Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

166 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
chest with violent coughing fits. Once it reached the stomach that too
became upset. Vomiting of every kind of bile that has been identified by
the medical profession ensued, accompanied by great pain and distress.
The majority were afflicted with ineffectual retching, which produced
violent convulsions. In some cases the convulsions ceased at this point,
but in others they continued afterwards. Externally the body did not feel
very hot nor was it pale. Rather it was reddish, livid, and breaking out
into blisters and ulcers. Internally, however, there was a burning sensation
so that sufferers could not endure to be covered by even fine linen
but merely wanted to be naked. What they liked to do most of all was to
plunge themselves into cold water. In fact many who received no attention
threw themselves into cisterns, consumed by an unquenchable thirst.
They were in the same state whether they drank a lot or a little. Restlessness
and insomnia afflicted them throughout.
So long as the disease was at its height the body was not enfeebled but
resisted the misery to a remarkable degree, so that the majority of people
either perished on the seventh or eighth day as a result of internal burning
while still having some strength left. Or, if they pulled through, once
the sickness descended to the bowels and caused violent ulceration and
watery diarrhea, most of them perished subsequently as a result of the
ensuing weakness. For beginning at the top, in the head, the disease made
its way down through the whole body and if anyone survived the worst
of its effects, yet it still left traces by seizing onto the extremities. It made
its way to the genitals, the fingers and the toes, and many who lost the use
of these parts still survived, while there were others who lost the use of
their eyes. (2.49.2–8)
Thukydides does not limit his analysis to a description of the
progress of the disease within the body. He also focuses upon its
social consequences in view of the high level of mortality, which
undermined not only religious observances, particularly those
relating to the burial of the dead, but also common standards of
decency.
Chronic Illness
The majority of patients who received medical attention were
wealthy individuals who suffered from curable illnesses and injuries.
Probably the chronically sick, those suffering from degenerative
diseases, and the aged would have had little reason to avail
themselves of the services of the medical profession. None of the
Hippocratic case histories describes patients with chronic illnesses.
This is further corroborated by an observation made by Sokrates in
Plato’s Republic that Asklepios revealed the art of medicine only on