Ancient Greek medicine

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Ancient Greek medicine was a compilation of theories that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. Many components were considered in Ancient Greek Medicine, intertwining the spiritual with the physical. Specifically, the theories and ideologies from which Ancient Greek Medicine derived included the humors, gender, geographic location, social class, diet, trauma, beliefs, and mind set. Early on, Ancient Greeks believed that illnesses were “divine punishments” and that healing was a “gift from the Gods.” (Cartwright, Mark in “Greek Medicine.”) As trials continued wherein theories were tested against symptoms and results, Ancient Greek medicine also grew such that the pure spiritual beliefs as to “punishments” and “gifts” were converted to a foundation based in the physical, i.e., cause and effect.[1]

Humorism refers to blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. It was also theorized that gender played a role in medicine because some diseases and treatments were different for women than for men. Moreover, geographic location and social class affected the living conditions of the people and might subject them to different environmental issues such as mosquitoes, rats, and availability of clean drinking water. Diet was thought to be an issue as well and might be affected by a lack of access to adequate nourishment. Trauma, such as suffered by gladiators, or from dog bites or other injury played a role in theories relating to understanding anatomy, and infections. Additionally there was significant focus on the beliefs and mind set of the patient in the diagnosis and treatment theories. It was recognized that the mind played a role in healing, or that it might also be the sole basis for the illness.[2]



Hippocrates and Hippocratic medicine[edit]

The Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of around seventy early Greek medical works associated with Hippocrates and his teachings

A towering figure in the history of medicine was the physician Hippocrates of Kos (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC), considered the "Father of Modern Medicine."[5][6] The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of about seventy early medical works from ancient Greece that are associated with Hippocrates and his students. Hippocrates notoriously wrote the Hippocratic Oath which is relevant and in use by physicians to this day.

The existence of the Hippocratic Oath implies that this "Hippocratic" medicine was practiced by a group of professional physicians bound (at least among themselves) by a strict ethical code. Aspiring students normally paid a fee for training (a provision is made for exceptions) and entered into a virtual family relationship with his teacher. This training included some oral instruction and probably hands-on experience as the teacher's assistant, since the Oath assumes that the student will be interacting with patients. The Oath also places limits on what the physician may or may not do ("To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug") and intriguingly hints at the existence of another class of professional specialists, perhaps akin to surgeons ("I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art").[7]

Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first purple description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic suppurative lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. For this reason, clubbed fingers are sometimes referred to as "Hippocratic fingers".[8] Hippocrates was also the first physician to describe Hippocratic face in Prognosis. Shakespeare famously alludes to this description when writing of Falstaff's death in Act II, Scene iii. of Henry V.[9][10]

The physician Hippocrates, known as the Father of Modern Medicine.[11][12]

Hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, "exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence."[13][14] Another of Hippocrates's major contributions may be found in his descriptions of the symptomatology, physical findings, surgical treatment and prognosis of thoracic empyema, i.e. suppuration of the lining of the chest cavity and hair loss and baldness.[citation needed] His teachings remain relevant to present-day students of pulmonary medicine and surgery.[15] Hippocrates was the first documented chest surgeon and his findings are still valid.[15] The Hippocratic Corpus contains the core medical texts of this school. Although once thought to have been written by Hippocrates himself, today, many scholars believe that these texts were written by a series of authors over several decades.[16] Since it is impossible to determine which may have been written by Hippocrates himself, it is difficult to know which Hippocratic doctrines originated with him.

The idea that diseases have natural, and not divine causes is a critical point in Hippocratic medicine. Additionally, the emergence of regimens containing diet and exercise, humors, and purging can all be attributed to Hippocratic medicine. Purging included bloodletting, emetics, laxatives, diuretics, and enemas. Physicians would first examine the face, eyes, hands, posture, breathing, sleep, stool, urine, vomit, and sputum of their patients. They would also check for coughing, hiccupping, flatulence, fever, convulsions, pustules, tumors and lesions. Hippocrates noted that to treat burns Greek and Roman doctors would use pig fat, resin and bitumen.[17]


Rod of Asclepius
Modern depiction of the caduceus as the symbol of commerce

Asclepius was espoused as the first physician, and myth placed him as the son of Apollo. Temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius, known as Asclepieia (Greek: Ἀσκληπιεῖα; sing. Ἀσκληπιεῖον Asclepieion), functioned as centers of medical advice, prognosis, and healing.[18] At these shrines, patients would enter a dream-like state of induced sleep known as "enkoimesis" (Greek: ἐγκοίμησις) not unlike anesthesia, in which they either received guidance from the deity in a dream or were cured by surgery.[19] Asclepeia provided carefully controlled spaces conducive to healing and fulfilled several of the requirements of institutions created for healing.[18] The Temple of Asclepius in Pergamum had a spring that flowed down into an underground room in the Temple. People would come to drink the waters and to bath in them because they were believed to have medicinal properties. Mud baths and hot teas such as chamomile to calm them or peppermint tea to sooth their headaches. The patients were encouraged to sleep in the facilities too. Their dreams were interpreted by the doctors and their symptoms were then reviewed. Dogs would occasionally be brought in to lick open wounds for assistance in their healing. In the Asclepieion of Epidaurus, three large marble boards dated to 350 BC preserve the names, case histories, complaints, and cures of about 70 patients who came to the temple with a problem and shed it there. Some of the surgical cures listed, such as the opening of an abdominal abscess or the removal of traumatic foreign material, are realistic enough to have taken place, but with the patient in a state of enkoimesis induced with the help of soporific substances such as opium.[19]








Following Theophrastus ( d.286 BC ), the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly.[28] It is not until the age of Alexandria under the Ptolemies that advances in biology can be again found. The first medical teacher at Alexandria was Herophilus of Chalcedon, who differed from Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. He did this using an experiment involving cutting certain veins and arteries in a pig's neck until the squealing stopped.[29] In the same vein (no pun intended), he developed a diagnostic technique which relied upon distinguishing different types of pulse.[30] He, and his contemporary, Erasistratus of Chios, researched the role of veins and nerves, mapping their courses across the body.




Galen (GAY-len) was a noteworthy doctor and scientist who contributed greatly to Ancient Greek Medicine. During this period, Greeks had a single name, whereas Romans bore a string of names. Galen was of Greek lineage. He was born in the former Greek City of Pergamum on September 22, 129 A.D. (or possibly 130 A.D.). In exchange for a promise to protect the independence of Pergamum, a former ruler had given the city to the Romans well before Galen was born. However, the citizens of Pergamum still considered it a Greek city and were of Greek lineage.

Galen’s primary focus was on anatomy. He believed that how the parts of the body were arranged and worked together was the foundation of understanding how to treat and cure it. Galen experimented with various minerals and herbs, combining them in different extracts and tried them on his patients to determine which ones had the best results. He wrote down the combinations of these prescriptions and, in his lifetime, composed more than thirty pharmaceutical books. Galen prescribed medicinal treatment for both physical and mental ailments.

Though ethnically Greek, Galen was a Roman citizen. He was greatly influenced by his study of Hippocrates and Hippocrates' case studies of medicine and medical practice. It was Galen's premise to investigate the facts and opinions on each case study rather than simply agreeing with what the previous author had written.[35] Therefore, he would add notes or extra realizations to existing case studies in order to improve knowledge of medical practice itself. For example Galen "added the theory of pulses to Hippocrates' tehne."[36] Although this seems like a simple elaboration, it led to a deeper understanding of human bodily functions. Furthermore, Galen accepted the concept of The Four Humors adopted by many ancient Greek and Roman physicians. The Four Humors are similar to Aristotle's theory of five elements (excluding aether): air, water, fire, and earth. Though Galen was well read on ancient philosophers, he profoundly rejected the ideals and theories inspired by Stoicism.

Galen wrote about his constantly evolving theories. He was espoused as the most important doctor of his time, having written over three hundred books and papers on medical topics. He essentially comprised an encyclopedia of medicine for the ancient world. His writings would fill 78 modern day books. Galen based many of his original theories on the work of Hippocrates. Hippocrates believed that where a person worked, ate, and lived were important to understanding their health issues. These beliefs were valid, as they acknowledged that mosquitoes carry certain illnesses or that a local contaminated water source could indeed be the origin of particular illnesses. Hippocrates also believed that there were both physical and mental illnesses.

Galen began his study of medicine at the Temple of Aesculapius, after having learned language, philosophy, and Greek as well as Roman math. He was clearly characterized to love problem solving and enjoyed geometry. At the age of nineteen, just after he graduated from the Aesculapius, Galen's father, a wealthy man named Nicon, died. Upon his death, Galen left his home to travel the world. Unlike many physicians or scientists of the time, his inherited wealth allowed him to gain more access to medical texts, pharmaceutical texts, and works on anatomy. Overall he could afford an advanced education and travel to better schools. His circumstances ultimately allowed him a greater understanding of the human body and mind. His travels took him to localities where he learned from other physicians. Galen’s first destination was Smyrna. There, he studied with Pelops, a famous doctor who had lectured at Aesculapius when Galen was attending school there. Pelops had his own school. This led Galen to spend more time studying botany, philosophy and medicine while in Smyrna. Galen enjoyed botany and the potential it provided for cures in the form of prescriptions. He began collecting plants on his travels for this purpose.

When Galen became bored in Smyrna, he traveled on to Corinth, then Alexandria in Egypt to attend another school called Museum. The trip from Corinth to Alexandria took Galen across the Mediterranean. En route, the ship stopped at Crete to obtain supplies. During the stop, Galen walked the hills and collected herbs for his medicinal chest.

At Museum, Galen was finally able to view a human skeleton. There were two skeletons at the Museum, though dissections of humans were not allowed. Both were stripped clean by natural causes, one by animals and the other had been in a river for an extended period of time. Both had been retrieved from where they were found and brought to Museum. Up until that time, Galen had only seen the structures of animals (which could be dissected). Galen began to form opinions and theories after studying the skeletons and applying the knowledge he had gained from dissecting animals. Based on his own studies as well as those of Aristotle, Galen determined that the body had three systems. He called them the natural spirit (veins and liver which provided nutrition), the vital spirit (heart) and the animal spirit. Galen's knowledge of animal anatomy came from his practice of vivisection.[37] He also performed these procedures in public. Postulating that animals and humans have similar anatomy was an accepted theory. In reality, many animals have different or extra organs. Regardless, these organs were not only thought to be present in the human body but vital to human bodily functions, possibly even holding an important part of the soul. Galen again grew bored and determined that it was time to return home to begin his career as a doctor. Upon his return to Pergamum, he went to work as a doctor for a ludi, a school for gladiators. He set bones, sewed wounds closed, reset dislocations, completed cauterizations, and discovered that an injury to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body. He was able to observe muscles, tissues and other parts of the human body through open wounds. Ultimately it gave Galen a foremost position as a physician, an exceptional reputation, and a superb practice of medicine. Galen stayed in this position for three years.

Galen again grew bored and went to Rome. Galen’s opportunity to shine came in the form of his father’s friend, Eudemus, who was very ill. He called for Galen’s help when he heard he was in the city. Eudemus had been under the care of one of the best physicians in the city, but had been growing sicker in spite of this. Galen concocted medications for Eudemus from his store of herbs. Eudemus was healed, and suddenly Galen’s services were in high demand. Galen then was called to heal the wife of the consul, Flavius Boethius. Upon her cure, Boethius paid Galen a handsome sum and then provided Galen with a lecture hall. Galen provided lectures to the educated on the human systems. As a part of the presentations, he completed dissections of animals, exhibited how the blood contains oxygen, and showed how thoughts come from the brain rather than from the heart as previously believed. He also taught the importance of the spinal cord and that injuries to it would cause loss of the use of the parts of the body below the severed part of the cord,(brain which provided intelligence and senses). Galen used this basis to begin to put together how the various parts of the body functioned together.




Historical legacy[edit]




See also[edit]


  1. ^ Cartwright, Mark. Greek Medicine. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited, UK, 2013. ( Retrieved Nov. 9, 2013.
  2. ^ Bendick, Jeanne. “Galen – And the Gateway to Medicine.” Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, 2002. ISBN 1-883937-75-2.
  5. ^ Hippocrates: The "Greek Miracle" in Medicine
  6. ^ The Father of Modern Medicine: Hippocrates
  7. ^ Owsei Temkin, "What Does the Hippocratic Oath Say?", in "On Second Thought" and Other Essays in the History of Medicine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 21-28.
  8. ^ Schwartz, Richards & Goyal 2006
  9. ^ Singer & Underwood 1962, p. 40
  10. ^ Margotta 1968, p. 70
  13. ^ Garrison 1966, p. 97
  14. ^ Martí-Ibáñez 1961, p. 90
  15. ^ a b Major 1965
  16. ^ Vivian Nutton'Ancient Medicine'(Routledge 2004)
  17. ^ Pećanac M, Janjić Z, Komarcević A, Pajić M, Dobanovacki D, Misković SS (May–Jun 2013). "Burns treatment in ancient times". Medicinski pregled 66 (5-6): 263–7. doi:10.1016/s0264-410x(02)00603-5. PMID 23888738. 
  20. ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 41
  21. ^ Annas, Classical Greek Philosophy pp 247
  24. ^ Aristotle, De Anima II 3
  25. ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 45
  26. ^ Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy Vol. 1 pp. 348
  28. ^ Annas, Classical Greek Philosophy pp 252
  29. ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences pp 56
  30. ^ Barnes, Hellenistic Philosophy and Science pp 383
  31. ^ Mason, A History of the Sciences, p 57
  32. ^ Barnes, Hellenistic Philosophy and Science, pp 383-384
  34. ^ Annas, Classical Greek Philosophy, p 252


Further reading[edit]

  • Annas, Julia Classical Greek Philosophy. In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (ed.) The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford University Press: New York, 1986. ISBN 0-19-872112-9
  • Barnes, Jonathan Hellenistic Philosophy and Science. In Boardman, John; Griffin, Jasper; Murray, Oswyn (ed.) The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford University Press: New York, 1986. ISBN 0-19-872112-9
  • Cohn-Haft, Louis The Public Physicians of Ancient Greece, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1956
  • Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. Volume I: The earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge University Press: New York, 1962. ISBN 0-521-29420-7
  • Jones, W. H. S.  Philosophy and Medicine in Ancient Greece, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1946
  • Lennox, James (2006-02-15). "Aristotle's Biology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 28, 2006. 
  • Longrigg, James Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmæon to the Alexandrians, Routledge, 1993.
  • Lovejoy, Arthur O. The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea. Harvard University Press, 1936. Reprinted by Harper & Row, ISBN 0-674-36150-4, 2005 paperback: ISBN 0-674-36153-9.
  • Mason, Stephen F. A History of the Sciences. Collier Books: New York, 1956.
  • Mayr, Ernst. The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982. ISBN 0-674-36445-7
  • von Staden H. (ed. trans.). Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria. Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-521-23646-0, ISBN 978-0-521-23646-1]
  • Longrigg, James. “Greek Medicine From the Heroic to the Hellenistic Age.” New York, NY, 1998. ISBN 0-415-92087-6.

External links[edit]