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Greek Body

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Human beings are aware and observational creatures. Once confronted with an issue, they often find a solution that relates to their observations and understandings of how something works. This technique commonly pertains to the practice of medicine. In ancient Greece, each observation about health of the body completely shaped the treatment of patients by physicians. Additionally, these ideas went into common practices used in the general maintenance of health. Each and every practice was based on beliefs about how the body worked, and each prescribed or suggested treatment was explained in relation to how the body worked. In ancient Greek, the body was considered to be a temple of the soul and intellect, therefore, care of the body was …show more content…

One such contributor to these ideas was the philosopher Plato. His opinions were clearly stated in the Timaeus, which described his personal ideas about bodily functions. Plato first described the thought that the gods put into the creation of the body, and delineated the various parts of the body, explaining how every part was specifically placed by the gods. For example the head, he described as “the most divine part of us and lord of all that is in us.” This described the astute observation that the brain was located in the head, and further indicated the knowledge that the brain controlled the body. The rest of the body is similarly explained, each body part, such as the neck and heart, and each individual part has a specific reason for its placement. He further showed his personal understanding of the body through the explanation of bodily …show more content…

Therefore, Plato encouraged the maintenance of one’s diet in order to retain health and wellbeing. This interest in maintaining health directly showed that the Greeks were interested in being healthy. This connected to the idea that the male body was considered beautiful in Greek culture, as seen through Greek statues exemplifying the perfect form. This perfect form could only be attained through the maintenance of health, and so the intricate details about achieving a state of health are realistic and understandable. Due to the fact that this belief was commonplace, there were many opinions on how one could achieve a state of

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