GREEK AND ROMAN MEDICINE, 2012-­‐2013 PRACTICE ‘GOBBETS’ Please pick any two of the following passages (from section A if you do the module in Greek, from section B if you don’t), and comment on their significance. SECTION A: N.B.: For practical reasons I have used the Littré text as given by the TLG instead of our usual text (edited by Jones in the Loeb Classical Library): I have provided the corresponding references in Jones’ for you to compare both editions if necessary. For the exam, Hippocrates’ passages will be based on Jones’ edition. For Galen’s passages, on Nutton’s edition. 1) Hippocrates, Sacred Disease 1, 1-­‐12 Littré = 1, 1-­‐14 Jones: Περὶ μὲν τῆς ἱερῆς νούσου καλεομένης ὧδ’ ἔχει· οὐδέν τί μοι δοκέει τῶν ἄλλων θειοτέρη εἶναι νούσων οὐδὲ ἱερωτέρη, ἀλλὰ φύσιν μὲν ἔχει ἣν καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ νουσήματα, ὅθεν γίνεται. Φύσιν δὲ αὐτῇ καὶ πρόφασιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐνόμισαν θεῖόν τι πρῆγμα εἶναι ὑπὸ ἀπειρίης καὶ θαυμασιότητος, ὅτι οὐδὲν ἔοικεν ἑτέρῃσι νούσοισιν· καὶ κατὰ μὲν τὴν ἀπορίην αὐτοῖσι τοῦ μὴ γινώσκειν τὸ θεῖον αὐτῇ διασώζεται, κατὰ δὲ τὴν εὐπορίην τοῦ τρόπου τῆς ἰήσιος ᾧ ἰῶνται, ἀπόλλυται, ὅτι καθαρμοῖσί τε ἰῶνται καὶ ἐπαοιδῇσιν. Εἰ δὲ διὰ τὸ θαυμάσιον θεῖον νομιεῖται, πολλὰ τὰ ἱερὰ νουσήματα ἔσται καὶ οὐχὶ ἓν, ὡς ἐγὼ ἀποδείξω ἕτερα οὐδὲν ἧσσον ἐόντα θαυμάσια οὐδὲ τερατώδεα, ἃ οὐδεὶς νομίζει ἱερὰ εἶναι. 2) Hippocrates, Sacred Disease 7, 16-­‐25 Littré = 10, 21-­‐34 Jones ὁ δ’ ἐς τὸν πλεύμονά τε καὶ τὰς φλέβας ἀὴρ ξυμβάλλεται ἐς τὰς κοιλίας ἐσιὼν καὶ ἐς τὸν ἐγκέφαλον, καὶ οὕτω τὴν φρόνησιν καὶ τὴν κίνησιν τοῖσι μέλεσι παρέχει, ὥστε, ἐπειδὰν ἀποκλεισθῶσιν αἱ φλέβες τοῦ ἠέρος ὑπὸ τοῦ φλέγματος καὶ μὴ παραδέχωνται, ἄφωνον καθιστᾶσι καὶ ἄφρονα τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Αἱ δὲ χεῖρες ἀκρατέες γίνονται καὶ σπῶνται, τοῦ αἵματος ἀτρεμίσαντος καὶ μὴ διαχεομένου ὥσπερ εἰώθει. Καὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ διαστρέφονται, τῶν φλεβίων ἀποκλειομένων τοῦ ἠέρος καὶ σφυζόντων. Ἀφρὸς δὲ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος προέρχεται ἐκ τοῦ πλεύμονος· ὅταν γὰρ τὸ πνεῦμα μὴ ἐσίῃ ἐς αὐτὸν, ἀφρέει καὶ ἀναβλύει ὥσπερ ἀποθνήσκων. 3) Galen, On Prognosis 11, 6-­‐8 Nutton ἐγὼ δ’ ἀπεκρινάμην ἅπερ ἔγνων καὶ ἐλέχθη μοι πρὸς αὐτὸν ὡς εἰ ἄλλος τις ἦν ὁ διακείμενος οὕτως ἔδωκα ἂν αὐτῷ, καθάπερ εἴωθα, πιεῖν οἶνον πεπέρεως ἐπιπάσας. ἐφ’ ὑμῶν δὲ τῶν βασιλέων, ἀσφαλεστάτοις βοηθήμασιν εἰωθότων χρῆσθαι τῶν ἰατρῶν, ἀρκεῖ ναρδίνῳ μύρῳ θερμῷ δεύσαντα μαλλὸν ἐρίου θεῖναι κατὰ τοῦ στόματος τῆς κοιλίας. ὁ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως εἰπὼν ἔθος ἐκείνῳ ὅταν ποτὲ μέμψηται τὸν στόμαχον, ἀνειλημμένον πορφυρέῳ ἐρίῳ τὸ νάρδινον μύρον ἐπιτιθέναι θερμὸν, κελεύσας τε Πειθολάῳ πρᾶξαι τοῦτο καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπολῦσαι, ἐπιθέντος δ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν ποδῶν ἐκθερμανθέντων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνατριβόντων θερμαῖς ταῖς χερσὶν, ᾔτησεν οἴνου Σαβίνου καὶ πεπέρεως ἐπιβαλὼν ἔπιε· καὶ τῷ Πειθολάῳ μετὰ τὸ πιεῖν εἰπὼν ὡς ἰατρὸν ἔχομεν ἕνα καὶ τοῦτον ἐλεύθερον πάνυ διετέλει περὶ ἐμοῦ λέγων ἀεί, καθάπερ οἶσθα καὶ σύ, τῶν μὲν ἰατρῶν πρῶτον εἶναι, τῶν δὲ φιλοσόφων μόνον· ἐπεπειρᾶτο γὰρ ἤδη πολλῶν οὐ μόνον φιλοχρημάτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ φιλονείκων καὶ φιλοδόξων καὶ φθονερῶν καὶ κακοήθων. SECTION B: 1) Hippocrates, Sacred Disease 5 (tr. Jones, p. 151, Hippocrates, vol. II, Loeb Classical Library) But this disease [i.e. the ‘sacred disease’] is in my opinion no more divine than any other; it has the same nature as other diseases, and the cause that gives rise to individual diseases. It is also curable, no less than other illnesses, unless by along lapse of time it be so ingrained as to be more powerful than the remedies that are applied. Its origin, like that of other diseases, lies in heredity. For if a phlegmatic parent has a phlegmatic child, a bilious parent a bilious child (…), there is nothing to prevent some of the children suffering from this disease when one or the other of the parents suffered from it; for the seed comes from every part of the body, healthy seed from the healthy parts, diseased seed from the diseased parts. 2) Galen, Method of Medicine 1.1. (tr. Johnston and Horsley, p. 9-­‐11, vol. I, Loeb Classical Library) In past times, too, there was no little contention as those in Cos and Cnidus strove to prevail over each other in the number of their discoveries. There were still two groups of Asclepiads in Asia, even when the one on Rhodes had failed. And the Italian doctors, Philistion, Empedocles, Pausanias and their colleagues contended with them also in that noble kind of rivalry which Hesiod praised. (…) The Coan school achieved success by having the greatest number of pupils and the most able, but the school from Cnidus was not far behind it, while that from Italy was worthy of no little regard. 3) Soranus, Gynaecia 1.10.3 (CMG IV, p. 8 Ilberg) = Oribasius, Collectiones Medicae 24.31.13 (CMG VI, 2, 1, vol. III, p. 43 Raeder) = Von Staden, Herophilus, 111a and 111b (p. 217-­‐218). The mouth of the female pudendum by nature is delicate and fleshy in the case of undeflowered women, resembling the sponginess of the lung or the tenderness of the tongue, but in the case of women who have given birth it becomes more callous, similar to the head of an octopus or to the upper part of the windpipe, just as Herophilus says, since it is made callous by the passage of what is excreted and of what is brought to birth. 4) Pliny the Elder, Hist. nat. 25, 5, 15 = Von Staden, Herophilus, 254 (p. 421) Hence I see that most people also have the opinion that there is nothing which cannot be accomplished by the power of plants, but that the powers of most plants are unknown. Numbered among people with this view was Herophilus, famous in medicine, by whom, they say, it was said that certain plants are perhaps of benefit to one even if merely trodden upon. It certainly has been observed that the wounds and diseases of those who have made a journey on foot are already healing upon their arrival. 5) Celsus, On Medicine, V, 27, 5-­‐6 (tr. Spencer, vol. II, p. 119 Loeb Classical Library). There are also against certain other reptiles remedies which are well enough known. For the scorpion is itself the best remedy against itself. Some pound up a scorpion and swallow it in wine; some pound it up in the same way and put it upon the wound; some put it upon a brazier and fumigate the wound with it, putting a cloth all round to prevent the escape of the fumes, afterwards they bandage its ash upon the wound. The patient should also drink wine in which have been steeped the seeds, or at any rate the leaves, of the herba solaris, which the Greeks call heliotropion. It is good also to apply to the wound bran soaked in vinegar, or wild rue, or roasted salt with honey. I have known, however, practitioners who merely let blood from the arm of those stung by a scorpion, that and nothing more.