CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL FOR UNDERGRADUATES
ANCIENT GREEK MEDICINE IN CULTURAL CONTEXT
Key Information
Module code
Taught during
Module workload
Module leader
Department
Credit
Level
Pre-requisites
Assessment
ISSU1020
Block Two: Monday 25 July – Friday 12 August 2016
45 teaching hours plus approximately 100 study hours
Dr James Cross
Centre for Languages and International Education
0.5 UCL credits, 7.5 ECTS, 4 US
Level 1, first year Undergraduate
Standard entry requirements
10-minute presentation (25%)
3,000-word essay (75%)
Module Overview
Week One
• Introduction to Greece in the fifth century BC
• Myth, reason and science in ancient Greece
• Ideas about the body and disease in early Greek natural philosophy
Week Two
• Hippocratic theories of medicine
• The medical marketplace: Hippocratic medicine and temple healing
• Persuasive pseudo-scientific writing in fifth-century Greece
Week Three
• Representations of illness in ancient Greek tragedy
• Plague in the imagination in ancient Athens, ancient Rome and late-Renaissance London
• Presentations and course review
Module Aims
The module aims to provide students with the tools to engage critically with the study of ancient Greek
medicine and to identify and examine ways in which ancient Greek medicine interacts with a broad intellectual
landscape.
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
1
Students are required to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Explore early Greek philosophical discussions of health, disease and the body which foreshadow the
development of Hippocratic medicine
Learn about theories and debates which are central to Hippocratic medicine
Consider the nature of the relationship between Hippocratic medicine and temple healing
Analyse examples of depictions of illness in ancient Greek tragic drama in association with Hippocratic
ideas
Evaluate key persuasive techniques employed by ancient medical writers
Compare and contrast examples of descriptions of plague in ancient Greece, ancient Rome and lateRenaissance London and consider their relationship.
Teaching Methods
Teaching will be delivered through:
•
•
•
20-30-minute lectures (daily): To introduce key concepts, ideas and historical overviews; to explore
concepts and issues in detail; to model approaches to reading ancient texts and highlight problems
and questions.
Seminars (daily): To discuss and debate set readings and visual material; to engage with topics through
worksheets and associated exercises; to review and revise learning through a wide range of activities
and tasks; to develop understanding through student presentations.
Museum and gallery / theatre visits (weekly): To deepen and extend classroom learning through
engagement with artefacts and locations related to the course content; to enhance learning and
understanding in seminars through follow-up activities.
A Moodle page will provide the repository for electronic learning resources and a medium for self-study
activities.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, students will:
•
•
•
•
•
Have gained knowledge of key ideas about health and disease in the Hippocratic Collection as well as
in ancient Greek myth, philosophy and religion.
Understand ways in which the Hippocratic Collection relates to its cultural and intellectual context.
Show awareness of the influence of Hippocratic medicine in literature and philosophy in ancient
Greece and later periods.
Have developed their ability to analyse connections between texts of different genres and periods.
Have developed their ability to formulate an argument and present it in different formats such as
through oral presentation and written work.
Assessment Methods
•
•
10-minute presentation (25%)
3,000-word essay (75%)
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
2
Key Texts
Primary sources
Easterling, P. (Editor); D. Raeburn (Translator) Sophocles. Electra and other plays. (London: Penguin, 2008)
Lattimore, R. (Translator) Homer. Iliad. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [1962] 2011)
Lloyd, G. E. R. (Editor); W. Chadwick, W. N. Mann et al. (Translators) Hippocratic Writings (Harmondsworth;
New York: Penguin, 1983)
Waterfield, R. (Editor and translator) The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, [2000] 2009)
Secondary sources
Craik, E. The Hippocratic Corpus: Content and Context (London: Routledge, 2014)
Jouanna, J. Hippocrates [translated by M.B. DeBevoise] (Baltimore; London: John Hopkins University Press,
1999)
Nutton, V. Ancient Medicine (London: Routledge, 2012)
Porter, R. (Editor) The Cambridge History of Medicine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Please note that this module description is indicative and may be subject to change.
3