Th ebes (in Boeotia, central Greece), a pestilence aff ects the
city at the beginning of the play Oedipus tyrannos (Oedipus
the King) by Sophocles. In the epic literature a similar affl ic-
tion decimates the Greek troops besieging Troy at the begin-
ning of the Iliad. Th e term used for such disease is loimos,
usually improperly translated as “plague.” Th e cause was seen
to be of a religious nature: An individual transgresses a law
of the group. As a punishment, a disease aff ecting the group
is sent by a god. Signifi cantly, in the Iliad this disease takes
the form of arrows falling on the warriors and killing them.
Th e cure involves off ering sacrifi ces to the god who provoked
the disease (including a scapegoat) and compensating for
the transgression by reestablishing the natural order of the
group, which has been broken.
In historical times the existence of diseases aff ecting
a large number of people is affi rmed in the didactic poem
Works and Days by Hesiod (fl. ca. 800 b.c.e.). Such disease is
sent by a god (Zeus), though without reference to a transgres-
sion. It is rather the result of the human condition, submitted
to work, pain, and suff ering. Th ree major outbreaks of epi-
demic diseases were described in the sixth and fi ft h centuries
b.c.e. Th e fi rst is mentioned in the pseudo-Hippocratic Em-
bassy. Th e text reveals that during the First Sacred War (ca.
590 b.c.e.), troops besieging the sacred site of Delphi suff er a
loimos. For the fi rst time in preserved literature a physician
is called. However, he does not use any medicine: Th e god
involved in the outbreak of the disease stops it.
Th e second epidemic is known through the pseudo-
Hippocratic Letters. Th e troops of the Persian king Ar-
taxerxes I (r. 465–425 b.c.e.) are suff ering such a disease.
Although the letter is of doubtful authenticity, it contains an
interesting statement on the origin and treatment of epidem-
ics: Such diseases are not considered to be natural and, con-
trary to natural disease that nature cures, need to be treated
by the art of physicians. For this reason Artaxerxes calls
Hippocrates (ca. 460–ca. 377 b.c.e.).
Th e third major outbreak of an epidemic disease is the fa-
mous so-called plague of Athens (430 b.c.e.) described by the
historian Th ucydides (d. ca. 401 b.c.e.). Again, such disease
aff ected a population during a war (the Peloponnesian War,
431–404 b.c.e.). It appeared among the besieged population
of Athens. According to Th ucydides’ report, the disease came
from Ethiopia, passed through Libya and Egypt, and from
there spread to Persia. It suddenly appeared in Athens, through
the harbor of Piraeus. In the city the death toll was higher than
any where else. Physicians were of no help, as t hey did not k now
the nature of the disease and died themselves because they
were in close contact with sick patients. No therapeutic method
was effi cacious. Th e disease stopped spontaneously. Th e nature
of the disease has been disputed for a long time. (Smallpox is
among the hypotheses.) Recent archaeological and laboratory
research has led to the conclusion that it might have been ty-
phoid fever. In the late fi ft h century and early fourth century
b.c.e. another epidemic disease was the so-called cough of Per-
inth described in the Hippocratic work Epidemics 6. It aff ected
the city of Perinthus, on the shore of the Propontis (Sea of Mar-
mara) sometime around 400 b.c.e. and probably was several
diff erent medical conditions, the most important of which has
since been diagnosed as diphtheria.
At the time of these major outbreaks of epidemic dis-
eases the concept of general disease was gradually formulated
among Hippocratic physicians. A distinction was made be-Greek marble block from the frieze of the Temple of Apollo Epikourio, meaning “Apollo the Helper” (420–400 b.c.e.), from Bassae, Arcadia; the
name Helper was given to Apollo by citizens of nearby Phigaleia, as thanks for their deliverance from the plague. (© Th e Trustees of the British
Museum)
826 pandemics and epidemics: Greece