Was Homer a Doctor?

 

Was Homer a Doctor?

            The amount of medical knowledge and medical information contained in Homer’s works have led some to speculate that Homer could have been a military doctor working on the front lines and treating wounded warriors. Some think that the bard may have come from a medical family or that he had close connections with a healer. Still others have opined that perhaps a physician edited Homer’s works to ensure that correct medical references were included. Whatever the case, the fact remains that that the detailed descriptions of war wounds, injuries, diseases, treatments and medical personnel in the Iliad and the Odyssey all serve to provide us with a high degree of insight into the medical practices of the day and the understanding of the human body in ancient Greece.

            Homer wastes no time in getting right into medical matters with a devastating plague being described at the very beginning of Book I of the Iliad. The god Apollo delivered havoc to the Achaeans because his priest had been dishonoured by Agamemnon. The loathsome pestilence remained until the priest Chryses had been satisfied and his daughter returned to him. Only at that point did he pray for the plague to be lifted.

Which of the gods then brought these two together in conflict? It was none other than the son of Leto and Zeus, for he, having been provoked by the king, inflicted a fatal pestilence on the army and a host of men perished, all because the son of Atreus had brought dishonour upon Chryses the priest.

The mules he attacked first and then the swift dogs. Next on the men themselves he rained down his terrible shafts. The corpses of the dead burned constantly.

“Hear me o god of the silver bow who protects Chryse and holy Cilla and rules mightily over Tenedos. Indeed you heard me praying before and you honoured me by answering my prayer, but you have inflicted great hardship on the people of the Achaeans. I ask that you now grant me this wish, namely that you ward off this unholy pestilence from the Danaans.”

            There are several wartime illnesses that can affect both animals and humans and it is difficult to narrow down specifically which one caused the pestilence among the Greeks. As far as Homer’s story goes, the illness was caused by divine intervention and only divine intervention could stop it. The ancient Greeks knew very little about bacterial infections and hence believed that these types of unseen killers could only come from the gods. The truth of the matter is that poor hygiene and sanitation during wartime, overcrowding, increased animal-human contact as well as stress and malnutrition could all serve to make rampant infections more problematic and could certainly lead to the type of pestilence that was reported among the Danaans at Troy. To the Greeks, the only cure for such illnesses was prayer and sacrificial offerings.

            In Book II of the Iliad we come across a man who is obviously suffering from a medical condition, debilitating to some degree no doubt, but not enough to keep him from being conscripted for the war. His physical looks were described extensively by Homer and we must assume that he was basing his description on someone that he knew personally, because this kind of detail cannot just be made up.

But Thersites alone, being unbridled of tongue, began to scold them and complain aloud. His mind was full of curses and he rallied at the leaders incessantly and inconsiderately without decorum, anything to get a laugh from the Argives. He was the ugliest man who had come to Ilium and was bandy-legged and lame in one foot. His shoulders were arched over and his chest was sunken and at the top of him he carried a pointed head covered with fuzzy wool-like hair. He was most hateful to both Achilles and Odysseus and they despised him in return. He screamed out with a shriek and hurled abuse at divine Agamemnon and the Achaeans became terribly angry with him.

            Many have tried over the years to diagnose the medical condition of Thersites. Guesses range from Marfan syndrome to Tourette’s syndrome. In the American Journal of Philology of John Hopkins University Press, R. Clinton Simms argues that Homer’s description of Thersites is indicative of a rare condition and explains the likely reason for Homer including it.

“There is a notable correspondence between the description of Thersites at Iliad 2.212-19 and the physical characteristics of cleidocranial dysplasia, a rare genetic bone condition. Prominent features of the condition include bossing of the skull, missing clavicles that allow approximation of the shoulders over the chest, and dental abnormalities, most commonly supernumerary and irregularly patterned teeth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the likely pun Homer intended on Thersites' teeth through the description of his abundant and disordered words.”

Thersites was treated with hostility and derision and was issued with a sound beating on the back and shoulders by Odysseus, severe enough to raise a huge bloody bruise. This treatment of a disabled man and possibly one who was mentally unstable should not be surprising, The disabled and the mentally ill were often shunned or marginalized in ancient Greece, because their illnesses were often viewed as some form of divine retribution. It was not until the arrival of Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) that mental illness started to be viewed as a treatable medical condition. But marginalizing the sick and the disabled seems to be part of the human condition. The treatment afforded to Thersites by the Achaeans is really not that much different than forcing lepers to live away from society and to ring a bell and call out “unclean!”, or locking away the insane in the horror of a place like Bedlam and charging people an admission fee on the weekends so that they could watch “the crazies” in action, or when the president of a nation calls his opponent “retarded” or denigrates a disabled journalist, or blames a recent plane crash on the fact that the FAA has disabled air traffic controllers working their towers. The disabled are always fair game and Homer appears to fall into the same pattern of disparagement with his description of Thersites.

The first wound recorded in the Iliad was inflicted on Menelaus of Sparta by the Trojan warrior Pandarus, and Homer tells us that his legs and ankles were stained blood-red.

The arrow was driven through the well-fitted belt and then went through the plates and the guard that he wore to protect his loins and to block spears. It pierced even this greatest defense and the tip of the sharp arrow grazed the man’s skin. At once a stream of black blood started to flow from the wound.

And immediately King Agamemnon the ruler of men shuddered when he saw the black blood flowing down from the wound and even war-loving Menelaus shuddered as well.

            Agamemnon told his brother that the doctor would look after his wound and apply medicines to it that would ease his pain. He then had the healer Machaon summoned, the son of the noble doctor Asclepius. He and his brother Podalirius had been introduced during the catalogue of the ships and it had been noted that they were both good at healing. They appear in their roles as healers several times in the epic. Homer displays a good knowledge of medical practice when he tells us:

When Machaon saw the wound where the sharp arrow had struck him, he sucked out the blood and sprinkled soothing medicine on it which friendly Chiron had given to his father some time before.

            Menelaus’s injury was the first of 16 arrow wounds documented in the Iliad. A study by the National Institutes of Health shows that in addition to the 16 arrow wounds, there were 109 spear wounds, 11 stone injuries and 18 sword injuries. Many of these are described by Homer in graphic detail and demonstrate his superior knowledge of warfare, anatomy, wounds and injuries and the treatment provided to the injured. The descriptions are so intense that we must assume that Homer had witnessed such events in person. Book IV of the Iliad closes with a series of close hand-to-hand encounters between the Achaeans and the Trojans and the following vignettes are typical of what we find throughout Homer’s story.

He hit him first on the rim of his horsetail crested helmet and the point of his spear went right between his eyes and into his skull and the darkness of death enveloped him. He fell over in battle much like a tower falls to the ground.

He had come upon him and had struck him on the chest near his right nipple and the bronze spear went through his shoulder to the opposite side. He fell down in the dust on the ground just as a poplar tree.

Odysseus, who was enraged because of the fate of his comrade, struck him squarely on the temple with his spear and the tip of the bronze weapon went right through to the other side. Darkness veiled his eyes and he fell with a groan and his armour resounded as he fell.

Then cruel fate shackled Diores the son of Amarynceus as he was struck on the ankle of his right leg by a large pointed stone that had been thrown at him. But Pirous the son of Imbrasus who came from Aenos, threw at him and the shameless stone crushed his tendons and his bones entirely and he fell down flat into the dust, stretching forth his hands to his dear comrades and his life breath went out of his body. But Pirous, who had thrown at him, rushed up to him and pierced his middle with his spear. All his guts spilled out onto the ground and darkness veiled his eyes.

But the Aetolian Thoas rushed at Pirous and with his spear struck him in the chest just above the nipple and the point of the spear struck his lungs. Thoas came near to him and withdrew the spear from his chest. He then took out his sword and slashed him mightily across the stomach and his soul departed from him.

            Regardless of what weapon caused the wound, Homer’s reporting of the event followed a similar pattern and in almost all the cases,

o   The incident is described in graphic detail.

o   The force of the blow is severe:

o   A spear goes right through a body.

o   An arrow pierces the eye socket and lodges in the brain.

o   A sword penetrates the body completely.

o   A head is completely severed and rolls in the dust.

o   Guts are spilled and the ground is soaked with blood.

o   The victim falls like a tree.

o   The victim groans loudly.

o   The armour crashes to the ground with a loud din.

o   The darkness of death overcomes the victim.

Menelaus the son of Atreus who was famous for his skill with a spear wounded him in the back as he was fleeing from him and drove his spear between his shoulders and through into his chest. He fell down flat on the ground and his weaponry clattered around him.

The point of the spear went right through him under the bone near his bladder. He wailed aloud on bended knee and then death enveloped him.

Phyleus the great spearman came near him and hit him on the back part of the head with his sharp spear and the bronze cut along under his teeth near his tongue. He fell into the dust and grasped the cold bronze with his teeth.

Eurypylus the glorious son of Euaemon ran close behind him with his sword and hit him on the shoulder and cut off his heavy hand. His blood-red hand fell onto the ground and purple death and powerful fate came upon him.

Then he took and killed Astynous and Hypenor the shepherd of the people, having struck this one under the breast with his bronze lance. The other one he struck on the collar bone with his mighty sword and separated his shoulder from his neck and his back.

It struck his nose near the eyes and passed through his white teeth. Indeed the finely-worked bronze cut the base of his tongue and was driven through the bottom of his chin.

When he threw it, he hit Aeneas in the thigh, where the hipbone turns into the thigh which they call the socket. He crushed the socket and broke both the tendons underneath it and the jagged rock broke the skin.

            At one point in the battle, the god Ares himself was wounded and returned to Olympus to show his wound the Zeus, the father of the gods. Zeus chastised him for involving himself in the war but then arranged for treatment of his wound. Once more Homer displayed some knowledge of healing.

Thus he spoke and he commanded Paeon to heal him, and Paeon did so by sprinkling pain-removing medicines on his wound, for he was not born to be mortal. Just as when the juice of the fig tree curdles white milk when it is stirred around, and quickly it is stirred by the one mixing it, with such speed did he heal the impetuous Ares.

            Wounds were most often treated by someone skilled in the task (Skillful doctors are working on them and trying to heal them) and generally followed a similar pattern. The wound was washed with water or water mixed with wine to remove any dirt or foreign material and then the arrow or spear-head was extracted. Plants with astringent properties were sometimes applied as well as pain-soothing ointments. In rare circumstances, such as the wounding of Helenus, Homer reports the application of a bandage to cover the wound.

The great-hearted Agenor drew the bronze from his hand and bound it up in a sling with a bandage of twisted sheep’s wool that his squire carried for him, shepherd of the people.

Rest and a warm bath are often prescribed as well as the application of wind. Some speculate that the latter is an indication of the provision of additional oxygen to the wounded victim. The wounded Eurypylus was treated in a way consistent with Homer’s usual description.

Thus he spoke and then clutched the shepherd of the people beneath his chest and led him to his tent. When his squire saw them, he spread ox-hides over the floor of the tent. Then he stretched him out and cut out the barbed arrow from his thigh with a very sharp knife and washed the dark blood from the wound with warm water and onto it he applied a bitter root which he had rubbed between the palms of his hands, a root that takes away all pain and indeed the pain left him. His wound dried up and the blood ceased to flow from it.

            Homer was very particular in his description of certain wounds, to the extent that one is led to believe that he had a pretty in-depth knowledge of human anatomy. Several examples prove this point:

Idomeneus hit Oenomaus in the midriff and tore through his corselet and his guts spilled out and he clutched the earth with the flat of his hands as he landed sprawling in the dust.

He struck him in the throat with his sharp spear. His head fell to one side and his shield and helmet were thrown upon him and life-destroying death overcame him.

He hit him with his spear and ruptured the vein that runs along the back up to the neck and wholly severed it.

He hit him between his groin and his navel, in a spot where Ares causes the most grievous pain to miserable mortals.

Menelaus struck him as he came at him, right on the forehead above the base of his nose. His bones shattered noisily and his two blood-red eyeballs fell at his feet in the dust and he bowed over and fell.

It struck him on the right side of his buttocks and the arrow went right through under the bone to his bladder.

He was hit at the spot where the head joins the neck, right at the top of the spine and the spear tore through both sinews.

He struck him on the base of the leg where the muscle is thickest and the point of his spear cleaved asunder his tendon and darkness came over his eyes.

            There are many more medical references in the Iliad and further indicators of Homer’s knowledge of anatomy and wound management. Likewise the Odyssey carries on the same pattern of reporting on human anatomy, medicine, healing, wounds and their causes, and the application of healing substances for wound and pain management. The procedure for cleaning and dressing wounds is the same in the Odyssey as in the Iliad. However, the second epic provides more detail about the use of drugs. For example, Homer gives us insight into Helen of Sparta’s use of potions and Egyptian medicine.

Then Helen the daughter of Zeus thought of something else. Immediately she placed into the wine that they were drinking a drug to sooth all pain and suffering and to make them forget all these evils. Whoever would gulp this down after it had been mixed in the drinking bowl would not let a tear fall down his cheeks for an entire day, not even if his mother or his father were to die, not even if someone should slay with the bronze his brother or his son in front of him, even if he saw it with his own eyes. The daughter of Zeus possessed such skillful drugs of healing which Polydamna, the wife of Thon a woman from Egypt had given her. The earth there, the giver of grain, grows the greatest number of drugs, many that are medicinal when mixed and many others that are dangerous. Every man in that country is a physician, wise above mortal men, for they are of the race of Paeon.

            Likewise we learn of the use of drugs by the sorceress Circe and how Hermes saved Odysseus from the same fate by supplying him with and antidote called Moly.

She mixed noxious drugs into the food so that they might totally forget about their homeland. After she had given them the potion and they had drunk it, she waved her magic wand over them and confined them in a pig sty.

But come along and I will rescue you from harm. Here, take this good drug and go to the house of Circe and it will ward off evil from your head all day. I will tell you about all of Circe’s woeful tricks. She will mix up a potion for you and will put drugs into your food, but she will not be able to bewitch you, because the strong drug that I gave you will counteract hers.

So he spoke and the slayer of Argus gave me the herb and plucked it from the ground and showed me how it was used. Its root was black but its flower was like milk. The gods call it Moly and it is difficult for mortal men to dig it out, but all things are possible for the gods.

            The nagging question about Homer’s presentation of medical matters is just how accurate was he in his descriptions. The answer to that question is that he was highly accurate. Take his report that Moly was used as an antidote for Circe’s potion and place his description against the abstract of a study published by Plaitakis and Duvoisin in 1983 in the Journal of Clinical Neuropharmacology.

The antidotal properties of certain naturally occurring medicinal plants against central nervous system intoxication appear to have been empirically established in ancient times. Homer, in his epic poem, the Odyssey, described a plant, "moly," used by Odysseus as an antidote against Circe's poisonous drugs. Centrally acting anticholinergic agents are thought to have been used by Circe to induce amnesia and a delusional state in Odysseus' crew. We present evidence to support the hypothesis that "moly" might have been the snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, which contains galanthamine, a centrally acting anticholinesterase. Thus the description of "moly" as an antidote in Homer's Odyssey may represent the oldest recorded use of an anticholinesterase to reverse central anticholinergic intoxication.

            When we study Homer’s various references to things medical in the Iliad and the Odyssey, we can ask ourselves a number of questions. Does the evidence show that Homer had a good knowledge of medicine? Yes it does! Does the evidence indicate that Homer witnessed first-hand how wounds were created and the impact that various weapons could have on the human body? Yes it does! Does the evidence show that Homer had a good knowledge of human anatomy? Yes it does! Does the evidence indicate that Homer knew how to treat and dress wounds? Yes it does! Does all this evidence prove that Homer was a doctor? No it does not, but it certainly leaves us with an intriguing theory.