The fifth book of the Hippocratic Aphorisms represents an important source for the history of ancient gynecology: exactly the half of this book (thirty-six of its seventy-two aphorisms) is concerned with gynecological problems. Some aphorisms (especially Aph. V 59, 62 and 63) deal with obstacles to pregnancy and sterility of women and/or men. The aim of this paper is to investigate how Galen understood and explained these aphorisms, whose interpretation covers a very long section of his Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms. In these pages of Galen’s Commentary, we find very interesting observations both on the medical content and on philological problems raised from the Hippocratic text. On the one hand, Galen explains female infertility according to his own theory of mixture (κρᾶσις) and refers to the figure of the midwife, as Plato described her in the Theaetetus, for diagnosing it. On the other hand, he has to deal with the inconsistency of Aph. V 63 on male sterility, the authenticity of which is questioned on account of some incoherencies Galen detects in the alleged Hippocratic text.

Galen on Infertility in the Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Book 5 / Ecca, Giulia. - In: I QUADERNI DEL RAMO D'ORO. - ISSN 2035-7524. - 12:(2020).

Galen on Infertility in the Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Book 5

Giulia Ecca
Primo
2020

Abstract

The fifth book of the Hippocratic Aphorisms represents an important source for the history of ancient gynecology: exactly the half of this book (thirty-six of its seventy-two aphorisms) is concerned with gynecological problems. Some aphorisms (especially Aph. V 59, 62 and 63) deal with obstacles to pregnancy and sterility of women and/or men. The aim of this paper is to investigate how Galen understood and explained these aphorisms, whose interpretation covers a very long section of his Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms. In these pages of Galen’s Commentary, we find very interesting observations both on the medical content and on philological problems raised from the Hippocratic text. On the one hand, Galen explains female infertility according to his own theory of mixture (κρᾶσις) and refers to the figure of the midwife, as Plato described her in the Theaetetus, for diagnosing it. On the other hand, he has to deal with the inconsistency of Aph. V 63 on male sterility, the authenticity of which is questioned on account of some incoherencies Galen detects in the alleged Hippocratic text.
2020
ancient gynaecology; Hippocrates; Galen
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Galen on Infertility in the Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Book 5 / Ecca, Giulia. - In: I QUADERNI DEL RAMO D'ORO. - ISSN 2035-7524. - 12:(2020).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1450784
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