AM Week10 Part1 Alexandria

Alexandrian
Medicine
WEEK 10: PART 1 (43 MIN)
MARINA SCHMIDT
Significant Factors
 Rise of Macedonia: Philip II & Alexander the Great

(4th c BCE); significant political & geographical
change
 Magna Graecia : 70 Alexandrias, spread of Greek
culture (Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant)
 “Macedonian backwater”: different customs to CG
(Classical Greece): polygamy, regional kingship;
similar: Olympian gods
 Cultural connections between Macedonia & Greece
 Hybrid form: Hellenistic culture
 323 BCE: Successor kings (Diadochi), Ptolemy;
religious changes
 West: Rome emerges
Religion & Culture
 Cultural hybridization: Delos (Apollo & Artemis) trading port —>

incorporation of temples
 Sarapis & Isis (Egypt), Atargatis & Hadad (Syria), Astarte & Baal
(Canaanite), Jewish synagogue, Roman shrines
 Movement of people
 Cults: geographical transfer & increased popularity: e.g. Asklepieion
(Delos) —> Sarapieion
 Favour of ruling dynasty & religion
 Similarity between deities: Baal-Poseidon
 Healing deities part of medical culture: Epione (Soothing), Hygieia
(Health)
Philosophy
 Aristotle
 The Successors: patronage for scholars & physicians
 Competition between kingdoms: libraries (centers of learning)
 Aggressive acquisition of material
 Different philosophical schools (e.g. Dogmatists, Methodists)
 Pragmatism: draw from various theories as needed
Major philosophical/ medical schools
 Dogmatism: later name

 “Logical” or “the rationalists”: role of deductive & inductive logic to
understand phenomena
 Bring medicine into philosophical realm (not just “practical craft”)
 Basic humoral theory: not same understanding (Praxagoras’ 11
humours)
 Relationship between humours & environment: “hidden causes”
 Empiricists oppose “hidden causes”
Empiricism
 Phyrron of Elis (365-275 BCE) & Philinos of Kos (~250 BCE): response to
Dogmatism
 Roman times: Empiricists = Skeptics
 Observation & recording of experiences; not “hidden causes”
 Don’t look for disease causes; no need for etiology
 Focus: treating symptoms based on experiences & “bigger picture”
Empiricism
 Reject study of anatomy & physiology (thus also dissection)

 Differences between living & dead; treatment by analogy
 3 principles of effective healer: accurate observation, extensive library/
collective case memory, knowing limits & virtues of similarities
 Noteworthy: Epicureanism (from Atomists)
 Natural world made up of individual & unobservable things (specific
properties of shape, size, spatial ordering, orientation)
Important figures & texts
 Theophrastus (371-287 BCE): student of Aristotle, similar theories; only

fragments
 History of Plants: one of first herbalists to influence pharmacological texts
 Diocles of Carystus (4th c BCE): long-term medical experience,
overarching theory of nature (Rationalist)
 First systematic investigation of anatomy (animal dissections); coined “anatomy”
 Study on dietetics
 3 categories of medicine: symptomatology, etiology, therapeutics
Important figures & texts
 Praxagoras of Kos (Asklepiad)

 No extant work; influential on later writers
 11 humours: sweet, mixed, clear, sour, salty, soapy, bitter, oniony,
yolky, corrosive, and blood
 Heart: seat of soul; origin of thought: brain an appendage to spinal
cord
 Arteries (pneuma) from heart, veins (blood) from liver; veins eventually
turn into nerves controlling movement
 Pulse as diagnostic tool; but thought pulse & heartbeat were distinct
Hellenistic botanists
 Focus on pharmacology
 Mantias (120-100 BCE): compound medicines (elite)
 Krateuas (100-60 BCE): “root-cutter”
 Mantias & Krateuas most prominent botanists/ pharmacologists
 Apollodorus (~280 BCE): earliest study on poisons
Ptolemaic Egypt (323-30 BCE)
 Most significant contributor to Hellenistic medicine

 Brief toleration of human dissection (Seleucids & others ABSOLUTELY
NOT)
 Alexandria main hub; centers of healing (e.g. Memphis)
 Influenced other regions that adapted Hellenism
 Variety of religious practices
 Alexandrian medicine from cultural traditions of CG
 Debate: influence of traditional (Pharaonic) medicine
Cosmology
 Maat (balance, order): Ptolemies uphold maat; legitimize themselves

 Respect religions (Alexander’s example)
 Rosetta Stone
 Peasants: submit questions to temples; elites can enter temples easily,
afford fancy medicine
 Continued popularity of temples & shrines (Osiris, Imhotep, Sarapis)
Healing deities
 Rational medicine further develops BUT deities still relevant

 Sarapis: Ptolemaic invention (hellenized Osiris + aspects of Aphrodite
& Dionysus); protector of dynasty, active healing deity
 Isis
 Imhotep
 Amenhotep son of Hapy/ Hapu
Sources
 Complicated; blending of Ptolemaic & Roman concepts

 Fragmentary
 Later references & quotations (Galen, Pliny, Diogenes, Celsus,
Tertullian)
 Inscriptions: e.g. Deir el-Bahari: cult of Amenhotep & Imhotep
 Greek papyri of the Fayum: treatises explaining vision & surgeries on
eyelid defects
Sources
 Zenon Archive (papyri): mentions physicians by
name
 Letters (fragmentary): refer to illnesses, requests
for supplies
 More papyri
 Archaeological: museum (mouseion), library
 Healing sanctuaries & cultic sites
 Statues & votive offerings
 Similar to other medical cultures so far

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Alexandrian

 Rise of Macedonia: Philip II & Alexander the Great

 Cultural hybridization: Delos (Apollo & Artemis) trading port —>

 Dogmatism: later name

 Reject study of anatomy & physiology (thus also dissection)

 Theophrastus (371-287 BCE): student of Aristotle, similar theories; only

 Praxagoras of Kos (Asklepiad)

 Most significant contributor to Hellenistic medicine

 Maat (balance, order): Ptolemies uphold maat; legitimize themselves

 Rational medicine further develops BUT deities still relevant

 Complicated; blending of Ptolemaic & Roman concepts

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