Medicine and Healing in the Pre-Socratic Thought - A Brief Analysis of Magic and Rationalism in Ancient Herbal Therapy.

BACKGROUND: Medicine has gone through many schools of thought before arriving in the version we see in our world today. In the beginning, it was based on religion, superstition, and magic plants for therapy. This approach was practiced for many centuries until a period of cultural development arrived. This change occurred in the ancient Greek era, when new theories on nature arose: physiokratia emerged to describe the nature of humanity, including its genesis and supporting phenomena. From the various mystical traditions, we have come to understand the natural phenomena that surround the universe, thanks to the knowledge of the "hidden causes" that emerged due to this trend of philosophical thought. METHODS: We studied ancient texts to determine the common roots between myth, therapy, and religion of medical cultures in the pre-Hippocratic era and the era of pre-Socratic philosophers. RESULTS: This study is focused on the period of time before and during pre-Socratic thought, showing that there are many similarities in the approach of therapy for various diseases in that era. The Greek contribution to Western medicine was in the development of a rational system of thought that has been transmitted in medical culture. This attempt to interpret humanity was called philosophy. Hippocrates, who came after the pre-Socratics, changed the old approach to patients. When the approach to medical diagnosis and healing changed, it affected the therapy of other ancient cultures. The ancient Greeks were influenced by other civilizations' approaches to therapy, especially with the use of plants and the different mythological and religious outlooks connected to this use. Despite the emergence of pre- Socratic rationalism, supernatural beliefs remained even when the use of herbs was no longer practiced in direct connection to their origins in myth and magic. The first detachment of magic therapy occurred later with the father of medicine, Hippocrates. CONCLUSION: The ancient Greeks invented the rationalist doctrine, which influenced medicine. Thus, the birth of philosophy, through its many stages, has influenced therapeutic patterns in medicine, especially with medicinal herbs.

Guerra y peste en Atenas. Revisión sobre el posible origen de la epidemia ateniense de 430-426 A.C / War and plague in Athens. Review of the possible origin of the Athenian epidemic of 430-426 BC

La guerra del Peloponeso comenzó en el año 431 a.C. En el verano del segundo año los peloponesios invadieron el Ática, sus habitantes buscaron refugio dentro de las murallas de la ciudad y días después se desató una plaga en Atenas de mortalidad sin precedentes, que siguió activa ese año y el siguiente y volvió a irrumpir en 427 y 426 a.C. Durante cinco años, sucesivas oleadas de una epidemia aniquilaron aproximadamente un tercio de la población de la ciudad. La única fuente que nos relata la enfermedad es la obra de Tucídides, historiador ateniense coetáneo a los hechos, que describió la extensión y el impacto de la plaga en el segundo libro de su Historia de la Guerra del Peloponeso (47-52). El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo una revisión sobre las distintas teorías médicas propuestas como causa de esta epidemia, con la cautela metodológica que requiere el abordaje de una enfermedad que ocurrió hace más de 2500 años

The Peloponnesian War began in the year 431 BC. In the summer of the second year, the Peloponnese attacked the Attic Peninsula, and its inhabitants sought refuge inside the city walls of Athens. Days later, an unprecedentedly deadly plague spread throughout the city. The plague rampaged the city for the rest of the year and the following one, and made reappearances in both 427 and 426 BC. During five years, successive waves of the epidemic annihilated almost a third of the city's population. The only source describing this outbreak is the work by Thucydides, an Athenian historian who lived through the epidemic, and who described the extent and impact of the plague in his second book of the History of the Peloponnesian War (47-52). The objective of this journal article is to review, with the methodological caution required to approach an illness that occurred more than 2500 years ago, the various medical theories proposed as the cause of this epidemic

Wall paintings facies and their possible genetic correlates in the ancient Pompeii: A bio-anthropologic message from the past?

The figurative arts and precisely the ancient Pompeian wall paintings portraits can provide an additional source of information in supplementing bio-anthropological studies. There are several genetic diseases with a wide spectrum of congenital bone stigmata in association to distinctive facial features. Gorlin-Goltz syndrome, also named nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by unusual skeletal changes, such as macrocephaly, facial asymmetry, hypertelorism, frontal and parietal bossing caused by germline mutations of the gene PTCH1. The Gorlin syndrome, clinically defined in 1963, existed during Dynastic Egyptian times, as revealed by a spectrum of skeletal findings compatible with the syndrome in mummies dating back to three thousand years ago and, most likely, in the ancient population of Pompeii. In the present research, we discuss the potential relationship between Pompeian wall paintings portrait and the cranio-metric bone changes revealed among the Pompeian skull collections assuming that the ancient portraits can constitute an important tool that should be strictly integrated with osteologic and biomolecular data in order to argue a syndromic diagnosis in ancient population.

Ebola in Antiquity?

This article addresses whether Ebola may have been present in an urban setting in Athens in 430 bce and explores the historical importance of the ancient outbreak. New knowledge from today's West African epidemic allows a more accurate assessment of whether Ebola may have caused the Athenian outbreak than was once possible. The Athenian disease, whose etiology remains unknown, developed abruptly with fevers, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and hemorrhage. It originated in sub-Saharan Africa and was especially contagious to doctors and caregivers. No remedies were effective. But the few survivors who were reexposed to diseased patients were not attacked a second time, suggesting protective immunity. What lessons can we learn from the ancient outbreak that bears a clinical and epidemiologic resemblance to Ebola? The historian Thucydides, an eyewitness and disease sufferer, described how the unsuspecting city panicked as it struggled to handle the rapidly spreading, devastating disease. Moreover, he stressed a theme that has relevance today-namely, that fear and panic intensified the disruption of society and damage to the individual that was directly caused by the disease. Moreover, fear amplified the spread of disease. The destructive nature of fear has remained a signature feature of pestilences that have subsequently caught ill-prepared societies off-guard-Bubonic plague in medieval times, AIDS in the 1980s, and Ebola today. The ancient Athenian epidemic is relevant for today's West African Ebola outbreak because it shows how fear and panic can endanger the individual, our society, and our efforts to handle the disease.

The plague of Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.

Sophocles, one of the most noted playwrights of the ancient world, wrote the tragedy Oedipus Rex in the first half of the decade 430-420 bc. A lethal plague is described in this drama. We adopted a critical approach to Oedipus Rex in analyzing the literary description of the disease, unraveling its clinical features, and defining a possible underlying cause. Our goals were to clarify whether the plague described in Oedipus Rex reflects an actual historical event; to compare it with the plague of Athens, which was described by Thucydides as occurring around the same time Sophocles wrote; and to propose a likely causative pathogen. A critical reading of Oedipus Rex and a comparison with Thucydides' history, as well as a systematic review of historical data, strongly suggests that this epidemic was an actual event, possibly caused by Brucella abortus.

The plague of Athens: epidemiology and paleopathology.

In 430 BC, a plague struck the city of Athens, which was then under siege by Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). In the next 3 years, most of the population was infected, and perhaps as many as 75,000 to 100,000 people, 25% of the city's population, died. The Athenian general and historian Thucydides left an eye-witness account of this plague and a detailed description to allow future generations to identify the disease should it break out again. Because of the importance of Thucydides and Athens in Western history and culture, the Plague of Athens has taken a prominent position in the history of the West for the past 2500 years. Despite Thucydides' careful description, in the past 100 years, scholars and physicians have disagreed about the identification of the disease. Based on clinical symptoms, 2 diagnoses have dominated the modern literature on the Athenian plague: smallpox and typhus. New methodologies, including forensic anthropology, demography, epidemiology, and paleopathogy, including DNA analysis, have shed new light on the problem. Mathematical modeling has allowed the examination of the infection and attack rates and the determination of how long it takes a disease to spread in a city and how long it remains endemic. The highly contagious epidemic exhibited a pustular rash, high fever, and diarrhea. Originating in Ethiopia, it spread throughout the Mediterranean. It spared no segment of the population, including the statesman Pericles. The epidemic broke in early May 430 BC, with another wave in the summer of 428 BC and in the winter of 427-426 BC, and lasted 4.5 to 5 years. Thucydides portrays a virgin soil epidemic with a high attack rate and an unvarying course in persons of different ages, sexes, and nationalities.The epidemiological analysis excludes common source diseases and most respiratory diseases. The plague can be limited to either a reservoir diseases (zoonotic or vector-borne) or one of the respiratory diseases associated with an unusual means of persistence, either environmental/fomite persistence or adaptation to indolent transmission among dispersed rural populations. The first category includes typhus, arboviral diseases, and plague, and the second category includes smallpox. Both measles and explosive streptococcal disease appear to be much less likely candidates.In 2001, a mass grave was discovered that belonged to the plague years. Ancient microbial typhoid (Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi) DNA was extracted from 3 skeletons. Because typhoid was endemic in the Greek world, it is not the likely cause of this sudden epidemic. Mt Sinai J Med 76:456-467, 2009. (c) 2009 Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Ancient typhoid epidemic reveals possible ancestral strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.

In contrast to other serotypes of Salmonella enterica, S. Typhi is exclusively adapted to human hosts. Recently, S. Typhi was identified in ancient skeletal material, thereby incriminating typhoid fever for the Plague of Athens. Since, according to Thucydides' report, animals were also affected by the disease, a working hypothesis is constituted that the causative agent of the Plague might be the anticipated original strain of S. Typhi, purportedly capable of infecting animals as well as humans. Possible future sequencing of the discovered ancient strain of S. Typhi may help towards identifying its genomic differences responsible for its modern specification to humans.

"Thucydides syndrome" reconsidered: new thoughts on the "Plague of Athens".

A recently published theory (N Engl J Med 1985;313:1027-30) argues that the famous Athenian epidemic of 430 B.C. was caused by a combination of influenza and toxin-producing staphylococci (the "Thucydides syndrome"). Although it is accepted by some medical authorities, and ostensibly supported by identification of modern cases, the theory's plausibility has not been carefully examined. The authors used an epidemiologic approach supplemented by historical and clinical observations to examine the likelihood that a "Thucydides syndrome" could have caused the Athenian epidemic. Arguing against the influenza theory are epidemiologic and clinical features of the disease, mathematical models of the spread of influenza, and empirical observations of epidemic influenza in premodern populations of known size and crowding. The authors conclude that neither influenza nor a "Thucydides syndrome" could have produced the Athenian epidemic. Epidemiologic features suggest either a zoonotic or vectorborne disease, a disease associated with an environmental source, or a respiratory infection with unusual alternative mechanisms of spread.