Body and Medicine in Latin Poetry

While intersections between Greek literature and medicine have become a focal point of considerable research among Classicists in the last ten years, little work has been done in the field of Latin literature, with particular regard to poetry. And yet the human body and its affections have pride of place in numerous poems from ancient Rome, the medical influence of which can hardly be denied.

By building on the recent developments in the field of medical humanities, this volume aims at tackling innovatively the intersections between medical sciences and Latin literary texts, with papers exploring the ways in which medicine is integrated into poetry and how poetry, in turn, can propagate medical knowledge across various social classes and cultural contexts.

This volume will uncover the connections between Roman literature and ancient theories of the body, thus showing how indebted Roman poetic production was to both ancient Greek and Roman medical traditions. As such, it will be of significant interest for researchers and postgraduate students working on ancient Greek and Roman medicine and philosophy, Roman poetry and literature more broadly, ancient senses and emotions, and medical humanities.