Search results for "Greek medicine"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Quando la malattia nasce, cresce e muore «con» (συν-) il paziente. Terminologia del male congenito nel Corpus ippocratico
2019
The present study aims to investigate the use and semantics of the most common terminology used by the medical writers of the Hippocratic Collection in order to define diseases commonly considered to be of a “congenital” nature, with particular attention to nominal as well as verbal forms, composed by the prefixation syn-, indicating the different stages of the pathological process according to which disease is represented as a proper entity claimed to arise inside the patient, to develop, to became old and then also to die together with him or her. Individual constitution, familiarity, epigenetic factors such as conditions of growth during gestation or climatic conditions, age of the patie…
Sogni erotici e seme femminile nella antica medicina greca
2009
This paper analyses passages of the Hippocratic Corpus, of Aristotle and Galen about oneirogmòs, spermatic emission during sleep, referring specifically to women. Into the Hippocratic texts there is only one gynaecological case among many cases about males: for them this nocturnal emission is symptom of dangerous illness and De genitura gives a causal explanation of such phaenomenon. Instead, in Aristotle and Galen erotic dream is evidence for or against emission of female seed and female contribution to generation. As the argument of Historia animalium book X shows clear theoretical differences from that of De generatione animalium, the topic of erotic dream also concerns issues of authent…
The words of conjecture. Semiotics and epistemology in ancient medicine and rhetoric
2016
This article considers the epistemology of Classical rhetoric and Hippocratic medicine, focusing on two key terms: semeion and tekmerion. Through an analysis of the specific case of ancient Greek medicine and rhetoric, we hope to bring out the conjectural and fallible nature of human knowledge. The paper focuses on the epistemological and methodological affinity between these two ancient technai, and considers the medical uses of semeion and tekmerion in the light of their meaning in the rhetorical sphere. Chronologically, the analysis follows an inverse pathway: it starts from Aristotle and from Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, and then moves on to Antiphon’s texts (chosen as an exemplary case) an…
Forms and limits of therapeutic treatments of hereditary diseases in ancient Greece
2017
Not being epistemologically different from treatment of congenital diseases, the therapy of hereditary diseases has to be considered in its complex relationship with the concepts of nature and culture, and with the ideas of Greek authors about generation and education. As such, therapy of hereditary diseases can be described as the (often hopeless) attempt by the ancient, particularly Hippocratic physician to restore the health condition or to contrast the natural tendency of the patient to develop and give expression to his or her pathological inheritance. If for the Greek physician dietetics represents the most widely practised way of treating disaeses on a presumed inherited basis, the n…
Le rappresentazioni del corpo "anaisthētos" nel "Corpus Hippocraticum": una 'via negativa' verso la conoscenza
2010
This paper seeks to investigate the medical representations and descriptions of ἀναισθησία as we find them in the Hippocratic Corpus. It represents an attempt to analyze both the cognitive and the physiological aspects of perception and, above all, its distortion and/or absence in Hippocratic medicine. The medical phenomenology of ἀναισθησία will be considered in respect to both its outcomes (inability to perceive the outside world; inability to perceive one's internal states), but also in the light of, and in connection with, other phenomena like the absence/suspension of phonation, disturbances of breathing, alteration of the body's motor functions, and insensibility to pain.
Colori dell'eros nelle Grecia antica
2020
L’articolo contiene una dettagliata indagine di alcuni termini di colore (poikìlos, chloròs, erythròs, pòrphyros e loro composti), di cui si esamina l’uso e i significati nel confronto tra lirica greca arcaica e letteratura medica, con particolare attenzione per i contesti erotici. In accordo con quanto già evidenziato da altri studiosi, emerge in generale l’estensione e l’innovazione, da parte di lirici e medici, del tradizionale ambito culturale e semantico di tali termini, a discapito del mero tratto coloristico. Specificamente, il confronto tra l’uso poetico e medico, specie ippocratico, dei termini di colore considerati mostra alcune corrispondenze nella rappresentazione e nell’immagin…
Zwischen Interpretation und wissenschaftlicher Polemik. Traum und Traumbild im Werk des Arztes Galen
2016
The essay, after an overview of the theories of the dream expressed in medical texts and philosophical reflection in the Greek world, analyzes the references to the dream present in the Galenic corpus, with specific reference to the presence of this motif in the context of polemics with exponents of other medical schools. Hence on one side it is possible find Galen taking up a typically Platonic metaphorical use of onar and oneirottein to indicate, pejoratively, confused thought not founded on logos. On the other side, some passages in the corpus polemize – in the strict sense of the word – with incorrect use of the dream by physicians who were adversaries, Empirics and Methodics above all.…
Polisemia di nòmos e l'esordio di Hipp. de genitura
2016
Far from being, as has been said, “the bizarrest beginning of all the Hippocratic writings (...) deserving of therapy”, this paper aims to show that the opening words of the Hippocratic writing “On Generation” (νόμοϲ μὲν πάντα κρατύνει), in itself echoing a famous Pindaric motto, seem to be used first of all in order to evoke a cultural, intellectual and scientific world, in which the nòmos has become one of the most important keywords of the time. From this point of view, the Pindaric quotation seems to be played out on the wide semantic range of nòmos as well as on the ambiguous meaning of the verb κρατύνω, which in this embryological context denote specifically the consolidation and hard…