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Evolving views of Ageing and Longevity from Homer to Hippocrates: Emergence of Natural Factors, Persistence of the Supernatural*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2010

CALEB ELLICOTT FINCH
CALEB ELLICOTT FINCH
Affiliation:
cefinch@usc.edu
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Extract

During the three centuries from Homer to Hippocrates, views of human ageing and longevity evolved in a socio-cultural sense, with relationships to Greek medicine and science. I, as a biomedical scientist, examine ancient literature for roots of the idea that life-course outcomes can be influenced by tangible ‘natural’ factors, whether these are environmental or the result of lifestyle. The concept that an individual has any choice in health and ageing departs radically from ancient, persistent beliefs in the primacy of the supernatural, that the gods could predestine one's life span by birth or could alter it at any time.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , October 2010 , pp. 355 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2010

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References

* I am grateful for comments from Stanley Burstein, Solomon Golomb, Paul Potter, William Race, William Thalmann, and Rosalind Thomas. Professors Burstein and Thalmann receive particular thanks for detailed critiques. The anonymous reviewer gave helpful suggestions on ancient demography. The editors gave generous encouragement to the ideas I was exploring, particularly in relation to the cultural and political developments of that era. Doris Finch, as always, gave helpful comments on style. Lastly, I acknowledge Ludwig Edelstein, the great Hippocratic scholar, with whom I was lucky enough to discuss ancient medicine in 1962 while a greenhorn graduate student at the Rockefeller University.