CLAS 3239 | Ancient Medicine: The Classical Roots of the Medical Humanities: Student Projects

The image above comes from a publication of the Colombian magazine Semana, which at that time (2007) was celebrating its 25th year anniversary. The image is of a Wayuu family from La Guajira, a rural region of Colombia, which during the 1990s was hit with an epidemic of cholera. This family in particular suffered the loss of many family members; they are not alone, however, as cholera claimed the lives of almost 230 people in this region. Due to extreme poverty and lack of help from the government many perished during this plague. Below, one an find a translation (by the presenter, Lucia Cadavid) of the article in which this image appeared.

Humans throughout time have had to deal with the concepts of illness and of death. However, it is not easy to deal with such abstract concepts. Death comes to all of us and robs us of life, and yet we cannot see it, touch, or even sense it. There is a necessity to give tangible shapes to things that we do not understand, and for this reason we personify death. It is through this personification that we are able to better understand and deal with such an abstraction. In both the article and Edgar Allen Poe’s story ‘The Masque of Red Death’ we see a striking similarity in language. The authors of both employ the use of a specter or a ghost to signify death walking around and haunting humans. There is a ghostly presence even in times of great revelry as in the story, or in times of great suffering as in La Guajira. The times might be different but the presentation remains the same.

Another striking similarity between both texts is the response that other people have to this specter. Once a person is ill or haunted by death, there is a call to marginalize them, and isolate either the person or ourselves. In the story, Prince Prospero sees all of this death around him, and encloses himself and other elites in an abbey, shutting out and isolating himself from the rest of the world. The Gouriyu Epinayu are isolated not only geographically from the rest of the country but also by other members of their tribe that view them as being cursed/haunted.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation Provided by Lucia Cadavid

Article Translation (by Lucia Cadavid):
"For the Gouriyu Epinayu, the mention of the word cholera is like mentioning the devil himself. This illness attacked all fifteen members of the family and ended the lives of three of their loved ones: an 81 year old grandmother, a youth of 19 and a 6 month old baby. These were the victims who died in 1994 in the rancheria wayuu (a small rural settlement) of Chopchosiraa, in the rural municipal area of Manaure, in La Guajira. Cholera, a word that wipes the smile off the face of Olga Epinayu, with the memory of the epidemic that to this day still keeps her family marginalized from the rest of the community.

There are very few who visit this Wayuu family, for their neighbors fear that the disease still haunts the household. They survive off of the goats and chickens that they raise and sell in the market of Riohacha, in order to buy rice, sugar, corn, coffee, oil, salt, platanos, and yucca. In La Guajira, between 1994 and 1995, cholera took the lives of about 230 people. The episode is thought of with much pain for the wayuu, due to the absence of their loved ones and by the constant neglect from the State, these things have left wounds that time has yet to heal.

The leader of the indigenous tribe Palacio Gouriyu has his own version of the facts: “Cholera is a curse from the arijunas (no wayuu) who sent it over to Alta Guajira so that the indigenous people would die. But we are a strong race that puts up a fight.”

The image that I have chosen was selected from the Warwick University classics and ancient history database. It depicts the partially restored ruins of the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, one of the most significant structures of the ancient world. The temple was one of many structures in a larger sanctuary complex that was constructed in honor of Asclepius in the late fifth century BCE. The other buildings included a gymnasium, a theatre, and a stadium ‒ all were used in festivities that were held in honor of Asclepius. During this period, the fourth and fifth centuries BCE, Asclepius had risen to prominence as the god of medicine and greatly impacted the ancient medical world. As a result of Asclepius' influence, people from all over Greece came to visit the sanctuary at Epidaurus for healing and celebrations. This connects greatly to the Nutton reading, Religion and medicine in fifth and fourth century Greece, as it shows the religious side of medicine. Asclepius was depicted as having the qualities of a human physician and this tied the religious aspects of healing to those of scientific origin. As a result, the temple of Asclepius developed into the center of the medical world and served as a link between science and religion.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation provided by Robb Provenzano

This image is one in a series of forty-one wood engravings that were published in a collection entitled 'Dance of Death' by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1538 (other examples are included in the PowerPoint file linked to above). Holbein transforms the tradition of the Danse Macabre in late Medieval art into a reformist satirical piece. However, regardless of his contemporary religious motivations, his work as a whole supports the underlying theme of the universality of death, which is depicted in earlier visual representations of the Danse Macabre. Holbein's work underscores the fact that death is inevitable, unavoidable, and unbiased. Therefore, it is not subject to considerations of political, social, or religious class or status.

Both the Danse Macabre and Holbein’s 'Dance of Death' portray Death personified as a skeleton that guides individuals to their grave. The original tradition of the Danse Macabre served as both an explanatory source of sudden death (in response to the massive loss of death due to the Bubonic Plague in the early fourteenth century) and of comfort. This comfort entails Death personified guiding an individual in one last dance before their departure. It conveys that in the end, we are all united by death.

The above woodcut is titled 'The Duke', and depicts a Duke turning away from a beggar-woman and her small child. Death personified is presented with a crown. Even though the Duke ignores the poor, Death, crowned similarly to the Duke, is shown grabbing the Duke by the shoulders in order to guide him to his own grave. His status cannot save him from death, which is a typical theme in the Dance of Death. At the same time, the nature of Holbein’s work is distinct from earlier depictions of the Danse Macabre as it presents a more intrusive Death that interrupts daily life. Any aspect of comfort disappears in his interpretation of the Dance.

I found an interesting correlation between 'The Duke' and Poe’s 'Masque of the Red Death', in that the Duke mirrors the character of Prince Prospero. Just as the Duke turns away from the beggar-woman and her child, so too does Prince Prospero turn away from those inflicted with the Red Death outside of his estate. Rather, Prospero chooses to remain secluded and transform his estate into one without plague and filled with pleasure. In the end, Death personified brings Prospero to his death, just as with the Duke in Holbein’s woodcut. The universality and inescapability of death is present in both works in this way.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation provided by Jennifer Romero

This presentation was inspired by a chapter of Vivian Nutton’s book 'Ancient Medicine' entitled "Alexandria, Anatomy and Experimentation" (130-141). I chose to focus on two particular topics discussed in this chapter—surgical tools, and the anecdote about how the Greek physician Erasistratus cured a Syrian king’s son of “lovesickness”.

The images of the surgical tools in the PowerPoint presentation can be found on the following website: http://www.indiana.edu/~ancmed/instr1.html. The ultimate source of these images is a book by John Stewart Milne entitled Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times (Oxford 1907). As I was reading Nutton's comments about the different organs and arteries that were dissected and studied in Hellenistic Alexandria, I began to wonder “what did the Hellenistic doctors use to do that?” After conducting some research I came across some of those tools, many of which resemble tools that modern surgeons use today to operate on humans and animals as well.

Regarding Erasistratus, I came across a work of art entitled ‘Antiochus et Stratonice’ by Jacques-Louis David (1774). I chose to include this painting because it resonates with the following statements from Nutton’s book: “Erasistratus appears to have been first to discover all the valves in the heart and to have examined their workings in considerable detail before concluding that they were there to prevent any reflux as the heart expanded and contracted…” (Nutton 136.) The painting illustrates a scene in which Antiochus, a son of the king Seleucus, is diagnosed with a severe case of lovesickness for his step-mother. Erasistratus is able to figure this out because he feels and observes the pulse on the son’s wrist in the presence of said step-mother. And so, according to multiple ancient accounts, after Erisistratus made his diagnosis, Seleucus gave up his wife to his son in order to end his suffering.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation Provided by Serjik Sarukhanyan

The term homunculus (from Latin, meaning “little man”) can refer to the idea that a sperm (or possibly, the egg) contained a miniature pre-formed human being. The origin of this idea is of some uncertainty, as some scholars have identified it as originating in the 15th Century, while other scholars claim that it is an idea with roots in ancient Greek medical sources, including works by Aristotle and Hippocrates. The idea was that although each sperm cell contained a pre-formed human, as the pre-formed human developed in the womb it also took on features of the mother; this would explain why the newborn would have features of both parents. The process is also known as “pre-formation”, and the idea that the sperm rather than the egg contained the homunculus is known as the spermists’ theory. In the above depiction of the sperm cell, the homunculus is in a fetal position, with the top of the head facing forward and the arms and legs folded on the sides and bottom, respectively. This is the position that is attributed to a healthy fetus in the Hippocratic treatise 'On the Nature of the Child'.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation Provided by Jack Edelman

In 'The Idiot' (published 1869), Fyodor Dostoyevsky created an enduring portrayal of the epileptic Prince Myshkin as an idealized protagonist and “Christ-Prince” (Dostoyevsky’s term from his notebooks). In creating this character, Dostoyevsky drew upon his own medical and spiritual experiences as a diagnosed epileptic. The portrayal of Prince Myshkin, with particular access to the Deity and divine auras given his epilepsy, stands in a line of other representations in modern literature of the epileptic as a person with divine gifts or particular genius. Another prominent example in modern literature is found in William Shakespeare’s 'Julius Caesar' (1599) who is portrayed as epileptic (or at least suffering from seizures) and is mourned by Mark Anthony as a slain figure characterized by his “sacred blood.” Shakespeare’s references to the epilepsy of Julius Caesar appear to be drawn from references in Plutarch and Suetonius. Dostoyevsky and Shakespeare’s literary references to epileptics as characters with special access or affliction by the divine stand in marked contrast with the view proposed in 'On the Sacred Disease' attributed to Hippocrates, wherein the author proposes that epilepsy should be understood as no more or less sacred or mystical in origin than any other medical condition.

One noteworthy component in 'The Idiot' concerns Prince Myshkin’s supposition that his seizures are akin to those suffered by the Islamic prophet Mohammed. Based on Koranic and other sources, Saint Theophanes the Confessor, a Byzantine historian of the 8th Century, is the first known source to describe Mohammed as epileptic. By Dostoyevsky’s lifetime, it was often taken to be a commonplace that Mohammed had been epileptic and this was a charge sometimes levied against the validity of Islam. In 'The Idiot', however, Dostoyevsky does not use epilepsy as grounds to critique Islam, but rather suggests that both Mohammed and Prince Myshkin have access to divine auras as a result of their similar epileptic medical conditions. One recent study by NYU researchers has suggested a biomedical interpretation for the divine auras experienced by some epileptics. These researchers posit that the experience of divine auras may relate to neural firing in the limbic system and neocortical areas of the brain during seizure activity.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation provided by Daniel Hughes

The diagram above is succinct illustration of the different kinds of waters mentioned in the Hippocratic text 'Airs, Waters, Places' , including which kinds of waters are healthy and unhealthy. It comes as no surprise that the quality of water would receive such attention as it does in 'Airs, Waters, Places', for it is one of the most important substances on earth, and if there were no water, there would be no life on earth. The ancients, especially, had more of a reason to approach with caution the different kinds of water, since they lacked adequate means of preserving and sanitizing their water. The author of this treatise was aware that if an itinerant physician knew what effects, both good and bad, the different sources of water may be expected to produce, he would be more prepared when entering a new district.

-Diagram and Annotation provided by Dominick Vandenberge

The model above illustrates a district facing the east sun and a district facing the west sun, the former being an example of the healthiest situation, the latter being an example of the least healthy situation, as described by the author of 'Airs, Waters, Places'. The author of this text asserts that it is essential for a physician to understand how the geographical orientation of a district can influence the health of its people; the author argues that this will enable a physician to better understand what diseases are endemic to a given locality, as well as the nature of the inhabitants in general, when he first comes into a district that is unfamiliar to him. In a time when physicians had to travel from place to place to make a living and earn a reputation, being aware of such factors of health would have been crucial in order to be successful.

-Diagram and Annotation provided by Dominick Vandenberge

Sandro Botticelli's 'Birth of Venus '(1482) depicts the portrayal of Aphrodite's birth in Hesiod's epic poem 'The Theogony'. In Hesiod's account, the sky god Ouranos is deposed by way of castration by his son Kronos, and his dismembered genitalia are cast into the ocean, creating a thick foam from which Aphrodite emerges.

This foam can be seen in Botticelli's piece lapping against the shell at the feet of the "foam-born goddess," whose epithet comes from Hesiod's use of the Greek word ὰφρὸς . Similar inflections of this very word can also be seen in the Hippocratic treatise 'On Generation', where it is explained that foam is expelled due to an agitation of foaming (ὰφρέοντος) within an aroused male body.

Considering that Hesiod's 'Theogony' (circa 700 BCE) was written about three centuries prior to the Hippocratic treatise 'On Generation' (circa 425 BCE), these enduring images of foam demonstrate ancient Greek notions which conceptualize male semen as a foamy substance in various genres of literature, from epic poetry to medical prose. This image in turn lives on in later artistic media well into the Renaissance.

-Multimedia Content and Annotation provided by Lina Nania

These are pictures taken of a 1994 excavation of a mass grave site uncovered in Keramikos cemetery in Athens, Greece. The remains found here date back to the fifth century BCE. The excavation uncovered almost 1,000 individual graves as well as a mass burial pit containing as many as 240 individuals. These graves date back to the time of the Athenian plague as described in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (2.47-2.55) and highlight the urgent situation the city faced at the time. During this period, proper treatment of the dead was considered extremely important, so these pits where mass burials occurred indicate a change in perception in Athens, likely caused by the overabundance of bodies filling the city from the plague.

These pictures are found on the following websites:
http://archive.archaeology.org/online/kerameikos.html
http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot/2010/04/face-of-11-year-old-girl-from-classical.html?m=1

-Multimedia Content and Annotation Provided by Yahnik Smith

Pictured here are botanical illustrations of betony (stachys officinalis, see image above) and plantain (plantago major, see image below), two plants that are frequently mentioned by Pliny the Elder in Book 26 of his 'Natural History'. Essentially each of these the plants, and betony in particular, appear to be viewed as a cure-all. Pliny describes uses of various parts of betony in the treatment of medical conditions with symptoms such as expectoration of pus or blood, coughing, pains in the chest, side, or spine, stomach problems, heart affections, sciatica, and liver complaints; he also recommends the plant as an emetic to induce vomiting, as well as to strengthen the kidneys. While no research has proven any of Pliny’s claims about the uses of betony, it is still used today as a herbal folk remedy for conditions (diarrhea, irritations of the mouth, throat, and nerves) that do overlap with some parts of Pliny’s account.