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Historical Note

Melampous: a psychiatrist before psychiatry

University of Crete

Philippos Gourzis

University of Patras

Constantinos Trompoukis

University of Crete, trompoukis{at}med.uoc.gr

Although psychiatry was the last among the major branches of medicine to be recognized, taught and practised as a separate speciality, it is commonly accepted that even in antiquity there was a clear desire to study and understand mental illnesses, although they were not seen as distinct from physical diseases. Melampous is a figure balanced between historical reality and myth. Reading between the lines of the enchanting narrative preserved by Greek mythology, we can see the desire to comprehend mental illnesses and to propose systematic and credible treatments for them. In this article, an account is given of the myth of Melampous, with emphasis on the details that present him as a pioneer of contemporary psychiatric treatment and as having introduced pioneering approaches to psychiatric disorders.

Key Words: classics • Greece • hellebore • history • medicine • Melampous • mythology • psychiatry

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