Galen was born in 130 AD in Pergamon near the Agaedian cost of what is today Turkey.
Also known as Bergama , It was an important centre due to its wonderful monuments of the First Age, its strategic position of the Medieval Age besides it was a centre of a big Kingdom, Karesio_ullar_ and lastly Ottoman Empire.
The city walls around Bergama date back to the 7th century BCE.
As a archaeological site it is visited today for the Acropolis, The Athena Temple, The Library, The Palaces, The Arsenals, Trajaneum, The Theatre, The Dionysus Temple, The Zeus Altar, The Agora, The Gymnasiums, Asklepion, The Serapys Temple, and The Bergama Mudeum.
Galen’s father was apparently a man of wide education and great understanding. He guided his son’s education, at first towards philosophical studies until at the age of 17 Galen moved towards medicine due to a dream in which Asclepius the Greek God of healing occurred to his father . Galen devoted himself to anatomical studies at first at the sanctuary of Asclepius. After the death of his father he moved to Smyrna and further to Alexandria. After his return to Pergamon he was appointed as the physician to the gladiators, where he gained significant practical knowledge.
Experimenting on dead and living bodies provided him with a great deal of rational knowledge. He performed extensive dissections and vivisections on animals, and encouraged his students to continue using this method of investigation. He discovered that the arteries are filled with oxygenated blood , believing that it was produced in the liver and passing through the heart for breathing air. The vital spirit , which was called pneuma and which provided lifelines was seen to function through this process. Moreover he investigated the internal organs , the muscles and spinal court , the functioning of the urinary system and other mechanical functions of the living bodies.
However fundamental to Galen’s knowledge ,was the so called Hippocratic medicine, referring to Hippocrates of Cos born ca. 400 BC. He is often called the father of medicine for a set of principles a physician should follow, the Hippocratic Oath. These principles are partly still providing the work ethics for physicians today. The major works on medicine which provided Galen’s theoretical background were the 70 books of the Hippocratic corpus. These works are assumed to have been composed between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, attributed to Hippocrates but written by various unknown authors.
The prevailing medical concepts is known as humoralism. The underlying theory considered health resulting from an equilibrium of elemental substances or humors found in the human body. This sound balance had to be determined individually and under consideration of various factors including age, environment, psychological condition and others. Consequently, Illness occurred when the equilibrium was disturbed . In brief, health and illness were subject to the interrelation of natural circumstances and the dynamics of an individuals overall make up. Humoralism was practised up to the 19th century in Europe and is still practised in some non European cultures and within alternative approaches to medicine. Although this theory is originally rooted in presocratic philosophy , it was due to Galen’s studies, experiments and bedside practices, which enabled him to investigate its rational practicability and compile the most complete version of it within the Greek tradition.
The theory of the four humours based on four elemental substances and their qualities is of great complexity in terms of explaining the making and functioning of nature in general and human health in particular. It contains a completely holistic perspective for instance in terms of relating elemental causes to featured effects. The most profane or obvious remains of this theory are still found in describing the four basic temperaments, Phlegmatic, Sanguine, Choleric and Melancholic.
Personality Styles Researchers in the early 1900’s took up the idea of four prevailing temperaments and implied it in modern research methods. Prominent psychotherapists such as Carl Jung, Ernst Kretschmer, Erich Fromm, Erich Adickes and Eduard Spranger each worked on systems of classifying types of personalities according to certain dominant behaviours and the history of human temperaments.
It was only due to the Arabic translations of Galen’s texts that the humoral tradition survived. With the contributions of Arabic speaking physicians it was expanded by experiences, various streams of thoughts and additional knowledge on medicine from surrounding traditions. This modified form however did not eliminate its roots, and continued to refer to Galen and Hippocrates as the great masters of the concept.
Humoralism was brought back to Europe and was the dominant medical theory of the medieval period and still during the Renaissance. As much as being an approved medical tradition it shaped a certain view on the coherence of humans unconsciousness, their physical and environmental conditions.
The Nun’s Priest’s tale of Chaucer is an excellent example for the penetration of humoralism into common knowledge reflected in literature.Various methods incorporated in this tradition include herbalism, dietetics,
astronomy and astrology. As environmental and psychological conditions played a significant role in determining the right remedy and its timing, the interplay with extraterrestical bodies was not excluded. In fact Astronomy or astrology stood next to meteorology as for affecting a persons internal and physical equilibrium in terms of humors. Compatible principles of relating the four elements and qualities to the basic make-up of nature , were used for the interpretation of astronomical observations. The relation between the astronomical constellations at the time of a person’s birth for instance or at the beginning of an illness and the actual development of that persons temperament or the state of illness respectively were already used by Galen himself to assist diagnosis and cure.
