In Greek mythology, Prometheus gave the human race the gift of fire by stealing it from the gods. As punishment, Zeus had eagle eat his liver. Every day the eagle would eat his liver, his liver would grow back, and the eagle would eat his liver again (I know this is an oversimplification of the story).
Does this story show the Greeks were aware of the liver's regenerative abilities?
Inspired by the comment on this post.
What a fun question! In short, the answer is no.
The best article on this subject is:
Dina G. Tiniakos, Apostolos Kandilis, and Stephen A. Geller, “Tityus: A forgotten myth of liver regeneration,” Journal of Hepatology, Volume 53, Issue 2, August 2010, pp. 357-361. Available online:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168827810003259
Tiniakos, et al. cite another source, which I can only find a summary online:
C. Power, E.J. Rasko, “Whither Prometheus liver? Greek myth and the science of regeneration,”Annals of Internal Medicine (2008), pp. 421-426.
These articles note that while the mythological characters Prometheus and Tityus were tortured by eagles/vultures who ate their livers, which regenerated every night (for Prometheus) or every month (for Tityus), there is no evidence that either the ancient Greeks or Romans were aware of the regenerative properties of the human liver.
When I saw your question, I did a quick search on the Perseus.com database for liver (ancient Greek ἧπαρ, Latin hepar) and came across about 100 citations in ancient Greek and Latin texts. Almost all of these refer to the practice of examining the livers of sacrificed animals as an omen, a practice known as haruspices. There are also several passages in ancient medical writings that refer to the liver, including a text attributed to the 5th-century BCE Hippocrates (De morbis popularibussec. 17, case 17), which refers to a case of hepatitis brought on by poor diet and excessive drinking.
Hope this helps!