Health in Antiquity

'Baths, wine and sex can harm the body; but it is these things that make life worth living.'

A tomb inscription found in a tomb of the 2nd century CE at Ephesus. The man buried in this tomb was called 'Tiberius Claudius Secundus'.

A very famous doctor named 'Galen' lived in the same period as this 'hedonist' (one who knows how to savour life). Doctor Galen lived in Pergamon, which in Turkish we call 'Bergama', a town north of İzmir. He was doctor to the Roman emperors, because he lived both in Bergama and in Rome. He was at the same time a philosopher, a surgeon, a pharmacist and a biologist.

He himself said: 'To understand something, one must stand on two feet. One is the "logos", which means Reason. The other is Experience. Without reason and without experience you cannot find what is right,' he always said. He also added: 'To have good health, man must take responsibility for his own body. Knowing what one is eating and not going to excess, doing gymnastics, drinking water, breathing clean air and sleeping well are the primary things for health.'

Again according to this doctor, the health of the soul should be part of the health of the body. A happy coincidence is that the Asklepion, the hospital dedicated to the god Asklepios, is in Pergamon, where Galen lived. This hospital dealt with illnesses of the soul in general. The daughter of this god was called 'Hygieia' and was responsible for cleanliness, or hygiene. So washing in clean water was a way of respecting this goddess. In the traditions of Anatolia there is a doctor called 'Lokman Hekim', a doctor with almost the same figure as Asklepios. He knew all the herbs for making cures, came to the side of the sick to give them the medicines they needed, and had a thousand pieces of advice so that a person could have a body full of health and live many years.

The first president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, said: 'A sound mind is found on a sound body.' I believe that in Galen's time they thought the same way.