The oldest Greek medical texts (1)

Text
One of the key texts in the Greek Hippocratic corpus, which bears comparison with its Akkadian counterpart is considered to belong to the oldest stratum of the corpus among texts describing diseases. The source is Epidemics 2.12-72 (which differ considerably in style and content from chapters 1-11), and although thought to represent ‘Cnidian’ medicine, the assumption is not valid. Like the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook, the text of Epidemics 2.12-75 describes diseases based upon observation of external symptoms and questioning of the patient.

The headings of these chapters provide a useful basis for comparisons with the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook. In the Greek text the symptoms are listed in a two-part manner. The first part of the symptom serves as the ‘title’, in which either the name of the disease is given or a brief qualification of the name, e.g. ‘another (disease)’, the purpose of which is simply to identify the condition. The second part of the symptom contains a description of the ‘signs’ or symptoms, stipulating, for example, that the patient feels pain or vomits bile, coughs, or has blurred vision. This formal structure of symptoms is strikingly similar to symptoms listed in the Diagnostic Handbook. The second clauses of the description of illness often occur after the ‘title’; the clauses appear in an a+b+c format. This type of a+b+c string of clauses in Greek medical descriptions is typical of the format of the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook, which often begins with a clause introducing the initial ‘problem’, usually thereafter abbreviated by ‘ditto’ ki.min, then followed by another clause describing the problem, and finally there is a prognosis as to how the disease will develop (usually, ‘he will get better’ or ‘he will die’); often ‘ditto’ is used in the last clause as well, if it is repetitive. There are many general parallels in the description of diseases and symptoms in both the Greek and Akkadian sources, and these parallels are in no way arbitrary. The text of Epidemics 2.12-75 is not typical of other treatises in the Hippocratic corpus, and represents an early stage of medical writing in Greek. This medical text appears to reflect the same patterns of medicine known from Mesopotamia.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Hippocratic Corpus, Epidemics 2.12-72

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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