Medical Fraternity: Initiations in the Hippocratic Corpus.
By the end of the fifth century, Hippocratic physicians were organised in a family-like association, which acted according to formal statutes, recorded in the Oath, the Law, and other deontological texts. The Hippocratics were required to adhere to strict norms of ritual and moral purity, allowing t...
| Published in: | Scripta Classica Israelica Vol. 43; pp. 55 - 87 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Israeli Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies
2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=182103794&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 182103794 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 03344509 JDEY jtl: Scripta Classica Israelica issn: 03344509 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2024 vid: 43 pid: 97168 pub: Israeli Society for the Promotion of Classical Studies artinfo: ui: 182103794 10.71043/sci.v43i.10111 ppf: 55 ppct: 32 formats: tig: atl: Medical Fraternity: Initiations in the Hippocratic Corpus. aug: au: Ustinova, Yulia affil: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev su: Physicians' oaths Medical ethics Esotericism Oral tradition Greece sug: subj: Greece Physicians' oaths Medical ethics Esotericism Oral tradition keyword: Ancient Greek medicine ancient physicians association clan Eleatics Hippocratic Corpus Hippocratics initiations knowledge transmission Pythagoreans ab: By the end of the fifth century, Hippocratic physicians were organised in a family-like association, which acted according to formal statutes, recorded in the Oath, the Law, and other deontological texts. The Hippocratics were required to adhere to strict norms of ritual and moral purity, allowing the members of the association to regard themselves as holy men, pure and pious. Medical transmission included written texts, practical instruction, and oral tradition, presumably of esoteric knowledge prohibited to the uninitiated. A Hippocratic physician probably had to undergo rites of passage on two occasions. The first initiation was performed when he began his studies as a boy or adolescent; the second followed after years of apprenticeship and formally signified his becoming a physician. The combination of a two-stage initiation into esoteric wisdom, quasi-familial ties between the master and his disciples, and the emphasis on healing as a lofty vocation was characteristic of the associations of philosophers and healers in Magna Graecia. It is possible that the Hippocratics adopted some of their practices, particularly the elements of initiation rituals, and combined them with the norms and ceremonies of the Asclepiad clans of Cos and Cnidus. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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