Constituent elements regarding the symbolic organization of the Elea's identity and its interrelation

Identifier:  TFM:201

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFM201

Authors:  Granell Jesús, Paula

Abstract:
Elea, founded by the Phoenicians in VI BC, was a city of maritime vocation thanks to his favorable geographical situation, which led it to devote itself to trade and to turn into one of the most prosperous cities of the Great Greece. On the other hand, the archaeological and textual evidences insist on reminding it as a place of rest and treatment thanks to his climate and the thermal waters. The present work has for aim reconstructing the symbolic landscape of Elea's city and how it is projected and organized in his physical space, underlining two essential aspects that define it, the water and the medicine. Beyond this merely descriptive aim, we will define the nature of the relation of all these elements with the philosophical speculation and the divinatory and prophetic art, two aspects very related with the Greek thought personified by the philosopher and medicine-man Parmenides of Elea (570-475 BC), leader of the city and propagator of the pre-hippocratic medicine.