From words to acts? on the applicability of hippocratic therapy

The question ‘From words to acts?&', which provided the title for the conference from which this volume has arisen, immediately raises issues related to the applicability of medical treatment as transmitted in ancient texts, and it is to this topic that I shall turn my attention in this contribution. More concretely, I shall focus on the transition from words to acts in the domain of therapeutics by examining the relationship between text and extra-textual applicability in therapeutic instructions. In other words, I shall try to establish to what extent the therapeutic instructions included in some of the Hippocratic treatises ‘speak for themselves&', that is, whether they could be interpreted and followed by readers, and whether there is evidence that hints at specialized knowledge shared by writers and targeted readers. There has been much scholarly discussion on the prejudices regarding readers&’ abilities to understand particular types of text because of their grade of specialization; on the one hand, the capability of laymen to understand and ultimately make use of medical texts has been questioned; on the other, their major role as participants in medical debates, guardians of their own health, and ultimately patients with a deep interest in and understanding of medicine has been repeatedly shown. It is in the domain of therapy that medical texts better show their degree of applicability. The ultimate role of the physician lies in treating the patient for his or her condition so as to recover health. To express the general idea of applying a medical treatment, a wide range of Greek words is used in the Hippocratic treatises. Their different nuances and origins eventually show up in the general conception of the medical treatment shared by the Hippocratic doctors and above all in how this treatment was in practice carried out. Erotian divided the Hippocratic writings into five different categories based on content and purpose, and it is under therapeutics that the examples listed are the most numerous; it is noteworthy that half of the forty or so books that Erotian attributes to Hippocrates fall under this heading. Further, within therapeutics Erotian distinguished between surgery and dietetics, under which, among others, the books on diseases and on gynaecology are listed.