The art is long : : on the sacred disease and the scientific tradition / / by Julie Laskaris.

• Superior document: Studies in ancient medicine, v. 25
• Author: Laskaris, Julie.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2002.
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Ancient Medicine 25.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (viii, 171 pages) :; illustrations

This volume examines the fifth-century medical treatise, On the Sacred Disease , as a sophistic speech, and considers its position within the scientific tradition. The first part concerns conceptions of science, magic, and medicine; and establishes the antiquity of medicine as a specialized skill. The latter part analyzes the treatise in light of sophistic oratory, and explores its reception of traditional beliefs. This analysis shows that traditional beliefs, competition, and rhetoric contributed to the intellectual tradition of science. Traditional views are shown to have influenced ideas concerning physiology, and disease aetiology and transmission, Competition, expressed in the terms of sophistic debate, sharpened the author's arguments. On the Sacred Disease is important evidence for the influence on fifth-century medicine of both sophistic rhetoric and of older medical traditions.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- The Art is Long -- On the Sacred Disease-Summary, History and Reception -- On the Sacred Disease-A Sophistic Protreptic Speech -- Getting Their Goat -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- General Index -- Index Locorum -- Studies in Ancient Medicine.