Copyright by Luis Alejandro Salas 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Luis Alejandro Salas Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Anatomy and Anatomical Exegesis in Galen of Pergamum Committee: Lesley A. Dean-Jones, Supervisor R.J. Hankinson, Co-Supervisor Michael Gagarin Andrew M. Riggsby Stephen A. White Anatomy and Anatomical Exegesis in Galen of Pergamum by Luis Alejandro Salas, B.A., M.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2013 Acknowledgements This dissertation attempts to draw from three sometimes distinct fields of scholarship: classics, philosophy, and the history of ancient medicine. Without the direction and criticism of my supervisors, Lesley Dean-Jones and Jim Hankinson, whatever success I have achieved in this task would not have been possible. My debt to Lesley Dean-Jones throughout the writing of this dissertation is difficult to express, although it is certain that she would prefer it expressed with fewer adverbs. I owe her tremendous thanks personally and professionally. She has been a constant source of encouragement and critical commentary, finding time for me when I know it was most precious to her. Jim Hankinson has been a mentor to me since I arrived at the University of Texas. In addition to countless challenging evenings of conversation, Jim resolutely supported my decision to pursue more academic work in Philosophy than was required of me in order to balance my work in Classics, when it was not obviously practical to do so. To him I owe, among many other things, my initial interest in Galen. Our friendship has been the most intellectually formative experience of my graduate school career. I am proud to call myself both their student and their friend. I am also extremely grateful to the supervisory committee for their time and comments, which have always been helpful and thorough. Michael Gagarin, Andrew Riggsby, and Steve White have consistently been congenial and available to me. The flaws that remain in this dissertation would be far more numerous had it not been for their critical attention. Although he was not a formal member of my committee, Marquis S. Berrey has been a de facto reader of this dissertation. He has been unstintingly generous of his time, iv having slogged through nearly every page of it. His friendship and collegiality have been singularly meaningful to me. I would also like to thank my friends in graduate school, Steve Foy, James Alan Inman, Grant Nelsestuen, and Ian Nyberg, all of whom have added to my life over the years more than I expect they know. Finally, I must thank my family. My wife, Rosalyn Luna, and my daughter, Isabel, have been far more patient than I could have hoped during the long absences required by academic writing. I love them both dearly. For the memory of los viejitos, I have no adequate words. When I have been most tired, I have oftened turned my thoughts to César Mena, Aida Mena, and Rafael Prohías. My brother Rafael and my sisters Rosie, Elizabeth, and Natalia have been with me all along. The frequent visits of my father over the past three years have been a great help. For my mother, my gratitude is inexpressable. From her, everything. Todo es hermoso y constante, Todo es música y razón, Y todo, como el diamante, Antes que luz es carbón. v Anatomy and Anatomical Exegesis in Galen of Pergamum Luis Alejandro Salas, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Lesley Dean-Jones Co-Supervisor: R.J. Hankinson This dissertation is a study of the differing explanatory criteria used for the assessment of epistemic medical claims, particularly anatomical claims, in the work of Galen of Pergamum (129-c. 216 CE). It focuses on Galen's use of anatomy and anatomical exegesis to position himself in relation to the various medical sects or haireseis active in the Late Roman Empire. Consequent on the emergence of invasive anatomical investigations in the early Hellenistic period (3rd cent. BCE), the explanatory and therapeutic value of anatomical information came to be a defining characteristic of competing medical sects. The Empiricists, who, we are told, were reacting to what they believed was the theoretical promiscuity of other medical thinkers, took their name from their reliance on experience rather than theory, the latter a methodological commitment they attributed to other medical thinkers whom they grouped under the broad category of Dogmatists. This sensitivity to theoretical claims is apparent from the fact that the Empiricists eschewed anatomical dissections, on the grounds that they required analogical moves from structures in corpses to structures in living creatures. If Galen is to be taken at his word, by the second century CE, sectarian disputes between the medical sects had risen to a fever pitch. Galen, who was at pains to make a place for his own vi medical beliefs in this debate, stresses the need for explanatory theoretical accounts of the body and things relevant to its biological function but also insists that these theoretical accounts be based in empirical observations. One of the arguments he must overcome is the problem of anatomical analogy, raised by the Empiricists. Galen not only engages with this issue from an abstract point of view but, this dissertation argues, he engages with it through the narrative structure of his anatomical accounts throughout his work and especially in his procedural anatomical handbook, De Anatomicis Administrationibus. Historically, this treatise has either been ignored by scholars or studied as a technical treatise that lacks in artifice. This dissertation questions this approach and considers the argumentative role of Galen's anatomical exegesis in the debate over the explanatory value of anatomy in Greco-Roman medicine. It takes as one of its main focuses, Galen's accounts of elephantine anatomy. It argues that these accounts are governed by different norms of assertion, which do not place the same premium on accurate reporting of anatomical detail, from the surrounding anatomical narrative in De Anatomicis Administrationibus. To that end, it shows the need for a more nuanced reading of fachprosa, such as Galen's anatomical work, than these texts have historically received. vii Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................1 Methodological Aims ......................................................................................5 Citation of Galenic Texts and Translation ......................................................6 Historical Background ....................................................................................8 Alcmaeon of Croton ...............................................................................9 The Hippocratic Corpus .......................................................................12 Hippocratic Anatomy ...........................................................................15 Aristotle on the Vascular Anatomy of Nat. Hom. ......................24 Galen on the Vascular Anatomy of Nat.Hom. ............................24 Diocles of Carystus ..............................................................................28 Aristotle................................................................................................30 Hellenistic Anatomy ............................................................................33 Post-Hellenistic Period and the Rise of Medical Sects ........................35 Chapter Two: Intersection between Medical and Philosophical Sectarianism ......36 The Relation of Greek Medicine and Philosophy in The Classical Period ...36 Medical Sects in the Second Century ...........................................................39 Dogmatists ...........................................................................................43 Sign Inference: Indication and Epilogismos .................................................44 Empiricists ...........................................................................................49 Origins and the Roots of Haireseis ......................................................50 The Rise of Medical Sectarianism .......................................................56 Hidden features of the world (adēla) ...................................................62 Peira and Empeiria ...............................................................................63 Methodists .....................................................................................................66 Evidence for Methodist Theories of Disease and Therapy ..................66 Origins and Genealogy ........................................................................68 Epistemological Commitments ............................................................70 The Place of The Methodists in the Sectarian Debate .........................72 viii Methodist Forerunners, Asclepiades and Corpuscular Theorists ........75 What Can Be Said of Methodist Medical Beliefs ................................76 Galen's Eclecticism .......................................................................................83 Education .............................................................................................83 Approach to Medicine ..........................................................................84