205
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • On Flesh
  • David H. Camden, St Paul's School, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece
  • Online publication: 27 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009203012.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • On Flesh
  • David H. Camden, St Paul's School, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece
  • Online publication: 27 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009203012.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • On Flesh
  • David H. Camden, St Paul's School, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece
  • Online publication: 27 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009203012.006
Available formats
×