Ancient physicians and philosophers explored how different temporal patterns interacted and overlapped. They were deeply concerned with the meaning of simultaneous events—those moments when natural, bodily, or social processes coincided in ways they considered significant. While Greek and Latin authors had no direct equivalents for what we now call “synchronicity” or “synchronization”, both ideas permeate their reflections on health and the cosmos. This volume adopts these modern terms as a framework for examining how Greco-Roman thinkers conceptualized meaningful coincidence and the effort to align temporal cycles—between body and environment, illness and therapy, or individual and world. Spanning medicine, philosophy, astrology, and meteorology from the fifth century BCE to the sixth CE, the chapters reveal how ancient conceptions of bodily time and cosmic rhythm shaped understandings of health, gender, and disease. By tracing these interconnections, the volume opens new perspectives for scholars of ancient science, philosophy, and culture about the roles of synchrony and asynchrony in understanding and intervening in bodily processes.
eBook published on:May 18, 2026eBook ISBN:9783112235690Paperback published on:May 18, 2026Paperback ISBN:9783112235683Main content:191Illustrations:6Tables:1Frontmatter
IContents
VIntroduction
1Time of the Essence: Cyclical Change and the Human Body in Regimen and Nature of the Human Being
11Hippokrates, De internis affectionibus
43Turbulence and Asynchrony at the Time of Orion: Ps. Aristotle’s Problemata 26.13 in Philosophical and Medical Contexts
79Synchronizing Diachronies in Seneca’s Consolatio ad Marciam
101Untimely Women: “Clock Time” and “Women’s Time” in Imperial Rome
121Time, Timing and Synchronicity: The Uses of Astrology in Ancient Medical Practice
141Index of Passages Cited
General Index
The following volumes have been published in this series:
Posts
Stumble It!
