Ideas about Food and Health in Early Byzantine and Rabbinic Sources (Session 616)

Works about regimen–proper nutrition, care of the body and physical exercise–form a distinct genre in the corpus of Greek medical writings from as early as the fifth century BCE. The tradition is appropriated and re-organised in the early Byzantine medical encyclopaedias (Oribasius, Aetius of Amida and Paul of Aegina) and spread throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Research suggests that most of the Mediterranean Jews espoused and adapted Graeco-Roman socio-cultural values and practices. This panel aims to examine the transfer, appropriation, and/or transformation of Greek medical theories or practices by comparing early Byzantine and rabbinic writings.