GALEN’S THERAPEUTIC METHOD

BOOK I

Ed. Chart. X. [4.]; Ed. Bas. IV. (36.)

...physicians, and sometimes even against all Greeks in general. This is the amazing audacity of the "most wise" Thessalus: he claims to have defeated all physicians, while acting as the contestant, the organizer of the games agonothete original: "ἀγωνοθέτην" (agonothetēn). In Ancient Greece, the official who presided over and judged athletic or musical contests., and the judge himself. Next, he challenged the other Greeks to a contest: the rhetoricians, geometers, grammarians, astronomers, and philosophers. Standing among them, and using the language of wool-workers original: "τῇ τῶν ἐριουργῶν ἑρμηνείᾳ" (tē tōn eriourgōn hermēneia). This is a recurring insult Galen uses to remind the reader that Thessalus’s father was a manual laborer who carded wool., he claims to be the first of all men.

He argues that medicine is the leader of all arts, and that he has defeated all other physicians. This is the only point Thessalus actually reasoned out correctly, though only by chance. If medicine is indeed the best of all arts, and if Thessalus holds the first place in it, then he would indeed be the first of all men. He would surpass Socrates, Lycurgus Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta., and all others whom the Pythian A title for the god Apollo, referring to his oracle at Delphi. praised as good men, or as wise, or as servants of the Muses, or as ministers of Jupiter original: "Διὸς" (Dios) / "Jovis". Galen refers to Zeus or Jupiter as the supreme deity., or as possessing some other quality dear to the gods.

Come then, let everyone sing hymns to Thessalus from now on. Let them write songs of victory, and let the world become a public theater. Let someone step forward and sing of him who...