In this module, we will examine some of the multiple aspects of ancient medical knowledge in the Greco-Roman world. Medical texts will be the primary evidence that we will be analysing, but the complex relationships between medicine, literature, philosophy and religion will be at the heart of the module: for example, the connections between ‘secular’ medicine and the healing cults, such as that of Asclepios, will be examined. We will analyse various works from the Hippocratic collection, but we will also come across more problematic evidence, such as medical vocabulary and knowledge in ancient epic and drama.

Term 1 deals primarily with the classical period, while term 2 covers Hellenistic to late antique medicine. Term 3 addresses issues of reception in the medieval period and beyond, and finishes with general revision.

SET TEXTS 2016-2017 (for those who take this module in GREEK - Q800)

Hippocrates, Sacred Disease I-XII (Loeb Classical Library, vol. II p. 138-154)

Aristotle, Problems, XXX, 1

Thucydides, Hist.of the Pelop. War, II, 47-54 (Loeb Classical Library, vol. I, p. 340-357)

Galen, On Prognosis (ed. V. Nutton, CMG V, 8, 1, Berlin, 1979), chapters 1-6