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
BABYLONIAN TERMINOLOGY | 5 |
EPILEPSY WITH OTHER AFFLICTIONS | 23 |
THE DIAGNOSTIC HANDBOOK | 55 |
A SECOND DIAGNOSTIC TEXT | 91 |
PROTECTION AND THERAPEUTICS | 99 |
TIMING | 115 |
STRUCK BY THE MOON | 121 |
EPILEPSY AND PEOPLE | 131 |
EPILEPSY AND ANIMALS | 149 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
a.š u b.ba Akkadian alû an.ta.šub.ba ašpû Assyrian baby bennu Chapter commentary demon diagnostic handbook diagnostic text DIB-šú DINGIR DIŠ DIŠ KI.MIN discussion ditto dupl entry enūma UD epilepsy epileptic Erica Reiner etemmi evil extispicy fall Farber form of epilepsy fumigation Goddess Greek hajjattu Hand of Sîn heart-break Hippocrates iballut ihītaššu incantation incubus işbassu DIB-su Ištar kīma GIM Kinnier Wilson Köcher LÁ-šú Labat Landsberger leather leprosy lilî Lugal-urra Lurker madness magical manuscript Marduk materia magica means medical texts miqtu moon n.t a.š Nergal Old Babylonian passage patient pišu KA-šú 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