An Entry for a "Dictionary of Genetics" Generation and Aspects of Heredity from the Presocratics To Galen: The Main Notions and the Technical Terminology

Abstract

This article aims at dealing with the historical development and the terminology of the notion of generation in ancient Greece, taking as well into consideration several aspects of the notion of heredity, for, at present, research in this field lacks a consistent encyclopedic entry on such subjects. The Presocratic – mainly Empedoclean – notions of ‘mixing’ and ‘separation’ lurk behind the Hippocratic treatise De genitura/De natura pueri, in which the process of generation is explained through the ‘mixing’ mechanism of a female semen and a male one.Semen comes from each part of both parents, so it is sound from the sound parts, and unhealthy from the unhealthy parts. It is considered as the “foam of blood” (Diogenes, A 24 DK), gathering itself into a web of blood vessels that bring it to the genital organs. The mixed semen keeps on fixing itself in the womb ......