Epilepsy in BabyloniaStol's comprehensive exploration of the Babylonians' conception and treatment of epilepsy adds a new chapter to the history of this ancient disease. The author presents the sources, examines the terminology and places epilepsy in context among kindred illnesses. A full edition (transliteration, translation, commentary and cuneiform copy) of the relevant parts of the Diagnostic Handbook is included. According to the Ancients, epileptics are 'struck by the moon'. An examination of the relationship between epilepsy and the moon yields surprising results. This volume deals with material that was unavailable to O. Temkin, author of the classic "The Falling Sickness; A history of epilepsy from the Greeks to the beginning of modern neurology," (1971). It show that traditional views of the Ancient Near East lived on among the Greeks and Romans. |
Contents
EPILEPSY WITH OTHER AFFLICTIONS | 23 |
THE DIAGNOSTIC HANDBOOK | 55 |
A SECOND DIAGNOSTIC TEXT | 91 |
PROTECTION AND THERAPEUTICS 60 | 99 |
TIMING | 115 |
STRUCK BY THE MOON | 121 |
EPILEPSY AND PEOPLE | 131 |
EPILEPSY AND ANIMALS | 149 |
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Common terms and phrases
a.š u b.ba Akkadian amēlu amulet stones an.t AN.TA.ŠUB.BA ancient Assyrian attested baby BE-ma bennu Chapter commentary diagnostic handbook diagnostic text DIB-su DINGIR DIŠ DIŠ KI.MIN discussion ditto dupl entry enūma UD epilepsy epileptic eradicated Erica Reiner Extispicy fall Farber form of epilepsy fumigation Goddess Greek hajjattu Hand of Sîn heart-break Hippocrates INANNA incantation incubus Ištar kīma GIM Kinnier Wilson Köcher LÁ-šú LÁ.ŠÚ Labat Landsberger leather leprosy Lugal-urra Lurker madness magical manuscript Marduk means medical texts miqtu moon n.t a.š Nergal Old Babylonian passage patient pišu KA-šú plant prescriptions qāt ritual Roof šá Sacred Disease saliva Šamaš Schneble seized seizure Spawn of Šulpaea SpbTU Spirit Stol succubus Sumerian Sumerogram šumma symptoms Tablet XXVI Temkin translation variant verb W. H. Roscher Wilson and Reynolds woman word