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Healers and the healing act in Classical Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Vivian Nutton
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Abstract

The common opinion that the history of Greek medicine can be characterized as the triumph of a rational, Hippocratic medicine, has been strongly attacked over the last 30 years. Instead of a single dominant theory of humoral medicine, scholars now point to the great variety of theories current in the time of Hippocrates, 450–350 BC, and to the great variety and number of those who offered healing in the medical marketplace. They are best described as craftsman, with similar behaviour and status to the local carpenter. Others sought the aid of the gods in temple medicine. The resulting picture emphasizes a dynamic situation.

Type
Erasmus Lecture
Information
European Review , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , February 1999 , pp. 27 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1999

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References

Further reading

Edelstein, L. (1967) Ancient Medicine. Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).Google Scholar
Jori, A. (1996) Medicina e Medici nell'antica Grecia, (Naples: Società Editrice il Mulino).Google Scholar
Jouanna, J. (1992) Hippocrate, (Paris: Fayard).Google Scholar
Lloyd, G. E. R. (19870 The Revolutions of Wisdom (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longrigg, J. (1993) Greek Rational Medicine; Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians, (London and New York: Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nutton, V. (1992) Healers in the medical market place: towards a social history of Graeco-Roman medicine. In Medicine in Society. Historical Essays, Wear, A. (ed) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp. 15–58.Google Scholar