ABSTRACT
In contrast to the gradual evolution found in Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese history, Greek civilization seems to have emerged suddenly, much like Athena from the head of Zeus. Although this impression is certainly false, it is difficult to correct because of the paucity of material from the earliest stages of Greek history. Whatever their origins, the intellectual traditions established in ancient Greece provided the foundations of Western philosophy, science, and medicine. The early history of Greece can be divided into two periods: the Mycenaean, from about 1500 B.C.E. to the catastrophic fall of Mycenaean civilization about 1100 B.C.E., and the so-called Dark Ages from about 1100 to 800 B.C.E.. Very little information from the latter period has survived, nor is it clear what forces led to the collapse of the early phase of Greek civilization. As in India, distant memories of warfare, chaos, misfortune, and victory were transmitted in the form of myths and legends. Much of this material was gathered into the great epic poems known as the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are traditionally attributed to the ninth-century poet known as Homer. Deep within these stories of life and death, god and heroes, exotic lands, home and family, are encoded ancient concepts of epidemic disease, the vital functions of the body, the treatment of wounds, and the roles played by physicians, surgeons, priests, and gods.
