Werewolf Week, JAMA Edition: Diagnosis and Therapy

This week in honor of Halloween we are returning to an obsession with lycanthropy. There is a trove of ancient Greek medical treatises on the diagnosing and treatment of the disease.

wolfbyz

Oribasius (Pergamum, c. 4th Century CE)

Oribasius is said to have studied medicine in Alexandria; he later served as the court doctor to Julian the Apostate. He wrote several encyclopedic summaries of medical knowledge at the time. The text produced for a friend’s son (Synopsis ad Eustathium) is identical to that attributed to Paulus of Aegina and seems to form the core of medical treatises on lycanthropy.

On Lycanthropy:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among the gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood until the patient almost passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve* to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When they disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on their ears and nostrils when they are ready to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίας.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα λύκους μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχρις ἡμέρας περὶ μνήματα διατρίβουσιν. γνωριεῖς δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάσχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσι καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἀδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι καὶ οὐδὲ δακρύουσιν· θεάσῃ δ’αὐτῶν κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ σίελον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωροῦν αὐτοῖς· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις καὶ τὰς κνήμας διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προσπταίειν ἀνιάτως ἡλκωμένας ἴσχουσιν.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίσματα· γινώσκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδος μελαγχολίας εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύσεις κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς. κεχρήσθω δὲ τοῖς λουτροῖς γλυκέσιν· εἶτ’ ὀρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρεῖς ἡμέρας κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ, καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰς καθάρσεις καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένης δ’ ἤδη τῆς νόσου τοῖς ὕπνους ἐμποιεῖν εἰωθόσιν ἐπιβρέγμασι χρήσῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖσον ὦτα καὶ μυκτῆρας εἰς ὕπνον τρεπομένοις.

* The pumpkin or gourd (Gr. kolokunthos) was associated with life and health due to its “juicy nature”; see LSJ s.v. This may explain its ritual/therapeutic use both in cleansing an association with death and with treating a patient exhibiting extreme symptoms of dryness.

Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase...His 'treatment' was less than therapeutic...
Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase…His ‘treatment’ was less than therapeutic…

 

Aëtius (Amida, 6th Century CE)

 

Aetius was a Byzantine doctor and writer who may have lived as early as the fifth century CE.He also studied at Alexandria and collated sixteen books of medicine—much of which was drawn from Galen and Oribasius. His indebtedness to the latter is clear from his passage on lycanthropy, but there are interesting additions. I have marked the significant additions in bold.

On Lykanthropy or Kynanthropy, following Marcellus*

Those who are afflicted by the disease once-called kynanthropy or lycanthropy go out at night during the month Pheurouarion** and imitate wolves or dogs in every way as they spend time until daybreak around gravestones especially. You will recognize people who suffer in this way from the following symptoms: They are pale, they look weak, they have dry eyes and a dry tongue and they don’t completely secrete saliva. They are thirsty and they have festering wounds on their shins from falling continuously and from dog bites.

Such are the symptoms. For treatment, you need to understand that lycanthropy is a type of melancholy. You treat it at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining the blood until the point when the patient passes out, then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath, and after rubbing him with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him from [Rouphos, Archigenos, or Ioustos]. After these cleansings, anoint him with the viper-venom antidote. Also do all the other things that are prescribed earlier for melancholy.

When the disease comes on in the evening, rub down the heads of those who tend to sleepwalk with a lotion and for those who hunt by scent, smear some opium on their nostrils. Sometimes it is also necessary to administer a sleeping medicine.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίαϲ ἤτοι κυνανθρωπίαϲ Μαρκέλλου.

οἱ τῇ λεγοένῃ κυνανθρωπίᾳ ἤτοι λυκανθρωπίᾳ νόϲῳ κατεχόμενοι κατὰ τὸν Φευρουάριον μῆνα νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα μιμούμενοι λύκουϲ ἢ κύναϲ καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα μάλιϲτα διατρίβουϲι. γνωρίϲειϲ δὲ τοὺϲ οὕτω πάϲχονταϲ διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ οὐδὲν δακρύουϲι. θεάϲῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλουϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ καὶ γλῶϲϲαν ξηρὰν καὶ οὐδὲ ὅλωϲ ϲίελον προχέουϲιν. εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ ἔχουϲιν ἡλκωμέναϲ ἀνιάτωϲ διὰ τὰ ϲυνεχῆ πτώματα καὶ τῶν κυνῶν τὰ δήγματα.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίϲματα· γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶδοϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ. κεχρήϲθω δὲ λουτροῖϲ γλυκέϲιν, εἶτα ὀρρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου, δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον παρέχων ἐκ διαϲτημάτων. μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρηϲτέον. καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραληπτέον ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ προείρηται. εἰϲ ἑϲπέραν δὲ ἐπερχομένηϲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὕπνον εἰωθόϲιν ἐμποιεῖν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι τῆϲ κεφαλῆϲ χρῆϲθαι καὶ ὀϲφραντοῖϲ τοιούτοιϲ καὶ ὀπίῳ διαχρίειν τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ποτίζειν τινὰ τῶν ὑπνωτικῶν.

*According to the Suda, Marcellus was a doctor of Marcus Aurelius (2nd Century) who wrote two books on medicine in dactylic hexameter.

**Presumably this coincides with the month February and may have a special connection with Lycanthropy due to the Lupercalia.


Paulus (of Aegina, c. 7th Century CE)
A 7th Century CE Byzantine Physician who wrote De Re Medica Libri Septem) The Suda (s.v. Paulus) writes: Παῦλος, Αἰγινήτης, ἰατρός. ἔγραψεν ἰατρικὰ βιβλία διάφορα (“Paulos, from Aeigina, a doctor. He wrote various medical books”).

The text below is identical to that attributed to Oribasius:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy, which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood almost until the patient passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When the disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on the ears and nostrils of those preparing to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκάονοϲ ἢ λυκανθρώπου.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα λύκουϲ μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα διατρίβουϲι. γνωριεῖϲ δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάϲχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ τὴν γλῶϲϲαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ ϲίελον οὐδ’ ὅλωϲ προχωροῦν αὐτοῖϲ· εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ, καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ διὰ τὸ πολλάκιϲ προϲπταίειν ἀνιάτωϲ ἡλκωμέναϲ ἴϲχουϲιν. τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ γνωρίϲματα·

γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδοϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ· κεχρήϲθω δὲ τοῖϲ λουτροῖϲ γλυ-κέϲιν. εἶτα ὀρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολοκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήϲῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ, ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένηϲ δὲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὑπνοποιεῖν εἰωθόϲιν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι χρήϲῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖϲον τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ εἰϲ ὕπνον τρεπομένοιϲ.

Joannes Actuarius, De Diagnosi (Constantinople 13th to 14th Century)

Johannes Zacharias Actuarius was also a Byzantine doctor. He composed many works on medicine that drew on Galen, Aëtius and Paulus—which is clear from his text on lycanthropy. Significant differences from Aëtius’ text are in bold.

De Diagnosi 1.34.24

A type of this madness is called lycanthropy—it convinces those so afflicted to go outside in the middle of the night, among the graves and desolate places, like wolves and to return at night, to become themselves again, and to remain at home. But some of them have feet and shins marked up from touching stones and thorns and they have dry eyes and tongue. They are thirsty, and they look weak. I will pass over how much the others suffer—but some of them die after fearing death for long while others desire it fiercely. In the same way, some avoid large groups of people and maintain the strictest silence, while the others, if they are not among a crowd where they remain calm, they make a racket and seem out of their minds. These things happen when some kind of humor is imbalanced, and the place which reddens when it comes to the surface and returns energy to the person’s spirit.”

Ταύτης δέ γε εἶδος καὶ ἡ λυκανθρωπία καλουμένη, ἀναπείθουσα τοὺς ἁλόντας μέσον νυκτῶν ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιϊέναι, ἔν τε μνήμασι καὶ ἐρημίαις κατὰ τοὺς λύκους, μεθ’ ἡμέραν δὲ ἐπιστρέφειν τε καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς γίνεσθαι, καὶ οἴκοι διατρίβειν. ἀλλ’ οἵδε μέν, τούς τε πόδας καὶ τὰς κνήμας ἔχουσιν ἡμαγμένους τῷ προσπταίειν τοῖς λίθοις καὶ ταῖς ἀκάνθαις, καὶ ξηροὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν καὶ διψώδεις, καὶ ἀδρανὲς βλέπουσιν. ἐῶ δὲ λέγειν ὅσα πάσχουσιν ἕτεροι, ὧν οἱ μὲν ἀεὶ τὸν θάνατον φοβούμενοι διατελοῦσιν, οἱ δ’ αὖ τούτου ἐπιθυμοῦντες, ὥσπερ ἕτεροι τὰς τῶν πολλῶν ὁμιλίας φεύγουσι, καὶ ἄκραν σιωπὴν ἀσκοῦσιν, αὖθις δὲ ἕτεροι, ἢν μὴ ὁμιλῶσιν ἄλλοις καὶ διαχεόμενοι ὦσι, θορυβούμενοί τε καὶ ἐκθαμβούμενοι. καὶ ταῦτα γίνεται παρὰ τὸ ποιὸν τοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος χυμοῦ, ἔτι τε τὸν τόπον, ὃν ἐγγίσας ἐρεθίζει καὶ διανιστᾷ τὴν κατ’ ἐκείνον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνέργειαν.

Anonymi Medici, A Collection of ancient treatises on disease and treatments. Some tracts are dated to the first century CE. There are some textual issues I have only barely tried to solve. The additions and differences seem to imply a text later than Paulus or Aëtius.

“Lycanthropy is a type of madness when people go out at night and spend time among graves. You will recognize those who suffer from it thus. Their skin is pale and they appear weak. They have dry eyes and they neither cry nor produce moisture. You may note that their eyes are hollow and their forehead is damp; they may have an extremely dry tongue and may not completely produce saliva. They are thirsty and they have open wounds on their shins from striking them frequently. Their body bears the particular marks of melancholy sometimes, since this is melancholic in nature, and they have been afflicted [with this] by some thought or sleeplessness, or spoiled food, or contact with birth fluids [?], bloody discharge, or menstrual blood. These are the indications and signs of lycanthropy.

This is how you treat it: I cut the veins at the elbows and I drain blood almost until the patient passes out then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After running him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After these cleansings, I would anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. In addition, I would suggest draining off any bloody discharge and avoiding any menstrual blood in order to stop the conditions that created the disease. Also commendable is furnishing diuretics and cleaning any pustules.”

Εἶδος μανίας ἐστὶν ἡ λυκανθρωπία, καὶ νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα καὶ τάφους διατρίβουσι. γνωριεῖς δὲ τοὺς οὕτω πάσχοντας. τοῖς δὲ ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσιν καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἁδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι, οὔτε δακρύουσιν

οὔτε ὑγραίνονται. θεάσῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον ὑγρὸν καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ξηροτάτην καὶ σιέλον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωρῶν αὐτοῖς. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις ξηροὶ καὶ τὰς κνήμας, διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προςπίπτειν ἀνία αὐτοὺς καὶ ἑλκομένας ἔχουσιν. ἴδια δὲ σημεῖα τῶν μελαγχολικῶν τότε κατισχναίνειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ μελαγχολικὸν εἶναι τῇ φύσει, ἢ καὶ ἐξεπήκτη [?] τὸν διά τινος φροντίδος ἢ ἀγρυπνίας ἢ μοχθηρῶν σιτίων ἢ προφορᾶς ἢ ἐπίσχεσιν αἱμορροΐδων καὶ καταμηνίων γυναικῶν. τοιαῦτα μὲν δεῖ συμβαίνειν καὶ τὰ τῆς λυκανθρωπίας σημεῖα.

Πῶς οὖν θεραπεύσεις. Κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὸν πρῶτον χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνω φλέβα τὴν ἐξ ἀγκώνων καὶ κενῶ τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαίτησιν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖς εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς· καὶ χρῆσθαι λουτροῖς γλυκέσι ἢ ὀρρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν. καὶ καθαίρων δὲ τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ καὶ β′ καὶ γ′ καὶ μετὰ τὰς καθάρσεις τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσομαι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψομαι ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται καὶ τὰς αἰμορροΐδας ἀναστομῶσαι καὶ καταμήνια γυναικῶν προπέσθαι κελεύω διὰ τὴν τούτων ἐπίσχεσιν, τὴν γεγενημένην εἰς τὸ πάθος· ἀγαθὰ δὲ καὶ αἱ διουρητικαὶ δυνάμεις καὶ τῶν ἱδρώτων κάθαρσις.

“In Geneva a man killed 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf; he was executed on 15 October 1580”. Coloured pen drawing, Johann Jakob Wick, Sammlung von Nachrichten zur Zeitgeschichte aus den Jahren 1560–1587, ms. F 29, fol. 167v. From the Zentral Bibliothek Zürich.

Lingering problems:

As a Homerist, my experience in late Greek prose is limited; my experience in medical terminology is worse. I believe I have made sense of all of this, but I am happy to have suggestions or additions.

  1. τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ: This phrase has given me fits. I at first made the mistake of taking ἱερᾷ to mean something sacred (e.g. rite, but not “shrine”, because that would be neuter!). But the LSJ lists ἱερὰ ἡ: a kind of serpent adding “II. A name for many medicines in the Greek pharmacopia…of a plaster; esp. of aloes.” So, since it does not seem likely that the treatment being prescribed is a “snake through a pumpkin”. In addition, later Greek prose uses dia + genitive to denote the thing from which something was made (LSJ s.v. dia A.III.c.2). So, I have settled on a “pumpkin salve”
  1. τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου: I have no idea what is going on with the three proper names here: are these places or people that produce the pumpkin poultice?

Werewolf Week, JAMA Edition: Diagnosis and Therapy

This week in honor of Halloween we are returning to an obsession with lycanthropy. There is a trove of ancient Greek medical treatises on the diagnosing and treatment of the disease.

wolfbyz

Oribasius (Pergamum, c. 4th Century CE)

Oribasius is said to have studied medicine in Alexandria; he later served as the court doctor to Julian the Apostate. He wrote several encyclopedic summaries of medical knowledge at the time. The text produced for a friend’s son (Synopsis ad Eustathium) is identical to that attributed to Paulus of Aegina and seems to form the core of medical treatises on lycanthropy.

On Lycanthropy:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among the gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood until the patient almost passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve* to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When they disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on their ears and nostrils when they are ready to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίας.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα λύκους μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχρις ἡμέρας περὶ μνήματα διατρίβουσιν. γνωριεῖς δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάσχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσι καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἀδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι καὶ οὐδὲ δακρύουσιν· θεάσῃ δ’αὐτῶν κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ σίελον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωροῦν αὐτοῖς· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις καὶ τὰς κνήμας διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προσπταίειν ἀνιάτως ἡλκωμένας ἴσχουσιν.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίσματα· γινώσκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδος μελαγχολίας εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύσεις κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς. κεχρήσθω δὲ τοῖς λουτροῖς γλυκέσιν· εἶτ’ ὀρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρεῖς ἡμέρας κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ, καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰς καθάρσεις καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένης δ’ ἤδη τῆς νόσου τοῖς ὕπνους ἐμποιεῖν εἰωθόσιν ἐπιβρέγμασι χρήσῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖσον ὦτα καὶ μυκτῆρας εἰς ὕπνον τρεπομένοις.

* The pumpkin or gourd (Gr. kolokunthos) was associated with life and health due to its “juicy nature”; see LSJ s.v. This may explain its ritual/therapeutic use both in cleansing an association with death and with treating a patient exhibiting extreme symptoms of dryness.

Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase...His 'treatment' was less than therapeutic...
Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase…His ‘treatment’ was less than therapeutic…

 

Aëtius (Amida, 6th Century CE)

 

Aetius was a Byzantine doctor and writer who may have lived as early as the fifth century CE.He also studied at Alexandria and collated sixteen books of medicine—much of which was drawn from Galen and Oribasius. His indebtedness to the latter is clear from his passage on lycanthropy, but there are interesting additions. I have marked the significant additions in bold.

On Lykanthropy or Kynanthropy, following Marcellus*

Those who are afflicted by the disease once-called kynanthropy or lycanthropy go out at night during the month Pheurouarion** and imitate wolves or dogs in every way as they spend time until daybreak around gravestones especially. You will recognize people who suffer in this way from the following symptoms: They are pale, they look weak, they have dry eyes and a dry tongue and they don’t completely secrete saliva. They are thirsty and they have festering wounds on their shins from falling continuously and from dog bites.

Such are the symptoms. For treatment, you need to understand that lycanthropy is a type of melancholy. You treat it at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining the blood until the point when the patient passes out, then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath, and after rubbing him with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him from [Rouphos, Archigenos, or Ioustos]. After these cleansings, anoint him with the viper-venom antidote. Also do all the other things that are prescribed earlier for melancholy.

When the disease comes on in the evening, rub down the heads of those who tend to sleepwalk with a lotion and for those who hunt by scent, smear some opium on their nostrils. Sometimes it is also necessary to administer a sleeping medicine.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίαϲ ἤτοι κυνανθρωπίαϲ Μαρκέλλου.

οἱ τῇ λεγοένῃ κυνανθρωπίᾳ ἤτοι λυκανθρωπίᾳ νόϲῳ κατεχόμενοι κατὰ τὸν Φευρουάριον μῆνα νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα μιμούμενοι λύκουϲ ἢ κύναϲ καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα μάλιϲτα διατρίβουϲι. γνωρίϲειϲ δὲ τοὺϲ οὕτω πάϲχονταϲ διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ οὐδὲν δακρύουϲι. θεάϲῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλουϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ καὶ γλῶϲϲαν ξηρὰν καὶ οὐδὲ ὅλωϲ ϲίελον προχέουϲιν. εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ ἔχουϲιν ἡλκωμέναϲ ἀνιάτωϲ διὰ τὰ ϲυνεχῆ πτώματα καὶ τῶν κυνῶν τὰ δήγματα.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίϲματα· γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶδοϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ. κεχρήϲθω δὲ λουτροῖϲ γλυκέϲιν, εἶτα ὀρρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου, δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον παρέχων ἐκ διαϲτημάτων. μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρηϲτέον. καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραληπτέον ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ προείρηται. εἰϲ ἑϲπέραν δὲ ἐπερχομένηϲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὕπνον εἰωθόϲιν ἐμποιεῖν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι τῆϲ κεφαλῆϲ χρῆϲθαι καὶ ὀϲφραντοῖϲ τοιούτοιϲ καὶ ὀπίῳ διαχρίειν τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ποτίζειν τινὰ τῶν ὑπνωτικῶν.

*According to the Suda, Marcellus was a doctor of Marcus Aurelius (2nd Century) who wrote two books on medicine in dactylic hexameter.

**Presumably this coincides with the month February and may have a special connection with Lycanthropy due to the Lupercalia.


Paulus (of Aegina, c. 7th Century CE)
A 7th Century CE Byzantine Physician who wrote De Re Medica Libri Septem) The Suda (s.v. Paulus) writes: Παῦλος, Αἰγινήτης, ἰατρός. ἔγραψεν ἰατρικὰ βιβλία διάφορα (“Paulos, from Aeigina, a doctor. He wrote various medical books”).

The text below is identical to that attributed to Oribasius:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy, which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood almost until the patient passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When the disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on the ears and nostrils of those preparing to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκάονοϲ ἢ λυκανθρώπου.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα λύκουϲ μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα διατρίβουϲι. γνωριεῖϲ δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάϲχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ τὴν γλῶϲϲαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ ϲίελον οὐδ’ ὅλωϲ προχωροῦν αὐτοῖϲ· εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ, καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ διὰ τὸ πολλάκιϲ προϲπταίειν ἀνιάτωϲ ἡλκωμέναϲ ἴϲχουϲιν. τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ γνωρίϲματα·

γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδοϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ· κεχρήϲθω δὲ τοῖϲ λουτροῖϲ γλυ-κέϲιν. εἶτα ὀρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολοκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήϲῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ, ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένηϲ δὲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὑπνοποιεῖν εἰωθόϲιν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι χρήϲῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖϲον τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ εἰϲ ὕπνον τρεπομένοιϲ.

Joannes Actuarius, De Diagnosi (Constantinople 13th to 14th Century)

Johannes Zacharias Actuarius was also a Byzantine doctor. He composed many works on medicine that drew on Galen, Aëtius and Paulus—which is clear from his text on lycanthropy. Significant differences from Aëtius’ text are in bold.

De Diagnosi 1.34.24

A type of this madness is called lycanthropy—it convinces those so afflicted to go outside in the middle of the night, among the graves and desolate places, like wolves and to return at night, to become themselves again, and to remain at home. But some of them have feet and shins marked up from touching stones and thorns and they have dry eyes and tongue. They are thirsty, and they look weak. I will pass over how much the others suffer—but some of them die after fearing death for long while others desire it fiercely. In the same way, some avoid large groups of people and maintain the strictest silence, while the others, if they are not among a crowd where they remain calm, they make a racket and seem out of their minds. These things happen when some kind of humor is imbalanced, and the place which reddens when it comes to the surface and returns energy to the person’s spirit.”

Ταύτης δέ γε εἶδος καὶ ἡ λυκανθρωπία καλουμένη, ἀναπείθουσα τοὺς ἁλόντας μέσον νυκτῶν ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιϊέναι, ἔν τε μνήμασι καὶ ἐρημίαις κατὰ τοὺς λύκους, μεθ’ ἡμέραν δὲ ἐπιστρέφειν τε καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς γίνεσθαι, καὶ οἴκοι διατρίβειν. ἀλλ’ οἵδε μέν, τούς τε πόδας καὶ τὰς κνήμας ἔχουσιν ἡμαγμένους τῷ προσπταίειν τοῖς λίθοις καὶ ταῖς ἀκάνθαις, καὶ ξηροὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν καὶ διψώδεις, καὶ ἀδρανὲς βλέπουσιν. ἐῶ δὲ λέγειν ὅσα πάσχουσιν ἕτεροι, ὧν οἱ μὲν ἀεὶ τὸν θάνατον φοβούμενοι διατελοῦσιν, οἱ δ’ αὖ τούτου ἐπιθυμοῦντες, ὥσπερ ἕτεροι τὰς τῶν πολλῶν ὁμιλίας φεύγουσι, καὶ ἄκραν σιωπὴν ἀσκοῦσιν, αὖθις δὲ ἕτεροι, ἢν μὴ ὁμιλῶσιν ἄλλοις καὶ διαχεόμενοι ὦσι, θορυβούμενοί τε καὶ ἐκθαμβούμενοι. καὶ ταῦτα γίνεται παρὰ τὸ ποιὸν τοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος χυμοῦ, ἔτι τε τὸν τόπον, ὃν ἐγγίσας ἐρεθίζει καὶ διανιστᾷ τὴν κατ’ ἐκείνον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνέργειαν.

Anonymi Medici, A Collection of ancient treatises on disease and treatments. Some tracts are dated to the first century CE. There are some textual issues I have only barely tried to solve. The additions and differences seem to imply a text later than Paulus or Aëtius.

“Lycanthropy is a type of madness when people go out at night and spend time among graves. You will recognize those who suffer from it thus. Their skin is pale and they appear weak. They have dry eyes and they neither cry nor produce moisture. You may note that their eyes are hollow and their forehead is damp; they may have an extremely dry tongue and may not completely produce saliva. They are thirsty and they have open wounds on their shins from striking them frequently. Their body bears the particular marks of melancholy sometimes, since this is melancholic in nature, and they have been afflicted [with this] by some thought or sleeplessness, or spoiled food, or contact with birth fluids [?], bloody discharge, or menstrual blood. These are the indications and signs of lycanthropy.

This is how you treat it: I cut the veins at the elbows and I drain blood almost until the patient passes out then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After running him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After these cleansings, I would anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. In addition, I would suggest draining off any bloody discharge and avoiding any menstrual blood in order to stop the conditions that created the disease. Also commendable is furnishing diuretics and cleaning any pustules.”

Εἶδος μανίας ἐστὶν ἡ λυκανθρωπία, καὶ νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα καὶ τάφους διατρίβουσι. γνωριεῖς δὲ τοὺς οὕτω πάσχοντας. τοῖς δὲ ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσιν καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἁδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι, οὔτε δακρύουσιν

οὔτε ὑγραίνονται. θεάσῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον ὑγρὸν καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ξηροτάτην καὶ σιέλον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωρῶν αὐτοῖς. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις ξηροὶ καὶ τὰς κνήμας, διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προςπίπτειν ἀνία αὐτοὺς καὶ ἑλκομένας ἔχουσιν. ἴδια δὲ σημεῖα τῶν μελαγχολικῶν τότε κατισχναίνειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ μελαγχολικὸν εἶναι τῇ φύσει, ἢ καὶ ἐξεπήκτη [?] τὸν διά τινος φροντίδος ἢ ἀγρυπνίας ἢ μοχθηρῶν σιτίων ἢ προφορᾶς ἢ ἐπίσχεσιν αἱμορροΐδων καὶ καταμηνίων γυναικῶν. τοιαῦτα μὲν δεῖ συμβαίνειν καὶ τὰ τῆς λυκανθρωπίας σημεῖα.

Πῶς οὖν θεραπεύσεις. Κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὸν πρῶτον χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνω φλέβα τὴν ἐξ ἀγκώνων καὶ κενῶ τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαίτησιν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖς εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς· καὶ χρῆσθαι λουτροῖς γλυκέσι ἢ ὀρρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν. καὶ καθαίρων δὲ τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ καὶ β′ καὶ γ′ καὶ μετὰ τὰς καθάρσεις τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσομαι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψομαι ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται καὶ τὰς αἰμορροΐδας ἀναστομῶσαι καὶ καταμήνια γυναικῶν προπέσθαι κελεύω διὰ τὴν τούτων ἐπίσχεσιν, τὴν γεγενημένην εἰς τὸ πάθος· ἀγαθὰ δὲ καὶ αἱ διουρητικαὶ δυνάμεις καὶ τῶν ἱδρώτων κάθαρσις.

“In Geneva a man killed 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf; he was executed on 15 October 1580”. Coloured pen drawing, Johann Jakob Wick, Sammlung von Nachrichten zur Zeitgeschichte aus den Jahren 1560–1587, ms. F 29, fol. 167v. From the Zentral Bibliothek Zürich.

Lingering problems:

As a Homerist, my experience in late Greek prose is limited; my experience in medical terminology is worse. I believe I have made sense of all of this, but I am happy to have suggestions or additions.

  1. τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ: This phrase has given me fits. I at first made the mistake of taking ἱερᾷ to mean something sacred (e.g. rite, but not “shrine”, because that would be neuter!). But the LSJ lists ἱερὰ ἡ: a kind of serpent adding “II. A name for many medicines in the Greek pharmacopia…of a plaster; esp. of aloes.” So, since it does not seem likely that the treatment being prescribed is a “snake through a pumpkin”. In addition, later Greek prose uses dia + genitive to denote the thing from which something was made (LSJ s.v. dia A.III.c.2). So, I have settled on a “pumpkin salve”
  1. τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου: I have no idea what is going on with the three proper names here: are these places or people that produce the pumpkin poultice?

Tell Me Aristotle, Why Do We Have Butts?

Thanks to Dr. Rebecca Raphael for sharing this passage on the teleology of the human ass with me. This is mostly for distraction, but it also functions as a timely reminder of some of the absurd conclusions that can arise from teleological thinking.

Aristotle, Parts of Animals 689b

“A human being is has no tail, but does have buttocks although the quadruped does not. A human being also has legs which are fleshy in the thighs and calves, while all the rest of the animals have fleshless legs—and not only those animals which have live births, but as many of the other animals who have legs—and they are covered with sinew, are bony, and full of spines.

There is one explanation, you might say, for these differences and that is that humans are the only animal to stand upright. So, nature removed some of the fleshy parts from above and transferred the weight below in order to make the upper portions of human beings easier to bear. This is why nature made human butts fleshy along with their thighs and their calves. With the same act, it made the nature of the buttocks useful for taking a break.

For it is not a problem for the rest of the quadrupeds and they do not get tired from doing that continually.  This is because they have four supports holding them up, it works the same as if they are lying down.But human beings do not easily remain standing upright: our bodies need rest and need to sit down.

This is why a human being has a fleshy butt and thighs and the same reason why we don’t have tails. All the nutrition which heads that way is spent on butts and thighs. The need and use of a tail, moreover, is negated by having butts and thighs. In quadrupeds and the rest of the animals, the situation is the opposite: because they are like dwarfs, all their weight is centered in their upper parts and it is separated from the lower section. For this reason, they have no butt and have hard legs.

ὁ δ᾿ ἄνθρωπος ἄκερκον μέν ἐστιν, ἰσχία δ᾿ ἔχει, τῶν δὲ τετραπόδων οὐδέν. ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὰ σκέλη ὁ μὲν ἄνθρωπος σαρκώδη καὶ μηροὺς καὶ κνήμας, τὰ δ᾿ ἄλλα πάντ᾿ ἄσαρκα ἔχει, οὐ μόνον τὰ ζῳοτόκα ἀλλ᾿ ὅλως ὅσα σκέλη ἔχει τῶν ζῴων· νευρώδη γὰρ ἔχει καὶ ὀστώδη καὶ ἀκανθώδη. τούτων δ᾿ αἰτία μία τίς ἐστιν ὡς εἰπεῖν ἁπάντων, διότι μόνον ἐστὶν ὀρθὸν τῶν ζῴων ἄνθρωπος. ἵν᾿ οὖν φέρῃ ῥᾳδίως τἄνω κοῦφα ὄντα, ἀφελοῦσα τὸ σωματῶδες ἀπὸ τῶν ἄνω πρὸς τὰ κάτω τὸ βάρος ἡ φύσις προσέθηκεν· διόπερ τὰ ἰσχία σαρκώδη ἐποίησε καὶ μηροὺς καὶ γαστροκνημίας. ἅμα δὲ τήν τε τῶν ἰσχίων φύσιν καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἀναπαύσεις ἀπέδωκε χρήσιμον· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ τετράποσιν ἄκοπον τὸ ἑστάναι, καὶ οὐ κάμνουσι τοῦτο ποιοῦντα συνεχῶς (ὥσπερ γὰρ κατακείμενα διατελεῖ ὑποκειμένων τεττάρων ἐρεισμάτων), τοῖς δ᾿ ἀνθρώποις οὐ ῥᾴδιον ὀρθῶς ἑστῶσι διαμένειν, ἀλλὰ δεῖται τὸ σῶμα ἀναπαύσεως καὶ καθέδρας. ὁ μὲν οὖν ἄνθρωπος ἰσχία τ᾿ ἔχει καὶ τὰ σκέλη σαρκώδη διὰ τὴν εἰρημένην αἰτίαν, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἄκερκον (ἥ τε γὰρ ἐκεῖσε τροφὴ πορευομένη εἰς ταῦτα ἀναλίσκεται, καὶ διὰ τὸ ἔχειν ἰσχία ἀφῄρηται ἡ τῆς οὐρᾶς ἀναγκαία χρῆσις), τὰ δὲ τετράποδα καὶ τἆλλα ζῷα ἐξ ἐναντίας· νανώδεσι γὰρ οὖσι πρὸς τὸ ἄνω τὸ βάρος καὶ τὸ σωματῶδες ἐπίκειται πᾶν, ἀφῃρημένον ἀπὸ τῶν κάτωθεν· διόπερ ἀνίσχια καὶ σκληρὰ τὰ σκέλη ἔχουσιν.

Image result for ancient greek statue rear end
Motya Charioteer

 

Another Reason to Be Cautious When Drinking

Hippocrates, Epidemics 5.86

“A young man who had drunk too much unmixed wine was sleeping on his back in a tent. A bright snake entered his mouth. When he felt it, and he couldn’t imagine what to do, he clamped his teeth down and bit off the snake. Then he was overcome by a severe pain and put his hands up as if he was choking and thrashed around. He had seizures and died.”

  1. Νεηνίσκος δέ τις πολὺν ἄκρητον πεπωκὼς ὕπτιος ἐκάθευδεν ἔν τινι σκηνῇ· τούτῳ ὄφις ἐς τὸ στόμα παρεισεδύετο ἀργής. καὶ δὴ ὅτε ᾔσθετο, οὐ δυνάμενος φράσασθαι, ἔβρυξε τοὺς ὀδόντας, καὶ παρέτραγε τοῦ ὄφιος, καὶ ἀλγηδόνι μεγάλῃ εἴχετο, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας προσέφερεν ὡς ἀγχόμενος, καὶ ἐρρίπτει ἑωυτόν, καὶ σπασθεὶς ἔθανεν.
Medieval Bestiary : Snake Gallery
From the Medieval Bestiary and the British Library

Fear of Flute-girls and Heights: Some Physician’s Notes

Hippocrates, Epidemics 5

“Whenever he went to a drinking party, Nikanor was afflicted with fear of the flute girl. Whenever she began playing the flute and he would hear it in the Symposium, he would be filled with anxiety. He said he could scarcely endure it whenever it was night. But during the day time, he was not scared off by hearing it. These kinds of reactions lasted a very long time.”

“Democles, who was his companion, used to seem blind and weak in his body. He was not able to walk along a cliff or on a bridge to cross over even a smallest depth of a ditch. But he was capable of crossing the ditch itself. This impacted him for a great amount of time.”

  1. Τὸ Νικάνορος πάθος, ὁπότε ἐς ποτὸν ὁρμῷτο, φόβος τῆς αὐλητρίδος· ὁκότε φωνῆς αὐλοῦ ἀρχομένης ἀκούσειεν αὐλεῖν ἐν ξυμποσίῳ, ὑπὸ δειμάτων ὄχλοι· μόγις ὑπομένειν ἔφη, ὅτε εἴη νύξ· ἡμέρης δὲ ἀκούων οὐδὲν διετρέπετο· τοιαῦτα παρείπετο συχνὸν χρόνον.
  2. Δημοκλῆς ὁ μετ᾿ ἐκείνου ἀμβλυώσσειν καὶ λυσισωματεῖν ἐδόκει, καὶ οὐκ ἂν παρῆλθε παρὰ κρημνὸν οὐδὲ ἐπὶ γεφύρης οὐδὲ τοὐλάχιστον βάθος τάφρου διαπορεύεσθαι, ἀλλὰ δι᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς τάφρου οἷος ἦν· τοῦτο χρόνον τινὰ ξυνέβη αὐτῷ.

 

Image result for medieval manuscript fear of heights
There is a lot to be afraid of….

Physician’s Notes on a Depressed Patient

Hippocrates, Epidemics 7

“Bouts of depression and a longing for death afflicted Parmeniskos before too; but he was in turns touched by a sense of elation. Once, in Olynthos during the Autumn, he went to bed without a voice and rested, not even trying to begin speaking for some time. At other times, he spoke a bit, but then again went silent. Sleep overcame him but then he would be awake, turning repeatedly in silence and delirium. His hand would go to his hypochondria as if he were in pain.

Sometimes he would turn away and lie very still. He had a continuous fever but was breathing easily. He said afterwards that he knew who the people who entered were. Sometimes, he would refuse the water they offered for a whole day and night; at other times, he would grab the pitcher and drink it all. He had urine as thick as a mule’s. But he was better by the 14th day.”

Παρμενίσκῳ καὶ πρότερον ἐνέπιπτον ἀθυμίαι καὶ ἵμερος ἀπαλλαγῆς βίου, ὁτὲ δὲ πάλιν εὐθυμίη. ἐν Ὀλύνθῳ δέ ποτε φθινοπώρου ἄφωνος κατέκειτο ἡσυχίην ἔχων, βραχύ τι ὅσον ἄρχεσθαι ἐπιχειρέων προσειπεῖν· ἤδη δέ τι καὶ διελέχθη, καὶ πάλιν ἄφωνος. ὕπνοι ἐνῆσαν, ὁτὲ δὲ ἀγρυπνίη, καὶ ῥιπτασμὸς μετὰ σιγῆς, καὶ ἀλυσμός, καὶ χεὶρ πρὸς ὑποχόνδρια ὡς ὀδυνωμένῳ· ὁτὲ δὲ ἀποστραφεὶς ἔκειτο ἡσυχίην ἄγων. ὁ πυρετὸς δὲ διατέλεος, καὶ εὔπνοος· ἔφη δὲ ὕστερον ἐπιγινώσκειν τοὺς ἐσιόντας· πιεῖν ὁτὲ μὲν ἡμέρης ὅλης καὶ νυκτὸς διδόντων, οὐκ ἤθελεν, ὁτὲ δὲ ἐξαίφνης τὸν στάμνον ἁρπάσας τοῦ ὕδατος ἐξέπιεν· οὖρον παχὺ ὡς ὑποζυγίου. περὶ δὲ τὴν τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα ἀνῆκεν.

A doctor examines a patient's urine in an illustration from the 13th century. Uroscopy, the study of urine, was one of the medieval physician's most effective tools, and is still employed today. (Photo by Bridgman Art Library)

Sleep, Pregnancy, and Head Wounds: Some Hippocratic Aphorisms

Hippocrates of Cos, Aphorisms

The aphorisms attributed to Hippocrates of Cos contain a range of medical ‘wisdom’. There are hundreds. Here are a handful.

2.3 “Sleep, or sleeplessness, should either come beyond moderation, can be bad.”

III. Ὕπνος, ἀγρυπνίη, ἀμφότερα μᾶλλον τοῦ μετρίου γινόμενα, κακόν.

2.7 “Bodies that have wasted away over a long amount of time should be healed slowly. Those that have declined quickly, should be healed quickly.”

VII. Τὰ ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ λεπτυνόμενα σώματα νωθρῶς ἐπανατρέφειν, τὰ δὲ ἐν ὀλίγῳ, ὀλίγως.

2.44 “People who are naturally rather fat die more quickly than the thin.”

XLIV. Οἱ παχέες σφόδρα κατὰ φύσιν, ταχυθάνατοιγίνονται μᾶλλον τῶν ἰσχνῶν.

5.38 “When a woman is pregnant and carrying twins, should either breast become thin, she loses one child. If the right breast thins, she loses the male child; if the left one does, the female.”

XXXVIII. Γυναικὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσῃ ἢν ὁ ἕτερος μασθὸς ἰσχνὸς γένηται, δίδυμα ἐχούσῃ, θάτερον ἐκτιτρώσκει· καὶ ἢν μὲν ὁ δεξιὸς ἰσχνὸς γένηται, τὸ ἄρσεν· ἢν δὲ ὁ ἀριστερός, τὸ θῆλυ.

6.18 “A serious wound striking either the bladder, the head, the heard, the brain, some part of the smaller intestine, the stomach or the liver, is mortal.”

XVIII. Κυστιν διακοπέντι, ἢ ἐγκέφαλον, ἢ καρδίην, ἢ φρένας, ἢ τῶν ἐντέρων τι τῶν λεπτῶν, ἢ κοιλίην, ἢ ἧπαρ, θανατῶδες.

7.58 “Whenever the brain is concussed for any reason, people immediately become speechless.”

LVIII. Ὁκόσοισιν ἂν ὁ ἐγκέφαλος σεισθῇ ὑπό τινος προφάσιος, ἀνάγκη ἀφώνους γενέσθαι παραχρῆμα.

Image result for ancient greek medical practice
Physician treating a patient (Attic red-figurearyballos, 480–470 BC). Image taken from Wikipedia.

Werewolf Week, JAMA Edition: Diagnosis and Therapy

This week in honor of Halloween we are returning to an obsession with lycanthropy. There is a trove of ancient Greek medical treatises on the diagnosing and treatment of the disease.

wolfbyz

Oribasius (Pergamum, c. 4th Century CE)

Oribasius is said to have studied medicine in Alexandria; he later served as the court doctor to Julian the Apostate. He wrote several encyclopedic summaries of medical knowledge at the time. The text produced for a friend’s son (Synopsis ad Eustathium) is identical to that attributed to Paulus of Aegina and seems to form the core of medical treatises on lycanthropy.

On Lycanthropy:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among the gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood until the patient almost passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve* to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When they disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on their ears and nostrils when they are ready to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίας.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα λύκους μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχρις ἡμέρας περὶ μνήματα διατρίβουσιν. γνωριεῖς δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάσχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσι καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἀδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι καὶ οὐδὲ δακρύουσιν· θεάσῃ δ’αὐτῶν κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ σίελον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωροῦν αὐτοῖς· εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις καὶ τὰς κνήμας διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προσπταίειν ἀνιάτως ἡλκωμένας ἴσχουσιν.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίσματα· γινώσκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδος μελαγχολίας εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύσεις κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς. κεχρήσθω δὲ τοῖς λουτροῖς γλυκέσιν· εἶτ’ ὀρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρεῖς ἡμέρας κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ, καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰς καθάρσεις καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένης δ’ ἤδη τῆς νόσου τοῖς ὕπνους ἐμποιεῖν εἰωθόσιν ἐπιβρέγμασι χρήσῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖσον ὦτα καὶ μυκτῆρας εἰς ὕπνον τρεπομένοις.

* The pumpkin or gourd (Gr. kolokunthos) was associated with life and health due to its “juicy nature”; see LSJ s.v. This may explain its ritual/therapeutic use both in cleansing an association with death and with treating a patient exhibiting extreme symptoms of dryness.

Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase...His 'treatment' was less than therapeutic...
Dolon the Trojan Wears a Wolf Skin on a Red Figure Vase…His ‘treatment’ was less than therapeutic…

 

Aëtius (Amida, 6th Century CE)

 

Aetius was a Byzantine doctor and writer who may have lived as early as the fifth century CE.He also studied at Alexandria and collated sixteen books of medicine—much of which was drawn from Galen and Oribasius. His indebtedness to the latter is clear from his passage on lycanthropy, but there are interesting additions. I have marked the significant additions in bold.

On Lykanthropy or Kynanthropy, following Marcellus*

Those who are afflicted by the disease once-called kynanthropy or lycanthropy go out at night during the month Pheurouarion** and imitate wolves or dogs in every way as they spend time until daybreak around gravestones especially. You will recognize people who suffer in this way from the following symptoms: They are pale, they look weak, they have dry eyes and a dry tongue and they don’t completely secrete saliva. They are thirsty and they have festering wounds on their shins from falling continuously and from dog bites.

Such are the symptoms. For treatment, you need to understand that lycanthropy is a type of melancholy. You treat it at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining the blood until the point when the patient passes out, then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath, and after rubbing him with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him from [Rouphos, Archigenos, or Ioustos]. After these cleansings, anoint him with the viper-venom antidote. Also do all the other things that are prescribed earlier for melancholy.

When the disease comes on in the evening, rub down the heads of those who tend to sleepwalk with a lotion and for those who hunt by scent, smear some opium on their nostrils. Sometimes it is also necessary to administer a sleeping medicine.”

Περὶ λυκανθρωπίαϲ ἤτοι κυνανθρωπίαϲ Μαρκέλλου.

οἱ τῇ λεγοένῃ κυνανθρωπίᾳ ἤτοι λυκανθρωπίᾳ νόϲῳ κατεχόμενοι κατὰ τὸν Φευρουάριον μῆνα νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα μιμούμενοι λύκουϲ ἢ κύναϲ καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα μάλιϲτα διατρίβουϲι. γνωρίϲειϲ δὲ τοὺϲ οὕτω πάϲχονταϲ διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ οὐδὲν δακρύουϲι. θεάϲῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλουϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ καὶ γλῶϲϲαν ξηρὰν καὶ οὐδὲ ὅλωϲ ϲίελον προχέουϲιν. εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ ἔχουϲιν ἡλκωμέναϲ ἀνιάτωϲ διὰ τὰ ϲυνεχῆ πτώματα καὶ τῶν κυνῶν τὰ δήγματα.

τοιαῦτα μὲν αὐτῶν τὰ γνωρίϲματα· γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶδοϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ. κεχρήϲθω δὲ λουτροῖϲ γλυκέϲιν, εἶτα ὀρρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου, δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον παρέχων ἐκ διαϲτημάτων. μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρηϲτέον. καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραληπτέον ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ προείρηται. εἰϲ ἑϲπέραν δὲ ἐπερχομένηϲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὕπνον εἰωθόϲιν ἐμποιεῖν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι τῆϲ κεφαλῆϲ χρῆϲθαι καὶ ὀϲφραντοῖϲ τοιούτοιϲ καὶ ὀπίῳ διαχρίειν τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ποτίζειν τινὰ τῶν ὑπνωτικῶν.

*According to the Suda, Marcellus was a doctor of Marcus Aurelius (2nd Century) who wrote two books on medicine in dactylic hexameter.

**Presumably this coincides with the month February and may have a special connection with Lycanthropy due to the Lupercalia.


Paulus (of Aegina, c. 7th Century CE)
A 7th Century CE Byzantine Physician who wrote De Re Medica Libri Septem) The Suda (s.v. Paulus) writes: Παῦλος, Αἰγινήτης, ἰατρός. ἔγραψεν ἰατρικὰ βιβλία διάφορα (“Paulos, from Aeigina, a doctor. He wrote various medical books”).

The text below is identical to that attributed to Oribasius:

“Men who are afflicted with lycanthropy go out at night and imitate wolves in every way, spending time until daybreak among gravestones. You will recognize that someone is suffering from this by the following symptoms. They appear pale and look weak; they have dry eyes and cannot cry. You may observe that their eyes are hollow and their tongue is especially dry: they cannot really produce saliva. They are thus thirsty and in addition they have wounded shins from scraping the ground frequently.

These are the symptoms; for treatment it is important to recognize that this is a type of melancholy, which you may treat at the time the disease is noticed by cutting open the veins and draining blood almost until the patient passes out. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. Following these cleansings, anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. When the disease has already come over those who are accustomed to sleepwalk, anoint them with lotion. And rub opium on the ears and nostrils of those preparing to sleep.”

Περὶ λυκάονοϲ ἢ λυκανθρώπου.

Οἱ τῇ λυκανθρωπίᾳ κατεχόμενοι νυκτὸϲ ἐξίαϲι τὰ πάντα λύκουϲ μιμούμενοι καὶ μέχριϲ ἡμέραϲ περὶ τὰ μνήματα διατρίβουϲι. γνωριεῖϲ δὲ τὸν οὕτω πάϲχοντα διὰ τῶνδε· ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουϲι καὶ ὁρῶϲιν ἀδρανὲϲ καὶ ξηροὺϲ τοὺϲ ὀφθαλμοὺϲ ἔχουϲι καὶ τὴν γλῶϲϲαν ξηροτάτην, καὶ ϲίελον οὐδ’ ὅλωϲ προχωροῦν αὐτοῖϲ· εἰϲὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδειϲ, καὶ τὰϲ κνήμαϲ διὰ τὸ πολλάκιϲ προϲπταίειν ἀνιάτωϲ ἡλκωμέναϲ ἴϲχουϲιν. τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ γνωρίϲματα·

γινώϲκειν δὲ χρὴ εἶδοϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἶναι τὴν λυκανθρωπίαν, ἣν θεραπεύϲειϲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆϲ ἐπιϲημαϲίαϲ τέμνων φλέβα καὶ κενῶν τοῦ αἵματοϲ ἄχρι λειποθυμίαϲ καὶ διαιτῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖϲ εὐχύμοιϲ τροφαῖϲ· κεχρήϲθω δὲ τοῖϲ λουτροῖϲ γλυ-κέϲιν. εἶτα ὀρῷ γάλακτοϲ χρηϲάμενοϲ ἐπὶ τρεῖϲ ἡμέραϲ κάθαιρε τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολοκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ καὶ δεύτερον καὶ τρίτον· μετὰ δὲ τὰϲ καθάρϲειϲ καὶ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήϲῃ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψῃ, ὅϲα ἐπὶ τῆϲ μελαγχολίαϲ εἴρηται. ἐπερχομένηϲ δὲ ἤδη τῆϲ νόϲου τοῖϲ ὑπνοποιεῖν εἰωθόϲιν ἐπιβρέγμαϲι χρήϲῃ· καὶ ὀπίῳ δὲ χρῖϲον τοὺϲ μυκτῆραϲ εἰϲ ὕπνον τρεπομένοιϲ.

Joannes Actuarius, De Diagnosi (Constantinople 13th to 14th Century)

Johannes Zacharias Actuarius was also a Byzantine doctor. He composed many works on medicine that drew on Galen, Aëtius and Paulus—which is clear from his text on lycanthropy. Significant differences from Aëtius’ text are in bold.

De Diagnosi 1.34.24

A type of this madness is called lycanthropy—it convinces those so afflicted to go outside in the middle of the night, among the graves and desolate places, like wolves and to return at night, to become themselves again, and to remain at home. But some of them have feet and shins marked up from touching stones and thorns and they have dry eyes and tongue. They are thirsty, and they look weak. I will pass over how much the others suffer—but some of them die after fearing death for long while others desire it fiercely. In the same way, some avoid large groups of people and maintain the strictest silence, while the others, if they are not among a crowd where they remain calm, they make a racket and seem out of their minds. These things happen when some kind of humor is imbalanced, and the place which reddens when it comes to the surface and returns energy to the person’s spirit.”

Ταύτης δέ γε εἶδος καὶ ἡ λυκανθρωπία καλουμένη, ἀναπείθουσα τοὺς ἁλόντας μέσον νυκτῶν ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιϊέναι, ἔν τε μνήμασι καὶ ἐρημίαις κατὰ τοὺς λύκους, μεθ’ ἡμέραν δὲ ἐπιστρέφειν τε καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς γίνεσθαι, καὶ οἴκοι διατρίβειν. ἀλλ’ οἵδε μέν, τούς τε πόδας καὶ τὰς κνήμας ἔχουσιν ἡμαγμένους τῷ προσπταίειν τοῖς λίθοις καὶ ταῖς ἀκάνθαις, καὶ ξηροὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν καὶ διψώδεις, καὶ ἀδρανὲς βλέπουσιν. ἐῶ δὲ λέγειν ὅσα πάσχουσιν ἕτεροι, ὧν οἱ μὲν ἀεὶ τὸν θάνατον φοβούμενοι διατελοῦσιν, οἱ δ’ αὖ τούτου ἐπιθυμοῦντες, ὥσπερ ἕτεροι τὰς τῶν πολλῶν ὁμιλίας φεύγουσι, καὶ ἄκραν σιωπὴν ἀσκοῦσιν, αὖθις δὲ ἕτεροι, ἢν μὴ ὁμιλῶσιν ἄλλοις καὶ διαχεόμενοι ὦσι, θορυβούμενοί τε καὶ ἐκθαμβούμενοι. καὶ ταῦτα γίνεται παρὰ τὸ ποιὸν τοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος χυμοῦ, ἔτι τε τὸν τόπον, ὃν ἐγγίσας ἐρεθίζει καὶ διανιστᾷ τὴν κατ’ ἐκείνον τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνέργειαν.

Anonymi Medici, A Collection of ancient treatises on disease and treatments. Some tracts are dated to the first century CE. There are some textual issues I have only barely tried to solve. The additions and differences seem to imply a text later than Paulus or Aëtius.

“Lycanthropy is a type of madness when people go out at night and spend time among graves. You will recognize those who suffer from it thus. Their skin is pale and they appear weak. They have dry eyes and they neither cry nor produce moisture. You may note that their eyes are hollow and their forehead is damp; they may have an extremely dry tongue and may not completely produce saliva. They are thirsty and they have open wounds on their shins from striking them frequently. Their body bears the particular marks of melancholy sometimes, since this is melancholic in nature, and they have been afflicted [with this] by some thought or sleeplessness, or spoiled food, or contact with birth fluids [?], bloody discharge, or menstrual blood. These are the indications and signs of lycanthropy.

This is how you treat it: I cut the veins at the elbows and I drain blood almost until the patient passes out then treat the sick with well-flavored food. Let him be washed in a sweet bath. After rubbing him down with milk-whey for three days, apply pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After running him down with milk-whey for three days, apply a pumpkin salve to him on the second and third day. After these cleansings, I would anoint him with the antidote for viper-venom and do the rest of the things prescribed for melancholy. In addition, I would suggest draining off any bloody discharge and avoiding any menstrual blood in order to stop the conditions that created the disease. Also commendable is furnishing diuretics and cleaning any pustules.”

Εἶδος μανίας ἐστὶν ἡ λυκανθρωπία, καὶ νυκτὸς ἐξίασι τὰ πάντα καὶ τάφους διατρίβουσι. γνωριεῖς δὲ τοὺς οὕτω πάσχοντας. τοῖς δὲ ὠχροὶ τυγχάνουσιν καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἁδρανὲς καὶ ξηροὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσι, οὔτε δακρύουσιν

οὔτε ὑγραίνονται. θεάσῃ δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ κοίλους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον ὑγρὸν καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ξηροτάτην καὶ σιέλον οὐδ’ ὅλως προχωρῶν αὐτοῖς. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ διψώδεις ξηροὶ καὶ τὰς κνήμας, διὰ τὸ πολλάκις προςπίπτειν ἀνία αὐτοὺς καὶ ἑλκομένας ἔχουσιν. ἴδια δὲ σημεῖα τῶν μελαγχολικῶν τότε κατισχναίνειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ μελαγχολικὸν εἶναι τῇ φύσει, ἢ καὶ ἐξεπήκτη [?] τὸν διά τινος φροντίδος ἢ ἀγρυπνίας ἢ μοχθηρῶν σιτίων ἢ προφορᾶς ἢ ἐπίσχεσιν αἱμορροΐδων καὶ καταμηνίων γυναικῶν. τοιαῦτα μὲν δεῖ συμβαίνειν καὶ τὰ τῆς λυκανθρωπίας σημεῖα.

Πῶς οὖν θεραπεύσεις. Κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὸν πρῶτον χρόνον τῆς ἐπισημασίας τέμνω φλέβα τὴν ἐξ ἀγκώνων καὶ κενῶ τοῦ αἵματος ἄχρι λειποθυμίας καὶ διαίτησιν τὸν κάμνοντα ταῖς εὐχύμοις τροφαῖς· καὶ χρῆσθαι λουτροῖς γλυκέσι ἢ ὀρρῷ γάλακτος χρησάμενος ἐπὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν. καὶ καθαίρων δὲ τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ καὶ β′ καὶ γ′ καὶ μετὰ τὰς καθάρσεις τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐχιδνῶν θηριακῇ χρήσομαι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα παραλήψομαι ὅσα ἐπὶ τῆς μελαγχολίας εἴρηται καὶ τὰς αἰμορροΐδας ἀναστομῶσαι καὶ καταμήνια γυναικῶν προπέσθαι κελεύω διὰ τὴν τούτων ἐπίσχεσιν, τὴν γεγενημένην εἰς τὸ πάθος· ἀγαθὰ δὲ καὶ αἱ διουρητικαὶ δυνάμεις καὶ τῶν ἱδρώτων κάθαρσις.

“In Geneva a man killed 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf; he was executed on 15 October 1580”. Coloured pen drawing, Johann Jakob Wick, Sammlung von Nachrichten zur Zeitgeschichte aus den Jahren 1560–1587, ms. F 29, fol. 167v. From the Zentral Bibliothek Zürich.

Lingering problems:

As a Homerist, my experience in late Greek prose is limited; my experience in medical terminology is worse. I believe I have made sense of all of this, but I am happy to have suggestions or additions.

  1. τῇ διὰ τῆς κολοκυνθίδος ἱερᾷ: This phrase has given me fits. I at first made the mistake of taking ἱερᾷ to mean something sacred (e.g. rite, but not “shrine”, because that would be neuter!). But the LSJ lists ἱερὰ ἡ: a kind of serpent adding “II. A name for many medicines in the Greek pharmacopia…of a plaster; esp. of aloes.” So, since it does not seem likely that the treatment being prescribed is a “snake through a pumpkin”. In addition, later Greek prose uses dia + genitive to denote the thing from which something was made (LSJ s.v. dia A.III.c.2). So, I have settled on a “pumpkin salve”
  1. τῇ διὰ τῆϲ κολυκυνθίδοϲ ἱερᾷ ῾Ρούφου ἢ ᾿Αρχιγένουϲ ἢ ᾿Ιούϲτου: I have no idea what is going on with the three proper names here: are these places or people that produce the pumpkin poultice?

Searching For the Land of Truth Inside Oneself

 

Hippocrates, Epistles 12

“We might encounter good fortune and then we will arrive, as we imagine, with better hopes as was made clear in the letter, if the case is that the man is not displaying madness but instead some overwhelming strength of spirit—this despite the fact that he is considering neither children nor wife nor relatives nor any other thing at all—and he has spent day and night by himself, staying alone for the most part in caves or deserted places or under the shadow of trees or in soft grasses or alongside the quiet flows of water.

It is many times the case for those suffering from melancholy to exhibit these kinds of behaviors. Such people are sometimes quiet and solitary and love isolation too. They keep themselves apart from people and consider their own tribe to be a foreign sight.

But it is not unreasonable for those who have been dedicated to education to shake off other thoughts because of a single category in wisdom. For, just as enslaved men and women who are yelling and fighting in their homes, when their mistress suddenly appears, step apart in quiet because they are afraid, in the same way too the rest of the thoughts in human minds are servants of evils; but when the sight of wisdom made itself seen, the rest of the sufferings have retreated like slaves.

It is not only the insane who desire caves and peace at all, but many people who have contempt for human affairs do too because of a desire not to be troubled. For whenever the mind, struck by external thoughts, longs to rest the body, then it returns to peace as soon as possible and, standing straight up, searches in a circle in himself for the land of truth in which there is no father, mother, wife, child, brother, relative, slaves, nor chance, nor at all any of those things which create a disturbance.”

῎Ελθοιμεν δ’ ἂν αἰσίῃ τύχῃ, καὶ ἀφιξόμεθα ὡς ὑπολαμβάνομεν χρηστοτέρῃσιν ἐλπίσιν [ἢ] ὡς ἐν τῇ γραφῇ παραδεδήλωται, οὐ μανίην ἀλλὰ ψυχῆς τινὰ ῥῶσιν ὑπερβάλλουσαν διασαφηνέοντος τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, μήτε παίδων μήτε γυναικὸς μήτε ξυγγενέων μήτε οὐσίης μήτε τινὸς ὅλως ἐν φροντίδι ἐόντος, ἡμέρην δὲ καὶ εὐφρόνην πρὸς ἑωυτῷ καθεστεῶτος καὶ ἰδιάζοντος, τὰ μὲν πολλὰ ἐν

ἄντροισι καὶ ἐρημίῃσιν ἢ ἐν ὑποσκιάσεσι δενδρέων, ἢ ἐν μαλθακῇσι ποίῃσιν, ἢ παρὰ συχνοῖσιν ὑδάτων ῥείθροισιν. Συμβαίνει μὲν οὖν τὰ πολλὰ τοῖσι μελαγχολῶσι τὰ τοιαῦτα· σιγηροί τε γὰρ ἐνίοτε εἰσὶ καὶ μονήρεες, καὶ φιλέρημοι τυγχάνουσιν· ἀπανθρωπέονταί τε ξύμφυλον ὄψιν ἀλλοτρίην νομίζοντες· οὐκ ἀπεοικὸς δὲ καὶ τοῖσι περὶ παιδείην ἐσπουδακόσι τὰς ἄλλας φροντίδας ὑπὸ μιῆς τῆς ἐν σοφίῃ διαθέσιος σεσοβῆσθαι.

῞Ωσπερ γὰρ δμῶές τε καὶ δμωΐδες ἐν τῇσιν οἰκίῃσι θορυβέοντες καὶ στασιάζοντες, ὁκόταν ἐξαπιναίως αὐτοῖσιν ἡ δέσποινα ἐπιστῇ, πτοηθέντες ἀφησυχάζουσι, παραπλησίως καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ κατὰ ψυχὴν ἐπιθυμίαι ἀνθρώποισι κακῶν ὑπηρέτιδες· ἐπὴν δὲ σοφίης ὄψις ἑωυτέην ἐπιστήσῃ, ὡς δοῦλα τὰ λοιπὰ πάθεα ἐκκεχώρηκεν.

Ποθέουσι δ’ ἄντρα καὶ ἡσυχίην οὐ πάν- τως οἱ μανέντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πρηγμάτων ὑπερφρονήσαντες ἀταραξίης ἐπιθυμίῃ· ὁκόταν γὰρ ὁ νοῦς ὑπὸ τῶν ἔξω φροντίδων κοπτόμενος ἀναπαῦσαι θελήσῃ τὸ σῶμα, τότε ταχέως ἐς ἡσυχίην μετήλλαξεν, εἶτα ἀναστὰς ὄρθριος ἐν ἑωυτῷ περιεσκόπει κύκλῳ χωρίον ἀληθείης, ἐν ᾧ οὐ πατὴρ, οὐ μήτηρ, οὐ γυνὴ, οὐ τέκνα, οὐ κασίγνητος, οὐ ξυγγενέες, οὐ δμῶες, οὐ τύχη, οὐχ ὅλως οὐδὲν τῶν θόρυβον ἐμποιησάντων·

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Medieval Manuscript Images, Pierpont Morgan Library, Hours of Anne of France. MS M.677 fol. 211r

Tell Me Aristotle, Why Do We Have Butts?

Thanks to Dr. Rebecca Raphael for sharing this passage on the teleology of the human ass with me. This is mostly for distraction, but it also functions as a timely reminder of some of the absurd conclusions that can arise from teleological thinking.

Aristotle, Parts of Animals 689b

“A human being is has no tail, but does have buttocks although the quadruped does not. A human being also has legs which are fleshy in the thighs and calves, while all the rest of the animals have fleshless legs—and not only those animals which have live births, but as many of the other animals who have legs—and they are covered with sinew, are bony, and full of spines.

There is one explanation, you might say, for these differences and that is that humans are the only animal to stand upright. So, nature removed some of the fleshy parts from above and transferred the weight below in order to make the upper portions of human beings easier to bear. This is why nature made human butts fleshy along with their thighs and their calves. With the same act, it made the nature of the buttocks useful for taking a break.

For it is not a problem for the rest of the quadrupeds and they do not get tired from doing that continually.  This is because they have four supports holding them up, it works the same as if they are lying down.But human beings do not easily remain standing upright: our bodies need rest and need to sit down.

This is why a human being has a fleshy butt and thighs and the same reason why we don’t have tails. All the nutrition which heads that way is spent on butts and thighs. The need and use of a tail, moreover, is negated by having butts and thighs. In quadrupeds and the rest of the animals, the situation is the opposite: because they are like dwarfs, all their weight is centered in their upper parts and it is separated from the lower section. For this reason, they have no butt and have hard legs.

ὁ δ᾿ ἄνθρωπος ἄκερκον μέν ἐστιν, ἰσχία δ᾿ ἔχει, τῶν δὲ τετραπόδων οὐδέν. ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὰ σκέλη ὁ μὲν ἄνθρωπος σαρκώδη καὶ μηροὺς καὶ κνήμας, τὰ δ᾿ ἄλλα πάντ᾿ ἄσαρκα ἔχει, οὐ μόνον τὰ ζῳοτόκα ἀλλ᾿ ὅλως ὅσα σκέλη ἔχει τῶν ζῴων· νευρώδη γὰρ ἔχει καὶ ὀστώδη καὶ ἀκανθώδη. τούτων δ᾿ αἰτία μία τίς ἐστιν ὡς εἰπεῖν ἁπάντων, διότι μόνον ἐστὶν ὀρθὸν τῶν ζῴων ἄνθρωπος. ἵν᾿ οὖν φέρῃ ῥᾳδίως τἄνω κοῦφα ὄντα, ἀφελοῦσα τὸ σωματῶδες ἀπὸ τῶν ἄνω πρὸς τὰ κάτω τὸ βάρος ἡ φύσις προσέθηκεν· διόπερ τὰ ἰσχία σαρκώδη ἐποίησε καὶ μηροὺς καὶ γαστροκνημίας. ἅμα δὲ τήν τε τῶν ἰσχίων φύσιν καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἀναπαύσεις ἀπέδωκε χρήσιμον· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ τετράποσιν ἄκοπον τὸ ἑστάναι, καὶ οὐ κάμνουσι τοῦτο ποιοῦντα συνεχῶς (ὥσπερ γὰρ κατακείμενα διατελεῖ ὑποκειμένων τεττάρων ἐρεισμάτων), τοῖς δ᾿ ἀνθρώποις οὐ ῥᾴδιον ὀρθῶς ἑστῶσι διαμένειν, ἀλλὰ δεῖται τὸ σῶμα ἀναπαύσεως καὶ καθέδρας. ὁ μὲν οὖν ἄνθρωπος ἰσχία τ᾿ ἔχει καὶ τὰ σκέλη σαρκώδη διὰ τὴν εἰρημένην αἰτίαν, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἄκερκον (ἥ τε γὰρ ἐκεῖσε τροφὴ πορευομένη εἰς ταῦτα ἀναλίσκεται, καὶ διὰ τὸ ἔχειν ἰσχία ἀφῄρηται ἡ τῆς οὐρᾶς ἀναγκαία χρῆσις), τὰ δὲ τετράποδα καὶ τἆλλα ζῷα ἐξ ἐναντίας· νανώδεσι γὰρ οὖσι πρὸς τὸ ἄνω τὸ βάρος καὶ τὸ σωματῶδες ἐπίκειται πᾶν, ἀφῃρημένον ἀπὸ τῶν κάτωθεν· διόπερ ἀνίσχια καὶ σκληρὰ τὰ σκέλη ἔχουσιν.

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Motya Charioteer