The engagement with the history of arts and sciences in ancient Greece is full of enchantment, because through them one can better understand the present and foresee the future. This is all the more true for the science of Medicine which, for a long period of time, was characterized as art, later on as both an art and a science and today is considered as a science and applied technology.
Good health and well-being of humans has always depended on a large degree on the bright energy sent to us by the sun. Thus the first God of medicine, meaning the God who preserves life and defeats death, is Apollo, the God of light and rhythm. Even today, folk wisdom repeats the phrase “Where the sun enters a doctor doesn't”. Apollo is the child of Zeus and the Titanide Leto and the twin brother of Artemis, Goddess of the moon. God Apollo and the mortal Coronis gave life to a child called Asclepius who, as a half-God was brought to the earthly world and trained as a healer. His teacher was Centaur Chiron (half-human and half-horse) who had the knowledge to exploit the beneficial powers of the natural world. Asclepius soon acquired the reputation of the great healer and traveled around Greece healing people. The power of His work gave Him the prestige of a God in a world of mortals. His sons and daughters supported His healing power as his helpers but as independent beings as well. His sons took part in the Trojan War as military doctors, while His daughters were protectors and leaders of the doctors' healing acts and performed health rehabilitation techniques with spiritual and bodily interventions .
The treatment provision in ancient Greece was based on the structure of Asclepeion. The Asclepeion was the temple of healing intervention by the descendants of Asclepius, under the supervision of Him and his family. This place constitutes not only the core of a building infrastructure but the crown of a multi-shaped and multi-productive intervention both in mental, psychological, physical and social functions of the human entity. In its basic form it included theater (drama-therapy), baths (spa-therapy), stadium (exercising), gardens (relaxation), kitchen (restaurants), bed-chambers (hotels), temples (impressive structures) and the Avaton (a quiet chamber half buried into the earth with dim lighting intended for deep sleep – ICU). Fast, diet, purification, drinking water from a healing spring, relaxation in a clean environment, theater performance, listening to music, dancing, exercising, sleep induction, psychological shocks, pharmaceutical and surgical interventions combined with the most powerful weapon anyone can possess, which is faith to a higher power, deconstructs illness and provides the psychosomatic balance which leads to the cure. The final healing intervention is the sleep during which, while the patient is asleep in the Avaton, he/she comes in contact with Asclepius, his helpers and his sacred animals so that the cure can arise. The structure of the Asclepeion was directed by the priesthood. The priesthood, in the form of a health center, offered healing through God Asclepius.
The Asclepeion centers acquired glory and fame and were invited to create regional branches. Thus a system of regional health centers was created being under the supervision of the central one. Their structure and their expansion were supported by donations from the rich patients and kings. Many of the Asclepeion centers, such as the one in the island of Kos, were converted to a neutral war zone during difficult circumstances in history so that political and military deliberations could take place between opposite powers for the benefit of peace.
Sixteen generations after Asclepius came his descendant, the eminent personality of Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) who became known worldwide. He worked at the Asclepeion centers in the island of Kos and traveled offering his services not only to prominent personalities of that time, but also to entire populations whenever he was called to battle deadly epidemics. He was concerned with the anatomic and functional structure of the human organism and evolved into a brilliant anatomist and physiologist. His logical methodology is the basis upon which medical thinking is developed until today. His moral views on medical practice are stated in the Oath of Hippocrates. The Oath, which has been translated into all the languages of the world, is the one that the graduates of Medical Schools give after the successful completion of their training.
The healing interventions of that time were surgical and pharmaceutical. The means used for these interventions were the surgical tools, forerunners of the contemporary ones, herbs, and metals, which have evolved to today's medicines, and hypnosis. Since the age of Hippocrates the theory of “humors”, which derives from the philosophical approaches of Empedocles (495-435 BCE) and Aristotle (384-322 BCE), is beginning to form. Four are the humors of the human body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. They are related to the four elements of fire, water, air and earth and the four characters of bloody, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic. In succession, any other sequence of four is structured around them and is related to rhythm, orientation, psyche, temperature, diet, etc.
The theory of humors was developed and described in accuracy by the leading medical doctor Galenus (129-199 CE), and is even until today the basis of Ionian (Greek) medicine.
It is known to everyone that the prevalence of the church brought the dismantling of ancient Greek religion and worship, including the Asclepeion centers. Asclepius' face was the only one that remained almost intact.
Christianity banned and abandoned a lot of the medical practices of ancient Greece. However, the theory of humors, deeply rooted in Greek Philosophy, continued to be used in disease treatment. In Western Europe of Christianity, ancient Greek philosophy, science, and art were facing their dark days. In the East, members of a Christian sect originating in Asia Minor and Syria by the name Nestorians, established new medical schools, which were parts of a wider educational system, such as in Edessa of Mesopotamia in the 5th century, where the works of Hippocrates , Galenus and other distinguished Greek philosophers were translated into Syrian. Along with that, came the foundation of the great university in Godasaipur in southwest Persia where Greek, Persian and Indian medicine are met with each other and with the philosophies of these three countries.
Later on, at the multinational city of Cordoba in Spain, Arab texts were beginning to get translated into Latin. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, these translations brought Greek philosophy and science, including medicine, once again in the spotlight. The Arabs, through their expansion towards south Asia, reached India. There, during the 12th century, the Arab-Greek medicine found suitable grounds to bloom because of the Hippocratic medicine infrastructure already brought to India by Alexander the Great. The Arab-Greek medicine was enriched by the already richly practiced traditional healing and thus the first center was established in Lahore in 1160 CE.
Consequently, Unani Medicine or Unani-Tibb was created. The names were given in honor of the Ionian medicine, which is less known than Ayurveda, due to the Islamic element being in minority in India. Unani-Tibb is the system which observes the influence that the surroundings and ecological conditions such as air, food, drinks, bodily and mental movement and rest, sleep, wakefulness, excretion, and retention have on the state of health. Unani believes that it is this dominance which gives a person his/her individual habit and complexion. Unani practitioners do not only cure bodily diseases but also act as an ethical instructor.
The treatment in Unani medicine involves courses of regimental therapy which include venesection, cupping, sweating, diuresis, bath therapy, massage, cauterization, purging, emesis, counter-irritation, exercise, and leeching.
Diet therapy deals with certain foods by administration of specific diets or by regulating the quantity and quality of food.
