- chapter 47: Health and medicine in Etruria –
site surrounding the viscera. As Recke notes, such surgery is not easily survivable, yet it
might have been occasionally attempted, or information gained from such attempts used
to help those suffering from internal problems. Such depictions certainly attest to a new
attitude in which expressing knowledge of the body and making very pointed, direct
requests for specifi c kinds of healing was countenanced by society and the gods. Society
had moved away from the atmosphere of archaic aristocracies.
PharmacopeiaFrom Theophrastus at the end of the fourth century bc to Martianus Capella (fi fth century
ad), ancient authors respected the Etruscans’ expertise in herbalism and pharmacology.
Theophrastus (Historia plantarum 10.15) said that Aeschylus in his elegies had spoken
of the Etruscan race as a people skilled in compounding drugs (φαρμακοποιόν ἔθνος);
Martianus Capella (De nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae 6.37) called Etruria remediorum origine
celebrata. We have the Etruscan names (preserved as glosses) for several plant species that
were used as drugs in Antiquity (and many are still found today, in Italy and elsewhere,
some even in the modern pharmacopeia (Harrison and Bartels 2006; Harrison and Turfa
2010; Leonti et al. 2009; Scarborough 2006). There are problems with some of these
names, for they are actually Latin or Greek rather than Etruscan words (see Briquel 2006;
Torelli 1976; Bertoldi 1936).
Many of the species cited in the glosses were used as vermifuges, toxic substances
that can eliminate intestinal worms, and were still used in folk medicine in Campania
as late as the twentieth century, when Jashemski and her colleagues (2002) catalogued
the plants depicted or preserved in the cities destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 ad. While this
is not strictly Etruscan culture, the fi nds do show the availability of these substances in
Italy in Antiquity, and one may suspect that much of the Roman pharmacopeia was based
on previous Etruscan folk medicine. The plants with antihelminthic properties included
chamomile (apiana: TLE 808) and wormwood/absinthe, which were also thought to have
anti-infl ammatory properties and were used to treat gastrointestinal problems. Although
not listed in the literary sources as specifi cally Etruscan, pomegranates have been used
in modern times for their ability to eliminate worms and are depicted frequently in
Etruscan art from the Archaic period on (Jannot 2009; Guarrera 1999; Jashemski et al.
2002; Harrison and Turfa 2010.) Jannot (2009) illustrates Etruscan familiarity with the
lotus and poppy, which, as in other regions, were probably also valued for medicinal
purposes as well as religious and funerary symbolism.
Among the plants with preserved “Etruscan” names are many still used in folk
medicine or recently (re-) studied for potential healing properties: feverfew (Etr. kautam –
sedative, pain control, reduce infl ammation), gentian (Etr. cicenda – digestive treatments),
henbane (Etr. fabulonia – sedative, painkiller, treatment of spasms, asthma), immortelle
(Etr. garuleum – digestive issues, anti-infl ammatory, analgesic), cuckoo-pint (Etr. gigarum
- anti-bacterial, anti-fungal), pimpernel (Etr. masuripos, tantum – diuretic, expectorant,
treatment of rashes), thyme (Etr. mutuka – expectorant, treatment of coughs, bronchitis),
rough bindweed (Etr. radia – laxative, treatment of skin conditions), tuberous thistle
(spina alba – actually Latin -emetic, emmenagogue), valerian (Etr. sucinum – treatment of
digestive disorders, eczema, insomnia).
Some other plants were linked to Etruscan medicine by authors such as Pliny, but
their Etruscan names have not survived, for instance, millefolium (water-milfoil), which