Greek medicine in its relation to religion and magic / by Ludwig Edelstein.

  • Edelstein, Ludwig, 1902-1965.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Greek medicine in its relation to religion and magic / by Ludwig Edelstein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is widespread even in the 4th century B. C.16 At the same time, how¬ ever, the average Greek, asked whether God exists or not, truthfully asserts the existence of the gods. He points to the evidence of the earth, the sun, moon, and stars as instances of deity and divinity. Concerning all the celestial phenomena, concerning the years and months and all the seasons, he does not deny that “ all things are full of gods,” as Thales said. According to him nobody is foolish enough to disregard this belief.17 In other words, the disbelief in the divinity of those powers of nature is restricted to a certain group of people, to the enlightened, but it is not at all self-evident nor is it the attitude of the average man. For this attitude is relatively new and rather suspicious: “ The first man to put in writing the clearest and boldest of all doctrines (concerning the natural explanation of the phenomena) was Anaxagoras. But he was no ancient authority, nor was his doctrine in high repute. It was still under seal of secrecy, and made its way slowly among the few only, who received it with a certain caution rather than with implicit confidence. Men could not abide the natural philosophers and ‘ visionaries,’ as they were then called, for that they reduced the divine agency down to irra¬ tional causes, blind forces, and necessary incidents.” 18 The Hippo- 18 Plato, Laws, X, 886e; Sophistes, 265c. 17 Plato, Laws, X, 886a; d/e; 899b/c. It is remarkable that Plato says, whether in earnest or in jest, that these theories are familiar in Athens but unknown in Crete (886b). They are certainly in contrast to the old religious attitude. For “it seems the first men in Greece thought those only to be gods whom many of the barbarians honour to-day—sun, moon, earth, stars and heaven.” Qaivovrai pot oi irpuiTOL t&v 7repl ttjv 'E\\a5a rovrovs povovs robs deobs ■p'yeiaOcu ovcnrep vvv ttoXXol rwv (3apflapwv, r/Xiov Kal creXr}vr]v Kal yrjv Kal aarpa Kal ovpavov. (Plato, Cratylus 397c). 18 Plutarch, Nicias, ch. 23 (Plutarch’s Lives, with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Class. Library, III, 1915, p. 291) : 'O ydp irpcbros ca<pea- rarov re iravTwv Kal dappaXeurarov irepl aeXrprrjs . . . Xoyov els ypacprje Karadepevos ’ Ava^ayopas ovr’ avros rjv iraXaios ovre 6 Xoyos evdo^os, aXX’ diroppipros eri Kal Si’ iXlycov Kal per’ evXa(3elas tlvos r] Triarews ftabi^wv. ov yap rjvelxouTO robs (pvaiKobs Kal pLerewpoXeaxas rare KaXovp-ivovs, ws els alrias aXoyovs Kal dvvapieLS airpovo^rovs Kal KarrjvayKaapLeva iraOr] bLarpl^ovras rb Oelov. The possible forerunners of this disbelief are discussed very briefly, its novelty being stressed also in Plato’s Laws, X, 886c/d. I am well aware that Aristophanes (Peace, v. 410 sq.) says the Greeks are given into the hands of the barbarians because they do not sacrifice to sun and moon. But it is quite a different problem whether sacrifices were made to these powers or whether these phenomena were considered to be divine at that time. And certainly Socrates, a contemporary of Aristophanes, did not want to investigate the meteor¬ ological phenomena, because they are divine, but was interested in human things alone, namely in ethical problems (Xenophon, Memorabilia, I. 1. 12).