Abstract
Prehistoric Hellenic civilizations like many other civilizations believed in gods and thought they had influence on the everyday life of the people. During the Bronze Ages the explanations of illness and health problems were based on mythological, divine, or religious (i.e., theocratic) reasoning or explanations. However, during the Classical and the Hellenistic periods, the Greeks clearly differentiated their thinking from all other civilizations by inventing philosophy and empirical science. Drains/sewers, baths and toilets and other sanitary installations reflect the high cultural and technological level of the period; they are also associated with hygienic and medical studies and practical applications. At that time, medicine was mainly based on clinical observations and scientific investigations. Prior to that time, in the Bronze Age, medicine was entirely confined to religious rituals and beliefs. In ancient Greece, medicine was practiced in Asclepieia (or Asklepieia), which were healing sanctuaries which also functioned as medical schools and hospitals. In the Classical Greece period, more than 400 Asclepieia were operating offering their medical services. The basic elements of each Asclepieia included a clean source of water and related infrastructure. At that time Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and his successors wrote a large number of medical texts in which the crucial role of water and sanitation is documented. They also identified numerous medical terms, many of which remain in use today. The Hippocratic treatises also contributed to the scientific evolution which occurred in later centuries, because they sought to explain the causes of observed natural phenomena in a deterministic way rather than on theocratic explanations in use at the time. In this paper, the evolution of hygiene, focusing on water use in ancient Greece is examined.
Highlights
Prehistoric Hellenic civilizations like many other civilizations believed in gods and thought they had influence on the everyday life of the people
The roots of modern medicine and the evolution of sanitation in the Hellenic world can be traced to Classical Greece
In the Minoan Era there is no indication that Minoans were aware of the causes of human illness
Summary
The earliest known permanent settlements, which can be classified as urban, occurred in the early Bronze Age in Minoan Crete about the 3rd millennium BC. Classical Greeks were the first known philosophical thinkers and medical writers which recognized the importance of water for the human health and hygiene [2] (Vuorinen et al 2007). The principal objective of this paper is to trace the birth and application of hygienic themes in the Hellenic world, through existing written historical sources of various types and through the numerous relevant archeological remnants. Another objective of this paper is to identify what brought about the change from a theocratic (i.e., mythological, divine, or religious) approach to the scientific one. Historical understanding may provide interdisciplinary lessons from past triumphs and failures of mankind’s empirical knowledge of multiple centuries
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