What is it about?
From an etymological point of view, the word “epilepsy” is derived from the Greek verb epilambanein (επιλαμβάνειν), meaning to seize or take hold of. Epilepsy therefore means “a condition of getting over, seized, attacked, or possessed”. People in the time of Homer had the feeling that seizures were induced by gods, and epilepsy, therefore, might be considered as a sacred disease.
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Why is it important?
Herodotus, the “Father of History”, was born in Halicarnassus. He traveled to the Mediterranean world as a pilgrim of knowledge and wisdom and described the cultures and the customs of the many people he met, spending many years writing his History, which is recognized as the first textbook of history of the ancient world. In his History (III, 27–29), Herodotus described the case of the Persian king Cambyses, whose great crime was killing Apis the bull god during an epileptic seizure in Egypt. Because of that criminal and sacrilegious act, Cambyses was punished with madness (III, 30) and further committed many other homicides and atrocities, ruining his kingdom and eventually dying from a wound at the same place where he had mortally wounded Apis. Herodotus concluded (III, 33),“Suchwere Cambyses'mad acts to his own household,whether they were done because of Apis or grew from some of the many troubles that are wont to beset men; for indeed he is said to have been afflicted from his birth with that grievous disease which some call “sacred.” It is not unlikely then that when his body was grievously afflicted his mind too should be diseased”. “I do not believe that the sacred disease is any more divine or sacred than any other disease but, on the contrary, just as other diseases have a nature from which they arise, so this one has a nature and a definite cause. Nevertheless, because it is completely different from other diseases, it has been regarded as a divine visitation by those who, being only human, view it with ignorance and astonishment”.
Perspectives
By stating that epilepsy is not a sacred disease and fighting against superstition, Hippocrates made one of the most important and evolutionary contributions to the history of medicine. He outlined the true medical approach, associating it with scientific knowledge, humanism, and medical ethics, recognizing that the relationship between doctor and patient must be dictated by human concepts and by the crucial ethical principle “benefit and do no harm to the patient”.
Professor Stavros J Baloyannis or Balogiannis or Balojannis or Baloyiannis or Mpalogiannis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Epilepsy: A way from Herodotus to Hippocrates, Epilepsy & Behavior, August 2013, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.04.003.
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