Neglect of diet by the ancients (1)

Text
The Greek Hippocratic tractate Regimen in Acute Diseases has the following remark:
‘what the ancients (hoi archaioi) wrote on regimen is not worth mentioning either. They left it out of consideration, despite its importance.

The reference to ‘the ancients’ alerts us to the fact earlier (presumably pre-Hippocratic) medicine was inadequate and unsophisticated and represents a more archaic form of medicine which had not developed in the way later Greek medicine had done. At the same time, it reminds us that we find no trace in Babylonian medical literature of references to diet or regimen. No existing Akkadian medical or therapeutic texts offer advice on how to remain healthy, nor does any Akkadian text recommend different diets for various seasons or even illnesses. The fact that the genre is completely unknown in Babylonia may have some relevance to the Hippocratic complaint that the ‘ancients’ never bothered with diet and regimen.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Hippocratic Corpus, Regimen in Acute Diseases 1

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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