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Medicine in Plutarch's Moralia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Richard J. Durling*
Affiliation:
Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Pharmazie Universität Kiel

Extract

The Moralia is an unfortunate term for the writings that have come down to us under the name of Plutarch of Chaeronea (ca. A.D. 50–120). They discuss rhetorical topics and general philosophical issues. A few are expressedly devoted to medical themes, for example, the tract entitled De sanitate tuenda praecepta (Mor. 122B–137E). But the medical material is sadly scattered throughout the extensive oeuvre, and it is difficult to gain a clear perspective.

Type
Miscellany
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by Fordham University 

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References

1 Phillip De Lacy in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edwards, Paul (New York, 1967), 6:359–60.Google Scholar

2 Plutarch of Chaeronea, Moralia, trans. F. C. Babbitt, Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar

3 For medicine as a liberal art, see Kudlien, F. in Journal of the History of Medicine 31 (1976): 448–59.Google Scholar

4 For Plutarch's medical friends, see Ziegler, Konrat in RE 21.1 (1951), col. 196, lines 3–8.Google Scholar

5 Wellman conjectured ‘Hρόφιλος before ‘Eρασίστρατος. See von Staden, Heinrich, trans. and ed., Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria (Cambridge, 1989), Testimonium 248c.Google Scholar

6 See Diller, Hans, “Philistíon 4,” in RE 19.2 (1938), cols. 2405–08.Google Scholar

7 Steckerl, Fritz, The Fragments of Praxagoras and His School (Leiden, 1958).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 For guinea-worm, see Hoeppli, R., Parasites and Parasitic Infections in Early Medicine (Singapore, 1959), 8.Google Scholar

9 Temkin, Owsei, The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy, 2d ed. rev. (Baltimore/London, 1971).Google Scholar

10 For ophthalmia, see Hirschberg, J., Worterbuch der Augenheilkunde (Leipzig, 1887).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 On plague, see Horstmanshoff, H. F. J., De piljen van de pest (Amsterdam, 1989).Google Scholar

12 For the seeds of disease, see also Nutton, Vivian in Osiris 2d ser., 6 (1990): 196–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 The Galenic passages on the formation of breast-milk from blood are listed by Phillip De Lacy in his edition of Galen's De Hippocratis et Platonis decretis (Berlin, 1984), 676 (to 446, lines 3–10).Google Scholar

14 On women's seed, see also Nickel, D., Untersuchungen zur Embryologie Galens (Berlin, 1989).Google Scholar

15 On the transport of liquids to the lungs, see Kudlien, F., Der Beginn der medizinischen Denkens bei den Griechen von Homer bis Hippokrates (Zurich, 1967), 8994.Google Scholar

16 For kyphi, see Loret, V. in Journal asiatique, 8th ser., 10 (1857): 76–112.Google Scholar

17 LSJ9 cites Plu. Lyc. 11.Google Scholar

18 A hapax in LSJ9. What were Plutarch's sources here?Google Scholar

19 Cf. Kulf, Eberhard, Untersuchungen zu Athenaios von Attaleia; Ein Beitrag zur antiken Diatetik (Diss. Gottingen, 1970), 118 to end.Google Scholar