“Quacks, Charlatans, and Geniuses: Medicine in Ancient Greece”

The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and Dittrick Medical History Center will host a talk by James C. McKeown, professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and author of A Cabinet of Ancient Medical Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts From the Healing Arts of Greece and Rome (2017). McKeown will present “Quacks, Charlatans, and Geniuses: Medicine in Ancient Greece.” This Cleveland Humanities Festival event will be held Tuesday, March 27, at noon in the Allen Memorial Medical Library’s Zverina Room.

About the lecture

The Greeks laid the foundation for Western medicine, but much of what we know about their medical practices seems rather unpromising. Did eating a boiled mouse cure infant teething? Why should a doctor consult a patient’s horoscope? What did a surgery competition entail? Why was dissection forbidden? McKeown will introduce attendees to some of the more curious realities of what happened when Socrates needed a doctor. Learn more about the event.