Galen, On Exercise
The aim of this book is to make available to intermediate readers of ancient Greek selections from the medical works of Galen of Pergamon (129 CE –216). The running vocabulary and grammatical commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to understand each page, so that readers can progress through the text, improving their knowledge of Greek and engaging first-hand one of the greatest scientific minds of antiquity. Galen is an author of the imperial period of Greek literature, and his Greek is typical of the so-called “second sophistic,” a period of intense cultivation of classical Greek literature and culture. His language and thought are steeped in the traditions of Greek medicine and philosophy, especially Hippocrates, Aristotle and Plato. His engagement with these and other classical authors is ubiquitous in his enormous ouevre, the largest to survive from antiquity in Greek or Latin. The selections presented here focus on exercise as a part of a regimen of health. They are taken from two works, On Health (Περὶ ὑγιεινῶν, Latin title: De sanitate tuenda) and On Exercise with the Small Ball (Περὶ τοῦ διὰ τῆς σμικρᾶς σφαίρας γυμνασίου, Latin title: De pavae pilae exercitio). The selections have been chosen with two goals in mind: to illustrate the range and coherence of Galen's thought about exercise and health, and to provide sustained practice in reading continuous ancient prose with technical content.
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