Aphorisms Of Ancient Greeks

Back in the early 5th/4th c. BCE the Ancient Greeks were not blessed with the technology and information we have today. They are the reason we have so much of what we have because they can be looked at the original foundation that we evolved to the technology we have now. Looking back they were in charge of their own destiny by having to figure everything out by themselves and one the most difficult areas to have a strong hold on was the way diseases work as well as medicine. Some Greeks believed that the gods gave the powers of healing while others believed it was in nature. For example, some Greeks believed that climate and the weather had an effect on the human body. This is where people started to turn to seasons as a way to categorize

For example, he says that “in winter and spring, stomachs are warm and sleep longest. Accordingly, more food should be given in these seasons” (Aphorisms 15). He is able to prove this theory because it is usually seen in young men and athletes. The reasoning behind giving more food is because it is believed that the body will produce more warmth which will result in it having to be nourished more often. Another idea that the author of this writing states is that during more rainy periods there was a wide spread of more diseases like fevers, gangrene, and epilepsy. The diseases that come about during rainy periods are more likely to be fatal. The early Greeks were able to even pin point what diseases were more common during a season. For example, it is stated that “madness, melancholy, epilepsy, haemorrhages, sore throats, catarrh, hoarseness, coughs, leprosy, vitiligo, ulcerative eruptions, tumours and arthritis” (Aphorisms 20) was very common in the spring. During every season all diseases are present but there are some that will be more common than others depending on what particular season it

Rather he goes into great depth about the different seasons and what you can expect from them. For example, in the summer bile is at its high point because during this season people are very likely to vomit. Also, during the summer people phlegm is not as common and could be look at it being at its low point. The reason it is not so common is because the air during the summer days are much dryer than the other seasons. The amount of phlegm will increase during the winter because of the coldness. For example, “people spit and blow from their noses the most phlegmatic mucus in winter; swellings become white especially at that season and other diseases show phlegmatic signs” (The Nature of Man 7). Overall the main belief is that the disease that is most common in the winter should be less common in the summer and anything that is more common in the summer will be less common during the winter. This idea goes for every season where a more common disease in one season will not be as common in another. Another example is the increase and decrease of blood. All the bodily fluids, blood, phlegm, and bile will vary in the amounts depending on what season it is. It is said later in the text that “giving the same man the same emetic at four different times in the year; his vomit will be most phlegmatic in winter, most wet in spring, most bilious in summer and darkest in autumn”