Ancient Greek medicine was a compilation of theories and practices that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. The Greek term for medicine was iatrikē. Many components were considered in ancient Greek medicine, intertwining the spiritual with the physical. Specifically, the ancient Greeks believed health was affected by the humors, geographic location, social class, diet, trauma, beliefs, and mindset. Early on the ancient Greeks believed that illnesses were "divine punishments" and that healing was a "gift from the Gods". As trials continued wherein theories were tested against symptoms and results, the pure spiritual beliefs regarding "punishments" and "gifts" were replaced with a foundation based in the physical, i.e., cause and effect.
Physician treating a patient (Attic red-figure aryballos, 480–470 BC)
View of the Asklepieion of Kos, the best preserved instance of an Asclepieion
Surgical tools, 5th century BC. Reconstructions based on descriptions within the Hippocratic corpus. Thessaloniki Technology Museum.
Asclepius (center) arrives in Kos and is greeted by Hippocrates (left) and a citizen (right), mosaic from the Asclepieion of Kos, 2nd–3rd century AD
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, is a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
16th-century German illustration of the four humors: Flegmat (phlegm), Sanguin (blood), Coleric (yellow bile) and Melanc (black bile), divided between the male and female sexes
The four humors as depicted in an 18th-century woodcut: phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine and melancholic
