Many ancient Greek medical practices depended on your geography within Greece, your social class and your gender.
One of the first things that the Greeks did when someone was ill was to call on the gods and pray to them that they would be healed. The Greeks believed that it was as much as a spiritual issue as it was a physical one. Many Greeks believed that illness was a punishment from the gods. Apollo was one of the main gods that they would pray to as he was the god of healing along with being the god of the sun.
Another practice for treating an illness was to let them go to sleep in a special room while snakes slid across their body and licked them during the night.
Ancient Greeks also practiced bloodletting (the idea of getting rid of blood to get rid of the illness. This idea was still commonly used as far as the 19th century.
They would also use a drug called Opium. (Opium is one of the main components of heroin and other illegal drugs). They used opium as an anesthetic, although there are many references in stories of patients being held down during surgery. This would suggest that the use of anesthetics wasn't common.
One of the first things that the Greeks did when someone was ill was to call on the gods and pray to them that they would be healed. The Greeks believed that it was as much as a spiritual issue as it was a physical one. Many Greeks believed that illness was a punishment from the gods. Apollo was one of the main gods that they would pray to as he was the god of healing along with being the god of the sun.
Another practice for treating an illness was to let them go to sleep in a special room while snakes slid across their body and licked them during the night.
Ancient Greeks also practiced bloodletting (the idea of getting rid of blood to get rid of the illness. This idea was still commonly used as far as the 19th century.
They would also use a drug called Opium. (Opium is one of the main components of heroin and other illegal drugs). They used opium as an anesthetic, although there are many references in stories of patients being held down during surgery. This would suggest that the use of anesthetics wasn't common.