ABSTRACT
Minoan water supplies, sewage removal, and bathing installations reached a level of refinement that was not to be reached by many Westerners. The Minoans were thus pioneers in “body culture”, and passed some of it on to the Greek-speaking folk of the adjacent mainland. The oldest sources of knowledge about Greek medicine are the Homeric poems, the Iliad and Odyssey. Egyptians, Greeks and Phoenicians had long used gold wire to repair loose teeth, but the Etruscan folk in central Italy developed technique into a master craft. The best physician who was active in surgery during the early Imperial period was a Greek immigrant, Soranus of Ephesus. The ancient Greeks, in their wisdom, refused to accept women as workers of full value. Emphasis on surgery was stronger in the case of Aetius of Amida, during the seventh century. Byzantine medicine was inherited from the Greek.
