Sinestesia. Tracce di arcaismo nella concezione di vista e udito del Corpus Hippocraticum

There are some ideas of perception, deeply rooted in the archaic understanding of man and its environment, clues of which can still be seen in some writings of the Hippocratic collec-tion, such as Regimen, Diseases of Women, and Fleshes. These clues conjure up synaesthesia as a notion for the understanding of the apparently different perceptions, assuming an interchange-ability in the activity of sensory organs. A physical, immediate relationship between the perceiv-ing body and the objects perceived, implies a direct connection with internal organs usually lo-cated in the belly and the bowels, while perceptions move all around the body together with the breath-soul. It is by way of the breath, of inspiration and expiration, that the bodily organs active in seeing and hearing appropriate the external world and become one and the same thing with it. Revealing similiarities with the ancient Vedic texts of the Upanishads are also mentioned.