[In process]

This passages of this discussion are related tot he VIIth book of the Metamorphoses. In the first extract Ovid illustrates the scientific method by which Medea rejuvenates Aeson, her father-in-law; in the second episode, Medea applies the same "treatment" to Baccus' nurturers, with a similar result. Then there's a famous hoax against Pelias: Medea, pretending to rejuvenate the old tyrant, kills him. The sham uses an accurate simulation of medicine's professional gestures and actions, that are similar to the ones of the previous episode to all the appearances: reflection and diagnosis, prognosis, patient;s anaesthesia, administration of the medications, surgery, etc. The restitution ad integrum belongs to the field of magic, but the described therapeutic procedure belongs to the medicine, and it adheres to the rules of the theory of the humors. The intentional reversal of the outcome in Pelias; mockery leads to an ethical issue about the mistrust against the doctors, a problem that was very rooted in Roman culture.