Body and Machine in Classical Antiquity

This innovative and wide-ranging volume is the first systematic exploration of the multifaceted relationship between human bodies and machines in classical antiquity. It examines the conception of the body and bodily processes in mechanical terms in ancient medical writings, and looks into how artificial bodies and automata were equally configured in human terms; it also investigates how this knowledge applied to the treatment of the disabled and the diseased in the ancient world. The volume examines the pre-history of what develops, at a later stage, and more specifically during the early modern period, into the full science of iatromechanics in the context of which the human body was treated as a machine and medical treatments were devised accordingly. The volume facilitates future dialogue between scholars working on different areas, from classics, history and archaeology to history of science, philosophy and technology.

Product details

• Authors: Maria Gerolemou, Maria (Center for Hellenic Studies Gerolemou, George Kazantzidis
• Assisted by: Maria Gerolemou (Editor), Maria (Center for Hellenic Studies Gerolemou (Editor), George Kazantzidis (Editor), George (University of Patras Kazantzidis (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2023
• EAN: 9781316514665
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51466-5
• No. of pages: 348
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 236 mm x 22 mm
• Series: Print on demand
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; Non-fiction book; HISTORY / Ancient / Rome, Ancient Greece, MEDICAL / History, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, History of Medicine, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500