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195
196 JOANN SCURLOCK
If the head is suddenly seized with pain from a temporary cause, even if
it should endure for several days, the disease is called cephalalgia.1
In some cases, the headache is acute and is accompanied by fever; in these
cases the leading physicians of the sects give it the special name cephalalgia.
In other cases the disease is chronic and unaccompanied by fever … This
form of the disease the ancients call cephalaea. 2
Without help from Mesopotamia, however, little more could be said since Are-
taeus gives no further description of his fatal headaches other than to mention that
they were severe and protracted. In addition to cases of what could be encephalitis
or meningitis, ancient Mesopotamian physicians described fatal afebrile head-
aches, which are good candidates for Aretaeus’s fatal variety of cephalaea as follows.
DIfi SAG.KI-Íú DIB-su-ma TA dUTU.fiÚ.A EN EN.NUN UD.ZAL.LI ur-rak ú-Íam-Íá
GAM3
If his temple afflicts him and it lasts from sunset till the morning watch
(var. it keeps him awake all night), he will die.
If his temple afflicts him so that ditto (he continually cries out), his tempo-
ral blood vessels (feel like they) are pulsating greatly (and) the upper part
of his head (feels like it was) broken in pieces, he will die.
Also attributed to ghosts, but separately described, were severe dizziness and
ringing in the ears. Put together with a few further observations, the result was Sora-
nus of Ephesus’ masterful description of what he terms “scotoma.”
Those who have the disease experience a sudden darkening10 and blot-
ting-out of the vision, with such dizziness that they think everything is
moving about them. They see before their eyes sparks (which the Greeks
call marmarygae) like the flashes that come from the spots of shining
marble, meeting the eyes from every direction, no matter which way they
turn them. Again, in this disease the head and eyes feel weighted down;
though the patient wishes to sit down, he fears to move for he thinks every-
thing is giving way or falling about him. There is ringing in the ears, sweat-
ing of the upper parts of the body, or a sudden fall followed by swift
arising. And the disease is aggravated if the patient watches the flow of a
were lice but when he brings his hand up there is nothing to scratch,
“hand” of ghost ‰¤tu (dehydration); (if) the person (bends and stretches
out) his feet as in the scepter of Sîn, “hand” of ghost.
What appears to be described in the above texts are seizures of the grand mal type.
Seizure disorders often occur within twenty-four hours after the cessation of drink-
ing. Interesting in view of the association of the “scepter of Sîn” with both delirium
tremens and grand mal seizures is the fact that about a third of the patients with
alcohol-induced seizure disorders progress to develop delirium tremens.
In short, comparison between Soranus’s account and ancient Mesopotamian
descriptions reveal that what Soranus is calling “epilepsy” in this context is not the
full range of seizure activity covered by the Ancient Mesopotamian term for epi-
lepsy, AN.TA.fiUB.BA, but only what was termed the “scepter of Sîn,” that is, what we
now refer to as withdrawal seizures. Given this context, Soranus is not to be dunned
for his alleged inability to recognize a headache and instead praised for having
made the observation that ophthalmologic migraine is “common in those who
drink wine to excess and gives warning of withdrawal seizures to come.”
Epilepsy was known to the Greeks as the Sacred Disease due, as Soranus notes
(Chronic Diseases I.4.60), to the fact that many believed it to be caused by divine
agency. Of significance, then, in view of the attribution by ancient Mesopotamian
DIfi LÚ.TUR KÚM NU TUKU IGIII-Íú bal-‰a fiUII-Íú u GÌRII-Íú i-ra-’u-ba fiU d30 DIN 21
If an infant does not have a fever, his eyes are dilated (and) his hands and
his feet tremble, “hand” of Sîn; he should recover.
19 Aretaeus the Cappadocian, On Chronic Diseases I.4. Interesting in this context is the extent
to which “magical” treatments for “epilepsy” in the Classical world included not only substances
associated in one way or another with the moon but also with ghosts including the bones of the
dead (Temkin, 1945:10–15, 22–23).
‘20 DPS XL A 35 = TDP 220:35.
21 DPS XL A 120 = TDP 230:120)(6).
22 For further references, see Stol, 1993: 121–125, 127.
23 For more examples, the reader is referred to Scurlock, 2004.
202 JOANN SCURLOCK
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aretaeus the Cappadocian, 1856. The Extant Works of Aretaeus the Cappadocian, trans. F.
Adams, London.
Caelius Aurelianus, 1950. On Acute Diseases and On Chronic Diseases, ed. I. Drabkin,
Chicago.
Rose, C. 1995. “The History of Migraine from Mesopotamian to Medieval Times,” Cepha-
lalgia 19, 1–3.
Scurlock, J. 2004. “From Esagil-kin-apli to Hippocrates,” Le Journal des Médicines Cunéi-
formes 3, 10–30.
Stol, M. 1993. Epilepsy in Babylonia, Cuneiform Mongraphs 2, Groningen.
Temkin, O. 1945. The Falling Sickness. Baltimore.