IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB668870250

Neuroscience and Greek Mythology (2019)

Karakis, Ioannis (Author)

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Volume: 28
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-22

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2018.1522049

DOI: 10.1080/0964704X.2018.1522049

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Psychiatry Neurology Clinical medicine Medicine and culture Neurological diseases Nervous system Etymologies Western world, civilization and culture Mythology Neurosciences Modern Ancient Greece

This article highlights the major reflections of ancient Greek mythology in modern neuroscience. An analysis of ancient Greek texts and medical literature using the MeSH term mythology was performed to identify mythological references pertaining to neuroscience. The findings are discussed in relation to etymology, early conceptualization of the nervous system structure and function, incipient characterization of neuropsychiatric disease, and philosophical stance to the practice of medicine in ancient Greece. The search identified numerous observations in clinical neurology (e.g., stroke, epilepsy, cognitive and movement disorders, sleep, pain and neuromuscular medicine, neuroinfectious diseases, headache, neuroophthalmology, and neurourology), neurosurgery, and psychiatry, as well as basic neurosciences (e.g., anatomy, embryology, genetics, pathology, and pharmacology) concealed in ancient myths. Beyond mere etymological allure and imaginative reflections in science, these fables envisage philosophical concepts that still tantalize our protean medical practice today.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB668870250/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Wu, Yu-chuan; Teng, Hui-wen; (2004)
Tropics, Neurasthenia, and Japanese Colonizers: The Psychiatric Discourses in Late Colonial Taiwan (/isis/citation/CBB000530104/)

Book Jacyna, L. S.; Casper, Stephen T.; (2012)
The Neurological Patient in History (/isis/citation/CBB001212567/)

Book Rogers, Brett M.; Stevens, Benjamin Eldon; (2015)
Classical Traditions in Science Fiction (/isis/citation/CBB001422703/)

Chapter Saito, Ken; Sidoli, Nathan; (2012)
Diagrams and Arguments in Ancient Greek Mathematics: Lessons Drawn from Comparisons of the Manuscript Diagrams with Those in Modern Critical Editions (/isis/citation/CBB001320140/)

Book H. Floris Cohen; (2015)
The Rise of Modern Science Explained: A Comparative History (/isis/citation/CBB557444466/)

Book Hanegraaff, Wouter J.; (2012)
Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture (/isis/citation/CBB001201630/)

Article Binder, Devin K.; Rajneesh, Kiran F.; Lee, Darrin J.; Reynolds, Edward H.; (2011)
Robert Bentley Todd's Contribution to Cell Theory and the Neuron Doctrine (/isis/citation/CBB001034912/)

Article Andrew J. Waclawik; Douglas J. Lanska; (2019)
Antecedents, Development, Adoption, and Application of Duchenne’s Trocar for Histopathologic Studies of Neuromuscular Disorders in the Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB109145764/)

Article Chiara Thumiger; (2018)
A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought (/isis/citation/CBB530655622/)

Book Finger, Stanley; Boller, François; Tyler, Kenneth L.; (2010)
History of Neurology (/isis/citation/CBB001034950/)

Article Fraidakis, Matthew J.; (2010)
Lugaro's Forgotten Legacy: The Hypothesis of Negative Neurotropism (/isis/citation/CBB001034929/)

Article Knoeff, Rina; (2004)
The Reins of the Soul: The Centrality of the Intercostal Nerves to the Neurology of Thomas Willis and to Samuel Parker's Theology (/isis/citation/CBB000774442/)

Article Devin K. Binder; Edward H. Reynolds; (2017)
Robert Bentley Todd’s Contributions to the Structure and Function of Nerve Tissue (/isis/citation/CBB200669316/)

Article Barbara, Jean-Gaël; (2010)
Relations médecine -- sciences dans l'individualisation des maladies nerveuses à la Salpêtrière à la fin du XIXe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB001034702/)

Article Wiesendanger, Mario; (2011)
Postlesion Recovery of Motor and Sensory Cortex in the Early Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB001034919/)

Article Lazar, J. Wayne; (2008)
An American Controversy about the Localization of Cutaneous Sensory Regions and their Relation to Motor Regions (/isis/citation/CBB000930685/)

Book Barbara, Jean-Gaël; (2010)
La naissance du neurone: la constitution d'un objet scientifique au XXe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB001023183/)

Article Baumeister, Alan A.; Henderson, Kristopher; Pow, Joni Lee; Advokat, Claire; (2012)
The Early History of the Neuroscience of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (/isis/citation/CBB001211256/)

Book Salisbury, Laura; Shail, Andrew; (2010)
Neurology and Modernity: A Cultural History of Nervous Systems, 1800--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB001034355/)

Article Lazar, J. Wayne; (2010)
Acceptance of the Neuron Theory by Clinical Neurologists of the Late-Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB001034925/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}