The thesis examines two of the most prominent forms of Ancient Greek medicine, rational and temple. These two forms put themselves in direct competition with each other and often tried to differentiate their form from the other. On the other hand the public often conflated these two types viewing them as one entity instead of two. The perception of Ancient Greeks was that the two forms were actually very similar and the temple practitioners and rational physicians were in many ways interchangeable.

In my first chapter, I investigate how, according to Hesiod in his Works and Days, one achieves prosperity and well-being, namely by not provoking Zeus who “punishes those whose actions harm justice.” I suggest that the moral and practical elements of Hesiod’s teachings may be conceived of in similar terms of maintaining a disposition whereby one is content to possess resources proportionate to one’s level of activity and needs. In the second chapter, I examine how the conceptions of limit and proportion elucidated in my first chapter feature in medical texts. I investigate Alcmaeon’s description of health and disease in terms of a political distribution of power. A body, according to Alcmaeon, is healthy when its qualities are equally proportioned (isonomia) and one does not dominate (monarchia) the whole mixture (krasis). Alcmaeon describes health as the proportionate blending of qualities which formulates the definition of health as the equality of shares of powers and anticipates Hippocratic humorism. Hippocratic humorism, like the traditional, magicoreligious model of health, conceives of health similarly to Alcmaeon, in terms of a proper proportion and balance. In my third chapter, I investigate Plato’s conception of the soul and of justice. I explicate Plato’s conception of the soul as discussed in his Republic, Phaedrus, and Laws, and suggest that a similar view of the soul and of justice, as a proper proportion of internal constituents, persists. I then apply this view of justice as the proper proportion of parts to the polis and argue that disproportion within a polis leads to stasis – a disease of a political body. In conclusion, I argue that Greek medical, ethical, and political thought share a conceptual framework and are predicated on notions of balance, proportion, and equilibrium. Prosperity, bodily health, justice of the soul, and justice of the city are conceived of in similar terms of a proper proportion. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Greek medical authors are obviously interested in the nature of health and disease, but the repeated mention of health and disease in epic poetry, philosophy, and political thought is more surprising. Hesiod writes that Zeus punishes the entire city of an unjust man with plague because he harms Justice. Plato refers to injustice as a disease of the soul, and justice as a soul in good health. Euripides, in his Herakles, writes that Thebes itself was sick with stasis. These authors indicate that the Greek conception of health was conceived of in broad terms which were applied to other spheres, such as ethics and politics. But what are these terms? What is the basic conceptual framework that underlies Greek medical, ethical, and political thought that allowed authors to apply similar metaphors of health and disease to these different spheres? In this thesis, I suggest that underlying Greek medical, ethical, and political thought is the same conceptual framework of proportion, balance, and equilibrium.

This report examines the sectarian backdrop for Galen of Pergamum's medical epistemology. It considers the justificatory role that experience (empeiria) and theoretical accounts (logoi) play in Empiricist and Dogmatist epistemology in an attempt to track how Galen incorporates experience into theoretical accounts as a means by which to undergird them. Finally, it briefly considers the exiguous evidence for Methodism, Galen's main medical rivals in the Roman world and claims that Galen forges a middle path between these sects. / text

This thesis expands upon the notion that Thucydides’ plague narrative in his History of the Peloponnesian War punctuates his argument for the unique greatness of the Peloponnesian War. Through the plague, Thucydides displays the collapse of Greek society’s standards and practices. He does this by describing a plague which does not conform to 5th century BCE Greek medical ideas. Balance, human art, and divine intervention all fail in their attempts to restore the health of the individual and society. Thucydides portrays the plague as a narrative aggressor whose intent is to topple Athens and its ideals. Lucretius’ plague narrative, because it narrates the same historical moment but from a different perspective, is then discussed in order to demonstrate how other authors have used Thucydides’ technique.

La notion de « bile », exprimée par le substantif χολή, représente l’un des plus importants et des plus célèbres concepts de la médecine hippocratique, inséparable dans la pensée moderne de la fameuse théorie humorale. Au premier abord, les choses semblent donc claires. Cependant, lorsqu’on se plonge dans la lecture des écrits hippocratiques, la notion de cholè s’avère moins simple et évidente. Notre analyse des textes hippocratiques montre, en effet, que la cholè diffère d’un traité à l’autre et que chaque auteur hippocratique élabore sa propre notion de cholè. Nous nous sommes posé alors la question de l’origine de ce concept médical, ainsi que de l’origine de son cadre, qui est la théorie humorale. Notre quête des origines nous a amenée jusqu’aux idées homérique de chólos et aristophanique de cholè, qui se présentent toutes les deux comme fondamentalement différentes de l’idée médicale de cholè, unissant en elles-mêmes les notions de substance et d’état d’esprit. C’est justement cet écart entre les concepts non-médicaux et les concepts médicaux qui nous a intéressée au plus haut point, car il permet de voir comment les médecins hippocratiques élaborent leurs idées et leur discours. L’essentiel de notre travail consiste, donc, en un examen approfondi des procédés par lesquels les hippocratiques s’approprient des idées non-médicales : ce qu’ils retranchent, ce qu’ils rajoutent et ce qu’ils remanient. Nous espérons ainsi mettre en évidence les chemins par lesquels passe la pensée médicale ancienne, dans son processus d’émancipation de la culture traditionnelle, mais aussi des autres « sciences » de l’époque, telle que la philosophie. / The notion of « gall », expressed by the noun χολή, is one of the most important as well as the most celebrated concepts of the hippocratic medicine, inseparable for the modern mind from the humoral theory. At first sight then, the idea of « gall » seems fairly obvious. However, reading hippocratic treatises in detail, one realizes that the notion of cholè turns out to be far more complex and intricate than expected. Our analysis of the most relevant hippocratic texts shows indeed that the concept of cholè varies according to the texts involved, as every author tends to develop his own concept of cholè. We tried to find out whether the complex nature of the medical concept known as cholè could be elucidated by a survey of its origins, and a survey of the origins of the humoral system as a whole. Our search for the origins of cholè has led us to the Homeric concept of chólos and to the Aristophanic concept of cholè. The prerequisites of both notions conspicuously differ from the medical concept of cholè, because they unite the substance with a state of mind. This discrepancy between medical and non-medical concepts was of utmost importance for us, since it helped to understand how hippocratic authors developed their ideas and their discourse. The main asset of our work consists, therefore, in an in-depth analysis of the ways in which hippocratic authors take over some non-medical ideas to frame concepts of their own : what are the components they cut out, add or modify. Our goal is to show how ancient medical thought proceeds, in its endeavour to emancipate itself from the tradition as well as from the other contemporary “sciences”, as philosophy.

La mélancolie, comprise à la fois comme une affection de l'âme apparentée à la folie et un état émotionnel caractérisé par la tristesse et la peur, occupe une place importante dans les traités médicaux écrits en arabe aux IXe et Xe siècles. À cette époque, comme dans l'Antiquité grecque, la figure du mélancolique constitue un domaine où médecins et philosophes conjuguèrent étroitement leurs efforts. En effet, les questions soulevées par la mélancolie, telles que l'interaction entre l'âme et le corps, la nature de l'âme, ou encore le siège de la partie dirigeante de l'âme, traversent les deux disciplines. Les médecins arabes s'appuient en grande partie sur les auteurs grecs, en particulier Rufus d'Éphèse et Galien. Mais la conception de la mélancolie subit aussi des variations en passant chez les auteurs arabes. La première partie de la thèse entend reconstruire la conception de la maladie chez al-Rāzī, en se fondant sur l'analyse des textes médicaux consacrés à la mélancolie chez ce dernier. Cette partie montre que le diagnostic et le traitement de la mélancolie placent le médecin face à de nombreuses difficultés méthodologiques: il doit en effet comprendre l'infinie variété des symptômes de la maladie, leur caractère à la fois physique et psychique, mais aussi expliquer comment sont découverts les pouvoirs adoucissants, échauffants et purgatifs des substances utilisées contre la maladie, et leur mode d'action dans le corps. C'est pourquoi la seconde partie de la thèse entend restituer à la conception de la mélancolie d'al-Rāzī son arrière-plan épistémologique. Elle fait apparaître qu'al-Rāzī modifie la "méthode logique" de Galien dans deux directions en apparence opposées, mais complémentaires: il replace l'expérience au centre de la méthodologie médicale, et il étend les fondements théoriques de la médecine. Cette position épistémologique conduit al-Rāzī à participer activement aux discussions philosophiques, notamment au sujet de l'âme. Dans cette perspective, la troisième partie étudie la psychologie d'al-Rāzī à partir de son interprétation de la mélancolie. / Melancholy—understood both as a mental disease akin to madness and a state of the mind characterised by sadness and fear—figured prominently in the works of physicians living in the Islamic world in the ninth and tenth centuries. In this context, like in Greek Antiquity, the case of the melancholic was of common concern for physicians and philosophers, because melancholy raised questions that belonged to both disciplines, for instance about the interaction between body and soul, the nature of the soul, the seat of the governing part of the soul and so on.Arabo-Islamic physicians drew heavily on the Greek tradition, and especially on Rufus of Ephesus and Galen. But the notion of melancholy evolved when it came under their scrutiny. The first part of the thesis starts by investigating al-Rāzī's medical writings, in order to understand the theoretical and practical underpinnings of melancholy in these works. This part shows that the diagnosis as well as the treatment of melancholy confronts the physician with many methodological difficulties, such as recognising the multiple symptoms of the disease, explaining their physiological and psychological foundations, but also discovering the purgative, heating and soothing power of the substances used against melancholy and exposing the way in which they fight the disease in the body. Therefore, the second part of this thesis aims at reconstructing the methodological background of those difficulties. It appears that al-Rāzī modifies Galen's "logical method" in two opposite directions: first, he increases the part of experience in medical reasoning; second, he expands the theoretical knowledge needed by the physician. This epistemological position results in al-Rāzī's active participation in philosophical debates, in particular about the soul. In this perspective, the third part of the thesis studies the role played by the interpretation of melancholy in al-Rāzī's psychology.

Diseases of Women, Book I, is part of the Hippocratic Corpus of approximately seventy treatises, although different authors contributed to the writings, as is evident by slight changes in text. It is the first of three works by Hippocrates on gynaecological problems. Fifth century BC doctors did not dissect either humans or animals, so their theories were based purely on observation and experience. Book I deals with women who have problems with menstruation, either the lack of it or an excess, infertility and, when conception does take place, the threat of miscarriage and dealing with the stillborn child. Various remedies are given, including herbal infusions, vapour baths and mixtures that the modern day patient would shudder at, e.g. animal dung and headless, wingless beetles. One remedy, hypericum, or St John's Wort, used for depression, has become popular today as an alternative medicine. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M.A. (with specialisation in Ancient Languages and Cultures)

Diseases of Women, Book I, is part of the Hippocratic Corpus of approximately seventy treatises, although different authors contributed to the writings, as is evident by slight changes in text. It is the first of three works by Hippocrates on gynaecological problems. Fifth century BC doctors did not dissect either humans or animals, so their theories were based purely on observation and experience. Book I deals with women who have problems with menstruation, either the lack of it or an excess, infertility and, when conception does take place, the threat of miscarriage and dealing with the stillborn child. Various remedies are given, including herbal infusions, vapour baths and mixtures that the modern day patient would shudder at, e.g. animal dung and headless, wingless beetles. One remedy, hypericum, or St John's Wort, used for depression, has become popular today as an alternative medicine. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M.A. (with specialisation in Ancient Languages and Cultures)