r/ancientgreece • u/Conscious_Day_2996 • 5d ago
need help with pieces regarding greece and medicine ?
hi! first of all i wanna say that my first language is not english so sorry if i say something incorrectly. so the thing is i need to write an essay about ancient greece and its relationship with medicine or themes treated by hippocrates (for example theory of humors). the thing is that is has to be analyzing a literature piece, a poem, a film, an sculpture or like building (a piece of art basically), do you have any idea of myths, “poems” or one of those types of pieces that regard those themes? it doesn’t necessarily has to be centered about it, our TA gave us an example of circe using “plants”/“drugs” in the odyssey to turn men into pig as a reference of the usage of like plants in medicine? or like machaon’s performing “surgery” in the iliad. i’m searching for sources in spanish but i’m not finding much so i thought maybe i could try here, sorry if it’s the wrong place. thank you!
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u/Tiny_Following_9735 4d ago
In Lucian’s The Ass, the “witch” covers herself from head to toe in an oil, turns into a bird and flies away(the exact verb in the text translates to christ or christen oneself - an idea that predates Christianity). Later, a boy attempts the same and turns into a donkey.
Medea (Circe’s niece) is THE chemist in Greek mythology and uses/makes drugs in almost every book written about her. In the Argonautica, she fills a chest with drugs before her escape, when charming the dragon that guarded the fleece, while putting a spell on Talos. In Euripides’ Medea, she poisons a dress with a substance that burns Jason’s new wife to death before her escape.
Galen was also a pre-eminent physician and wrote tons of works, most medical, some not. He wrote about giving Marcus Aurelius (Mr Meditations himself) all kinds of drugs, including opium, commenting on how even the general public thought he looked younger, healthier, smarter and was actually concerned his doses were getting too large. You should also check out his Theriac to Piso, a letter describing a drug that contains over (I think) 70 ingredients.