Medicine and Paradoxography in the Ancient World (Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes) (Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, 81)

The present volume offers a systematic discussion of the complex relationship between medicine and paradoxography in the ancient world. For a long time, the relationship between the two has been assumed to be virtually non-existent. Paradoxography is concerned with disclosing a world full of marvels and wondrous occurrences without providing an answer as to how these phenomena can be explained. Its main aim is to astonish and leave its readers bewildered and confused. By contrast, medicine is committed to the rational explanation of human __phusis__, which makes it, in a number of significant ways, incompatible with __thauma__. This volume moves beyond the binary opposition between ‘rational’ and ‘non-rational’ modes of thinking, by focusing on instances in which the paradox is construed with direct reference to established medical sources and beliefs or, inversely, on cases in which medical discourse allows space for wonder and admiration. Its aim is to show that __thauma__, rather than present a barrier, functions as a concept which effectively allows for the dialogue between medicine and paradoxography in the ancient world. Preface 5 Contents 7 Introduction: Medicine and Paradoxography in Dialogue 9 Technological Wonder in Herodotus’ Histories 49 Paradoxography and the pseudo- Aristotelian Problemata 61 In the Realm of the Two-Headed Snake 81 Wondrous Healings in Greek Epigrams (and Their Parodic Counterparts) 103 Beyond the Limits of the Human Body 125 Phlegon’s Paradoxical Physiology 149 Galen’s Language of Wonder 171 Literary Remedies and Rhetorical Prescriptions in Aelius Aristides 191 Unknowable Questions and Paradoxography in ps.–Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Medical Puzzles and Natural Problems 207 List of Contributors 223 Index Rerum et Nominum 225 Index Locorum 229