Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece

Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece
Author :
Publisher : JHU Press
Total Pages : 193
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780801889783
ISBN-13 : 0801889782
Rating : 4/5 (782 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece by : Bronwen L. Wickkiser

Download or read book Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece written by Bronwen L. Wickkiser and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delving deeply into ancient medical history, Bronwen L. Wickkiser explores the early development and later spread of the cult of Asklepios, one of the most popular healing gods in the ancient Mediterranean. Though Asklepios had been known as a healer since the time of Homer, evidence suggests that large numbers of people began to flock to the cult during the fifth century BCE, just as practitioners of Hippocratic medicine were gaining dominance. Drawing on close readings of period medical texts, literary sources, archaeological evidence, and earlier studies, Wickkiser finds two primary causes for the cult’s ascendance: it filled a gap in the market created by the refusal of Hippocratic physicians to treat difficult chronic ailments and it abetted Athenian political needs. Wickkiser supports these challenging theories with side-by-side examinations of the medical practices at Asklepios' sanctuaries and those espoused in Hippocratic medical treatises. She also explores how Athens' aspirations to empire influenced its decision to open the city to the healer-god's cult. In focusing on the fifth century and by considering the medical, political, and religious dimensions of the cult of Asklepios, Wickkiser presents a complex, nuanced picture of Asklepios' rise in popularity, Athenian society, and ancient Mediterranean culture. The intriguing and sometimes surprising information she presents will be valued by historians of medicine and classicists alike.


Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece Related Books

Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece
Language: en
Pages: 193
Authors: Bronwen L. Wickkiser
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008 - Publisher: JHU Press

GET EBOOK

Delving deeply into ancient medical history, Bronwen L. Wickkiser explores the early development and later spread of the cult of Asklepios, one of the most popu
Medicine and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean
Language: en
Pages: 375
Authors: D. Michaelides
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-05-30 - Publisher: Oxbow Books

GET EBOOK

There are many recoverable aspects and indications concerning medicine and healing in the ancient past – from the archaeological evidence of skeletal remains,
Hell Hath No Fury
Language: en
Pages: 284
Authors: Meghan R. Henning
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-09-21 - Publisher: Yale University Press

GET EBOOK

The first major book to examine ancient Christian literature on hell through the lenses of gender and disability studies Throughout the Christian tradition, des
Dreams, Healing, and Medicine in Greece
Language: en
Pages: 356
Authors: Steven M. Oberhelman
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-05-13 - Publisher: Routledge

GET EBOOK

This volume centers on dreams in Greek medicine from the fifth-century B.C.E. Hippocratic Regimen down to the modern era. Medicine is here defined in a wider se
Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt
Language: en
Pages: 332
Authors: Philippa Lang
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-12-03 - Publisher: BRILL

GET EBOOK

Current questions on whether Hellenistic Egypt should be understood in terms of colonialism and imperialism, multicultural separatism, or integration and syncre