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Understanding Of Health During Ancient Greece

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Understanding of health In Ancient Greece

The ideas regarding health and how to stay healthy in the ancient Greek time is completely different from the ideas we have now. Their theories of health and how to keep the body healthy is based off of their physical observations done by the five senses and their understanding of homeostasis as well as the philosophy of their religion which applies to their knowledge of anatomy. Having balance of the internal and external elements of the human body is believed to be imperative for maintaining one’s well-being and that is why it is the main focus in health in ancient Greece. Advice given to physicians at this time were also based off the idea that opposites heal, the balance of internal and external elements, and physical observation being the basis of diagnoses.
To understand the thought process the ancient Greeks had on health you must look at how their religion is made to make sense with human anatomy. In the image “Physician examining a patient while Asclepius observes” depicts the view Greeks have on physician diagnosis. Asclepius is observing the physician to see if he makes a mistake which means every diagnosis made by a physician is also backed by the god of health. Plato writes “First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us: to this the

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