Helse, sykdom og livskvalitet i antikkens Hellas En begreps- og litteraturstudie av Hippokrates og Aristoteles
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This study examines the relationship between health (ὑγίεια), disease (νόσος), and happiness
or human flourishing (εὐδαιμονία) in selected texts by Hippocrates and Aristotle. It investigates
how these concepts are expressed in the sources and their relevance to modern understandings
of health and quality of life.
The study adopts a cultural-historical and conceptual-analytical approach. Ancient conceptions
of health, disease, and happiness are interpreted in relation to modern definitions of health and
quality of life. Particular attention is given to Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia, and to
Hippocratic medicine as an observational and practice-oriented framework grounded in natural
explanations, environmental factors, and bodily balance.
This thesis is a conceptual and literature-based study based on close readings of Hippocrates’
Airs, Waters, Places and On Ancient Medicine, as well as Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Book
I). Searches in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) database identify occurrences of the
lemmas ὑγίεια, νόσος, and εὐδαιμονία. These occurrences are mapped and analysed in their
textual contexts through philological and thematic interpretation, supported by relevant
secondary literature.
The analysis shows that Hippocrates primarily uses ὑγίεια and νόσος within a medical
framework in which health and disease are dynamic states influenced by environmental
conditions, diet, lifestyle, and bodily balance. The term εὐδαιμονία is absent from the selected
Hippocratic texts. In Aristotle, εὐδαιμονία is a central ethical concept defined as the highest
human good and as an activity of the soul. The terms ὑγίεια and νόσος appear mainly as
illustrative examples in ethical argumentation rather than as independent analytical concepts.
The study suggests that Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia partially overlaps with modern
notions of quality of life, but can not be equated with them. Hippocrates and Aristotle thus
represent two distinct yet partly complementary approaches to health, disease, and human
flourishing in ancient Greece. While the study does not allow firm conclusions about lived
experience in antiquity, it provides insight into ancient conceptualisations of these core ideas.
Keywords
health, disease, happiness, human flourishing, quality of life, Hippocrates, Aristotle, ancient Greece, eudaimonia