Society, Medicine and Religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides

Society, Medicine and Religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides
Author: Ido Israelowich
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2012-05-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004229442

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Aelius Aristides' Sacred Tales offer a unique opportunity to examine how an educated man of the Second Century CE came to terms with illness. The experiences portrayed in the Tales disclose an understanding of illness in both religious and medical terms. Aristides was a devout worshipper of Asclepius while at the same time being a patient of some of the most distinguished physicians of his day. This monograph offers a textual analysis of the Sacred Tales in the context of the so-called Second Sophistic; medicine and the medical use of dream interpretation; and religion, with particular emphasis on the cult of Asclepius and the visual means used to convey religious content.

Society, Medicine and Religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides

Society, Medicine and Religion in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides
Author: Ido Israelowich
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2012-05-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004229086

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This monograph offers a study of the inter-relations between medicine, religion, and literature in the Sacred Tales of the Second Century CE Greek scholar Aelius Aristides.

The Dreams and Visions of Aelius Aristides

The Dreams and Visions of Aelius Aristides
Author: John Stephens
Publisher: Gorgias PressLlc
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781463202323

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The second century CE Greco-Roman sophist Aelius Aristides was a member of the cult of Asclepius, a popular religious cult of the Hellenistic world. In his diary, the Sacred Tales, Aristides presents a first-person account of the multitude of nocturnal and waking dream-visions and miraculous healings that took place in his life while belonging to this cult. An examination of Aristides' religiosity, especially the accounts of the dream-visions and spiritual healings recorded in his dream diary, helps to shed light upon the spiritual environment of the Roman world in the first and second centuries CE. Furthermore, it may elucidate some of the reasons behind Christianity's appeal to the pagan masses, especially among the educated Roman upper classes to which Aristides belonged. Previous scholarly studies have sought to explain away Aristides' religious experiences described in the Sacred Tales in various ways, viewing the text as a rhetorical composition or the product of literary invention. Aristides has been labelled as "psychopathological" and the text as a creation of a deluded mind. However, the main premise of this book is that first and foremost, Aristides is an example of "homo religiosus" and that the Sacred Tales should be seen as a religious document. This approach highlights the religious dimension of the text. Rather than explain away Aristides' religious experiences, this book incorporates a variety of methodological approaches in order to identify and elucidate the many socio-historical and psychological factors affecting the nature of Aristides' religiosity and its symbolic articulation in textual form. Attention to the religious dimension of the text and an interdisciplinary perspective towards it reveals Aristides as less neurotic and eccentric as many have supposed him to be. In fact, Aristides is the "Not-So-Anxious Pagan."

Truly Beyond Wonders

Truly Beyond Wonders
Author: Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2010-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191614122

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In Truly Beyond Wonders Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis investigates texts and material evidence associated with healing pilgrimage in the Roman empire during the second century AD. Her focus is upon one particular pilgrim, the famous orator Aelius Aristides, whose Sacred Tales, his fascinating account of dream visions, gruelling physical treatments, and sacred journeys, has been largely misunderstood and marginalized. Petsalis-Diomidis rehabilitates this text by placing it within the material context of the sanctuary of Asklepios at Pergamon, where the author spent two years in search of healing. The architecture, votive offerings, and ritual rules which governed the behaviour of pilgrims are used to build a picture of the experience of pilgrimage to this sanctuary. Truly Beyond Wonders ranges broadly over discourses of the body and travel and in so doing explores the place of healing pilgrimage and religion in Graeco-Roman society and culture. It is generously illustrated with more than 80 drawinsg and photographs, and four colour plates.

Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire

Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire
Author: Ido Israelowich
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2015-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421416298

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A comprehensive study of both patients and healers in the High Roman Empire. Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire offers a fascinating holistic look at the practice of ancient Roman medicine. Ido Irsaelowich presents three richly detailed case studies—one focusing on the home and reproduction; another on the army; the last on medical tourism—from the point of view of those on both sides of the patient-healer divide. He explains in depth how people in the classical world became aware of their ailments, what they believed caused particular illnesses, and why they turned to certain healers—root cutters, gymnastic trainers, dream interpreters, pharmacologists, and priests—or sought medical care in specific places such as temples, bath houses, and city centers. The book brings to life the complex behavior and social status of all the actors involved in the medical marketplace. It also sheds new light on classical theories about sickness, the measures Romans undertook to tackle disease and improve public health, and personal expectations for and evaluations of various treatments. Ultimately, Israelowich concludes that this clamoring multitude of coexisting forms of health care actually shared a common language. Drawing on a diverse range of sources—including patient testimonies; the writings of physicians, historians, and poets; and official publications of the Roman state—Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire is a groundbreaking history of the culture of classical medicine.

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World
Author: Georgia Petridou
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2015-11-16
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9004305564

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Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World is a book about the patients of the Graeco-Roman world, their role in the ancient medical encounters and their relationship to the health providers and medical practitioners of their time. This volume makes a strong claim for the relevance of a patient-centred approach to the history of ancient medicine. Attention to the experience of patients deepens our understanding of ancient societies and their medical markets, and enriches our knowledge of the history of ancient cultures. It is a first step towards shaping a history of the ancient patient’s view, which will be of use not only to ancient historians, students of medical humanities, and historians of medicine, but also to any reader interested in medical ethics.

Bodily and Spiritual Hygiene in Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Bodily and Spiritual Hygiene in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Author: Albrecht Classen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 622
Release: 2017-03-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110523795

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While most people today take hygiene and medicine for granted, they both have had their own history. We can gain deep insights into the pre-modern world by studying its health-care system, its approaches to medicine, and concept of hygiene. Already the early Middle Ages witnessed great interest in bathing (hot and cold), swimming, and good personal hygiene. Medical activities grew over time, but even early medieval monks were already great experts in treating the sick. The contributions examine literary, medical, historical texts and images and probe the information we can glean from them. The interdisciplinary approach of this volume makes it possible to view this large field in a complex and diversified manner, taking into account both early medieval and early modern treatises on medicine, water, bathing, and health. Such a cultural-historical perspective creates a most valuable bridge connecting literary and scientific documents under the umbrella of the history of mentality and history of everyday life. The volume does not aim at idealizing the past, but it definitely intends to deconstruct modern myths about the 'dirty' and 'unhealthy' Middle Ages and early modern age.

Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity

Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity
Author: Helen Rhee
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2022-10-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 146746533X

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What did pain and illness mean to early Christians? And how did their approaches to health care compare to those of the ancient Greco-Roman world? In this wide-ranging interdisciplinary study, Helen Rhee examines how early Christians viewed illness, pain, and health care and how their perspective was influenced both by Judeo-Christian tradition and by the milieu of the larger ancient world. Throughout her analysis, Rhee places the history of medicine, Greco-Roman literature, and ancient philosophy in constructive dialogue with early Christian literature to elucidate early Christians’ understanding, appropriation, and reformulation of Roman and Byzantine conceptions of health and wholeness from the second through the sixth centuries CE. Utilizing the contemporary field of medical anthropology, Rhee engages illness, pain, and health care as sociocultural matters. Through this and other methodologies, she explores the theological meanings attributed to illness and pain; the religious status of those suffering from these and other afflictions; and the methods, systems, and rituals that Christian individuals, churches, and monasteries devised to care for those who suffered. Rhee’s findings ultimately provide an illuminating glimpse into how Christians began forming a distinct identity—both as part of and apart from their Greco-Roman world.

Studies in the Historical Jesus

Studies in the Historical Jesus
Author: Justin J. Meggitt
Publisher: Mutual Academic
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2023-08-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1916570070

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Studies in the Historical Jesus: Anarchy, Miracles, and Madness is a selection of key essays on the historical figure of Jesus published over the last fifteen years by Justin J. Meggitt. Each addresses a central question in the study of Jesus and his context, from the role of myth in the creation of traditions about him and the historicity of his miracles, to the problem of his politics and the reasons for his execution. The collection brings fresh perspectives and new data to bear on enduring debates, and demonstrates the value of "history from below" in making sense of the historical Jesus and the world that made him.