Feet and fertility in the healing temples: A symbolic communication system between gods and men?

Anatomical ex-votos of feet have always been interpreted as representing the unhealthy part of the body for which patients were asking healing. However, according to the archaeological data and literary sources, another interpretation is also possible: the purpose of this article is to focus on the strong relationship between feet and fertility in the ancient world by cross-referencing the available archaeological evidence with the scientific data relating to this topic. That shed light on an important aspect of the Healing Temples in Greek and Roman medicine

Once again on the Empress Zoe: Women, dermatology, cosmetics, and materia medica (medical matter) in the ancient world

An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved

Mythology and rational explanation in the history of medicine. The case of molar pregnancy

Molar pregnancy is a specific kind of gestational trophoblastic disease which originates from the placenta. There are two types of molar pregnancy, complete and partial. Complete molar pregnancy derives from a defect in maternal eggs, while an incomplete one derives from a defecting fertilization by paternal sperm. Molar pregnancy drawn the attention of ancient physicians from the classic period and they widely discussed maternal and paternal roles in causing this condition. Classic doctors drawn from mythology several suggestions and ideas, which indicates that the issue of normal and abnormal conception was a crucial problem since the most ancient past Current scientific studies on molar pregnancy are free from ancient prejudices about male and female \u201cnature\u201d and their reciprocal role in embryogenesis. However, an awareness of the cultural biases that could drive scientific researches, might be useful for scientists and physicians even today

Abortion and charter for the embryo between the ancient world and the third millenium

In 2012 the Italian Court of Cassation recognized a young woman the right not to be born and a compensation for her Down’s syndrome. Before her birth, her parents asked their gynecologist for abortion in case he had found any pathology affecting the baby. The clinical tests didn’t reveal the syndrome, so, after the baby’s birth, the doctor was sued for damages. A similar case had occurred in France, where the High Court affirmed that constitution is based on the right to live, not to die. A debate was opened, in which the hippocratic oath has been used to support the pro vita position. This article focuses on whether, when and why the hippocratic tradition allows abortion; when and by whom the embryo was considered to be a human being; if, according to the few sources we have, a charter for the embryo existed in ancient times

Pythagorica medica. Scienza e sapienza nella tradizione pre-ippocratica.

The Pythagorean interest in medicine finds its natural collocation among the \u3bc\u3b1\u3b8\u3ae\u3bc\u3b1\u3c4\u3b1 of the school, holding a privileged role. This wisdom heritage becomes a model for the \u3c3\u3bf\u3c6\u3bf\u3af and survives throughout the centuries. Finding out its traces means reconstructing a web of cultural exchanges, particularly lively in the Greek West between the VI and IV century B.C. That\u2019s why this research aims at pointing out some lines of persistency in the wisdom tradition, especially with regard to the field of medicine, through the guiding principles traced by the Pythagorean thought. The enquiry starts from the wisdom and temple medicine in order to highlight its continuity with the Hippocratic tradition. The research path focuses on four archetypal topics which justify the priest skill in medical field and testify the overlap of wisdom and art of healing in ancient times. Birth, Death, Purification and Oath are four anthropological themes: studying them allows to show both the widespread and pervasive nature of the ancient medicine and the role played by the ancient Pythagoreanism. The widespread nature of the documents, especially at the most ancient stage of the history of medicine, imposes to take into account wide historical cultural contexts and face extremely heterogeneous textual typologies which should be integrated with iconographic and archaeological data. That\u2019s why the topic of the research needs to be analised through a multidisciplinary approach

Pythagorica medica. Scienza e sapienza nella tradizione preippocratica

Pythagoras's school recognized a special role to the teaching of medicine. This cultural heritage influenced all the thinkers who inquired into nature and man's place in it between the 6th and the 4th century B. C., especially in the Greek West. This volume aims at pointing out the traces of the close relationship between the Pythagorean thought and the practice of medicine through a direct and multidisciplinary approach to the sources. The research path focuses on four archetypal topics, Birth, Death, Purification and Oath, which represent the cultural anthropology key concepts of a wider dialogue between Pythagoreanism and medicine. This dialogue, which is quite vital and spontaneous between the pre-Hippocratic thinkers and the temple healers, doesn't seem to break off, even after the turning point of rational medicine: philosophers and physicians keep on influencing each other throughout the entire course of the history of medicine

Memory and recollection in antiquity

In the ancient Greek world, memory permeates every aspect of human life. Memory plays a central role in the compositional and ecdotic phases of the ancients’ literary production and has long been linked to a mode of oral–aural transmission, in which poetry survives without support from writing. The ‘book of memory’ metaphor appears in ancient philosophy. The transformation of figures and utterances into μνήματα (records) by iconography and writing leads the ancients to a metaphorical interpretation of cognitive processes. Memory plays a central role in theurgical medicine. Acting as the pivot around which dream therapy revolves, memory requires dream recollection and cataloging. Memory plays a central role in rational medicine as well: dreams amplify perceptual phenomena, so analyzing them may improve clinical diagnosis, as in the Hippocratic authors, establishing a functional link between the pathophysiology of the body, understood as humoral δυσκρασία (bad temperament), and the φαντάσματα (sensations) produced during sleep. This special issue of Medicina nei Secoli aims at investigating the role accorded to memory in the ancient Greek world. The issue covers various topics, from the role that memory plays in explanations of cognitive processes and in the exercise of medical art, up to the emotional salience that memory assumes in literature, especially in the private dimension of writing, or in real life, including pathological manifestations

Il tempio, la piazza e la cattedra. L'osmosi tra l'alto e il basso nelle teorie embriogenetiche antiche

La costruzione dei miti di arrenogenesi e partenogenesi, se opportunamente esaminata in rapporto alle riflessioni storicomediche, mette in luce un lunghissimo e sottile percorso di falsificazione ideologica che opera sul piano antropologico-culturale, politico e scientifico

Memory in Contemporary Biomedicine: Cross- Disciplinary Scenarios

Although it is true that past thinkers developed relevant taxon- omies of the phenomenon of memory at the behavioral level, only in the last century has our scientific understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms of memory progressed remark- ably. New acquisitions include that memory is not just a func- tional or physiological process, but a structural or anatomical one as well, that conceiving of memory as merely cognitive or centered on cognition is misleading, or that memory does not require any consciousness or intentionality. On the applicative side, recent technological advances offered opportunities of modifying memory with biological means, and detecting more effectively whether someone is remembering or lying. The current issue of Medicina nei Secoli is dedicated to Memory in contemporary biomedicine: cross-disciplinary scenarios. It hosts seven expert contributions to the field covering different areas of medical inquiry (i.e., immunology, neuroscience, ger- ontology) and humanistic-social perspectives (history, episte- mology, ethics, and law)

Le radici cultuali e sapienziali della nutraceutica. Vino, olio d'oliva e orzo

Una storia degli usi medici di orzo, vino e olioA history of medical uses of wine, olive oil and barley in Western medical traditio