Doctors, Oracles, Patients, and Prophets: Understanding Medical Dream Interpretation Through Tragic Prophecy in Ancient Greece Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

This thesis examines the ancient Greek practice of medical dream interpretation. It argues that ancient Greek doctors, including those in the Hippocratic tradition, commonly used dreams to aid in healing. Evidence for this has been overlooked by modern scholars who have focused on the elements of Hippocratic medicine that they see as "rational," by which they mean most resembling modern science and medicine. The thesis begins with an examination of a relatively understudied text in the Hippocratic Corpus, On Dreams or Regimen IV, and its acknowledgement of the role of the divine in disease and healing. I argue that this acknowledgment of the divine subverts the idea that Hippocratic doctors were atheists and that previous arguments regarding the lack of religious belief held by the Hippocratic authors is due to a misreading of important texts within the Corpus combined with the goal of making Hippocratic medicine rational from a modern perspective. I also address the religious side of medical dream interpretation through an analysis of Asclepion temple healing. This thesis further seeks to understand the rationale underlying the practice of ancient dream interpretation in both Hippocratic and Asclepian settings by examining the way prophecy functions in fifth-century Greek tragedy, the period in which the historical Hippocrates was growing up and first practicing and writing about medicine and in which Asclepion temple healing entered Athens. Using selections from Aeschylus' Oresteia and Sophocles' Oedipus Cycle, it shows how tragic prophecy provides a model through which modern scholars can better understand the ancient Greek comprehension of medical dream interpretation practices and the roles of doctors and patients within the practice.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Sources, Scholarly Habits, and the Quest for the Emic 1

Chapter I: Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Corpus 6

1.1 The Hippocratic Corpus and its Authors 6

1.2 Hippocrates 7

1.3 Dating and Attribution of the Hippocratic Corpus 8

1.4 Conclusion 11

Chapter II: The Hippocratic Regimen IV 12

2.1 Regimen IV: On Dreams 12

2.2 Understanding Hippocratic Methodology 14

2.3 Regimen IV’s Religious Instruction 16

2.4 Hippocratic Doctors and the Divine 18

2.5 Returning to Regimen IV 21

2.6 Conclusion 21

Chapter III: Asclepius, Apollo, and Incubation Practices 22

3.1 An Introduction to Temple Healing 22

3.2 Incubation in the Ancient World 23

3.3 Incubation Revised 24

3.4 Asclepius, Hippocrates, and the Island of Kos 25

3.5 Classical Greece 28

3.6 The Problem of Evidence 29

3.7 Conclusion 31

Chapter IV: Tragic Prophecy as a Lens for Understanding Medical Dream Interpretation 31

4.1 Apollo and Asclepius 31

4.2 Apollo, Themis, and The Muses 34

4.3 Asclepius and the Muses 35

4.4 Medical Imagery in Tragedy 36

4.5 Oberhelman The Interpretation of Prescriptive Dreams in Ancient Greek Medicine (1981) 39

4.6 Conclusion 42

Chapter V: Prophecy in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 43

5.1 Aeschylus’ Oresteia 43

5.2 Revenge and Metaphorical Sickness 44

5.3 The Agamemnon: Cassandra 45

5.4 Finding Meaning in Cassandra’s Prophecies 52

5.5 The Choephoroe: Clytemnestra’s Dream 52

5.6 The Choephoroe: Orestes and Apollo 55

5.7 Finding Meaning in Orestes’ Prophecy 57

5.8 The Eumenides: Apollo, Orestes, and Themis 58

5.9 Conclusion 60

Chapter VI: Prophecy in Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle 60

6.1 Sophocles’ Oedipus Cycle 60

6.2 Sophocles and Medicine 61

6.3 Antigone 63

6.4 The Prologos of the Oedipus Tyrannus 65

6.5 Tiresias and Apollo: Prophecy in the Oedipus Tyrannus 68

6.6 Oedipus at Colonus 73

6.7 The Implications of Prophecy Gone Wrong in the Oedipus Cycle 75

6.8 Conclusion 77

Conclusion: Reading the Relationship Between Doctors, Oracles, Patients, and Prophets 78

Texts, References, and Commentaries 84

Works Cited 87

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Classics
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Anthropology, Medical and Forensic History of Science Classical Studies
关键词	Regimen IV The Oresteia Classical Greece Asclepius Incubation Hippocratic Corpus Tragedy Greek Tragedy Ancient Medicine Tragic Prophecy Sophocles Asclepian Temple Healing The Oedipus Cycle Aeschylus Hippocrates Medical Dream Interpretation
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Louise Pratt, Emory University
Committee Members	Sandra Blakely, Emory University Garrett Waters, Emory University

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