title: Fended off with Humour. Medics and Medical Procedures as Objects of Ancient Jokes
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Wöhrle, Georg
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2022-02-18T16:04:43Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2022-02-18T16:04:43Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2021-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Georg Wöhrle. Fended off with Humour. Medics and Medical Procedures as Objects of Ancient Jokes. Philologia Classica 2021, 16 (2), 174–185.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.201
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/35166
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: Ancient literature, especially funerary epigrams, offers a large number of jokes about bad doctors where they are presented as (often) being dangerous, stupid, incompetent or greedy. In the present study, a basic classification of these jokes, as found for example in Martial or in the Anthologia Graeca, is suggested where the ubiquity of such outpours are recognized as a kind of psychological valve intended to counter the utter powerlessness of a man in the face of an all-powerful profession. On these grounds, the doctor can be attacked as personified evil to an extent that the very name of one spelt death. In addition, medics can be satirized as dangerously ignorant quacks dealing in dubious procedures, and this is applicable to various areas of medicine from ophthalmology to surgery and internal medicine. Finally, the moral misconduct of doctors, their greed, as well as sexual abuse is humorously put in the spotlight. An analysis of a piece by Ausonius is appended to offer a recognized way to tackle inept physicians — to deny them of their status as medics.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: de
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Philologia Classica;Volume 16; Issue 2
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: ancient medicine and ancient literature
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: jokes about bad doctors
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Anthologia Graeca
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Ausonius
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Fended off with Humour. Medics and Medical Procedures as Objects of Ancient Jokes
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 174-185.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/35166/1/174-185.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 725,58 kB