Title:

Epigram as a somatic genre

Subtitle:

Analecta: Studies and Materials for the History of Science

Creator:

Śnieżko, Dariusz

Institutional creator:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Publisher:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2020

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Location:

Biblioteka Instytutu Historii Nauki PAN

Subject and Keywords:

epigram ; humoral medicine ; melancholy ; laughter ; therapy

Abstract:

The article comments on the therapeutical properties of the epigram (and other short, comical poetic genres). Laughter was considered one the best remedies for melancholy, the most serious of the psychosomatic syndromes in the diagnostics of humoral medicine, based on the ancient theory of four humours. Because of its direct influence on the spleen, i.e. the organ responsible for the secretion of black bile, laughter was supposed to alleviate melancholy. Epigrams, considered by Old Polish authors to be a poetic genre written “for the body”, were to be relaxing and listening or reading them, especially in a group of friends, was supposed to be a therapeutic medicinal practice.

Relation:

Analecta : studia i materiały z dziejów nauki polskiej

Volume:

29 (2020)

Issue:

2

Start page:

201

End page:

211

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Journal

Format:

PDF

Resource Identifier:

1509-0957

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, full text available at:

Original in:

Library of the Institute for the History of Science PAS

Access:

Open