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Fighting the Plague in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
- The History of Ancient and Medieval Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Diseases
- Narrated by: Daniel Houle
- Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
Plague and pestilence have both fascinated and terrified humanity from the very beginning. Societies and individuals have struggled to make sense of them, and more importantly they’ve often struggled to avoid them. Before the scientific age, people had no knowledge of the microbiological agents - unseen bacteria and viruses - which afflicted them, and thus the maladies were often ascribed to wrathful supernatural forces. Even when advances in knowledge posited natural causes for epidemics and pandemics, medicine struggled to deal with them, and for hundreds of years religion continued to work hand-in-hand with medicine.
Inevitably, that meant physicians tried a variety of practices to cure the sick, and many of them seem quite odd by modern standards. By the time Rome was on the rise, physicians understood that contagions arose and spread, but according to Galen, Hippocrates, and other Greco-Roman authorities, pestilence was caused by miasma, foul air produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Though modern scientists have since been able to disprove this, on the face of it there was some logic to the idea. Physicians and philosophers (they were very often the same, Galen being an example) noticed that disease arose in areas of poor sanitation, where filth and rotting matter was prevalent and not disposed of, and the basic measures to prevent disease - waste removal, provision of clean food and water, and quarantining - would have been obvious to them. The scenting of miasmic air with incense and other unguents to expel the foulness would also have thus made sense, though people now know that can’t stop the spread of a disease.
Ancient physicians at the time believed that miasma was not the direct cause of disease but rather a catalyst. Maladies were caused by an imbalance of what Galen called the four humors. According to him (and Hippocrates before him), the body contained four kinds of fluids: Black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. These corresponded to the four elements of which the entire universe was composed: Earth, fire, water, and air. Black bile was tied to earth, yellow bile to fire, blood to air, and phlegm to water. It was believed that the balance of the humors in the body not only determined an individual’s health, but their behavior and temperament as well. A melancholic (from melanos, the word for “black”) disposition was caused by an excess of black bile. Yellow bile made a person fiery or choleric (from khole, the word for bile), while a phlegmatic (from phlegma, body moisture) temperament denoted a surplus of phlegm. The most desirable temperament was the sanguine (sanguis, blood), which exhibited happiness, calm and enthusiasm. The ancient Romans thought miasma caused an imbalance in these fluids, and disease resulted. For the ancient physician, as indeed for all physicians for the next 1,500 years or so, illness was not the direct result of external agents.
The High Middle Ages had seen a rise in Western Europe’s population in previous centuries, but these gains were almost entirely erased as the plague spread rapidly across all of Europe from 1346-1353. With a medieval understanding of medicine, diagnosis, and illness, nobody understood what caused Black Death or how to truly treat it. As a result, many religious people assumed it was divine retribution, while superstitious and suspicious citizens saw a nefarious human plot involved.
Fighting the Plague in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: The History of Ancient and Medieval Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Diseases looks at the ways past societies have striven to cope with epidemics and the various remedies – some bizarre, some desperate, others logical but nonetheless misguided - they employed. The approaches include an eclectic mix of medicine, supernatural rituals, religion, and philosophy.
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Story
Galen of Pergamum (A.D. 129-ca. 216) began his remarkable career tending to wounded gladiators in provincial Asia Minor. Later in life he achieved great distinction as one of a small circle of court physicians to the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, at the very heart of Roman society. Susan Mattern's The Prince of Medicine offers the first authoritative biography in English of this brilliant, audacious, and profoundly influential figure.
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history of medicine
- By Jean on 07-27-14
By: Susan P. Mattern
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The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
- A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East
- By: John M. Allegro
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Where did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This audiobook challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion.
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Hated it,
- By Troy Sunde on 12-22-22
By: John M. Allegro
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The Book of the Dead
- The History and Legacy of Ancient Egypt’s Famous Funerary Texts
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 1 hr and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Given the abundance of funerary artifacts that have been found within the sands of Egypt, it sometimes seems as though the Ancient Egyptians were more concerned with the matters of the afterlife than they were with matters of the life they experienced from day to day. This is underscored most prominently by the pyramids, which have captured the world’s imagination for centuries.
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Love it!!! Learned a lot in such a short time.
- By gab g on 02-09-23
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Huitzilopochtli
- The History of the Aztec God of War and Human Sacrifice
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Bill Hare
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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To the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli wore a blue-green hummingbird helmet and was draped in pure white heron feathers. He carried a smoking mirror, an obsidian mirror, a shield, darts, and the serpent Xiuhcoatl that carried with it the fury and might of the sun. Everything about him - from his clothes to his weapons - emanated and defined royalty.
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The flow
- By sammy potashnick on 07-22-24
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The Black Death: A Captivating Guide to the Deadliest Pandemic in Medieval Europe and Human History
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Randy Whitlow
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The Black Death was the first recorded pandemic in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. All across the continent, people learned just how gruesome and horrific disease could be as the plague crossed the boundaries of countries and the lines established by society, killing everyone equally. It showed that no one - not even archbishops and kings - was immune from its grasp.
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Captivating and Comprehensive
- By Rick House on 05-11-20
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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In the Wake of the Plague
- The Black Death and the World It Made
- By: Norman F. Cantor
- Narrated by: Bill Wallace
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Much of what we know about the greatest medical disaster ever, the Black Plague of the fourteenth century, is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the final, awful end by respiratory failure are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was, and how it made history, remain shrouded in a haze of myths.
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Don't waste time or money
- By Anne on 01-22-09
By: Norman F. Cantor
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Mythology
- Egyptian Mythology, Gods, Goddesses, and Symbols
- By: Kelly Mass
- Narrated by: Miriam Webster
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an extensive guide to the world of Egyptian mythology. Both cultural background and historical events will help you understand the way the ancient Egyptians lived and the things they believed.
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I really appreciate this book.
- By Joyce Magpale on 10-17-22
By: Kelly Mass
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End of Days
- What You Need to Know Now About the End of the World
- By: Sylvia Browne
- Narrated by: Jeanie Hackett
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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Religious wars, global terrorism, genocide, ecological disaster: Today's world is a scary place. The Information Age has carried us into the Age of Anxiety, where everyone is on edge, wondering what is coming next. What will happen in 2012, when the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world? What will the next 50 years bring?
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Not very accurate on predictions from 2010-2020
- By Brandy White on 03-17-20
By: Sylvia Browne
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The Road to Eleusis
- Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries
- By: R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece for nearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strange accounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. In this groundbreaking work, three experts - a mycologist, a chemist, and a historian - argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures.
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really?
- By Anonymous User on 09-19-23
By: R. Gordon Wasson, and others
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Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts.
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A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
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Get Well Soon
- History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
- By: Jennifer Wright
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn't stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon 34 more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-19th-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome - a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure.
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Didn't know syphilis could be so fascinating.
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-17
By: Jennifer Wright
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Mythology
- Egyptian Myths, Goddesses, Gods, and Stories
- By: Ron Carver
- Narrated by: John Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Become familiar with the myths and their background. Become swallowed up by the sandy Egyptian empire of old. In this book, you’ll learn about things like: the golden lotus; the Greek princess; the stories around the Sphinx; Gods like Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and their role in mythology; what women did in ancient Egyptian culture; how Egyptians handled medicinal needs; mummification and its deeper meaning and rituals; and more.
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Interesting stories, terrible narration
- By Renee on 04-23-20
By: Ron Carver