Society, Medicine and Religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-90-04-22908-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 341, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 461 g

Reihe: Mnemosyne, Supplements

Aelius Aristides' Sacred Tales offer a unique opportunity to examine how an educated man of the Second Century CE came to terms with illness. The experiences portrayed in the Tales disclose an understanding of illness in both religious and medical terms. Aristides was a devout worshipper of Asclepius while at the same time being a patient of some of the most distinguished physicians of his day. This monograph offers a textual analysis of the Sacred Tales in the context of the so-called Second Sophistic; medicine and the medical use of dream interpretation; and religion, with particular emphasis on the cult of Asclepius and the visual means used to convey religious content.

Zielgruppe

All those interested in the history of the Roman Empire, Greek literature, religion, medicine, and Second Sophistic, as well as classical philologists.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Israelowich, Ido

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 2
Chapter one: Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales 14
Introduction 14
Section one: the composition of the Sacred Tales 18
Date of composition: 18
Method of composition 20
Motives for composition 24
Section two: The Sacred Tales as an autobiography 32
Section three: the ancient readers of the Sacred Tales 36
Section four: A narrative of redemption 41
Conclusion 48
Chapter two: Society, disease and medicine in the Sacred Tales of Aristides 49
Introduction 49
Section One – The Graeco-Roman health-care system 53
Towards a definition of a medical discourse 53
Medicine in the Graeco-Roman world 58
Roman medicine and its Greek influences: 75
Galen: 83
* * * 94
Dreams 95
Section two: The sick, medicine and physicians in the world of the Sacred Tales 116
I. The place of the sick in society 117
II. Medical discourse in the Sacred Tales 118
Medical authority: 118
Medical praxis: 123
Purgation: 124
Pharmakon 129
Dreams 133
Medical procedures and the physicians: 136
III. The physicians in the Sacred Tales 139
Section Three: Towards a medical history of Aelius Aristides 143
Falling ill 146
Aristides and Asclepius 153
Wider Contexts 165
Conclusion 179
Chapter three: Reconsidering private religions; religion and religious experience in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides 185
Introduction 185
Section one: Theology 190
Section two: The myth of Asclepius 198
Section three: Divination, oracles and dreams 211
Dreams 217
Oracles 222
Section four: Visual culture and social forms of cult-organisation 226
Cult, festivals and games 226
The power of images 235
Conclusion 246
Conclusion 249
Bibliography 261

Über Autor(innen)

Israelowich, Ido
Ido Israelowich, D.Phil. (2008) in Ancient History, University of Oxford, is a lecturer of Classics at Tel Aviv University. He has published on various aspects of the work of Aristides and on medicine in the Graeco-Roman World.

Ido Israelowich, D.Phil. (2008) in Ancient History, University of Oxford, is a lecturer of Classics at Tel Aviv University. He has published on various aspects of the work of Aristides and on medicine in the Graeco-Roman World.