Ancient Greek Medicine Exam 1 Essay Questions With
Complete Solutions
* Did Hippocrates separate philosophy (stadium sapientiae)
from medicine during the Classical period? * Correct Answers
- Philosophy had a different trajectory than medicine
- No he didn't separate them because things in the Corpus draw
on theory for certain medical practices
- Timaeus has a lot of stuff that has medical vocabulary, Plato
has a connection to anatomy and the body in the Timaeus
- The Hippocratic authors were not dissecting the human bodies
due to the taboo, so they had to reason out how the body works
without actually seeing inside it
- Aristotle dissected many animals and has a big biological
project and extrapolates that structures between animals and the
human body, he also breaks things down into elements and
qualities which is a lot more systematic and tied to biological
functions
- Why not cut a human body? There was a big part of
understanding nature philosophically
A lot of idea of dogmatic or rational medicine which is
philosophic in nature, the idea that you can know something
about a disease without having experienced the treatment for it
as done by Erasistratus/Praxagoras - you know what the
qualities of the disease are and then you can give the right
medicine
* Does Greek medicine begin with Hippocrates? * Correct
Answers No many writers of the time wrote about medicine and
disease before Hippocrates, but it was not concrete the cause of
the diseases. The cause was mostly attributed to the gods, but
,sometimes other things were also considered. Also the traffic of
medicinal substances has been recorded for before Hippocrates.
Homeric evidence about evidence saying that doctors existed
before Hippocrates- prolic
Pre-socratic writings about disease written by philosophers
(distinction between physician and philosopher is whether they
actually treat someone or practice medicine, when they write
theory there is not distinction)
They got a lot of medical ideas from Babylonians and Egyptians
and the things traded between them
* Was Greek religion and Hippocratic medicine opposed to each
other? * Correct Answers - Hostility between the human and
divine healers has been very much exaggerated
- Religious and non-religious healing reinforced on another
- Religion can interfere with medicine, religion is irrational and
medicine is a rational science
- Greek worship is cults (localized worship, specific meaning
for their area)
- Have a god for everything especially medicine (polytheistic)
different from a monotheistic religion
- Iatros use the gods to back up their Hippocratic medicine,
Sacred Disease argues against religious/ magical, foreign healers
of epileptic diseases and they are religious because they don't
believe the gods are impure and they do their healings in the
temples but disease is caused by nature
Causes of disease are not divine, so it is a complex question
, * What makes Hippocrates important in antiquity? * Correct
Answers He is known as the father of medicine because he
collected and weaved together the observations and ideas that
were scattered from earlier doctors into a complete and coherent
art of medicine.
Because the Corpus was a scribe and it was important to the
history of medicine. He was mentioned in platonic texts and he
always wanted to teach medicine. He was an iconic physician in
the eyes of his contemporaries (Aristotle and Plato). He is
credited with having a school and ideas that are ascribed to him
and what their perceptions were towards medicine and were
passed down over time. Ethical standards associated with him
and they are refined in their nature for how everything should be
done. Attributing his name to practices made them relevant.
*How did Galen become one of the most influential physicians
in the history of
medicine*? Correct Answers - When he made a successful
prognosis he was regarded as a miracle worker
- He constantly praised himself
- He commented on everybody who was worth commenting on,
and aspects of his writings
- His father making sure that he got the perfect education
- Asclepius was there for him and told his father that he would
be a physician, he also says that Galen shouldn't go to war and
should take care of Marcus Aurelius's son Commodus
- He influences people in his logic and his anatomical studies
- Some people he makes connections with in Rome to treat
famous high up patients (Nicon has connections)
Complete Solutions
* Did Hippocrates separate philosophy (stadium sapientiae)
from medicine during the Classical period? * Correct Answers
- Philosophy had a different trajectory than medicine
- No he didn't separate them because things in the Corpus draw
on theory for certain medical practices
- Timaeus has a lot of stuff that has medical vocabulary, Plato
has a connection to anatomy and the body in the Timaeus
- The Hippocratic authors were not dissecting the human bodies
due to the taboo, so they had to reason out how the body works
without actually seeing inside it
- Aristotle dissected many animals and has a big biological
project and extrapolates that structures between animals and the
human body, he also breaks things down into elements and
qualities which is a lot more systematic and tied to biological
functions
- Why not cut a human body? There was a big part of
understanding nature philosophically
A lot of idea of dogmatic or rational medicine which is
philosophic in nature, the idea that you can know something
about a disease without having experienced the treatment for it
as done by Erasistratus/Praxagoras - you know what the
qualities of the disease are and then you can give the right
medicine
* Does Greek medicine begin with Hippocrates? * Correct
Answers No many writers of the time wrote about medicine and
disease before Hippocrates, but it was not concrete the cause of
the diseases. The cause was mostly attributed to the gods, but
,sometimes other things were also considered. Also the traffic of
medicinal substances has been recorded for before Hippocrates.
Homeric evidence about evidence saying that doctors existed
before Hippocrates- prolic
Pre-socratic writings about disease written by philosophers
(distinction between physician and philosopher is whether they
actually treat someone or practice medicine, when they write
theory there is not distinction)
They got a lot of medical ideas from Babylonians and Egyptians
and the things traded between them
* Was Greek religion and Hippocratic medicine opposed to each
other? * Correct Answers - Hostility between the human and
divine healers has been very much exaggerated
- Religious and non-religious healing reinforced on another
- Religion can interfere with medicine, religion is irrational and
medicine is a rational science
- Greek worship is cults (localized worship, specific meaning
for their area)
- Have a god for everything especially medicine (polytheistic)
different from a monotheistic religion
- Iatros use the gods to back up their Hippocratic medicine,
Sacred Disease argues against religious/ magical, foreign healers
of epileptic diseases and they are religious because they don't
believe the gods are impure and they do their healings in the
temples but disease is caused by nature
Causes of disease are not divine, so it is a complex question
, * What makes Hippocrates important in antiquity? * Correct
Answers He is known as the father of medicine because he
collected and weaved together the observations and ideas that
were scattered from earlier doctors into a complete and coherent
art of medicine.
Because the Corpus was a scribe and it was important to the
history of medicine. He was mentioned in platonic texts and he
always wanted to teach medicine. He was an iconic physician in
the eyes of his contemporaries (Aristotle and Plato). He is
credited with having a school and ideas that are ascribed to him
and what their perceptions were towards medicine and were
passed down over time. Ethical standards associated with him
and they are refined in their nature for how everything should be
done. Attributing his name to practices made them relevant.
*How did Galen become one of the most influential physicians
in the history of
medicine*? Correct Answers - When he made a successful
prognosis he was regarded as a miracle worker
- He constantly praised himself
- He commented on everybody who was worth commenting on,
and aspects of his writings
- His father making sure that he got the perfect education
- Asclepius was there for him and told his father that he would
be a physician, he also says that Galen shouldn't go to war and
should take care of Marcus Aurelius's son Commodus
- He influences people in his logic and his anatomical studies
- Some people he makes connections with in Rome to treat
famous high up patients (Nicon has connections)
