Medicine and hygiene in the works of Flavius Josephus / / by Samuel S. Kottek.

• Superior document: Studies in ancient medicine, v. 9
• Author: Kottek, Samuel S.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden [Netherlands] ;, New York : : E.J. Brill,, 1994.
• Year of Publication: 1994
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Ancient Medicine 9.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xii, 217 pages).

This volume deals with the medical and paramedical topics, compiled from the works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived in the first century C.E. in Judea, and later in Rome. The study of medicine from ancient Jewish sources has focused on the Bible and the Talmud, the content of which is primarily theological and cultural. The present work reveals two main trends. Josephus' paraphrase of the Biblical narrative introduced a number of additions and/or discrepancies which bear on medicine. Moreover, his account of the Jewish War and of contemporary political events includes many details related to medicine and hygiene. This book deals with physicians and healers, diseases and epidemics, with surgery, psychiatry and psychology, and with therapeutics. The work concludes with a discussion of medical metaphors and with a sequence of detailed treatments of topics including suicide, the Essenes and King Herod. It throws light on an aspect of Josephus studies which has rarely been considered till now.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Josephus, the man and the scholar -- Physicians and Healing Personnel -- Diseases and Epidemics -- Hygiene and Public Health -- War Injuries and Traumatology -- Psychiatry and Psychology -- Therapeutics and Materia Medica -- Medical Metaphors -- Epidemics in Ancient Lore: from Thucydides to Josephus -- Hygiene and Healing among the Essenes: the testimony of Josephus -- Josephus on Suicide -- King Herod’s Disease(s) -- Josephus the Physician: A Medieval Legend -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Studies in Ancient Medicine.