Greek Medicine And Greek Medicine
The greeks may have laid the basis for a lot of things in the common era, but one thing they did differently was their medicine. They first believed that disease was caused by demons and that Asclepius could cure diseases(quatr). So the doctors thought that they could cure patients through sacrifice and prayer(quatr). They would model the diseased body parts so they could be offered to Asclepius. However, by the 5th century B.C.E. doctors started trying a more material approach, they started using medicine. Greek medicine is based on Medicatrix Naturae which means that mother was a healing goddess and all cures to disease could be found in nature. When the greeks took this material approach, they started with herbs that could cure anything from a knee pain to a fever. Then came Hippocrates, known a the father of medicine, he is called this because of his Hippocratic approach. After his time, Greek medicine wasn’t as pure as it use to be. It started to become toxic and dangerous. The Greeks have used herbs from the beginning to cure the simplest things. Ever since the beginning of humanity, we have been using medicine to cure diseases.
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Instead of the Greeks preferring to build a natural resistance to disease, they went to more powerful medicine. They basically did what we are doing now, looking for more potent medicine, like opiates and herbs like Henbane and Belladonna. This led to the use of harsh inorganic medicine, mineral drugs, and toxic mercury preparations like calomel. Something the Greeks also used, was status enhancing drugs, or steroids. These would be used in the Olympics, but aren’t as bad as today. Some would eat animal testicles. Some would gorge themselves on meat for days to perform better. If these 2 things didn’t work people would drink wine potions, go to herbal medicine, use hallucinogens and eat animal hearts. All in all, the Greeks did do some pretty nasty
Instead of the Greeks preferring to build a natural resistance to disease, they went to more powerful medicine. They basically did what we are doing now, looking for more potent medicine, like opiates and herbs like Henbane and Belladonna. This led to the use of harsh inorganic medicine, mineral drugs, and toxic mercury preparations like calomel. Something the Greeks also used, was status enhancing drugs, or steroids. These would be used in the Olympics, but aren’t as bad as today. Some would eat animal testicles. Some would gorge themselves on meat for days to perform better. If these 2 things didn’t work people would drink wine potions, go to herbal medicine, use hallucinogens and eat animal hearts. All in all, the Greeks did do some pretty nasty