Throughout antiquity patients sought relief and healing from their afflictions in the sanctuaries of Asclepius, the God of healing. The Asclepian healing cult included sacrifices, ablutions and ...incubation. In their dreams, the patients received therapeutic instructions. But not only miraculous cures occurred in the Asclepieia, nor were these sacred sites the last refuge of the seriously ill. Using selected examples from the Roman Imperial Period, Florian Steger outlines the healthcare provided in the prominent Asclepian sanctuaries – Epidaurus and Pergamum in particular – and demonstrates that this healthcare was on a par with the contemporary medical culture. Ancient epigraphic healing reports and the patient journal of the celebrated orator Publius Aelius Aristides paint a vivid picture of the daily treatments. The medicine of Asclepius clearly formed an integral part of the Roman Empire's multifaceted healthcare market.
The aim of this book is to approach the manifestation and evolution of the idea of Rome as an expression of Roman patriotism and as an (urban) archetype of utopia in late Roman thought in a period ...extending from AD 357 to 417. Within this period of about a human lifetime, the concepts of Rome and Romanitas were reshaped and used for various ideological causes. This monograph is unfolding through a selection of sources that represent the patterns and diversity of this ideological process. The theme of Rome as a personified and anthropomorphic figure and as an epitomized notion ‘applied’ on the urban landscape of the city would become part of the identity of the Romans of Rome highlighting a sense of cultural uniqueness in comparison to the inhabitants of other cities. Towards the end of the chronological limits set in this thesis various versions of Romanitas would emerge indicating new physical and spiritual potentials.
The article firstly outlines attitudes toward abortion in the Greek pagan world. Against this background, a unique passage from Callirhoe, a Greek novel from the first century AD, is presented. It is ...the longest ancient text on the subject and the only one that presents the opinions of women (and perhaps is also authored by a woman). These women are Callirhoe, who was sold into slavery, and Plangon, another slave. The article includes a translation of Callirhoe 2.8–11 and discusses its message. The novel cites some justifications for abortion (the unfortunate fate of the prospective slave and his mother; avoiding an unwanted marriage), but speaks of a child, not a fetus. In the end, the protagonist describes abortion as unlawful and ungodly infanticide and states that both the child and its father would have voted for life. The life of the child is more important than the personal virtue of sophrosyne.
Murdoch examines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the futility of the denial of death as a literary theme in world poetry from antiquity to contemporary times. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice ...has memorable narrative elements: his exceptional skills as a singer, the conditional chance he is given, and his descent into the infernal regions. There is also an implicit tension, even though the audience of the retold myth knows that Orpheus will in fact turn and look back. At the base of the myth is the fact that no human effort, not even the skills of a singer who can otherwise charm nature itself, can bring someone back from the dead. The quite literal turning point is the breaking of the prohibition. Turning to look at Eurydice means that Orpheus must face the fact that his wife is dead. The moment of perception makes clear that what had gone before was a hopeless state of denial on his part. The myth is not a memento mori; that the death of every individual is inevitable hardly needs reinforcing. Rather it contextualizes that inevitability, pointing to the necessity for those still living in the world to come to terms with the loss of someone close, so that the theme is the acceptance of loss.
This volume focuses on the socio-spatial organisation of ancient cities, and more specifically on Late Republican and Imperial Italy. Referring to a praxeological and phenomenological perspective, it ...looks at neighbourhoods and city quarters as basic categories of design and experience.
The division of land and consolidation of territory that created the Greek polis also divided sacred from productive space, sharpened distinctions between purity and pollution, and created a ritual ...system premised on gender difference. Regional sanctuaries ameliorated competition between city-states, publicized the results of competitive rituals for males, and encouraged judicial alternatives to violence. Female ritual efforts, focused on reproduction and the health of the family, are less visible, but, as this provocative study shows, no less significant. Taking a fresh look at the epigraphical evidence for Greek ritual practice in the context of recent studies of landscape and political organization, Susan Guettel Cole illuminates the profoundly gendered nature of Greek cult practice and explains the connections between female rituals and the integrity of the community. In a rich integration of ancient sources and current theory, Cole brings together the complex evidence for Greek ritual practice. She discusses relevant medical and philosophical theories about the female body; considers Greek ideas about purity, pollution, and ritual purification; and examines the cult of Artemis in detail. Her nuanced study demonstrates the social contribution of women's rituals to the sustenance of the polis and the identity of its people.
The case for an unprecedented penetration of life mechanisms into the politics of Western modernity has been a cornerstone of 20th-century social theory. Working with and beyond Foucault, this ...article challenges established views about the history of biopower by focusing on ancient medical writings and practices of corporeal permeability. Through an analysis of three Roman institutions: a) bathing; b) urban architecture; and c) the military, it shows that technologies aimed at fostering and regulating life did exist in classical antiquity at the population scale. The article highlights zones of indistinction between natural and political processes, zoē and bíos, that are not captured by a view of destructive incorporation of or over life by sovereign power. In conclusion, the article discusses the theoretical potential of this historical evidence for contemporary debates on ‘affirmative biopolitics’ and ‘environmental biopower’.
