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Plague of Athens—Fungal Poison? Author(S): JANE BELLEMORE, IAN M Plague of Athens—Fungal Poison? Author(s): JANE BELLEMORE, IAN M. PLANT and LYNNE M. CUNNINGHAM Source: Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 49, No. 4 (OCTOBER 1994), pp. 521-545 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24623552 Accessed: 06-09-2017 03:39 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences This content downloaded from 165.82.124.26 on Wed, 06 Sep 2017 03:39:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PlaguePlague of Athens—Fungal of Poison?Athens—Fungal Poison? JANE BELLEMORE, IAN M. PLANT, and LYNNE M. CUNNINGHAM (N 431 b. c. a war broke out between Athens and Sparta which continued with minor interruptions until Ath ens was defeated in 404 b. c. Sparta and her allies, the Peloponnesians, had land-forces far superior to those of Athens, and with these the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, the territory of Athens, almost every year dur ing the first part of the "Peloponnesian War." Particularly devastating to Attic life and agriculture were the two invasions of 430 and 427-26. Athens, enclosed by huge walls leading down to the sea, was seem ingly unassailable by land and sheltered within her fortifications almost the whole of the population of Attica during the periods of invasion— hundreds of thousands of people during the summer months in confined conditions. While not daring to meet the invaders by land, Athens did retaliate against the Peloponnesians by sea, since she had a huge fleet and enjoyed at first an unchallenged naval superiority Pericles, the democratic leader of Athens, had decided on this policy, that the Athenians not commit themselves to open warfare but use the fact of their huge reserves of money and their naval superiority to outstay the Peloponnesians. For the Athenians to win such a war of attrition, they had to ensure that nothing went wrong, and that they had sufficient reserves of food to feed themselves, since they could not be sure that they would be able to draw any supplies from their own fields, perhaps for some years. Thucydides, a contemporary of these events, has written in detail about the Peloponnesian War, recording the martial activities of the period, and also giving us a description of other major factors which affected the way the Athenians prosecuted the war. He tells us that a deadly plague reached Athens in the second summer of the Peloponnesian War, in 430 B.C., and that this plague lasted on and off there for four © 1994 BY THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE AND ALLIED SCIENCES, INC. ISSN 0022-5045 VOLUME 49 PAGES 521 TO 545 [ 52i ] This content downloaded from 165.82.124.26 on Wed, 06 Sep 2017 03:39:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 522 Journal of the History of Medicine : Vol. 49, October 1994 years.1 The most severe attacks of plague occurred in 430 and in 427-26, the years when the farmlands of Attica were almost totally destroyed by the Peloponnesians and when the people of Attica had been forced to rely to a large extent upon imported food. Thucydides has provided a detailed description of many aspects of the Plague, since nothing like it in his experience had been seen before and he was concerned that posterity be forewarned in case it re-appeared, but there has been no record of a plague of such a kind appearing again in the ancient or modern world. Other plagues did occur, but none quite like that of the great Plague of Athens.2 The accuracy of Thucydides' description of the Plague has been gen erally accepted without question, since he himself suffered from this disease and he is esteemed highly as a "scientific observer. "3 Let us review the specific symptoms of the disease as given in his work, The Pelopon nesian War 2.48.3-49.8:4 48.3 Each person, whether or not he is a doctor, may state what he knows about the probable origin of the plague and the reasons he believes were sufficient for such a great disturbance of nature. But I will state what it was actually like and describe its symptoms. Knowledge of these will enable it to be recognized if it should ever break out again. I had the disease myself and also saw other people suffering from it. 49. i It is generally agreed that the year was, as it happened, especially free of other kinds of illness. But if anyone was already ill in some way, in every case it turned into this disease. 49.2 In other cases, however, there were no early clinical symptoms;5 but sud denly, first of all, an intense heat of the head and both redness and burning of the eyes seized perfectly healthy people. The insides of the mouth, both throat and tongue, were bloody and emitted an abnormal and foul-smelling breath. 1. See, e.g., Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. I. Scott-Kilvert (Har mondsworth and Baltimore: Penguin, 1970). 2. E. Lieber, "Galen on contaminated cereals as a cause of epidemics," Bull. Hist. Med., 1970, 44, 332-45; R. J. Littman, "The plague at Syracuse: 396 b.c.," Mnemosyne, 1984, 57, 110-16; M. Gwynne-Morgan, "Politics, religion and the games in Rome, 200-150 B.c.," Philologus, 1990, 134, 14-36. On Thucydides as a model for historians, seej. Longrigg, "Epidemic, ideas and classical Athenian society," in Epidemics and Ideas, ed. T. Ranger and P. Slack (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 21-44, p. 27. 3. Some reservations have been expressed about the accuracy of his reporting. See Longrigg, (n. 2), pp. 27-28, 32-33. 4. Translation by I. M. Plant. 5. "No early clinical symptoms" is the phrase we have used to translate "prophasis." For this understanding of prophasis, the first appearance or precipitant of an illness, see H. R. Rawlings III, A Semantic Study of prophasis to 400 B. C. (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1975), pp. 74-75; also F. Robert, "Prophasis," Revue des Etudes Grecques, 1976, 8g, 317-42, p. 333, who translates "prophasis" as "phase préparetoire." This content downloaded from 165.82.124.26 on Wed, 06 Sep 2017 03:39:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Bellemore et al. : Plague of Athens 523 49.3 Next there was a development from these symptoms to sneezing and hoarseness. Before long the trouble descended to the chest accompanied by coughing. Whenever it settled in the stomach it upset it, and there ensued the vomiting of every kind of bile named by physicians, along with a great deal of pain and discomfort. 49.4 In most cases there were bouts of dry retching which produced severe spasms. In some cases this was soon after the abatement of the previous symptoms, but in other cases it was much later still. 49.5 On the outside, the body was not unduly hot to the touch nor pale, but reddish and purple, and there were tiny blisters and open sores scattered upon it. But their insides burnt so much that the patients could not endure contact with anything, even the lightest clothing or linen sheets, and preferred to be naked. Most of all they wanted to throw themselves into cold water . constrained by a thirst which could not be quenched. It made no difference whether they drank much or little. 49.6 An inability to rest quietly and to sleep affected them without respite. During the period when the disease was at its height, the body was not wasted, but, surprisingly, resisted the distress. So people died with some strength left (most on the ninth or seventh days, from the internal heat). If they survived this, most died later from weakness because the disease descended to the bowels where there was severe ulceration along with uniformly fluid diarrhoea. 49.7 For the evil thing, which first settled in the head, proceeded down through the whole body, attacking the extremities of anyone who got over the worst and leaving its mark.6 49.8 It attacked the genitals, fingers and toes. Many people survived because they lost these parts of the body, though some also lost their eyes. Additionally, some suffered a total loss of memory temporarily,7 when they recovered, failing to remember not only their close friends, but also who they actually were themselves. In modern times the reported virulence of the Athenian Plague has been matched by the liveliness of the debate engendered by Thucydides' de scription of the symptoms, but arguments over the identification of the disease have now raged virtually to a standstill. The generally accepted position amongst ancient historians is that the Athenian Plague was 6. Thucydides describes the "descent" of the disease through the body. He seems to have thought of the disease as likely to move in a logical pattern. 7. We have translated to nafxnrriKCt as "temporarily," as does R.
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