Description

This dissertation explores the intersections of technical medical knowledge and lay knowledge of medicine in fictional prose writings in the genre of the ancient Greco-Roman romance novel. I analyzed a sample of seven novels consisting of four Greek novels (Xenophon of Ephesus' Ephesian Tale, Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Clitophon, Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, Heliodorus' Aithiopica) and three Latin novels (Petronius' Satyricon, Apuleius'

Metamorphoses, and the anonymous Apollonius King of Tyre). These novels were written between the first and sixth centuries CE which provides a survey of literature for a lay audience under the Roman Empire. This dissertation provides a critical reading of the novels to help shed light on how medicine was perceived and represented by laypersons and to reveal what aspects of medical knowledge became widespread cultural knowledge