Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Greek Friends’ lecture

Dr Angela Paine, “Healing Plants of Greek Myth”

There are numerous references to plants used by goddesses and gods to heal or enchant, within Greek Myth, and the names of many of these plants have been incorporated into the Latin binomials that are used to identify them. The first physicians began to practice in the Asclepiaea, using herbs, surgery and dietary advice. From these remote beginnings Greek medicine and botany evolved and were recorded, first in the Hypocratic Corpus, then by many other famous Greek physicians, including Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen.
Angela Paine’s book traces the evolution of Greek medicine, the source of Western medicine, and looks at a selection of plants mentioned in Greek myth with healing properties. This includes a large number of trees, which were both sacred and medicinal. She looks at the healing properties, chemical constituents and the research that has been carried out on each plant. She explains how to use them and mentions any contraindications, so
people who could suffer side effects avoid specific herbal remedies.

bio: Angela Paine has a BSc in Human Physiology and a PhD from the School of Pharmacy in medicinal plant chemistry. She grew up on a farm in Kent and learned to identify plants from her botanist father. The has been on research trips to Europe, Africa and South America to collect plant material used as
medicine and collaborated with scientists around the world, publishing internationally in scientific journals. She lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where she
grows fruit, vegetables and herbs.

Hybrid lecture

To attend in-person in Athens, register HERE

To attend online via Zoom webinar, register HERE