Book contents
- Dissection in Classical Antiquity
- Dissection in Classical Antiquity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Citations, Abbreviations, and Dates
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Practice
- Chapter 2 Dissection in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods
- Chapter 3 Dissection in the Roman Period
- Chapter 4 Practical Considerations of the Dissector
- Chapter 5 The Broader Social Contexts of Dissection
- Part II Text
- Works Cited
- Index
Chapter 2 - Dissection in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods
from Part I - Practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2022
- Dissection in Classical Antiquity
- Dissection in Classical Antiquity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Citations, Abbreviations, and Dates
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Part I Practice
- Chapter 2 Dissection in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods
- Chapter 3 Dissection in the Roman Period
- Chapter 4 Practical Considerations of the Dissector
- Chapter 5 The Broader Social Contexts of Dissection
- Part II Text
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
This chapter offers the evidence for the practice of dissection from the fifth through first centuries BC. The chapter begins with dissection among the pre-Socratic philosophers and then moves on to the authors of the Hippocratic Corpus. A discussion of the opportunities for public display in medical contexts of the fifth and early fourth centuries follows, in order to evaluate the range of public contexts within which the practice of dissection would have fallen. Aristotle’s zoological research program and the parallel developments among fourth-century doctors, including Diocles and Praxagoras, then receive sustained attention before a consideration of the advancements of Herophilus and Erasistratus. The chapter next turns to the dearth of evidence for dissection in the centuries after these figures, touching on various sects, both medical and philosophical, including the Herophileans, Erasistrateans, Empiricists, and Peripatetics. Finally, it considers the opportunities for public medical display in the Hellenistic period, as revealed via both texts and inscriptions.
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- Dissection in Classical AntiquityA Social and Medical History, pp. 11 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022