A Critique of Byzantine Medical Thought: Timarion's Satire

Year 2023, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 199 - 211, 26.06.2023

Neslihan Nom

https://doi.org/10.48120/oad.1252158

Abstract

Written in the 12th century, the anonymous satire Timarion criticises Byzantine medical practices and the medical theories of the Galenic tradition. Timarion, the protagonist of the story, loses his right to live according to the four-humours theory because he suffers several illnesses and loses his bile on his return from Thessaloniki to Constantinople and dies. When his soul arrives in Hades, Timarion is informed that he will have to appear in court, but with the defence of his rhetoric expert Sophist teacher, he proves that the liquid he expelled from his body was an excess liquid, not necessary and essential for life, and returns to life. The four-humours theory, which was the basis of the Hippocratic and Galenic traditions, was thus ridiculed.

Keywords

Timarion, Byzantine Medicine, Galen, Symeon Seth, Four Humours

Bizans Tıbbi Düşüncesinin Bir Eleştirisi: Timarion Hicvi

Abstract

12. yüzyılda yazıldığı tahmin edilen ve anonim bir hiciv olan Timarion metninde, Bizans tıbbi uygulamalarına ve izinde gidilen Galenci tıbbi geleneğin teorilerine ilişkin eleştiriler bulunur. Hikâyenin kahramanı Timarion, Selanik’ten Konstantinopolis’e dönüşü esnasında birkaç hastalık yaşayıp safrasını kaybettiği için dört sıvı kuramına göre yaşama hakkını kaybeder ve ölür. Ruhu Hades’e geldiğinde mahkemeye çıkacağının haberi gelen Timarion, orada karşılaştığı retorik uzmanı sofist hocasının savunmasıyla vücudundan attığı sıvının, yaşam için zorunlu ve gerekli olmayan aşırılaşmış bir sıvı olduğunu ispatlar, yaşama döner. Böylece Hippokrates ve Galen geleneğinin temeli olan dört sıvı kuramı alay konusu olur.

Keywords

Timarion, Bizans Tıbbı, Galenos, Symeon Seth, Dört sıvı kuramı

References

• Adams Francis, Seven Books: The Medical Works of Paulus Aegina Vol. I, The Sydenham Society, London, 1844-1847.
• Anonim, Timarion: Anonim Bir Bizans Hicvi, (Çev. Engin Öztürk), Urzeni Yayıncılık, İstanbul, 2020.
• Anonim, Timarion, (Çev. Barry Baldwin), Wayne State University, Detroit, 1984.
• Beaton Robert, “Cappadocians at Court: Diogenes and Timarion”, Alexios I Komnenos, (Ed. M. Mullett – D. Smythe) Belfast Byzantine Enterprises, Belfast, 1996, ss. 329-338.
• Betancourt Roland, Sight, Touch, and Imagination in Byzantium, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2018.
• Bourbou Chryssi, Health and Disease in Byzantine Crete (7th–12th centuries AD), Routledge, London&New York, 2016.
• Caseau Béatrice, ‘‘Byzantium’’, A Companion to Food in the Ancient World, (Ed. John Wilkins – Robin Nadeau), Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, 2015.
• Congourdeau Marie-Hélène, ‘‘La médecine byzantine: une réévaluation nécessaire’’, Revue du Praticien (La), 54, 2004, ss. 1733-1737.
• Dalby Andrew, Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire, I.B.Tauris, London&New York, 2010.
• Ekroth Gunnel – Nilsson Ingela, ‘‘Round Trip to Hades’’, Round trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean tradition: Visits to the underworld from antiquity to Byzantium, (Ed. Gunnel Ekroth –Ingela Nilsson), Brill, Leiden, 2018.
• Garland Lynda, “‘And His Bald Head Shone Like a Full Moon…’: An Appreciation of the Byzantine Sense of Humor as Recorded in the Historical Sources of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries” Parergon, 8, 1990, ss. 1-31.
• Gritzalis Konstantinos C., “Gout in the writings of eminent ancient Greek and Byzantine physicians.” Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica, 9, 2011, ss. 83-88.
• Hippokrates, Hippokrates Külliyatı, (Çev. Nur Nirven), Pinhan Yayınları, İstanbul, 2021.
• Galen, Method of Medicine II, (Çev. G.H.R. Horsley – I. Johnston), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2011.
• Jones W.H.S., Hippocrates IV (Loeb Classical Library), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1959.
• Jones W.H.S., Malaria and Greek History, Manchester University Press, Manscherster, 1909.
• Jacques Jouanne, Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers, Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2012.
• Kazhdan A.P., ‘‘The Image of the Medical Doctor in Byzantine Literature of the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries’’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 38, 1984, ss. 43-51.
• Kazhdan A.P.– Epstein Ann Wharton, Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, University of California Press, Berkeley&Los Angeles&London, 1985.
• Krallis Dimitris, ‘‘Harmless Satire, stinging critique: Notes and suggestions for Reading the Timarion’’ Power and Subversion in Byzantium, (Ed. Michael Saxby – Dimiter Angelov), ss. 230-36.
• Leven K.H., ‘‘Das Bild der byzantinischen Medizin in der Satire "Timarion"’’ Gesnerus : Swiss Journal of the history of medicine and sciences, 47, 1990, ss. 247-262.
• Menelou Iakovos, ‘‘Byzantine Satire: The Background In The Timarion’’, Hiperboreea Jouernal, 4, 2017, ss. 53-66.
• Miller Timothy S., ‘‘Tıbbi Düşünce ve Uygulama’’, Bizans’ın Entelektüel Tarihi, (Çev. Ercan Ertürk), (Ed Anthony Kaldellis – Niketas Siniossoglou), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, İstanbul, 2021.
• Nilsson Ingela, ‘‘It is Difficult Not to Write Satire: A Brief Introduction to the Satirical Mode’’, Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period: The Golden Age of Laughter?, (Ed. Przemysław Marciniak – Ingela Nilsson), Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2021.
• Nilsson Ingela, ‘‘Komnenian Literature’’ Byzantine Culture: Papers from the Conference ‘Byzantine days of Istanbul’ [İstanbul’un Doğu Roma Günleri] Held on the Occasion of Istanbul being European Cultural Capital 2010, Istanbul, May 21–23 2010. (Ed. D. Sakel), Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 2010, ss. 121- 131.
• Prioreschi Plinio, A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine, Horatius Press, Omaha, 1996.
• Retief François – Cilliers Louise, “Malaria in Graeco-Roman Times’’, Acta Classica, 47, 2004, ss. 127–37.
• Sajadi Mohammad – Bonabi Reza – Sajadi Mohamad – Reza M., Mackowiak Philip A., ‘‘Akhawaynī and the First Fever Curve’’, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 55, 2012, ss. 976–980.
• Salas Luis Alejandro, Cutting Words - Polemical Dimensions of Galen's Anatomical Experiments, Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2020.
• Sarton George, Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 2012.
• Scarborough John, ‘‘Symposium on Byzantine Medicine: Introduction’’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 38, 1984, ss. ix – xvi.
• Temkin Owsei, ‘‘Byzantine Medicine: Tradition and Empiricism’’, Dumbarton Oak Papers, 16, 1962, ss. 95-115.
• Temkin Owsei, Hippocrates in a World Pagans and Christians, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore&London, 1991.
• Touwaide Alain, ‘‘Medicine and Pharmacy’’, A Companion to Byzantine Science, (Ed. Stavros Lazaris), Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2020.
• Touwaide Alain, ‘‘Therapeutic Strategies: Drugs’’, Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, (Ed. M.D. Grmek – M. Fantini), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1998.
• Vallianatos Petros Bouras ve Xenophontos Sophia, ‘‘Galen’s Reception in Byzantium: Symeon Seth and his Refutation of Galenic Theories on Human Physiology’’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 55, 2015, ss. 431-469.
• Vallianatos Petros Bouras, ‘‘Galen in Byzantine Medical Literature’’, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Galen, (Ed. Petros Bouras-Vallianatos – Barbara Zipser), Routledge, Leiden&Boston, 2019.
• Vallianatos Petros Bouras, ‘‘Galen in Late Antique Medical Handbooks’’, Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Galen, (Ed. Petros Bouras-Vallianatos – Barbara Zipser) Routledge, Leiden&Boston, 2019.
• Vallianatos Petros Bouras, Innovation in Byzantine Medicine: The Writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275–c.1330), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020.
• Wilson Leonard G., ‘‘Fevers’’, Companion Encylopedia of The History of Medicine, (Ed. W. F. Bynum – Roy Porter), Routledge, London&New York, 1997.
• Yeo, In-Sok. ‘‘Hippocrates in the context of Galen: Galen’s commentary on the classification of fevers in Epidemics VI’’, Hippocrates in Context, (Ed. P.J. van der Eijk), Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2005.
• Zagklas Nikos, ‘‘Satire in the Komnenian Period: Poetry, Satirical Strands, and Intellectual Antagonism’’, Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period: The Golden Age of Laughter?, (Ed. Przemysław Marciniak – Ingela Nilsson), Brill, Leiden&Boston, 2021.