Therapy of the word and other psychotherapeutic approaches in Ancient Greek medicine

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-752
Author(s):  
Chiara Thumiger
Keyword(s):  
Physiological State ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
Pharmaceutical Substances ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Greek Medicine ◽  
Systematic Knowledge

One of the most distinctive aspects of contemporary psychiatry is its firm grounding in a neurological and biochemical framework for the interpretation of mental life and its disturbances. In the absence of any strong neurological understanding or systematic knowledge of active pharmaceutical substances, one might expect that early ancient medicine readily resorted to non-somatic approaches to healing mental suffering. Instead, what is usually labelled “therapy of the word” and other forms of what one may call psychotherapy emerge relatively late in Greek medicine, only in the first centuries of our era. This paper provides an overview and analysis of this development in ancient history of psychology, philosophy and medicine, covering a broad period of time from the fifth century BCE to the end of the late-antique period, the fifth century CE. The focus is on the very idea (or lack thereof) of the curability of mental disturbance, and on the particular branch of therapeutics which addresses the psychological and existential condition of the patient, rather than his or her physiological state.

ABOUT THE PERIODIZATION AND CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORY OF TAURIC CHERSONESUS IN THE PRE-ROMAN AND THE LATE ANTIQUE PERIODS

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (72) (3) ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
S. V. Ushakov
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Transitional Time ◽  
Early Byzantine

Hundreds of scientific works are devoted to the study of the Tauric Chersonesus, but the problem of chronology and periodization of its ancient history is not sufficiently developed in historiography. Analysis of scientific literature and a number of sources concerning this subject allows to define the chronological framework and to reveal 10 stages of the history of ancient Chersonesos (as a preliminary definition). The early stage, the Foundation and formation of the Polis, is defined from the middle/last third of the VI century (or the first half of the V century BC) to the end of the V century BC. The end of the late-Antique − early-Byzantine (transitional) time in Chersonesos can be attributed to the second half of the VI – first third of the VII centuries ad).

LYKOPHRON AND EPIGRAPHY: THE VALUE AND FUNCTION OF CULT EPITHETS IN THEALEXANDRA

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hornblower
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Local Origin ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Function

The subject of this paper is a striking and unavoidable feature of theAlexandra: Lykophron's habit of referring to single gods not by their usual names, but by multiple lists of epithets piled up in asyndeton. This phenomenon first occurs early in the 1474-line poem, and this occurrence will serve as an illustration. At 152–3, Demeter has five descriptors in a row: Ἐνναία ποτὲ | Ἕρκυνν' Ἐρινὺς Θουρία Ξιφηφόρος, ‘Ennaian … Herkynna, Erinys, Thouria, Sword-bearing’. In the footnote I give the probable explanations of these epithets. Although in this sample the explanations to most of the epithets are not to be found in inscriptions, my main aim in what follows will be to emphasize the relevance of epigraphy to the unravelling of some of the famous obscurity of Lykophron. In this paper, I ask why the poet accumulates divine epithets in this special way. I also ask whether the information provided by the ancient scholiasts, about the local origin of the epithets, is of good quality and of value to the historian of religion. This will mean checking some of that information against the evidence of inscriptions, beginning with Linear B. It will be argued that it stands up very well to such a check. TheAlexandrahas enjoyed remarkable recent vogue, but this attention has come mainly from the literary side. Historians, in particular historians of religion, and students of myths relating to colonial identity, have been much less ready to exploit the intricate detail of the poem, although it has so much to offer in these respects. The present article is, then, intended primarily as a contribution to the elucidation of a difficult literary text, and to the history of ancient Greek religion. Despite the article's main title, there will, as the subtitle is intended to make clear, be no attempt to gather and assess all the many passages in Lykophron to which inscriptions are relevant. There will, for example, be no discussion of 1141–74 and the early Hellenistic ‘Lokrian Maidens inscription’ (IG9.12706); or of the light thrown on 599 by the inscribed potsherds carrying dedications to Diomedes, recently found on the tiny island of Palagruza in the Adriatic, and beginning as early as the fifth centuryb.c.(SEG48.692bis–694); or of 733–4 and their relation to the fifth-centuryb.c.Athenian decree (n. 127) mentioning Diotimos, the general who founded a torch race at Naples, according to Lykophron; or of 570–85 and the epigraphically attested Archegesion or cult building of Anios on Delos, which shows that this strange founder king with three magical daughters was a figure of historical cult as well as of myth.

The Body of Western Embodiment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Relationship

Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category of the body itself as historically emergent. Bruno Snell argued that Homer lacked a concept of the body (sōma), but it is the emergence of body in the fifth century BCE rather than the appearance of mind or soul that is most consequential for the shape of ancient dualisms. The body takes shape in Hippocratic medical writing as largely hidden and unconscious interior space governed by impersonal forces. But Plato’s corpus demonstrates that while Plato’s reputation as a somatophobe is well grounded and may arise in part from the way the body takes shape in medical and other physiological writing, the Dialogues represent a more complex position on the relationship between body and soul than Plato’s reputation suggests.

Demokratia and Arete in Ancient Greek Political Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Wallach
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
The Relationship

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: (1) from the Homeric to archaic eras; (2) fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and (3) the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument of practical power. The effect of the research contradicts traditional and recent readings of democracy and virtue as inherently antagonistic. The aim of the article is to identify ancient Greek contributions to understanding the potential, contingencies and dangers of the relationship between democracy (as a form of power) and virtue (as a form of ethics) — one which may benefit both democracy and virtue.

Life and Death, City and SuburbThe Transformations of Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-234
Author(s):  
Allison L. C. Emmerson
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Cultivated Land ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The City

“Life and Death, City and Suburb: The Transformations of Late Antiquity” is a brief epilogue considering urbanism of the fifth century CE and beyond. As Rome’s population shrank, the city reoriented itself into a constellation of small settlements, scattered within the Aurelian Wall and surrounded by cultivated land. The residents of these settlements buried their dead within the wall, a development that has been seen to represent a sea change in mentality, but which is better read as a result of the city’s new topography and demography. Suburbs, furthermore, did not disappear in this period. Late Antique suburbs grew up around the suburban shrines of Christian martyrs, not only at Rome, but also in other Italian cities like Mediolanum and Nola. This period was marked by both continuity and change, but through it the dead remained present in urban life, continuing relationships carried through all stages in the history of Italy’s cities.

The words of conjecture. Semiotics and epistemology in ancient medicine and rhetoric

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Di Piazza ◽  
Francesca Piazza
Keyword(s):  
Classical Rhetoric ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
Corpus Hippocraticum ◽  
Hippocratic Medicine ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Ancient Greek Medicine

This article considers the epistemology of Classical rhetoric and Hippocratic medicine, focusing on two key terms: semeion and tekmerion. Through an analysis of the specific case of ancient Greek medicine and rhetoric, we hope to bring out the conjectural and fallible nature of human knowledge. The paper focuses on the epistemological and methodological affinity between these two ancient technai, and considers the medical uses of semeion and tekmerion in the light of their meaning in the rhetorical sphere. Chronologically, the analysis follows an inverse pathway: it starts from Aristotle and from Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, and then moves on to Antiphon’s texts (chosen as an exemplary case) and ends with the Corpus Hippocraticum.

Visual Culture and Ancient History

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaś Elsner
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
History Of

Through a specific example, this paper explores the problems of empiricism and ideology in the uses of material-cultural and visual evidence for the writing of ancient history. The focus is on an Athenian documentary stele with a fine relief from the late fifth century bc, the history of its publications, and their failure to account for the totality of the object's information—sculptural and epigraphic—let alone the range of rhetorical ambiguities that its texts and images implied in their fifth-century context. While the paper reflects on the Samos Stele (the meanings of the dexiosis of the figures represented, and the repeated references to the “goodness” of the Samians with respect to the Athenians, for instance), it also considers the broader hermeneutic problems of approaching the different discourses ofword and imagewithin antiquity andworries about the distortions introduced into ancient history by modern formulations, descriptions, and translations of the past.

The Visigothic Kingdom – A Kingdom without Visigoths?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Eger
Keyword(s):  
Political History ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interpretive Model ◽  
Written Sources ◽  
Grave Goods

The years 507 and 711 frame the period of the Spanish Visigothic kingdom, although the history of the Visigoths in Spain dates back to the fifth century. The political history of the Visigoths in Spain is well known from the fifth century onwards, but we know much less from written sources about the history of the population and the settlement process. By the 1920s and 30s, researchers had already interpreted several late antique necropolises as Visigothic because they contained grave goods deposited in a specific form that distinguished them from native tombs. However, in the last twenty years, critics have taken aim at the interpretive model used.

scholarly journals Una storia della musica e della lirica greca dalle origini al IV secolo a.C. nel De musica attribuito a Plutarco

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonietta Gostoli
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
History Of

Ps. Plutarch’s De musica is an important source for reconstructing the history of ancient Greek music and lyric poetry. It is sharply divided in two parts: the first one is the history of music and lyric poetry, from their mythical origins to the IV century BC; the second one is about the ethical and social function of musical education. The discussion of the first part is about the metrical and rhythmical structure of the pre-Homeric citharodic epic compared to verses of Stesichorus and Terpander; kitharōidikoi and aulōidikoi nomoi, Phrygian origin of aulōidia, musical schools in Sparta in relation to the poetic genres definition. Heraclides of Pontus provides the material for Chapters 3-12 (the main exception being Chapter 11, which is explicity credited to Aristoxenus). He indicates the Anagraphe en Sikyoni as his source about Amphion and the origin of kitharōidia. But the history of aulōidia is attributed to a different writer, Glaucus of Rhegium, who lived in the fifth century and is the earliest musical historian.

scholarly journals Geological history of the Dnipro Rapids from Paleogene to Holocene

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-132
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Manyuk
Keyword(s):  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Large River ◽  
Geological Structure ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Quaternary Deposits ◽  
Genetic Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional Landscape

During its long history, the rapids section of the large river the Dnipro not only posed a problem for navigation, but also attracted people with its picturesque rocky landscapes unusual for the Steppe Prydniprovie. Nobody who had saw their beauty was left indifferent. History has preserved lots of recorded impressions from various visits to the Rapids from the Ancient Greek philosphers to exceptional works of Dmitro Yavornytsky. However, the geological studies were fragmented and there is no integrated source focussing on the geological structure of the Dnipro Rapids. We analyzed the results of the explorations of Valerian Domger, a famous researcher of the geology of Middle Prydniprovie.His routes investigated almost every corner of the then Katerynoslav governorate. After the creation of the Prydriprovie Regional Landscape Park (PRLP) in 2008 within the territory of part of the Dnipro Rapids, a question of restoration of its geological history should have emerged, but that has not happened. The year 2017 became the year of rebirth of the PRLP andrecognition of geological component as the key feature of its restoration. The Pre-Cambrian stage of the geological history of the Naddniprovia Rapids is described in the author`s publication in early 2018, which focused on the most ancient history of the Rapids. The Phanerozoic Eon is analyzed in this work and focuses on the lithogical-facial peculiarities of the sedimentary rocks from Paleogene to Quaternary rocks on the basis of stratigraphic and paleontological data, according to which they have beendivided in detail. We determined the patterns in the structure of Quaternary deposits, the correlation of subaerial and subaquaticformations of different genetic types was made according to the use of the climatic-stratigraphic or paleoclimatic principle of division. Thepossibilities of creating a geological park on the basis of the“Dnipro Rapids” Regional Landscape Park ( "Dniprovi Porohy' RLP) areexplored and substantiated.

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