The Healing Classics

What potential relevance does the experience of Graeco-Roman Antiquity have to the vastly expanding field of the Medical Humanities and its contribution to ‘humanizing’ contemporary medicine and healthcare? And again, how can the insights from the relatively young Medical Humanities enhance our understanding of the ancient Greek and Roman past, a past often still surprisingly relevant today?

In an attempt to critically and creatively approach these two complementary questions, the central aim of this book is to promote a constructive dialogue between the disciplines of the Classics (Classical Studies), on the one hand, and the broadly defined Medical Humanities (or Health Humanities), on the other. Much of the effort of the contributions gathered in this volume goes to putting past and present into conversation, in order to discover continuities and contrasts with present-day perspectives while looking for the contemporary relevance and meaning of the ancient materials.