MANIA
Madness in the Greco-Roman World
.-_- .
)
Acta Classica Supplementum III
Classical Association of South Africa
.,
This publication was made possible by a generous grant
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MANIA
I
Madness in the GrecoRoman World
r ... . . . . . ·-·.:
Edited by Philip Bosman
ACTA CLASSICA SUPPLEMENTUM III
CLASSICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA
Pretoria
2009
·....
EDITORIAL BOARD OF ACTA CLASSICA
Editor
Prof. Louise Cilliers, University of the Free State
Chairperson of the Classical Association
Prof. J.C. Zietsman, University of the Free State
Editorial Secretary
Dr J.F.G. Cilliers, University of the Free State
Treasurer
Prof. P.R. Bosman, University of South Africa
Additional Members
Prof. W.J. Henderson, University of Johannesburg
Prof. J.L. Hilton, University of KwaZulu-Natal
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Prof. David Konstan, Brown University, USA
Prof. Lorna Hardwick, The Open University, UK
Prof. Stephen Harrison, University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Manfred Horstrnanshoff, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Prof. Daniel Ogden, University of Exeter, UK
Prof. John Scarborough, University of Wisconsin, USA
Prof. Betine van Zyl Smit, University of Nottingham, UK
PATRON
Justice D .H. van Zyl
HONORARY PRESIDENTS
Prof. J.E. Atkinson
Prof. P.J. Conradie
Prof. W.J. Henderson
Prof. D.M. Kriel
Prof. D.B. Saddington
HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENT
Prof. F.P. Retief
CONTENTS
PHIUP R. BOSMAN, Introduction
1
CLIVE E. CHANDLER, Madness in Homer and the Verb
flULVOflaL
8
MICHAELLM.ffiERT, The Madness ofWomen: The Zulu
Amandiki and Euripides's Bacchae
19
ADRIENNE ARANITA, The Contagion of Mutiny in Livy
28.24-32
36
DENIS B. SADDINGTON, Mens Exercituum: The Pathology
of Roman Soldiers in Conflict
52
W AKEFIEW FOSTERt, Devotion, Delusion and Epic Parody:
Masks of Madness in Catullus 63
69
JOHN L. HILTON, Furorj Dementia1 Rabies: Social Displacement,
Madness and Religion in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius
84
GLENDA McDONALD, Mapping Madness: Two Medical
Responses to Insanity in Later Antiquity
106
LOUISE CILLIERS and FRAN<::OIS P. RETIEF, Mental Illness in
the Greco-Roman Era
130
PREVIOUS SUPPLEMENTS
: '.:
I
J.E. Atkinson, A Commentary on Q . Curtius Rufus' Historiae
Alexandri Magni Books 5 to 7J Adolf Hakkert Publisher,
Amsterdam 1994.
II
Louise Cilliers (ed.), Asklepios. Studies on Ancient Medicine.
Classical Association of South Africa, Bloemfontein 2008.
INTRODUCTION
Philip R. Bosman
University of South Africa
The importance of a cognitive field in a particular culture may be gauged
from the variety and attention it is given in that culture's expressions,
linguistic, artistic and otherwise. Regarding madness, the broad range of
terms and expressions in English associated with the field certainly points to
both prominence and complexity: insanity, derangement, delusion, craziness, frenzy, fury, rage, lunacy, being mentally disordered, impaired, disturbed or unstable, to mention some of the more frequently used words and
phrases. If to that may be added the myriad of psychopathological terms for
mental disorders and colloquial - often disparaging - expressions for behaviour ranging from mildly awkward to positively dangerous ('out of your
mind'; 'nuts', 'off your rocker', etc.), the list goes on and on. It reveals much
about our own heritage that we are willing to group such disparate phenomena into a single cognitive field, often tacitly understood as the opposite of
rational or socially acceptable behaviour. In Greco-Roman literature, the
theme - if indeed one is bold (deluded?) enough to retroject all modern
associations into ancient times under a single umbrella term - occ:urs in
manifold shapes and sizes. In truth, the ancient Greek cognitive mapping
does not overlap in all respects with our own understanding of the term,
which appears to be dominated by metaphorical and medical uses. To
mention but one difference: madness in the Greco-Roman world sometimes
implied a form of heightened ability to the benefit of society, like the forms
of divine madness mentioned by Platol or the 'battle frenzy' of the Homeric
Diomedes or Hector on a slaughtering rampage. 2 In these temporary suppressions of the human mental faculty by a god, madness may be considered
a blessing. In cases of madness with socially disruptive potential, on the
other hand, the Greeks and Romans were equally willing to see divine visitation: forms of punishment for hubris and insult to the honour of the gods.
Here the madness implies a 'less than' human ability and is associated with
danger and fear due to its unpredictability and potential for disrupting order.
It would be an interesting undertaking to map with more precision what lies
at the core and what on the fringes of ancient conceptualities regarding
1
2
Phaedr. 243e-245c: poetic inspiration, prophesy, ecstasy and love.
See Chandler's contribution in this volume.
2
BOSMAN
madness, and in what ways the core moved and was replaced over the more
than a millennium of classical literature.
The Greeks and the Romans bequeathed to the world memorable
instances and agents of madness. Some of these are well-known, even overfamiliar, so that their renewed treatment might need to be justified. One
may think of the madnesses of Ajax and Heracles, Io and Orestes, Phaedra
and Dido; of, apart from Olympian-induced madness, the fearsome figures
of the Maniae, the Erinyes, Lyssa and their Roman counterparts Ira, Furor
and Rabies. But there are many other instances less frequently explored:
Mattes (1970) lists no less than thirty-two Greek myths involving madness.
Not only do many of these invite in-depth discussion and comparison, but
their various receptions, both in ancient and modern times, would make for
fascinating investigations. Epic (Greek as well as Roman) on its own is a
useful field in which to explore the topic, as the exemplary study of
Hershkowitz . (1998) demonstrates, and the same may be said for tragedy
(Padel 1995). Many literary topoi have their origin in dramatic texts, for
instance Orestes's v6cros, connected to remorse, which reverberated for
centuries afterwards in depictions of attacks by the furies and exaggerated
descriptions of an overwrought conscience, like that of Flaccus in Philo's
treatise.3 Historiography similarly availed itself of madness topoi probably
since its inception. Speculation about madness as causing peculiar behaviour
suits the style of Herodotus, as in the case of Cleomenes whose suicide is
ascril;>ed by various parties to punishment for either sacrilege or bribery, or
-more soberly, if the irony may be excused- to alcoholism. 4 Histories from
the Hellenistic and Roman eras continued in this vein, using madness often
in highly rhetorical fashion in the ascription of motive. Naturally, the
various manifestations of unhinged minds in the imperial court provided
fuel to the fire, with Nero and Caligula among the first coming to mind. 5
Philosophical writings, too, deal with madness as an issue belonging within
its own domain, in the process sharing with apd contributing to medical
discussions of the topic. Pigeaud's study of the relationship between body
and mind has shown that, particularly among the leading Hellenistic schools,
disease of the psyche was regarded as analogous to medical treatment of the
body, and the cures offered for mental health and composure often even
3 Philo, F/ac. 153-80; on Orestes's disease, cf. Bosman 1993.
4
Hdt. 6.84; cf. also the madness of Cambyses in 3.30-38.
5
Cf., for instance, Yavetz 1996.
/.
..;..-'
BOSMAN
3
overlapped with bodily therapies, 6 while Harris (2001) has recently explored
Greco-Roman culture's fascination with anger and its containment. Moral
philosophy looks quite different once its affinities with ancient medical ideas
are put into relief; with interest in. ancient medicine currently experiencing
an upsurge, the work done in both fields would benefit our understanding
of ancient madness. The Greeks and the Romans in general regarded the
passions as dangerous; small wonder that love was considered not only as
Socrates's divine blessing but also exploited for its destructive potential by
poets and dramatists alike.7
The collection of articles in this volume does not pretend to be representative of the topic in Greco-Roman literature nor does it attempt to plot a
cognitive map of any particular era. The selected contributions stem largely
from a colloquium held at the University of South Africa in 2007 on the
theme 'Madness and mental composure'. The colloquium had a truly international aspect, with the invited participants hailing from Greece, the
United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo as well as from various South African universities. Participants
were encouraged to rework their papers into articles and submit them for
inclusion in the volume. These were subjected to the quality control process
stipulated for Acta Classica: each article refereed by both a local and an
international subject specialist, who recommended either elimination or
publication, and gave comments for improvement where applicable. Contributors were not asked to treat a specific area in order to claim fullness of
coverage, but made their choice of author or topic on the basis of their own
research. As can be expected in a collection of this nature, the angles and
methodologies vary significantly, while many and important topics are not
included. Nonetheless, precisely in allowing scholars their own focus and
approach, the volume manages not only to assemble a wealth of material on
the topic, but also to open up many interesting perspectives which will
certainly be of value to further enquiries intq this field.
The first two articles are devoted to madness in Greek literature. The
first, by Clive Chandler, investigates the controversial use of the verb
!laLVO!laL in Homeric epic. Chandler concludes that the verbal form is
nowhere used to refer to a mental condition. Rather, Homer employs it to
denote either an impairment of cognitive faculties, or battlefield behaviour
with destructive consequences not for the self, but for others. While, as
6
7
Pigeaud 1981; see also Gill1985.
Cf. Rowe 1990; Gill1997.
•( '
:· · jo'
4
BOSMAN
Chandler notes, sttidies of Homeric semantics are fraught with uncertainties,
the two meanings should have some bearing on our understanding of the
noun IJ.av(a, crucial to discussions of madness in subsequent Greek
literature but absent from these early texts. The same holds for the term
j.l.atvas, synonym for ~aKX~, which is the subject of the second article.
Michael Lambert explores the notion of possession of women within
various, predominantly male, discourses. His two subjects are groups of
Zulu women from the turn of the 20th century through the eyes of colonial
administrators, and Euripides's construction of the bacchantes in his eponymous tragedy. Lambert regards these phenomena as both manifestations of
repression and attempts at redefinition of gender boundaries. The two types
of maenads in the Bacchae, representing Dionysiac possession and inspiration, may perhaps reflect the political crisis in Athens at the end of the 5th
century, setting the audience before a choice at a time when traditional polis
structures were under pressure to reform.
Linking up with the topic of madness and group or crowd behaviour, the
next two articles deal with descriptions of madness and mental composure
connected to the Roman army. Adrienne Aranita compares Livy's
depiction of the mutiny at Sucro with his source, Polybius. Livy transforms
Polybius's madness metaphor for the mutiny into an instance of contagious
disease which he places in parallel with the physical disease of Scipio. Livy
employs the madness topic for ideological purposes: Romans only revolt
when their mental faculties are not functioning properly; when a whole
group revolts, it must be due to foreign contagion. Insubordination is
insanity and can be cured by means of sane leadership, spectacle, expiation
and fear. Livy's depiction already shows features of a literary topos, which it
indeed becomes in Tacitus, who also tends to attach the label of madness to
acts of insubordination. Denis Saddington's article explores the interest in
military psychology (mens exercituum) in Tacitus and other authors, in particular the discrepancy between the ideal of a w~ll-trained, disciplined and
competitive army unit and what actually happened on the ground. It appears
that disciplina (consisting of virtus, patientia and labor) was hard to enforce
even by the best of commanders: laxness, code transgression and - most
dangerous - the manipulation of the army for personal political purposes,
occurred all too often.
Whereas Livy and Tacitus colour historical events with literary features,
Catullus puts mythical and historical perspectives in juxtaposition for literary
effect. In Wakefield Foster's reading of the famous Carmen 63, he emphasises the significance of the poet's letting Attis's mythical/ epic mask slip to
I
I
I
I.· ... .
..
~
.
BOSMAN
5
reveal his self-mutilation as an act of insanity, perpetrated under the spell of
religious frenzy. Possibly critical towards religious zeal, Catullus moves from
the mythical realm to realism in order to heighten the tragic aftermath of
Attis's castration: delusion in the far-off, unreal world of myth clad in epic
language becomes, when diagnosed under the harsh light of the real present,
a heart-rending act of temporary madness with irreversible consequences.
While Attis's madness has traumatic consequences, trauma may also be
the cause of madness. In Catullus, religious frenzy may cause insanity; in
Apuleius, religion becomes a refuge against a world gone mad. John Hilton
explores the theme of madness in Apuleius's Metamorphoses as a consequence
of traumatic loss of status and descent into social disorder. Observing the
metaphor of slavery permeating the work, Hilton argues that the instances
of mental disorder may be understood from the experiences of slaves
suffering brutal disruption of their world, and whose consequent psychological disorientation leads to their perception, from the bottom of the
social hierarchy, of the world as inverted and unreal. Adding to that the
ancient link between metamorphoses and madness, Lucius's gradual
enslavement is accompanied by an increasing sense of derangement which
the author intensifies with parallel characters like Psyche, Charite, Socrates
and Aristomenes, and with various manifestations of madness like unrestrained emotions and erotic mania.
Ancient madness was not an exclusively literary topic. Doctors had to
deal with it as a condition among ordinary people, and although the medical
tradition seems to have been influenced by the literary topoi to some extent,
their primary concerns were with diagnosis, causes and treatments. The last
two articles are concerned with the manifestations of madness as viewed
from this perspective. Glenda McDonald focuses on two authors from
whom we have fairly extensive discussions on the topic: Aretaeus who
wrote in the 1st century AD and Caelius Aurelianus from the 5th century,
whose work reflects in large part the medicf!l thought of Soranus from the
early 2nd century. The two authors represent two opposing medical
traditions, the Pneumatics and the Methodists, and McDonald offers a
comparison of how their covering of similar terrain differs in terms of
causes and treatments of mental illnesses due to their respective theoretical
assumptions. Both schools work with a threefold symptomatology
considered in terms of the traditional distinction between acute and chronic
diseases: phrenitis (acute, accompanied by fever), melancholia and mania
(chronic, without fever). Whereas Aretaeus follows the Hippocratic
humoural theory, Caelius uses the Methodist ascription of causes in terms of
··.
6
BOSMAN
three states: stricture, looseness and mixed. Particularly interesting is how
the schools distinguish between rationality and the senses when describing
the three diseases. To Aretaeus, phrenitis affects the senses but leaves the
mind intact, while mania and melancholia have the opposite effect. The
Methodists, on the other hand, believed that disease affects the whole body,
so that remedies for mania are not restricted to the body, but include
intellectual treatment as well.
The final article, by Louise Cilliers and Frans;ois Retief, presents a
proper conclusion to the volume by offering a brief survey of depictions of
madness in the Greco-Roman world as viewed from a modern medical
point of view, thus bringing the discussions of madness to a close on a
realistic note. They divide these depictions into those which ascribe madness
to the influence of the gods and those, particularly in the medical tradition,
which sought natural causes. As madness in literary works often relied on
stock images and ideas, attempts to relate these to modern pathologies though tempting - should rather be avoided. The threefold distinction by
medical authors is not unproblematic either. Phrenitis corresponds to febrile
derangements, melancholia to depression, sometimes probably with associated schizophrenia, and mania, the most 'literary' of the three, not
surprisingly to various modern conditions. Other conditions mentioned by
the ancients include hysteria, oddly ascribed to movement of the womb,
lethargy and catalepsy.
A few personal comments must be included. It was with sadness that we
heard of the passing away of Wakefield Foster before the finalisation of his
contribution. I am grateful that we are able to publish his Catullus article
posthumously. I also wish to express my gratitude to Clive Chandler for
taking up the task of incorporating comments and suggestions made by the
referees of his article. All referees of articles are especially thanked for their
sometimes rather thankless but nonetheless indispensable contribution to
the quality of the included articles. Prof. Bill :;md Mrs. Ann Henderson
prepared the final document with the meticulous ·care we have become used
to but would never take for granted. The National Research Foundation
contributed by way of a KIS grant to the travel expenses of our invited
keynote speaker, Prof. William Harris of Columbia University. The Unisa
Research Directorate made this publication possible by a generous grant, for
which I have to thank Prof. Tineko Maluleke. Finally, the organising
committee of the 8th Unisa Classics Colloquium would like to express their
gratitude to all participants at the conference, also those whose stimulating
papers were not included in this volume but who contributed to a
,.- . .
BOSMAN
7
memorable academic event.
Bibliography
Bosman, P.R. 1993. 'Pathology of a guilty consClence: the legacy of
Euripides' Orestes.' AC/ 36:11-25.
Gill, C. 1985. 'Ancient psychotherapy.' ]HI 46:307-325.
Gill, C. 1997. 'Passion as madness in Roman poetry.' In S.M. Braund & C.
Gill (edd.), The Passions in Roman Thought and Literature, 213-241. Cambridge.
Harris, W.V. 2001. Restraining Rage: The Ideology of Anger Control in Classical
Antiquity. Cambridge, Mass.
Hershkowitz, D. 1998. The Madness of Epic: Reading Insanity from Homer to
S tatius. Oxford.
Mattes, J.R. 1970. Der Wahnsinn in griechischen Mythos und in der Dichtung bis zum
Drama des fonften Jahrhunderts. Heidelberg.
Padel, R. 1995. Whom Gods Destrqy: Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness.
Princeton.
Pigeaud,]. 1981. La maladie de l'iime: etude sur Ia relation de l'iime et du corps dans Ia
tradition medico-philosophique antique. Paris.
Rowe, C.]. 1990. 'Philosophy, love, and madness.' In C. Gill (ed.), The Person
and the Human Mind, 227-246. Oxford.
Y avetz, Z. 1996. 'Caligula, imperial madness and modern historiography.'
Klio 78.1:105-129.
::-. ~.. ·. .. . .......
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MADNESS IN HOMER AND THE VERB MAINO MAl
C.E. Chandler
University of Cape Town
It has become something of a cliche that there is not much evidence for
madness in Homer. Hershkowitz's study has revealed that even the little
there is should be carefully distinguished from madness as conceived in later
Roman epic. 1 And yet, an examination of madness in the Iliad and Ocfyssry,
since they constitute perhaps our earliest texts, is an essential precursor to
any synthetic treatment of the topic in later Greek literature.
This paper will attempt a limited investigation into madness in these two
poems by focusing on just one linguistic term, the verb !1ULV0!1UL and its
derivatives. What I shall suggest is that careful scrutiny of the contexts in
which this verb is employed, encourages a need to reconsider our standard
assumptions as to the semasiology of this verb. While I am in broad agreement with Hershkowitz's point of view on this subject, my own conclusions
differ from hers in some respects.2
The general English equivalent for this verb is 'be mad', that is, to suffer
from a mental affliction which is difficult to define precisely, but readily
acknowledged by all - we believe we recognise it when we encounter it. In
other words, we are inclined to view it as denoting a mental state of some
kind. We may be prepared to include significations that entail behaviours
associated with such mental states, that is, 'act crazy', 'behave like a
madman', and the like. We may not be willing to proceed further than this,
though most standard lexica of Homeric texts offer at least one refinement,
!1ULV0!1UL in the sense of 'be battle-mad'.3 I shall omit here discussion of why
we feel that the two applications can or need to be distinguished. The
modern understanding of the term 'mad' always assumes an underlying
mental state which is in some way classifiable as deviant and which may be
1
Hershkowitz 1998:125-60.
The present article should be regarded as preliminary to a fuller study of all terms
relevant to the notion of 'madness' in Homer, and makes no claims to being
exhaustive even on the verb jla(vojlat and its derivatives in Homer's epics.
3 E .g. Cunliffe 1924:254 s.v., 'of martial frenzy'.
2
CHANDLER
9
accompanied or betrayed by behaviour deemed deviant. 4 This mental state is,
for us, usually connected with the notion of disease and the impairment of
reason.
But to what extent do the English terms 'rage', 'rave', 'be mad' and so
forth satisfactorily embrace all applications of this verb and its derivatives in
Homer, even in the broadest and most imprecise sense? It has long been
recognised that any investigation of semantic issues in Homeric language
faces severe, perhaps insurmountable, difficulties with respect to a legitimate
methodology. This unease is prompted by the fact that the Homeric poems
represent the earliest significant specimens of the Greek language and are
accorded a unique status. The extent to which later Greek language usage
can illuminate the meanings of words in Homer is a controversial issue,
aggravated by the fact that later Greeks themselves felt the need to clarify or
speculate on certain words. Recourse to etymology for assistance in modern
philological research has its limits. It may well be that the Greek verb
llULVOilUL derives from an Indo-European root meaning 'think' (cf. Skr.
mtitryate, Lit. miniii, Ger. meinen),S but this does not really elucidate Homeric
usage of the term. Clearly Homer's Greeks were not aware of this etymology,
though they were perfectly free to detect and play upon inauthentic linguistic
connections, as may be the case in Iliad 6.100-01 when Helenos says of
Diomedes to Aeneas and Hektor,
an' aBE H11v
llaLvETm, oUBE: TLS oi. 8uvaTm llEvos tao<jJap((ELV
but this man rages too excessively, and no one can match him
in fighting prowess
where one might suspect that the audience is being encouraged to appreciate
some link between the terms llEVOS and llULVETUL. 6
Close scrutiny of the specific contexts in' which words are employed is
often a more reliable practice, effectively interpreting Homerum ex Homero.
What tends to emerge, however, if one reflects too intently on these
4
Even Hershkowitz 1998:13-6, who does so much to dispel traditional assumptions
about the meaning of this verb and its derivatives, persists in retaining its conceptualisation as mental state.
5 Chantraine 1968:658. Leumann's remarks on the limits of methodologies which
rely on etymology are still pertinent (19 50:2-3).
6 Cf. a possible similar play on llEVOS, llaLvETm and EllWV llEvewv in IL 8.358-61, and
again on llEilaTov and 11aLVETaL in II. 8.413.
10
CHANDLER
questions, 1s a suspicion of how fragile our grasp of Homeric semantics
actually is.
Our own conception of 'madness' entails a diagnosis of some degree of
impairment in the cognitive faculties of the person who suffers from it. This
is very broad but may include disorientation, inability to perceive the world
as others normally do, disinclination to communicate normally with others,
abnormal preoccupation or obsession, the requiring of supervision or
intervention of some kind, etc. Anyone familiar with Greek literature will
remember that 11-av(a (the noun is not found in Homer's epics) is frequently
associated with mental states which have been produced by some extraordinary interference, particularly a god, or alcohol, or love, or disease.7
There are several passages in Homer's poems that seem to match this
criterion, where the organs of sense and intelligence (<I>PEVES, v6os , ~Top) are
afflicted in some way. At Iliad 3.39, Hektor calls Paris, who is avoiding
combat with Menelaus, yuvm11-avE.s ('woman-crazy'), 8 and he has no
fighting-strength or courage in his heart (ouK EUTL ~LT] <I>PEULV oUBE. ns
ci.A.K~, 45). One might conclude that his obsession with Helen has displaced
the warrior-spirit from his <I>PEVES. At Otfyss~ 18.406-07 Telemachus rebukes
the suitors for beginning a brawl with the words:
• . : . ..; . ;!
f·.''<:.t
··..::
8aq16VLOL, IJ.aLvEa8E Kal. ouKETL KEV8ETE 8u11<i\
1
~PWTUV oU8E: 1TOTfjTa. 8EWV
TLS UIJ.IJ. opo8UVEL.
vv
You wretches, you are raving and no longer concealing in your
hearts the food and the drink you have taken. Some god, I think,
is urging you on.
Excessive drinking and feasting can lead, it seems, to violent behaviour; the
eu11-6s can no longer contain the impulse to misbehave. The verb turns up in
another context where consumption of wine is the topic. In his rebuke to
Odysseus who has asked for the bow, the suitor Antinoos accuses him of
being under the influence (olv6s aE TpwEL 11-EALTJO~S, 'the honey-sweet wine
is pricking you', Od. 21.293) and then proceeds to recount paradigmatically
One notes, though, that in other sources the sufferer is frequendy capable of
diagnosing his own condition, which is generally not the case in Homer.
s Cf. Anteia's passion for Bellerophon: T<i\ ... E1TEIJ.~VaTo, II. 6.160. The vocative
form of the adjective yuvm11av~s occurs again in line 8 of Codex M which preserves
a portion of a Homeric Hymn to Dionysus; see West 2003a:30, but there it is applied
to the god Dionysus and has transitive force, 'women-frenzier'.
7
I
i·
-~.
... .. ~·.. : . ~· .
....
CHANDLER
11
how the Centaur Eurytion drank excessively, misbehaved, and was finally
punished by the Lapiths:
0 8' ETTEL <j>p€vas aaaEV o'Lv<p,
iJ.ULVOiJ.EVOS KaK' epEh 8611ov KaTa l1ELpL86oLo.
But when he had beguiled his wits with wine,
in a drunken rage he did damage to the house of Peirithoos.
(Od. 21.297-98)
Here the <jlpEVES' are explicitly involved in the operation, and their impairment results in the behaviour and its destructive consequences. 9
A more detailed account of the condition of cognitive impairment is to be
found in Iliad 15. Hera has been rebuked by Zeus and instructed to communicate his orders to the other Olympians that they not assist the Achaeans
further. Ares, who is upset at the death of his son Askalaphos (killed by
Deiphobos when he was actually aiming at Idomeneus in II. 13.518-20),
refuses to listen to Hera and vows to avenge his son whatever the consequences for himself. As he is preparing to leave Olympus for the fray,
Athena intercepts him and rebukes him:
iJ.ULVOiJ.EVE, <j>p€vas ~A.€, 8L€cp8opas· ~ vv TOL afmus
ouaT' O.KOUEiJ.EV EOT(, v6os 8' C!TTOAWAE Kal at8Ws.
auK ciLELs TE <I>Tlal SEa A.EuKwA.Evos "Hpll.
i\ 8~ vvv Trap Zllvos 'OA.uiJ. TTLou ELA.~A.ou8Ev;
a
Raging, distracted in wits, you are finished! Sure, you still have ears to
hear, but your good sense has gone along with your ability to see
what behaviour is appropriate. Are you not listening to what the
white-armed goddess Hera is saying, she who has just returned from
Olympian Zeus?
(II. 15.128-31)
9 Antinoos continues: 0 8€ cppEOLV DOLV aaa8Els I ~LEV i\v clTTIV OXEWV clEOLcppovL
8u11i/l (301-02), and one notes both the proliferation of terms which signify cognitive
impairment and a connection with the assessment of the effects of alcohol described
in Od. 18.406-07; see Doyle 1984:8. Dodds 1951:5 suggests that the passage implies
wine has daemonic or supernatural powers. But the sentiment has a proverbial
character; cf. Panyassis fr. 20.7-9 and West 2003b:206-08, where the third round of
drinks is assigned to Hybris and Ate.
• J
~
.- • •
....:·
12
CHANDLER
She then proceeds to explain that, if Ares pursues his plan, Zeus will leave
the Trojan War and return to Olympus to punish the gods themselves for
their disobedience; Ares's actions will not only harm the god of war, but
impact negatively on the entire community of gods. The label f!aLVOflEVOS" is
clearly (or can be) pejorative in this context, and because it is reinforced by
terms and phrases which explicitly denote cognitive impairment (<j>pEvas
~AE, 128, v6os 8' aTI6A.wA.E KaL at8ws, 129) it would certainly seem to
represent the same family of disabilities. One gathers that Ares's grief and
anger at his son's death have blinded him to the full consequences of his
plan of action. He 'is not thinking straight', we might say. Interestingly, Ares
does back down after Athena has 'reasoned' with him. This manic outburst is
short-lived and amenable to persuasion.
On an earlier occasion one might receive the impression that Ares is
chronically f!aLVOf!EVOS. Towards the end of Book 5 of the Iliad Athena
encourages Diomedes to attack the god Ares, describing the god as,
!:. : .~. -~ ~:--··· ~-::~· ~-·~ ·.. ::...···..•...
~· ': .
TOUTov f!.OLVOf!.Evov, TUKTOv KaK6v, ciA.).mrp6aaAA.ov
this raging, evil-wrought, duplicitous (god).
(II. 5.831)
It is tempting to see in her description of Ares an effort to encapsulate all he
stands for and, by extension, the very character of war itself. 10 One is reminded of Zeus's hostile reception of the wounded Ares a little later in the book,
and the line bears comparison with a remark by Odysseus in the Oc!J'ssry on
Ares's indiscriminate raging.11 But one should also appreciate the context in
which this line is delivered before adopting an exclusively theological or
allegorical interpretation of its significance. Athena is furious that Ares has
intervened on the Trojan side (Apollo had pleaded with him to attack
Diomedes at II. 5.455-59), yet the war-god's influence continues to operate
somewhat indiscriminately - Menelaus is a beneficiary on one occasion: TOU
10
See Otto 1954:47, Griffin 1980:35 and Hershkowitz 1998:134. The latter
maintains that Ares should still be seen as an actual character caught up in the fury
of battle just like a mortal warrior, and not simply serving as a personification of
battle-fury.
11 Zeus repeats the epithet ciA.A.orrp6aaAA.E in II. 5.889, and in the next two lines calls
Ares his least favourite Olympian god: €x8wTOS" 8E f!.OL eaaL 8Ewv, o'L "OA.uf!.TTOV
Exouaw- I atEl. yap TOL EpLS" TE <j>(A.T] TTOAEflOL TE fLUX at TE. Interestingly, in the very
next line (892) Zeus acknowledges that Hera's own f!.EVOS" has become unendurable
(aaaxETov , ouK emELKT6v).
:
...
'•
·. ..
~
.
CHANDLER
13
8' <hpvvEv llEVOS' "Ap11s (II. 5.563). 12 Such is her anger that she is prepared
to revoke her earlier injunction to Diomedes not to attack any god except
Aphrodite (II. 5.129-32). Athena's remarks, whether accurate or not, are not
an objective declaration of fact, but an emotional outburst.
Athena is responsible for another remark to Hera which ascribes cognitive
impairment to the father of gods and men himself:
a>..Aa TTUT~p OUiJ.OS <j>pml.
iJ.UlVETaL OUK ayaSfjaL
axETALos, atE:v aA.tTp6s, EiJ.wv iJ.EvEwv aTTEpwEus.
But my father is raging with wits which are not good,
uncompromising, always criminal, frustrating my plans.
(IL 8.360-61)
We may be willing to go along with Athena's assessment of Ares's character
as 11m VOI!EVOS', but her view of Zeus's mental state is more difficult to accept
without question . .Once again, as in the Ares example, Athena's outburst is
prompted by the fact that she has failed to get her own way and by the fact
that Zeus has failed to remember her former assistance to his son Herakles.
Yet here, the application of the verb IJ.aL VETUL to Zeus seems less appropriate. Zeus has in fact been consistent in his policy towards the Achaeans,
despite considerable pressure from champions of either side. Calling someone crazy because they disagree with you is a regrettably familiar practice, but
not one we tend to take terribly seriously. 13 In the immediate context, Iris
returns Athena's charge of madness with interest and, one feels, more legitimately (II. 8.413). How else to describe those who persist in going against
Zeus's plans? A comparable instance of the verb IJ.aLVOIJ.aL and the noun
cppEVES' is to be found in the final book of the Iliad, where Zeus seeks to
break the impasse surrounding Achilles's refusal to release Hektor's corpse
for burial. Interestingly, a scholiast on the use of this verb here comments
cppEO'l IJ.aLVOIJ.EVlJO'l <v>· llav[as yap Eyyus ai.KL(E0'8aL Tel ava[a811Ta,
possibly detecting a vague connection between Achilles's behaviour and the
irrational actions of Ajax in Sophocles's tragedy, but the latter represents a
12 So, too, Nestor addresses Argives as SEpaTTOVTfi'S "ApT)os (IL 6.67) and a few lines
later the narrator calls the Achaeans apT)L<j>LAWV ... '.Axmwv (IL 6.73) .
13 Compare the way a<j>pwv seems to be used as an insult: Hera refers to Ares as
a<j>pova Toi!Tov (IL 5.761) and Ares speaks of Athena as a<j>pova KOUpT)V (in IL 5.875)
making it impossible to take either description seriously.
I
if', . ·: ..:..
14
CHANDLER
completely different conceptualisation of what 11aLVECJ8aL entails: Achilles is
not the victim of the same delusions as Ajax.14
In all the above instances the impairment of cognitive faculties is either
explicit or can be inferred, even if the individual offering the diagnosis has
questionable grounds for doing so. The language used to express this impairment does not, however, permit us to be very precise as to how the <j>pEVES'
are affected and to what degree. What can be said, perhaps, is that there is an
assumption that the individual suffering from this condition, whether god or
human, is led to make decisions or to act in ways which are not conducive to
either the individual's or the collective good. Or, at the very least, not in ways
which are in the interest of the individual making the judgment!
It is now time to consider those examples of the verb 11aLVOI1aL which
concern battle-madness specifically, and attempt to ascertain whether they
entail similar cognitive impairment since this may have consequences for
translation and literary interpretation.lS
The verb in _this sense is not predicated indiscriminately of all warriors in
the Iliad, but actually applied only to Hektor and Diomedes (with an oblique
application to Patroklos by Achilles). 16 Examination of the relevant passages
reveals patterns that emerge in the way this verb is used.
As in the case of the instances of the verb 11aLVOI1aL listed above, all
examples of the verb in connection with combat are to be found in direct
speech (with two exceptions) and, with one exception, are applied to others,
not the speaker. The first observation leads one to classify the verb 11a(vo11m
among other terms which are applied in direct speech where moral value is
being ascribed and for which the narrator proper does not claim responsibility. Even the two exceptions (at II. 15.605-06 and 21.4-5) may, as Hershkowitz suggests, be interpreted as instances of embedded focalisation, since
Zeus is observing Hektor closely in II. 15.605-06, and the fleeing Trojans
could be remembering Hektor's success of the previous day at II. 21.4-5_17
14 In the immediate context, Zeus is concerned with Achilles's retention of the
corpse not, I think, with its mutilation. On the theme of mutilating corpses, where
the verb IJ-ULVOIJ-aL is, incidentally, never found, see the entire study by Segal1971.
15 For some readers of the Iliad, the 'irrational' or 'furious' warrior constitutes one of
the defining characteristics of the Homeric or 'primitive' soldier as opposed to his
modern counterpart; see Van Wees 1996:1-2 on Marcel Detienne's view.
16 Considering the utter panic Achilles induces in the Trojan forces in Books 20-21
of the Iliad, it is striking that the verb IJ-ULVOIJ-aL is never employed to describe his
behaviour.
17 Hershkowitz 1998:139 n. 49.
15
CHANDLER
The second observation prompts a more detailed examination of the
contexts in which this verb is employed. In II. 5.185-86, 717; 6.100-01; 8.35556 and 16.74-75, we are presented with one character addressing an ally and
remarking on the fact that an enemy (be it Hektor, Diomedes, or Ares)
j.I.Ul VETUL I j.I.Ul VETO
0
In Iliad 9.237-39 and 304-06, the verb occurs in a context where Odysseus
is part of the embassy trying to persuade Achilles to return. The verb is
therefore employed to communicate the seriousness of the situation to
Achilles and to sting him into rejoining the fray.
At Iliad 8.355-56, Hera observes the plight of the Achaeans (Tovs 8€
i.8ovu' EAETJO"E 8Ea AEUKWAEj.I.OS "HpTJ, II. 8.350) who are coming under severe
pressure from Hektor (who resembles Ares in his eyes: ropyous Oj.lj.I.UT,
€xwv ~8€ ~poTOAOL you "ApT] OS, II. 8.349) and reacts by asking Athena
whether they should simply stand and watch Hektor slaughter them. Athena
replies that they should journey from Olympus and join in the battle on the
side of the Achaeans. Clearly the verb is deployed as part of rhetorical
strategy to galvanise Athena.
In Book 5 Aeneas sees Diomedes slaughtering Trojans (Tc>V 8 ' '(8Ev
ALVELUS aA.ami(ovTa O"TLXUS av8pwv, II. 5.166) and instructs Pandaros to
shoot an arrow at him, but Pandaros explains he has already tried and that
Diomedes must be receiving divine assistance:
?,ux 5 ,r',avEu~E eEou Ta8E ~-~.a(vETm, ana
EUTT]K a9avaTWV . . .
ns
arxL
He certainly doesn't wreak havoc in this way without the assistance
of a god, but some one of the immortals is standing close to him.
(IL 5.185-86)
Besides, Pandaros points out, he doesn't hav;e a chariot to convey him near
enough. Aeneas helpfully offers him a lift! Here the verb would appear to be
part of strategy to convince Aeneas that Pandaros's service would be pointless.
In Iliad 6 the Achaeans are once again pressing the Trojans very hard,
when Helenos comes up to Aeneas and Hektor and advises Hektor to go
back into Troy and tell Hekabe to take a robe to the statue of the goddess in
Athena's temple and sacrifice twelve cattle to secure the salvation of the city.
Helenos concludes his speech by remarking that Diomedes is much more of
a threat than Achilles ever was,
16
CHANDLER
a.>.x aBE A.[ rw
~aLVETaL, ou8€ TLS Ol 8vvaTaL ~EVOS laocpapL(ELV.
but this man wreaks too much havoc [as I 1/Jottld 1101/J prifer to translate
the phrase], and no one can match him in fighting prowess.
(IL 6.100-01)
Helenos uses the verb 11aLV0!1aL as part of a strategy to convince Hektor that
a generous sacrifice is worth the expenditure.
In Iliad 16, Achilles, who has been chided by Patroklos for being unmoved
by the Achaeans' plight, responds by enjoining Patroklos to lead out the
Myrmidons to protect the ships since things are currently so bleak, especially
since Diomedes is no longer there to defend the Achaeans:
ev
ou yap Tu8EL8Ew ~Lo~~8Eos
TiaA.a~lJrrL
~aLVETaL EYXELT] ~avaiilv am) AOLyov a~vvm.
For not in the hands of Diomedes, son of Tydeus, does the spear
wreak havoc to ward off destruction from the Danaans.
(IL 16.74-75)
Achilles clearly employs the verb flaLVOflaL in order to emphasise the
absence of fighting prowess formerly available to the Greek forces and
thereby assists in justifying what might otherwise appear as a compromise of
principle on Achilles's part.
In Iliad 5, Hektor, accompanied by Ares, has just slaughtered six Achaeans
in three lines (not quite as impressive as Odysseus a little earlier who
managed seven Lycians in only two lines [II. 5.677-78]!). Hera notices this
(Tous 8' ws ovv EVOT]<JE 8Ea AEUKWAEvos "HpT], II. 5.711) and suggests to
Athena that they will not be able to keep their promise to Menelaos to take
Troy if Ares continues to behave in the way he is,:
d
oihw ~a[vm8m Eciao~Ev
ovA.ov "ApT] a.
if we continue to allow destructive Ares to wreak havoc so.
(IL 5.717)
Hera's choice of words serves to stress Ares's threat and Athena agrees, so
they set off to Olympus to ask Zeus whether Athena can intervene against
Ares.
CHANDLER
17
In all the above examples the verb [!ULVO[laL is not accompanied by any of
the words denoting the organs of cognition that we have seen in some of the
other cases. The focus of concern for the speakers in these instances does
not seem to be the state of mind in the opposing hero or god but rather the
destructive effect he is having on their own men or mortal favourites. The
warrior who [!ULVETaL/[laLVETO may display extraordinary courage, stamina
and co-ordination, he may pursue his objectives with remarkable purpose
and fail to be distracted by most threats to his physical safety or even
physical wounds, but his portrayal in Homer fails to comply with the
frenzied, bellowing, foaming, ill-disciplined berserker that many assume.18 If
the heroes Diomedes and Hektor do occasionally share this verb with Ares,
they cannot be charged with the same indiscriminate lust for killing and
inconsistency of purpose which other gods identify as the war god's characteristic. A careful study of Diomedes's behaviour in Iliad 5, for example,
reveals no significant impairment of the warrior's v6os- or <jlpEVES". What does
seem to have been enhanced in this episode is the warrior's [!EVOS". In lines
125-26 Athena informs the wounded Diomedes, in reply to his prayer for
her support, that she has placed in his breast his father's unflinching [!EVOS"
(E:v ycip TOL CJT~8E<JCJL [!EVOS" TTaTpWLOV ~Ka I chpO[!OV), and as soon as
(E:~auns-, 134) the goddess departs, the hero throws himself back into the
front of the fray with renewed vigour. The narrator confirms that his fighting
spirit is now even greater than before:
Kat np(v TTEP 8u110 f1Ef1aws- TpwmuL flclXECJ8m,
TOTE [!LV TPLS" Touuov EAEV [!EVOS" ws- TE AEOVTa
8~
(IL 5.135-36)
and there follows a simile of a wounded lion whose aggression (u8Evos-, 139)
spurs him on. It is interesting that Athena gives Diomedes something which
we might feel he has inherited anyway from ):Us father. What is clearly important is that Athena communicates the fact that she has bestowed this
strength on the hero, so that Diomedes is conscious of his enhanced
prowess.
The verb flULVO[laL then seems to be used in two quite distinct ways: (1) to
indicate an impairment (invariably of limited duration) of the cognitive
organs, usually from the point of view of the individual making the observation; (2) to denote the overall destructive effect of a warrior in combat,
18
See Van Wees's caution on equating Homeric warriors with Norse berserkers or
Cu Chulainn (1996:47-49).
18
CHANDLER
where no impairment of the same cognitive organs is detectable. The latter
may in fact entail some enhancement of the warrior's Jl.EVOS (specifically
three times the normal Jl.EVOS in the case of Diomedes, 5.136), but the
emphasis is on action rather than on mental state.19 The application of this
verb almost always seems to entail a value-judgement and in the case of
combat-Jl.aLVOJl.aL it is not pejorative in an absolute sense but in fact positive, representing the warrior at his most effective against his enemies. In
addition, it seems to occur mainly in contexts where some kind of intervention or change in behaviour is expected or desired of one party by
another. Ma(vEu8m is certainly not a 'mental disorder' in Homer, neither is
it a condition that can be described with any precision.
Bibliography
Allan, R.I. 2003. The Middle Voice in Ancient Greek. A St11cfy in Po!Jsemy.
Amsterdam.
Chantraine, P. 1968-1970. Dictionnaire erymologiq11e de Ia langt~egrecqtJe. Vols. 1 &
2. Paris.
Cunliffe, R.J. 1924. A Lexicon if the Homeric Dialect. London.
Dodds, E.R. 19 51. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley.
Doyle, R.E. 1984. "ATT]. Its Use and Meaning. A Stttcfy in the Greek Poetic
Tradition from Homer to E11ripides. New York.
Griffin, J. 1980. Homer on Life and Death. Oxford.
Hershkowitz, D. 1998. The Madness ifEpic: Reading Insanity from Homer to
S tati11s. Oxford.
Leumann, M. 1950. Homerische Wo'rter. Basel.
Otto, W.F. 1954. The Homeric Gods: The Spiritttal Significance if Greek Religion
(transl. M. Hadas). London.
Segal, C. 1971 . The Theme if the M11tilation if the Cotpse in the Iliad. Leiden.
Van Wees, H. 1996. 'Heroes, knights and nutters,. Warrior mentality in
Homer.' In A.B. Uoyd (ed.), Battle in Antiqt~i!J, 1-86. London.
West, M.L. 2003a. Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Lives ifHomer.
Cambridge, MA.
West, M.L. 2003b. Greek Epic Fragments. From the Seventh to the Fifth Cent11ries
B.C. Cambridge, MA.
19 Consequently, I do think that the classification of Allan 2003:67 of Jl.ULVOJl.aL as a
'mental process middle' where the subject passively undergoes the event (as in the
case of verbs like EpUJl.aL and xwoJl.at) is correct in Homer's case.
THE MADNESS OF WOMEN:
THE ZULU AMANDIKI AND EURIPIDES'S BACCHAE
M. Lambert
University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg)
Possessed by a spirit or spirits, groups of women accompanied by drums and
song, roam the countryside, falling upon villages, some demanding dog's
flesh as sacrifices. Others begin to cry, beating themselves on the chests with
their fists, their limbs and fingers numb, their muscles twitching and trembling; they growl and roar, oblivious to their .surroundings and then fall into
unconsciousness. On occasion, dressed in red 'handkerchiefs', they dance all
night long, sometimes letting their garments fall, dancing in the nude until
the early morning, terrorising the villagers. To get rid of them, the villagers
give them presents and sacrifice animals (usually goats), thus appeasing the
angry spirits within. 1
This account is not of bacchantes possessed by Dionysus, falling upon
the villages on the lower slopes of Mount Kithairon as the first messenger in
Euripides's Bacchae reports (751-54), but a reconstructed composite account
from colonial records, of groups of Zulu women in what was known as
Zululand during the period 1894-1914. 2 These women, known as amandiki
after the kind of spirit possession manifested (indiki, 'possession'),3 surface in
1
Parle 2007:138-39.
For interesting cross-cultural evidence of the raids of the possessed on their
communities, see Dodds 1963:275.
3 Doke et aL 2005:538 give two meanings for the isiZulu noun -ndiki: '1. Person
suffering from an hysterical disease (as known among the Tonga people); person
possessed. 2. Leper (prob. so called from the falling off of fingertips' (indikt). Initially
the spirit was regarded as an invadirtg foreign spirit from the 'North' (i.e. Mozambique and Swaziland); later as the spirit of a 'deceased father, brother or near male
relative', Parle 2007:134, 138. In one of the older Zulu ethnographies, Krige 1950:
307-08 n. 2 records that the indiki spirit was believed to have originated from
'somewhere beyond the Phongola river'. She conflates the indiki and the ndau spirits,
considered a foreign import from the Ndau tribe of the East coast, but distinguishes
between the possessed in the nature of their speech and dancing. Initially these
spirits could possess both men and women, but quickly became associated almost
entirely with women, Parle 2007:134; cf. Parle 2003:110. Initial beliefs in the
maleness and alien nature of the invadirtg spirit and the sex of the possessed provide
obvious links with Dionysus, the tradition of his foreign ancestry and historical
2
20
LAMBERT
a number of British colonial discourses (legal, religious, medical and bureaucratic) which construct their possession as 'madness' or 'witchcraft', depending on the epistemology of the writer.
For two Norwegian missionaries, writing to the colonial authorities at the
beginning and end of the period under discussion, these women are a
dangerous 'nuisance', in the grip of a 'contagious disease', which results in
the extortion of money from the innocent. For a magistrate, the spirit
possession is also constructed as a 'disease', clearly the result of the natives'
use of 'ardent spirits'. For the District Native Commissioner, this is clearly a
'hysterical mania', bordering on witchcraft, which attempts to extort money
and cattle from the local people. A district surgeon categorises it as 'hysteria'
- a diagnosis frequently made of 'women's illnesses' in the late 19th century,
hysteria fostered by 'self-interested medicine men'.4
These desperate attempts by the colonial authorities to categorise and so
presumably control and contain the 'madness' of these women, result in
1910 in the charge, under Section 9 of the Zululand Proclamation Act no. II
of 1887, of 11 women, aged between 14 and 30, with the crime of
witchcraft. s
What the women themselves said at the trial about their 'madness',
predictably, bears little relation to the constructions of the colonial
authorities, with the exception of the discourse of 'disease'. The accused
admitted that they were amandiki, but denied the charge of witchcraft. The
oldest, a married woman, confessed that she did not know what 'it' was or
how 'it' came upon her. The only other married woman on trial testified that
she had a physical disease which left her when she took the medicine. Yet
another told the court that she became ill and went out with one of the
accused to get medicine which made her sick: 'I then returned to my home
with Tukutela and my father killed a goat for me because I had recovered
from death.'6 She stressed that she had not paid her friend anything for her
help. The magistrate was unable to pass judgment and the case was referred
to the Attorney General himself, who found that the acts of the amandiki did
not constitute the crime of witchcraft as understood by the legislation. The
maenaclism, restricted to women (married and unmarried) until the end of the
Hellenistic period; cf. Henrichs 1978:133, 147.
4 Parle 2007:133-36, 151-52. For the gendered nature of 'hysteria' as a Western
diagnostic category, see Parle 2003:126-31. For feminist deconstructions of 'hysteria',
see Micale 1995:66-88.
5 Parle 2007:131-32, 140.
6 Parle 2007:140.
LAMBERT
21
women were issued with a 'stern warning' and released. This was not the end
of the phenomenon: in 1911 and 1912, more women were brought to the
court at Eshowe and charged with witchcraft. In each case the verdict was
guilty and the sentences ranged from fines (one to two pounds) to three
months hard labour.?
Scholarly interpretations of indiki possession contribute to the chorus of
contending discourses. Ngubane, using the language of Freudian psychology,
regards indik i possession as closely related to 'depression', 'nervous breakdowns', 'hysteria and suicidal tendencies' and 'psychoneurosis', all situated
within a broader anthropological and sociological framework: the 'madness'
is a psychological reflection of the social pressures experienced by Zulu
women in a colonial and post-colonial industrial society. 8 In the context of
migrant labour on the gold mines, Ngubane records, from her fieldwork
among the Nyuswa, that indik i spirits were regarded as the spirits of dead,
foreign, male workers, 'never given the necessary sacrifice of integration with
the body of other spirits', which have a tendency to possess women who, as
outsiders in their husbands' lineage groups, are believed to be especially
susceptible to these alien spirits.9 According to Ngubane (and here her
anthropological hermeneutic is especially evident), respondents clearly
regarded indiki possession as a 'violation of the principle of patrilineage.' 10
Similarly, Harries, in attempting to account for spirit possession amongst
women in the late 19th century, uses the discourse of sociology, psychology
and gender studies to suggest that the migrant labour system and the absence
of husbands resulted in a redefinition of the sexual division of labour for
women, who now had to bear full responsibility for local economies.
Combined with 'sexual ascetism', this subjected women to 'new levels of
psychological stress': 'unable to express their powerful libidinal and aggressive sentiments, women manifested their dissatisfaction, in a way that was
not consciously admissible, through the medium of a possessing spirit. And
7
Parle 2007:141, 156 notes that, although the last archival record of the amandiki
dates from 1914, the phenomenon did not disappear and at least one researcher was
collecting evidence from informants in the 1950s; cf. Parle 2003:130.
8 Ngubane 1977:149; cf. Parle 2007:142. Ngubane's work includes oral evidence of
the amandiki collected from the Nyuswa people.
9 Ngubane 1977:141-42.
IO Ngubane 1977:146.
22
LAMBERT
in so doing they protested actively and sometimes violently against their
situation, while retaining an essential passivity.' 11
Other scholars have continued the discourses of spirit possession and
women's protest against the endless strategies of patriarchies. For instance,
Hanretta, noting that indiki possession seemed to have occurred mostly
amongst the wives of powerful men, suggests that increased interference by
the Shakan centralised state in the personal relationships of these women
may have resulted in the dominance of women in the class of diviners, where
they could reclaim some of their lost power and authority.1 2
More recent Africanist anthropology, in the light of the wide variety of
spirit possession on the continent, rejects this kind of reductionist interpretation for careful contextualisation: 13 instead of contesting patriarchal power,
the possessed could be redefining or even subverting gender roles. The most
recent commentator on indiki possession (Parle 2007) argues strongly, from a
similar feminist standpoint, that the changes which occurred in the nature of
this possession (its increased association with young women and the spirit of
an immediate male ancestor) reflected 'gender and generational conflicts
within Zulu social formations' and 'provided a socially acceptable form of
articulating personal and wider pressures.' 14
To add what is perhaps Euripides's last play, the Bacchae, to this chorus of
contending voices is provocative and interesting. 15 In the prologue to the
11
Harries 1994:164-65. Although Harries's study focuses mainly on women in
southern Mozambique, he makes his comments in the context of the spread of the
indiki 'epidemic' southwards into Zululand. For discussion of Harries's work, see
Parle 2003:108, 121; 2007:145-46.
12 Hanretta 1998:411-12 n. 100. I owe this reference to Parle 2003:108 and 2007:142.
Significantly, Parle 2003:125 notes that when licensing of irJf!J!anga (traditional
healers) began in 1895, women were usually denied licenses, as they were associated
with izangoma (diviners). See Kendall1996:94-117 for the role of the revived Nomkhubulwane rituals in publicly empowering female izangoma.
13 Parle 2003:108, 120-21, esp. n. 74.
14 Parle 2007:147, 158.
15 For the purposes of this discussion, I have used the text of Seaford 1996. Unless
otherwise indicated, translations are by Seaford. For the date of the Bacchae, see
Seaford 1996:25. By comparing the amandiki and the Bacchae, I do not mean to
suggest that Euripides's play offers us actual documentary evidence for historical
maenadism, although aspects of it may have been derived from the play's version of
the myth; Henrichs 1978:121-60. I am interested primarily in discourses of women's
madness.
LAMBERT
23
play, Euripides presents his version of the Theban 'resistance myth'.16
Dionysus argues that, because his mother's sisters (Ino and Autonoe) have
spread false rumours about Semele's pregnancy which deny his divine paternity (26-31), he has stung the women 'with frenzies (f.lav(ms-) from their
homes' P driven them on to the slopes of Mount Kithairon and compelled
them to wear Dionysiac apparel (the fawnskin and thyrsi, 32-34). Almost
immediately Dionysus claims that he has 'driven mad' (EXEf.lT]Va) not only
the royal women, 18 but all the women of Thebes (35-36), presumably
because Pentheus has refused to worship him (43-48).
The first references to madness in the play are to a punishment inflicted
on a group of women against their will (as the amandiki claimed). Extreme
fear, panic and profoundly antisocial behaviour characterise this madness;
the women reject 'home' and urban society for the wild. 'They are sitting
under the green flrs on roofless rocks' (38) suggests that they have exchanged comfort and protection for the raw, the madness forcing them to
16
For other 'resistance' myths involving the 'madness' of women, see Dodds
1960:xxvi-vii. For a detailed review of 'resistance' myths involving the 'madness' of
men and women, see McGinty 1978:77-78.
17 TOL yap vLv a{JTOS EK 8611wv <i\crTpTJcr' hw IJ.aVLaLS ... (32-33). In the Baccbae,
Euripides makes Dionysos use 11avLa and EKIJ.aLvw (36) of the madness he inflicts on
the Theban women, which deranges their minds (TiapaKOTIOL <jJpEvwv , 33). Both
Teiresias (301) and Kadmos (1295) use IJ.aLvw9aL of Dionysiac possession: as if to
clarify the kind of madness experienced, Teiresias uses IJ.aVLW8T]s with BaK~EucrLIJ.OS
(298-99) and Kadmos IJ.aLvwem with EK~aK~EuELv (1295). Similarly, the chorus uses
IJ.a[vwem of possessed satyrs (130) and the messenger EIJ.IJ.av~s of the possessed
maenads (1094). However, Teiresias also uses IJ.a[vwem ofPentheus's insane refusal
to accept Dionysos (326-27, 359); likewise the chorus, of impaired judgment (399400, 326, 887, 999). For the distinction between the sanity of Teiresias and Kadmos
and the insanity of the rest of the male Thebans, Teiresias uses EU/KaKWS <jJpovE'Lv
(196); cf. Pentheus's distinction between emotionally susceptible barbarians and
sensible Greeks (483). The messenger also uses ou <jJpovdv of Agave's possession
(1123). See Plato Pbaedms (244a-b) for IJ.av[a used (approvingly) of the Pythia at
Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona in their possessed states. See Dodds 1963:64101 and Seaford 2006:57, 106, 108 for discussion of Plato's well-known analysis of
divine madness; Burkert 1985:162 for the linguistic links between IJ.av[a and IJ.EVOS.
In isiZulu, similar distinctions are made between the madness of possession and
insanity caused by disease or stupidity, for which different verbs and nouns are used;
Parle 2003:119-20.
18 For EKIJ.aLvw, see LSJ s.v. 'drive mad 1vitb passion, go mad with passion (pass.)'; s.v.
IJ.aLVOIJ.aL 'rage, be fitrious ... ; of bacchic frenzy ... '. See Kerenyi 1976:131-34 for a
discussion of the link between IJ.aLvEcr9m, drunkenness and Dionysiac intoxication.
24
LAMBERT
turn their backs on the kind of culture which marriage and home-making
have, in the prevailing gender ideology, constructed for them. 19 As women
are so often associated with 'nature' and the 'untamed', this madness signifies
a return to the kind of savagery from which men seem to believe they have
rescued women. Dionysus does not madden the men from their homes.
Significantly, Pentheus has to don female dress, to become a woman, to spy
on his mother and her troupe on I<:ithairon (831-36; 915-17). 20 When he
emerges from the palace, he thinks he sees a 'double Thebes and sevenmouthed fortress' and a bull with horns (919-21) instead of the stranger 'of
female appearance' (353) .21 His fl.UVLU is characterised by a vision which
distorts and transforms - Thebes becomes a fantasy double and the
human/ god an animal. Like the women, Pentheus experiences the madness
which dislocates reality and reverses the distinction between culture and
nature, between man and animal. 22
How Euripides develops the madness of the Theban women in the two
messenger speeches is very instructive, as he too presents us with different
19 Seaford 2006:34 regards the women's dissolution of boundaries as a 'symbolic
reversal of the civilised structure of the polis' which he interprets as 'the most
conspicuous possible expression of its communality.' Cf. interpretations of 'rituals of
rebellion' in Greek and Roman ritual to which similar functions are ascribed in
Bremmer 1987:76-88 and Versnel1987:121-52.
20 Ngubane 1977:142 notes that 'divination is a woman's thing, and if a man gets
possessed he becomes a transvestite, as he is playing the role of a daughter not a
son.' In Zulu culture, women's very marginality makes them closer to the spirit
world than men. Similarly, in the Bacchae, the marginality of the Theban women
makes them more susceptible to Dionysiac possession than men. For spirit
possession generally and the marginalisation of women, see Lewis 1989:26 (and
pass.) .
21 TC>V 9TJAUj.top<j>ov ~Evov. For Pentheus's contt:mptuous characterisation of
Dionysus as 6 ~Evos- , see lines 233, 642, 800; for his references to the stranger's
effeminacy, lines 235-36 (his long fragrant locks, his face, his eyes with the grace of
Aphrodite); 455-59 (his long locks, cheeks full of desire, white skin).
22 For an interpretation of Pentheus's experiences as 'invaluable evidence of the
subjective experience of the Dionysiac initiand' into the mystery-cult of Dionysus,
see Seaford 2006:52-54. Seaford, for instance, imagines Pentheus's transvestitism as
reflecting 'the gender-reversal characteristic of rites of passage' (53) and the double
visions as derived from the common use of the mirror in mystic initiation (54). For
evidence for the Dionysiac mysteries, see Seaford 1996:40-44. For cross-cultural
examples of possession symptoms, relevant to Pentheus's experience, see Seaford
2006:105.
LAMBERT
25
interpretations, different voices. The first messenger (a cowherd) challenges
Pentheus's version of the madness of the Theban women: 'it is not as you
say, that drunken from the mixing bowl and to the skid of the flute they
hunt in the woods for the Cyprian's pleasure, going off one by one' (68688).23 Pentheus's stereotypically patriarchal interpretation of the women's
madness (wine and sex), similar to interpretations of the Zulu amandiki by
some of the colonial authorities, is thus confronted by a lowly male member
of Theban society and subverted with the word 'modestly' or 'decently'
(aw<j>p6vws-, 686): the tired old explanations for women's rejection of male
society simply do not work for this eye-witness. In contrast to Pentheus, he
describes the women as 'of good order' (EiJKOO'f.lLa, 693), in the manner of an
army of men, and then proceeds to outline the extent of their inversion of
social norms: those who had abandoned their babies suckled roes or wild
wolf cubs (699-702); miraculously, their thyrsi or fingertips produced streams
of water, wine, milk and honey (704-11); at the urging of Agave, the
bacchantes turned on the armed men, hunting them down and putting them
to flight, after which they indulged in a bloody sparagmos (731-47). Then the
cowherd reports that the women, 'like enemies' (waTE TTOAEf.lLOL, 752)
attacked the villages on the slopes of Kithairon: they snatched children from ·
their homes and miraculously balanced their pillage on their shoulders (7 5157).24 The villagers attacked them with arms but the men's weapons drew no
blood, and the women wounded and routed the men with their thyrsi (75864). Women did this to men, says the cowherd (764), thus underlining the
gender inversion. 25 It is in response to this speech that Pentheus threatens to
stir up plenty of 'female slaughter' (¢6vov yE 9i1A.uv) on the slopes of I<ithairon (796).
In the second messenger speech, the slave who accompanied Pentheus to
I<ithairon offers some acutely observed psychological insights into the madness of the The ban women. He .reports that some of the maenads were
occupied with pleasant tasks, whereas others .looked like 'flllies that have left
the decorated yokes' (1056), thus commenting on their air of relaxed freedom from marriage and the burdensome domestic work imposed on them.
This punishing 'madness' brings with it leisure, but it is a vulnerable leisure,
Translation by Kirk 1970:81.
Dodds 1960:169 cites an interesting example of ecstatic balancing from Africa
(Abyssinia).
25 Effectively conveyed by the mimetic juxtaposition yuvaLKES" av8pas- at the
beginning of the line.
23
24
26
LAMBERT
into which >..:ucrcra could erupt at any time. 26 Other symptoms of this
madness include an almost other-worldly indecisiveness, followed by panicstricken movement and desperate aggression. When the maenads receive
Dionysus's command to take revenge on Pentheus, after a holy silence, the
women stand up and look this way and that (1087); after the second
command, they dart off at high speed, 'frenzied by the inspiration of the god'
(1094); 27 they stone him; they launch branches of fir and then thyrsi at him;
they pound at the roots with oak branches, levers not of iron and fmally their
bare hands with which they drag the tree out of the earth (1096-104).
The messenger especially notices Agave's physical symptoms, as she is
'possessed by Bacchus' (1124) .28 She does not recognise her own son,
'exuding foam and rolling her twisted eyes, not thinking as she should think
... ' (1122-23); 29 he is then torn apart; his mother fixes the head on the point
of her thyrsus (1140-41); she calls on the god as 'the fellow-hunter, the
fellow worker in the catching' (1146).
After this messenger speech, in Agave's exchange with the exultant
bacchantes from Asia, she is still afflicted with the 'madness' and cannot
distinguish man from animal. She rejoices in having hunted down the beast
upon which 'Bacchus the hunter, clever, cleverly swung maenads' (1189-91);
she then addresses the Thebans: ' ... come to see this prey of a beast which
we the daughters of Kadmos have hunted down ... with the fingers of white
arms .. . but we just with our hands caught him and tore apart the limbs of
the beast' (1203-10). The bacchic possession has not yet left her; she has not
come down from her prolonged 'high'. Only in conversation with Kadmos
does she gradually realise that she perceives things differently: 'I am somehow coming to my senses, am altered from my previous mind' (1269-70).30
Here Euripides acutely observes the painful process of re-entry into reality:
Agave has no memory. Her father interrogates her; she forgets the questions;
she looks at the head which she thinks is a lion's (1272-78); she recognises
Pentheus's head, but has no recollection of having killed him or of how the
head came into her hands (1284-86). She has no idea where he died (1290);
26
See De Rornilly's sensitive analysis of the ' bonhew:-malhew:' continuum in the
Bacchae: 'le bonhew: reste a l'optatif, fragile espoir d'une ruptw:e avec le reel, que le
reel, bient6t, vient supplanter' (1963:371).
27 8EoD Tivoa'LaLV Ej.lj.lUVELS'.
2B EK BaKx(ou KaTELXETO. See LSJ s.v. KaTEXW 10; cf. Plato, Phaedo 244e; Seaford
2006:108.
a
29 ou <j>povova'
XPTJ <j>pOVELV.
30 y( yvoj.laL 8€ 1TWS' I E'vvovs-, j.lETaaTa8E'Laa Twv mipos- <j>pEvwv.
•: .
·' .:
·:::···
),
..
·.
LAMBERT
27
no idea how she got to K.ithairon (1292-94). The madness has been a
profound EKGTacns: an out-of-body, out-of-mind experience in which
women became murderous hunters. As Kadmos remarks: 'You were mad,
and the whole polis was in a bacchic frenzy' (1295). 31 Only then does full
realisation dawn upon the hapless Agave: 'Dionysus destroyed us, now I
realise (1296)'. Her final punishment is that she has to go into exile with her
sisters, clearly not a bacchant anymore (1381-87): 'May I go where neither
polluted Kithairon / nor I (may see) K.ithairon with my eyes, nor yet where a
thyrsus is dedicated to remind me! Let them be the concern of other
bacchantes.'
This is the kind of temporary madness inflicted on the The ban women as
a punishment, but Euripides is too astute to map out for us so ephemerally
'neat' a picture of Dionysiac possession. The fl.UVLa has quite another side,
that of bacchic inspiration rather than possession. In the opening chorus, the
parodos, Euripides introduces us to another group of women: the bacchantes
who have followed Dionysus from Asia. As there is no need for them to be
'stung into madness', there is no panic or fear, simply joy, exulting in their
'sweet toil' for Bromios, the labour that is no labour (66-67). They rejoice in
the collectivity of the sacred band, the 8[aaos; for them blessed is the one
who in happiness merges her individuality in the collective ritual (72-75),32
serving 'in the mountains' with 'holy purifications' (77). The mountains are
not presented as an antithesis to urban culture, but rather as a place for
contact with the transcendent. 33 They refer to the Theban women as 'the
female throng stung to frenzy from their looms and shuttles by Dionysus'
(117-19), 34 thus perpetuating Dionysus's construction of 'madness' in the
prologue and that of the two messengers.
From the Homeric epics onwards, 'looms and shuttles' have been associated with the domesticated order of female (and especially married female)
daily life, with the interior female world of male-sanctioned productive work,
as opposed to the sphere of men, outside dn the plains of battle or in the
assembly. In Book 6 of the Iliad, Hektor clearly defmes male and female roles
31 Ef.LaVTJTE,
rraaa
T' E:~E~aKXEU9TJ rr6A.ts.
See Dodds 1960:76 on 9taaEuETaL tJ!vxav: 'Verrall's "congregationalises his soul"
is the nearest English equivalent.' Kirk 1970:34 rightly dismisses this translation as
'horrible', smacking of the language of Victorian bishops. Seaford's 'joins his soul to
the thiasos' is more accurate (1996:73).
33 For the mountains in the historical record as the 'maenadic locus par excellence',
see Henrichs 1978:144, 149, 152-53, 156; cf. also Dodds 1963: 270-71.
32
34 9T]AVYEV~S oxA.os a<jl' LaTWV TTapa KEpKL8wv T' OLaTpT]9ds ~LOVVa4J.
28
LAMBERT
for Andromache, using the loom and spindle as signifiers of female work
within the olKOS', in direct opposition to the TTOAEJlOS' of men (490-93).35
So far we have looked at male constructions of this madness, but the
chorus of bacchantes interprets the madness of the Theban women as a
challenge to the established patriarchal order, as liberation from the domestic
strai~ackets into which men have socialised women. And ·clearly welcome
liberation: how else would they be where they are, having a guided tour of
Greece without any fathers or husbands or brothers in attendance (or
portable looms)? Agave, in her possessed state, clearly shares these beliefs: as
she remarks to Kadmos before she 'comes down' from her high, 'having left
behind the shuttles by the looms have come to greater things, the hunting of
wild animals with my hands' (1235-37). 36 The only other reference to looms
in the play is significantly made by Pentheus, when he threatens to sell off
the bacchantes into slavery or enslave them himself 'at the looms' (514)_37
Slavery at tl1e loom encapsulates Pentheus's extreme (and very stereotypical)
view of female work: we must recall his interpretation of the 'madness' of
the Theban women as a form of illicit lust driving the women on to abandon
their homes (217) and commit wine-soaked adultery on the mountain slopes
(219-25), all in the name of religious experience (353-54, 487, 675-76). Pentheus thus conceives of women as working wives or whores, the kind of
binary which Euripides interrogates in this play; in contrast, the bacchantes
redefme female work and space, the labour that is no labour, the sweet toil
that brings happiness away from the looms and shuttles, in the open air,
hunting wild anin1als in typically masculine fashion (116-19).
The chorus of bacchantes thus are mad in a sense unlike their Theban
counterparts; their madness is not compulsory; they never refer to themselves as 'maddened' although they use the term 'maenades' (601); they
represent their ecstasy as a joyful union witl1 the forces of nature; they depict
:·
,•, I
35 In which men achieve personal KAEOS', whilst women are expected to serve a
community (the household) . Goldhill 1990:107-12 rightly comments on the shift in
military ideology from the individual to the communal in the democratic TIOALS' of
the 5th century. As tragedy so often 'dramatises conflicting obligations of household
and state' (Goldhill 1990: 123), dissolving the ol KOS', abandoning the looms and
spindles and forming an 'army' of women could perhaps have suggested to Athenian
men in the audience a provocative attack on current Athenian ideology.
36 ~ TUS' rrap' i.crTOLS EKAL'TTOUcra KEpKt8as- I ES' JlEL(ov' ~KW, S~pas- o:ypEUELV XEPolV.
See Seaford 1996:246 ad foe.: 'A. employs her hands on something greater than the
typical female work of weaving.'
37 E<jl' tcrTOLS 8J1WL8as- KEKT~crOJlUL.
:
.....
,
' •'l"'•
LAMBERT
29
their leader (presumably Dionysus himself) in the acts of sparagmos and
homophagia (135-41) but not themselves,3B although the choral songs become
increasingly vengeful as the play progresses (977-1023); they extol the gifts of
Dionysus, those gifts we associate with rituals which are not directly opposed
to urban values: dancing in the tluasos, laughing as the flute plays, putting an
end to cares with wine (379-85). Their Dionysus is not in direct conflict with
patriarchal values: he loves peace, is the giver of prosperity (419-20). In fact,
Euripides is at pains to show us how two venerable patriarchs (I<:admos and
Teiresias) can become followers of Dionysus. In the first episode, Kadmos
repeatedly emphasises the wisdom of Teiresias (179, 186), who makes the
telling point that tl1ey are the only sane men amongst the mad in Thebes .
(196). 39 His Dionysus is similar to the god of the chorus: the giver of wine
and freedom from daily cares (279-83), the giver of prophetic !lav[a (298301), 'for when the god enters abundantly into the body he makes the
maddened speak the future'; 40 in a sense his Dionysus is also responsible for
the panic which characterises the 11av[a of soldiers before battle (302-05),
and the panic of the Theban women. It is Teiresias who classifies Pentheus
as mad (359).41
Euripides thus presents us with the two faces of Dionysiac madness: the
one, inflicted on those who resist, which is destructive and an ominous
tl1reat to patriarchal values and their constructions of women; the other, the
madness of those who have accepted Dionysus, which has features of the
former (the panic to which Teiresias refers), but embodies values (peace,
prosperity, the feast, wine), which are perfectly acceptable to any patriarchy
and can take root at the heart of the urban 1TOALS', but always carry with them
the threat of tl1e other, the threat of disintegration, particularly because
women worshippers are catered for in ways which redefine female space and
female work. 42
I
I.
I
38
Henrichs 1978:148, 151 notes that 'nothing in the available evidence suggests that
historical maenads indulged in sparagmos or omophagia'.
39
40
41
~OVOL yap EU <jlpovoil~EV' oL 8' cL\A.oL KUKWS.
AEYELV TO ~EAAOV TOVS ~E~llVOTUS 1TOLEL.
~E~11vas ~811, Kal. 1rpl.v E~E<JTWS <jlpevwv. Seaford 2006:107: '[Pentheus] is
suffering from the painful human kind of madness, and stubbornly resists the new
kind offered to him by Dionysos.'
42 Seaford 2006:36: 'The centrifugal tendency of maenadism is incorporated into the
polis and, by becoming a temporary and merely symbolic reversal of the structure of
the polis, may even reinforce its coherence'; cf. also Seaford 1996:45, 49-50.
30
LAMBERT
To return to the trial of the amandikiwith which I began this paper. All of
the accused, including the youngest (a fourteen-year old) stated that they did
nothing when they went out roaming 'except drink beer' at a kraal identified
not by the name of its male head, but by that of one of their female friends.43
Euripides's bacchantes away from their looms and shuttles, the amandiki
away from their hoes and pots are contesting, in their possessed states, the
carefully policed gender boundaries their communities have imposed on
them and are in the process of negotiating new gender orders. Euripides
presents us with a multifaceted study of resistance: in resisting the introduction of a god whose worship must be transformative, the Theban women
(like the amandikz) resist the stereotypes which are tl1e building blocks of
their community's gender ideology. They hunt, they attack, they kill, they
become a disciplined army, they become masculine; their 'madness' slips
away from one as one tries to define it. Dionysus has maddened them, but
he does not mean the same as Teiresias when he accuses Pentheus of being
'mad'. The madness of the amandiki is equally Protean, escaping definition as
it is constructed by the variety of colonial discourses. Protean, too, is any
attempt to define hysteria. Micale (199 5) has shown, convincingly, how
women's 'hysteria' has changed shape and meaning across cultures and
centuries, as it is a 'mimetic disorder, mimicking culturally acceptable expressions of distress.' 44 Like hysteria. with which the madness of women is often
conflated, women's madnesses have frequently been manufactured by deeply
patriarchal communities, threatened by the ways in which this distress has
temporarily undermined the hierarchical gender order, as women search for
'something greater, away from the looms and the shuttles.' The Bacchae and
the amandiki offer us interesting insights into the ways in which we (we men,
that is) manufacture women's madness and make us ask a fundamental
question, which Euripides posed two millennia ago: when women are
dismissed as 'mad', who is really 'mad' and what does 'madness' mean?4S
To conclude: what would have been Euripides's point in raising this
question in Athens during the final years of the 5th century? Dionysus had
long since achieved cultic respectability. He was patron god of the theatre;
43 Parle 2003:211.
44
Parle 2003:127. Ken!nyi 1976:139, in arguing against the notion that maenadism
(or the 'orgiasm' of women) was a spontaneous phenomenon, believes that the
phenomenon is 'most aptly' described by the medical term 'collective hysteria'; cf.
Dodds 1963:272-73 for the spontaneous mass hysteria suggestion. For the wraiths of
Nietzsche and Rohde hovering over this interpretation, see Henrichs 1984: 227.
45 Cf. Parle's attempts to define 'mental health' in the modern West (2003:117-18).
LAMBERT
31
his rituals (like the Anthesteria or Old Dionysia) featured in the ritual calendar.46 The mythological material associated with him had become part of the
Athenian theatrical tradition. We know that Aeschylus and other tragedians
had presented plays with this mythological material many years before.47
Why does Euripides revisit this material in the final years of his life, between
408 and 406 BCE?48
Let us briefly recall the historical and social context. The tragedy of the
Sicilian expedition was almost a decade old; many Athenian households must
have lost husbands, fathers, sons, and the parades of orphans in full military
dress in the theatre at the Great Dionysia must have been especially poignant.49 The Peloponnesian War was almost over and most Athenians must
have been wondering what kind of political destiny awaited them: a Spartan
tyranny - rule by a 'sane' tyrant like Pentheusso - or rule by a maddened
collective, such as the radical democracy turned out to be? 51 The theatre too,
the major citizen assembly for political and social commentary,52 had recently
witnessed at least one tragedy about the effects of war on women (Euripides's Trqjan Women), two tragedies which explored the nature of 'madness'
(Euripides's Herakles and Orestes) and two war-time comedies which raised
questions about the role of women in male-dominated Athens (the Lysistrata
and the Thesmophoriazusaz).53 As more recent European history has shown,
wars often result in intense reflection on women's roles in society when men
return (or do not return) to re-establish the boundaries transgressed by
'
;..
~
... :.
:·
46
Thuc. 2.16; Hall 1989:1 51-52; Seaford 1996:38-39.
Seaford 1996:26 n. 9; cf. 2006:91-92.
48 Scullion's arguments in support of his contention that Euripides died in Athens in
407-406 BC, rather d1an in exile at the court of Archelaus of Macedon, are very
convincing, 2003:389-400. Consequendy, it seems highly unlikely that the Bacchae was
composed under the influence of the 'wild country of Macedonia' as Dodds
surmised (1960:xlvii), but, as is more likely, in response to religious, political and
social realities in Athens, which Dodds 1960:xl somewhat paradoxically recognised.
49 For the parade of orphans embedded in civic ideology, see Goldhill1990:113-14.
so For Pentheus as tyrant, see Bacch. 43, 776.
Sl For Dionysus as the god of the people accessible to all, see Bacch. 208-09, 430; cf.
Seaford 1996:170; Dodds 1963:76.
52 For Thebes in Attic tragedy as the 'other' to Athens's 'self, the place where
'[Athens] ... can experiment with the dangerous heights of self-assertion that transgression of fixed boundaries inevitably entails, where the city's political claims to
primacy may be exposed and held up to question'; see Zeidin 1990:145.
53 For the dating of Euripides's Trqjan Women, Orestes and Herakles, see Barlow
1996:18; for Aristophanes, Dover in the OCD 1996:164.
47
.·.
32
LAMBERT
women in their absence. 54 I suspect that Euripides seized the opportunity to
present his dramatisation of the discourses of the Theban women's madness
in deliberately archaising forms, 55 which conjured up an arcane mythological
past, but commented on contemporary issues in Athens.
At the origins of the Dionysiac polis cults lay the dissolution of the traditional oikos; the Theban women abandoned the looms and shuttles for something greater. For some, this idea must have been dangerously destructive;
for others, psychologically and socially liberating. 56 There must have been
many women-headed households. Was this not the time for the Athenians to
revisit, to rethink the traditional roles of women and the rigid gender boundaries established by centuries of socialisation, but undermined by war and
by a sphere in which women played a significant role - ritual?
In similar vein, were not the amandiki women, in the period after the
defeat of the Zulus by the British,57 contesting women's traditional roles in
that liminal gender vacuum left by the defeat of Zulu men and the realignment of their masculinity? As gender is profoundly relational, I suspect that
Euripides attempted (inter alia) to interrogate the 'feminine' in relation to a
crisis in Athenian masculinity, as the amandiki seem to have done in relation
to a crisis in Zulu masculinity.SB The various interpretations offered for the
indiki possession by Zulu-speaking informants, from the spirits of male
foreign workers to patrilineal ancestors, suggest how the community interpreted this possession in gendered terms.5 9 The conquerors had become the
54 See Goldstein 2001:384-96 for the transgression of gender boundaries in women's
wartime work.
55 The hymnic choruses reminiscent of Aeschylus's Suppliants, the metrical forms not
heard in Athens for the past forty years. See Dodds 1960:xxxvi-viii; Seaford 1996:28.
Cf. Hall 1989:82-83 n. 119, on Ionics a minore, used in an eastern context in Aeschylus's Persae.
56 For 'radical' transformation of identity in the Dionysiac thiasos and initiation into
mystery-cult, see Seaford 2006:95-96.
57 Indiki possession was unknown until after the Zulu wars; Parle 2003:112 n. 27,
citing Jackson, a magistrate; 130: 'after Dinuzulu's return from overseas' (one of
Lee's informants); cf. Parle 2007:156.
58 Other factors, of course, contributed to this crisis: industrialisation, migrant
labour, and the increasing opportunities for younger men and women to challenge
traditional Zulu patriarchy and its version of masculinity; Parle 2003:123. For young
male migrants challenging older patriarchs, see Carton 2001:132-33.
59 Parle 2007:147; cf. 2003:128-31 for the masculine nature of indiki possession (deep
voices, sitting like men, drinking beer). See Dodds 1963:73 for voice change in
possessed states.
LAMBERT
33
conquered, and this almost always produces a crisis in gender constructs.
How the various colonial discourses interpreted the 'madness' of the
amandiki is deeply embedded in the patriarchal attitudes of the male magistrates and doctors, and differs little from the recorded attitudes of some Zulu
chiefs at the time. 60
Attempts to deal with this crisis by formalising spirit possession and
women's major role in it, reflect how alien cults are often appropriated by
the community in order to harness their power. Krige writes of a 'regular
guild' of amandiki; both Harries and Parle mention 'possession guilds'.61 A
colonial missionary refers to 'schools' for initiates. 62 It thus seems that for a
short period indiki possession became institutionalised, just as Dionysiac
possession resulted in historically attested maenadism. Reasons for the
development of the Zulu 'possession guilds' have also been located in the
politics of gender: d1ese 'guilds' provided a socially-sanctioned oudet for the
voices of marginalised women 'unable to exert an influence on the centres of
power.' 63 The striking difference between the Greeks and the Zulus is that
Dionysus and maenadism became central to the male-dominated TI6>.v;·64 in
ways in which the amandiki and their spirits did not, perhaps because of the
fact d1at a Zulu 1TOALS" did not survive Shaka and the onslaught of British
colonialism. 65 Indiki spirits were always considered antithetical to d1e maledominated homesteads (the Zulu olKos) and, unlike ancient Athenian
religion, Zulu religion does not seem to have tempered the antithetical by
incorporation into central cult, perhaps because cult was never formally
centralised in an Athenian-style 1TOALS". The fact that many female izangoma
still struggle for public validation by their communities suggests that hostility
towards women and their role in religious cult survives and perhaps is
considered necessary for the perpetuation of Zulu patriarchy and
60
Parle 2007:13 7.
Krige 1950:307 n. 2; Harries 1994:165; Parle 2003:122.
62
Parle 2003:111.
63
Harries 1994:165.
64 Whether maenadism ever became central to the lTOALS is debatable (cf. Seaford
2006:109), but at least Athenian men seemed to have tolerated, for instance, the
dispatching of a team of women to 'join the Delphic Thyiads revelling in mid-winter
on Parnassus' (Parker 2005:324-25).
65 And because of the essential differences between Greek and Zulu religion; see
Lambert 1993.
61
34
LAMBERT
masculinity. 66
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Bremmer,]. 1987. 'Myth and ritual in ancient Rome: the Nonae Capratinae.' In
J.N. Bremmer & N.M. Horsfall, Roman Myth and Mythography, 76-88. Bulletin Supplement 52. London.
Burkert, W. 1985. Greek Religion. Cambridge.
Carton, B. 2001. 'Locusts fall from the sky: manhood and migrancy in
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Pietermaritzburg.
De Romilly, ]. 1963. 'Le theme du bonheur dans les Bacchantes.' Revue des
Etudes Grecques 76:361-380.
Diesel, A. & Lambert, M. 2005. 'South Indian and Spanish virgins: reclaiming the goddess.' Journalfor the Stucfy of Religion 18.1:52-76.
Dodds, E.R. 1960. Euripides Bacchae. Oxford.
Dodds, E.R. 1963 (repr.). The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley.
Doke, C.M., Malcolm, D.M., Sikakana, ].M.A. & Vilakazi, B.W. 2005 (repr.).
English-Zulu, Zulu-English Dictionary. Johannesburg.
Dover, K.J. 1996. 'Aristophanes.' InS. Hornblower & A. Spawforth (edd.),
The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford.
Goldhill, S. 1990. 'The Great Dionysia.' In Winkler & Zeitlin 1990:97-129.
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Hall, E. 1989. Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Se!fDqinition through Tragecfy.
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Hanretta, S. 1998. 'Women, marginality and the Zulu state: Women's
institutions and power in the early nineteenth century.' Journal of Afo'can
History 39:389-415.
Harries, P. 1994. Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Labourers in Mozambique
and South Africa, c. 1860-1910. Johannesburg.
66 Kendall 1996. The relatively recent revival of the long dormant Nomkhubulwane
rituals seems to have provided both female izangoma and, more controversially,
virginity testers, with the space in which to renegotiate women's spiritual authority
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2005.
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35
Henrichs, A. 1978. 'Greek maenadism from Olympias to Messalina.' HSCP
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her people.' The Drama RevieJV 43.2:94-117.
Kerenyi, C. 1976. Diotrysos: Archetypal Image ofIndestructible Life. London.
Kirk, G .S. 1970. The Bacchae by Euripides. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Krige, E.J. 19 50. The Social System of the Zulus. Pietermaritzburg.
Lambert, M. 1993. 'Ancient Greek and Zulu sacrificial ritual: a comparative
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Lambert, M. 2008. 'Re-inventing a Zulu goddess.' In B. Carton, J. Laband &
J Sithole (edd.), Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present, 545-553.
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Lewis, I.M. 1989. Ecstatic Religion: A Stucfy of Shamanism and Spirit Possession.
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McGinty, P. 1978. 'Dionysos's revenge and the validation of the Hellenic
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Micale, M.S. 1995. Approaching Hysteria: Disease and its Interpretations. Princeton.
Ngubane, H. 1977. Bocfy and Mind in Zulu Medicine. London.
Parle, J. 2003. 'Witchcraft or madness? The amandiki of Zululand, 18941914.' Journal of Southern African Studies 29.1:105-132.
Parle,]. 2007. States ofMind. Pietermaritzburg.
Parker, R. 2005. Po!Jtheism and Society at Athens. Oxford.
Seaford, R. 1996. Euripides Bacchae. Warminster.
Seaford, R. 2006. Diot!JSUS. London.
Scullion, S. 2003. 'Euripides and Macedon, or the silence of the Frogs.' CQ
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(ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mytholo!!J, 121-152. London.
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Winkler & Zeitlin 1990:130-167.
/.,y·
A PLAGUE OF MADNESS:
THE CONTAGION OF MUTINY IN LIVY 28.24-32
Adrienne Aranita
City University of New York
Visiting scholar, Unisa
Introduction
The bare bones of the mutiny at Sucro are set forth in Polybius 11.25-30.
Troops stationed at Sucro serve as a garrison to protect tribes north of the
Ebro. When Scipio falls ill and the soldiers are not promptly paid, sedition
breaks out in the Roman camp. While Scipio returns to health, he orders his
officers to publicly collect money from prior contributions for the soldiers'
pay. On the day of payment, the thirty-five leaders of the mutiny are led to
believe that they will be attending a dinner party and Scipio's legion are told
that they will be marching against Indibilis. After supper, the thirty-five are
arrested and brought by the tribunes to the marketplace. Scipio appears
before his men, who are astounded by his healthful appearance. In his
speech, he scolds the soldiers and attributes the spread of the mutiny to the
vicissitudes of a multitude. The thirty-five mutineers are then brought before
the rest of the army, bound and naked, to be scourged and beheaded. Those
watching are dumbfounded and after the bodies are dragged through the
crowd, the rest of the Roman army take oaths of allegiance. Polybius credits
Scipio with having nipped danger in the bud.
The narrative of Livy 28 corresponds largely with Polybius's account. In
particular, Livy also treats the mutiny at Sucro as a result of a plague of
mental disorder. The language he uses, however, reminds more of that used
by Sallust and Cicero in their depictions of Catiline and his fellow conspirators, even though Livy would probably not have been directly influenced
by these authors. The link between mutiny and madness appears to have
become a topos, as in Tacitus's recollections of .t he Pannonian and German
mutinies of AD 14. 1 The object of this paper is to demonstrate that Livy
deliberately treats the events at Sucro as a manifestation of contagious madness, employing imagery of causes, contagion and cure, in order to provide
1
As shown by Woodman 2006. Woodman's argument will be used here to support
similar associations in Livy.
·I"
ARANITA
37
motivation for both the behaviour of the soldiers and their mild treatment by
Scipio when compared to similar situations in Roman military history.
Insubordination as contagious disease
Polybius likens the evils 'in a state or an army', to the 'tumours and maladies
which are born in the body' which 'itself can with difficulty be seen beforehand and with difficulty be cured as they happen.' 2 While Livy by no means
invented the idea of the state as a body, one of its most famous instances is
found in the second book of this author's history. In 2.32, Menenius Agrippa
uses the metaphor to persuade the plebs to cease their rebellion: as body
parts must work in harmony for the body to be healthy, the plebs must
remain in harmony with the senators. In Livy's depiction of the mutiny at
Sucro, a further two elements are added to the body metaphor: (a) that
illness within the state-as-body is contagious, and (b) that physical illness of
the leader can cause mental disease among the troops.
Livy's parallel depiction of Scipio's illness and the madness spreading
among the troops appears to be deliberate. In 28.24.15, he states that '[t]he
falsely believed death of Scipio was clouding their minds' (mors Scipionis ]also
credita occaecabat anz!JJos) . The madness then spreads like a contagious disease,
manifesting in open mutiny. However, as the leader gradually recuperates
(28.25), the mutiny loses momentum and the men begin to hesitate. Finally,
the sight of a healthy Scipio suppresses the internal dissension, thus restoring
the health of the body of troops as a whole.
Madness as a disease with the tendency to spread contamination is found
in both Cicero's and Sallust's treatments of the Catilinarian conspiracy. 3
Sallust describes Catiline's mental condition in physical terms:4
2 n1 8 ' E~ mhwv Twv aw!lchwv yw6!1EVa <!>~!laTa Kal. v6aous 8ucrxEPES !LEV
rrpoL8Ea9m, 8uaxEPES 8E yEVO!lEVOLS" ~oT]9E1Ji, 11.25.2-3. Translations of cited
Greek and Latin texts are my own.
Cf. Cic. Cat. 1.11: quod hanc tam taetram tam horribilem tamq11e inftstam rei publicae pestem
totiens iam effugitmrs, 'So often already have we escaped this pestilence, so vile, so
horrible and so dangerous to the Republic.'
4 Cicero rhetorically makes Catiline's madness an inborn quality; cf. Cat. 1:22-23:
Neque enim is es, Catilina, ut te aut pudor a turpitudine aut mettrs a periculo aut ratio a furore
revocatit, 'Nor indeed are you, Catilina, the kind of man whom shame calls away from
tw:pitude, fear from danger or reason from madness', and 1:25: Ad hanc te amentiam
nat11ra pepetit, volttntas exercuit, fortuna servavit, 'Nature bore you for such a madness,
your own will cultivated you and fortune saved you.'
3
.I
38
ARANITA
namque animus impurus, dis hominibusque infestus, neque vigiliis neqtte quietibtts
sedari poterat; ita conscientia mentem excitam vastabat. Igitur color ei exanguis,
foedi oculi, citus modo modo tardtts incessus; prorsus in facie voltuque vecordia
inerat.
For his impure mind, hostile to gods and men, was unable to rest in
either waking or sleeping, for conscience was laying waste to his
roused-up mind. Therefore his complexion was pale, his eyes bloodshot, his step now quick, now slow; frenzy was absolutely in his face
and expression. (Sail. Cat. 15.4-5)
Catiline's madness then infects the minds of the citizens: tanta vis morbi aeque
uti tabes plerosque civium animos invaserat ('so great was the force of the corruption which, just as if it were a disease, infected many of the minds of the
citizens', Cat. 36.5).
If mental disease can be contagious, it also stands in need of remedy.
Cicero, referring to the plague of madness induced by Catiline as a physical
plague, deliberates over a remedy: 5
Si ex tanto latrocinio iste umts tolletur, videbimur fortasse ad breve quoddam
tempus cura et mettt esse relevati, periculttm autem residebit et erit inclusum penitus
in vents atque in visceribus rei publicae. Ut saepe homines agri morbo gravi, cum
aest11 febrique iactantur, si aquam gelidam biberunt, primo relevmi videntttr, deinde
multo gravius vehementittsque acfflictantur,. sic hie morbus qui est in re publica
relevattts istius poena vehementius reliqttis vivis ingravescet.
If he alone, out of so great a band of robbers, is removed, we shall
seem, perhaps, to have been relieved from care and fear for a short
amount of time, however, the danger will remain and it will be enclosed deep within the veins and viscera of the Republic. Just as often
5
Cf. also Cic. Cat. 1.30: Hoc autem uno inteifecto intellego bane rei publicae pestem paulisper
reprimi, non in perpetuum comprimi posse. Quod si sese eiecerit secumque suos edttxerit et eodem
ceteros undique conlectos naufragos adgregarit, exstinguetur atque delebitur non modo haec tam
adulta rei publicae pestis verum etiam sti1ps ac semen malorum omnium, 'However, I
understand that with one man killed, this disease of the Republic can be restrained
for a short while, but it cannot be suppressed perpetually. But if he exiles himself
and leads his followers away with him, and gathers into the same place all the rest of
the vagrants he has collected from everywhere, not only this full-grown disease of
the Republic, but even the root and seed of all our evils, will be extinguished and
destroyed.'
ARANITA
39
happens when men who are sick with a grave illness toss and turn with
hot fever, if they drink cold water, at first they seem relieved, but then
much more gravely and more vehemently ire they afflicted, in such a
way, this disease which is in the Republic, shall be relieved by the
punishment of this man, but shall worsen vehemently with the others
left alive. (Cic. Cat. 1.31 )6
Livy, in making his Scipio characterise his troops as insane and lacking
reason (did they really expect to make Sucro their home and take over
Spain?) seems to be utilizing models for madness and madmen as provided
by Cicero and Sallust. In his turn, Livy appears to have been followed by
Tacitus. In a comparison of Livy's account with Tacitus's treatment of the
Pannonian and German mutinies, Woodman notes Tacitus's use of medical
terms such as staftts and cattsa,7 the latter occurring in Livy 28.27.11, as the
officers go around to the troops inquiring about the cause of their jttror.
Woodman remarks that vis, 'violence' is 'almost technical of disease as in
28.29.3: vis morbi ... in vestras mentes invasit', explaining that 'in the ancient
world, fever was often thought to be associated with madness ... and there
can be no doubt about the continuing madness of the Pannonian soldiers.' 8
6
Schneider 2004:156 examines Cicero's position as hamspex, metaphorically gazing
upon the terminally ill body of the state in relation to Caesar as 'invincible conqueror': 'Mythical allusions to Odysseus and the underworld had featured as denominators for Caesar and his followers in the correspondence between Atticus and
Cicero, during the period of civil war. One could extend this metaphor by presuming
that Caesar, from 49 onwards, became in Cicero's mind the embodiment of a
"Charon", who may now be seen as steering a ship of state (a terminally ill res publica)
to its final abode - the halls of Hades.' Here, the body-state metaphor is tied into
mythological metaphors and Cicero's role is highlighted: 'the concept "haruspe:x!' is
used in a metaphorical sense to epitomise Cicero's role as a close examiner of the
vicissitudes of the res publicd (Schneider 2004:9). Through examination of this role,
Schneider 2004:12-13 also demonstrates different ways in which the state may be
perceived as a body: 'Cicero was cast in the role of a practical analyst tackling Roman
problems by employing an external theoretical basis for analysis. Like the traditional
haruspex, who often in times of crisis inspects the entrails of sacrificial animals,
Cicero is seen analysing the internal structure of the metaphorical carcass of the res
publica which by his time has become in his view that of a sacrificial victim.' Cicero
may also play the haruspex role in his account of the Catilinarian conspiracy, but with
a concentration on healing the sick state.
7 Woodman 2006:313.
s Woodman 2006:315.
40
ARANITA
We thus observe a double analogy, between body and state on the one
hand, and physical disease and mental derangement in crowds on the other.
As physical disease wreaks havoc on the human body, the multitude may get
infected with mental disease which may become a plague to the republic.
Causes of the plague: crowd susceptibility and foreign infection
While the parallel between Scipio's illness and the soldiers' mutiny in Livy
seems to be deliberate, he nowhere claims the physical sickness to have been
the cause of the mutiny. Like Polybius, who regards indolence and inactivity
as causing the festering of evils and disease, Livy blames indiscipline, lack of
battle and otium, also acknowledging the payment issue as a real contributing
factor: Flagitatttm quoque stipendium procacius quam ex more et modestia militari erat
('Likewise the pay was demanded in a manner more frivolous than what
suited the habit and modesty of a soldier', 28.24.8). But Scipio's speech in
Livy differs significantly from that of Polybius, as noted by Walsh: 'Whereas
Polybius shows that Scipio dealt with the prosaic question of the troops' pay
grievance, Livy completely ignores the topic, and makes Scipio's tl1eme the
soldiers' dereliction of duty; he cannot decide whether to call them citizens,
soldiers or foes ... ' 9 His dilemma of how to address the soldiers results from
their 'madness', an illness affecting the state and therefore the citizen status
of the soldiers.
Polybius finds the cause of the mutiny in typical crowd behaviour. His
Scipio likens crowds to the movement of the sea caused by the winds:
TaDTa 8' EO'TL 8LOTL rras oxA.os ElmapaA.6ywTOS. imapxEl !Cal rrpos-
rrav Euaywyos. o9Ev aLEL TO rraparrA.~O'LOV rra8os- O'U~~aLVEL TrEpl TE
Taus- oxA.ous- ~eal T~v eciA.aTTav. ~eaSarrEp yap KaKELVTJS ~ ~E:v l8(a
cpUO'lS' EO'TLV a~A.a~~s TOLS' XPW~EVOLS' !Cal O'TQO'L~OS', OTav 8' ELS'
miT~v E~TrEO'lJ TU TrVEv~aTa ~(q., TOLaVTTJ cpa(vETaL TOLS XPW~EVOLS'
olo( TLVES av WO'LV oL ICUICAOUVTES alJT~V avE~Ol. Tov aVTOV Tporrov
Kal TO rrA.fjSos O.El Kal cpa(vETaL Kal y(vETm ' rrpos- Taus xpw~Evous­
ol:ous av EX\1 rrpOO'TQTaS !CaL O'U~~ouA.ous .
All crowds are easily misled and easily driven to evety error, therefore a
multitude always shares the same vicissitudes as the sea, for just as in
its own nature, the sea is harmless and still, when blasts fall upon it
with violence, it becomes like the character of the encircling winds:
thus a multitude also appears and becomes like the character which its
leaders and advisors are. (Polyb. 11.29.9-10)
9
Walsh 1961:99.
ARANITA
41
The metaphor of the sea reflects the mental mobility of a crowd, making it
possible for leaders to impose their own character upon a multitude. 10 In this
regard, Cicero's definition of madness as cited by Woodman is significant:
Mens motu quasi morbo perturbata ('The mind disturbed by some movement as
if by a disease', Tusc. 3.11). This notion of movement, also emphasized by
Tacitus, 'describe[s] a kind of group hysteria, with the soldiers behaving as if
they were under direction (32.3).' While Polybius does not explicitly explain
the soldiers' behaviour as insanity, he nonetheless from the very beginning of
the section depicts the masses as easily swayed.ll
Livy develops this notion into a form of madness corresponding to
Cicero's definition. His Scipio also uses sea imagery: Sed multitudo omnis sicttt
natura mans per se immobi/is est, et venti et aurae cient,· ita aut tranqui//um aut proce//ae
in vobzs sunt ('But every crowd is just like tl1e sea: inlmobile in itself, with the
winds and breezes shaking it up. Thus in you there are both calm and
storms', 28.27.11) . Woodman points out that in both Livy and Tacitus the
soldiers 'alternate between loud uproar and sudden silence.' Tacitus's
expression in 25.2, repente quies, is very similar to Livy's repentina quies (28.25.
11). The silence (and its effect) is so sudden that it is indeed similar to the
movements of the sea.
Livy starts describing the sedition as madness long before the scene of
Scipio's speech. Already in the first reference to fitrorwhich occurs soon after
Scipio falls ill (28.24.1 0), the men are said to have hoped that their madness
would spread like a contagious disease to the tribunes as well:
Forma tamen Romanorum castromm constabat una ea spe quod tribunos ex
contagione jur01is baud expers seditionis defectionisque rati fore ...
°
1 Cf. Austin's note on the first simile in Aeneid 1.148-56: 'Virgil, at the outset of his
epic, has used a rhetorical Torros to give striking expression to the power and the
responsibility of pietas: a parable for his generation.' But Virgil reverses the way the
simile is used in Polybius, Livy and other authors, for in the Aeneid, 'it illustrates
nature by the behaviour of man, instead of the reverse process, and the man in
control is a virpietate gravis, a Roman ideal.'
11 The effects of war on states and individuals are also described in Thucydides and
Diodoms's accounts on the revolution at Corcyta as creating a temperament akin to
the madness (and its spread) that is described in Livy's account; cf. Thuc. 3.82.2;
Diod. 13.48.
42
ARANITA
Nevertheless one hope kept the appearance of the Roman camp- the
men believed that the tribunes would be by no means immune from
the sedition and defection because of the contagion of madness.
Livy seems to imply that they may have even been aware of their own
madness - or at least of the patterns of contagion. But they misjudged both
the extent of its spread and Scipio's actual condition, believing him to be
near his death. When the tribunes are not infected, it sets off the main events
of the seditio: the tribunes are chased out and the fasces and secures, which Livy
stresses are insignia summi imperii, are seized. These are signs that the mutineers have run amok.
One of the reasons the soldiers offer for their mutiny, is the lack of gratitude shown after the defection of the Iliturgi. Prior to the mutiny, the Iliturgi
not only defected - and perhaps set a mutinous example for the Romans but also killed the men who had sought refuge with them from Castulo after
the latter's defection to Carthage. Hence, they added see/us to their defectionem
(Iliturgitani prodendis qui ex ilia clade ad eos peifugerant intetjiciendisque see/us etiam
defectioni addiderant, 28.19.2-3). A pattern emerges and there are three defections that occur in a row, each influenced by one before: Castulo, Iliturgis
and now, Sucro. Influence, in this case, may be synonymous with infection.
Scipio destroys the Iliturgi in punishment and Castulo, having heard of the
disaster of the Iliturgi, surrenders to Scipio. If Roman contact with the
Iliturgi is indeed infection, then surely, otium and disgruntlement over late
payment is equivalent to the festering of infection and the spread of contagion. In his speech, Scipio even compares his men to the Iliturgi and Lacetani, saying that at least the leaders of their furor, Mandonius and Indibilis,
were royal (28.27.5), while Scipio's men chose to follow an Umbrian and a
Calenian. By this distinction, not found in Polybius, Livy's account stresses
the foreign sources of the instigations and the madness they spread.
Whereas Polybius depicts Sucro as a separate incident, Livy's account is
intertwined with the treachery of the Spanish chieftains Mandonius and
Indibilis, who are presented as influencing the behaviour of Scipio's troops.
After finding out that Scipio did not die from his illness, Mandonius and
Indibilis return to their own territories, and the mutiny at Sucro also comes
to a stop: nee iam erat aut civis aut externus cum quo furorem sttum consociarent ('now
there was neither citizen nor foreigner with whom [the mutineers] could
share their madness', 28.25.12). The treachery of Mandonius and Indibilis is
depicted as enveloping that of the mutineers. The madness came from
outside Roman ranks.
_.. ,.;·
ARANITA
43
Remedies for insubordinate insanity: spectacle, substitutional expiation, fear
In the scene of a healthy Scipio appearing before the crowd, the accounts of
Polybius and Livy display an interesting difference: the way in which the
crowd reacts. In Polybius, the soldiers are first simply curious of, and then
amazed by, their commander's condition (27.7-8). In Livy, Scipio's appearance has a far greater effect. Prior to his speech, the soldiers are much more
agitated and they intend to be threatening - ferociter in forum ad tribunal imperatorts ut ultro territuri succlamationibus concurmnt ('fiercely in the f01"um, they rush
to the tribunal of the commander, about to further terrify him with their
clamours', 28.26.12). When they see Scipio in good health, however, the
agitation immediately quiets down:
Tum omnis ferocia concidit et, ut postea fatebantur, nihil aeque eos termit quam
praeter spem robur et colos impemtoris, quem adftctum visuros crediderant,
voltusque qua/em ne in acie quidem aiebant meminisse.
Then all ferociousness died down, as they admitted afterwards, nothing
scared them as much as the robustness and colour of the commander,
which were beyond expectation . . . their commander whom they
expected to see ill, and whose expression they said they never even
remembered in battle. (28.26.14-15) .12
12 Livy builds upon the apparition of Scipio's health provided by Polybius, so that he
looks sterner than he did in battle. Walsh 1961:100 suggests that, '[t]his picture of
Scipio the general has such an uncanny likeness to Caesar's self-portrait in the
Commentarii that one is tempted to believe that Livy's own contributions, chiefly in
the speeches, are powerfully affected by Julius' writings.' As a point of comparison,
Caesar also describes the opposition of the Gallic tribes to Roman rule as furor, cf.
BGall. 1.40 on Ariovistus: Sibi quidem persuaden· cognitis suis postu/atis atque aequitate
condiciot1um perspecta eum neqtte sttam neqtte populi Romani gratiam repttdiaturtmt. Qttod si
furore atqtte ammtia impulstts belfttm intulisset, qttid tandem vermmtttr? Similarly, the
Suessiones (2.3) are depicted as such: tantumque esse eorum omnium furorem, ut ne Suessiones quidem, ]raters consanguineosque sttos, qui eodem iure et isdem legibus tttantur, tlm/IJJ
imperium ttnumque magistratum ct/JJJ ipsis habeant, deterrere potue1int quin cum his consentirent.
Also, Convictolitavis of the Aedui (7.42) urged the plebs towards jllror. Adiuvat rem
proc/inatam Convictolitavis plebemque ad furorem impel/it, utfacinore admisso ad sanitatem reverti
pudeat.
.("'
_.:
44
...,... .
('
ARANITA
The idea that a leader's appearance cures the minds of his men is not unique
to this episode in Uvy. A similar situation is found in Book 7, describing an
incident involving a Roman garrison at Capua that revolted and plotted to
seize the city. Marcus Valerius Corvus, made a dictator, plays the Scipio role
and saves the day. The very sight of Corvus calms the anger of the Roman
people: Ubi p17immt in conspectttm venttl/11 est et arma signaque agnovere, extemplo
omnibus memoria patriae iras permulsit ('When first he came into view and they
acknowledged the weapons and standards, immediately the memory of the
fatherland soothed everyone's anger', 7.40.1). Cm-vus goes on to remind the
soldiers of their gods, their fellow Roman citizens, the fact that their camp is
pitched on Roman soil and that he is their consul (7 .40.5-7), in much the
same way that Scipio brings his men back to reason.
The calming effect brought about by the sight of Scipio and Corvus can
perhaps be assessed using Andrew Feldherr's explanation of a spectacle.
Feldherr's observation of Livy describing the people watching the consul P.
Ucinius Crassus and his visual representation illuminates the idea of Scipio's
appearance as the beginning of the purgation spectacle. On the profectio of
Crassus in Book 42, Feldherr writes: 'Uvy's analysis of the spectators'
reactions to the sight of their consul demonstrates how the act of watching
modulates from the fulfillment of a "desire to see" (studium spectaculz) to a
form of civic participation.'13 If the profectio represents the Republic and 'the
citizens' glimpse of the consul provides their link to the totality of the state,
the summa res publica, that he is entrusted to defend,' then seeing the leader
physically healthy would directly affect the health of the Roman citizen body.
The view of a healtl1y Scipio is therefore half of the spectacle tl1at remedies
the madness of the citizen or soldierly body. The link between the physical
health of the leader and mental health of the troops is re-established. That
link is visual.
While Scipio's appearance forms the flrst part of the spectacle to cure the
madness, the second part consists of punishment and expiation. Livy's mutineers at first give themselves hope of Scipio's mercy and go collectively to
obtain their pay, telling themselves: sttam seditionem sine volnere, sine sanguine
jttisse nee ipsam atrocem nee atroci poena dignatJt ('their sedition was without
wounds, without blood and neither was their atrocity in itself wicked and
worthy of brutal punishment', 28.25.14) . Their thoughts recall the rescue of
Roman citizens from Catiline's conspiracy: Erepti emm estis e cmdelissimo ac
miserrimo interittt, erepti sine caede, sine sanguine, sine exercittt, sine dimicatione (You
13
Feldherr 1998:10.
ARANITA
45
have been rescued from a most cruel and wretched death; rescued without
slaughter, without blood, without an army and without battle', Cic. Cat. 3.23).
But the echo of Cicero's anaphora in Livy suggests that even the bloodless
mutiny at Sucro has to be expiated. Rather than all of the eight thousand
troops, however, Scipio decides to punish only the thirty-five leaders - the
cattsa atqtte origino omnis fitroris. This decision is interesting when considered in
the light of common Roman practice. Roman punishment is usually total and
unforgettable, serving as an exemplum. In this case, rather than making an
exemplum out of the mutiny, which would preserve it in Roman collective
memory or at least in the memory of the soldiers, Scipio commands that the
mutiny be forgotten. A similar punishment is found in a conspiracy to
murder Cicero and set fire to Rome, which was led by Lentulus and Cethegus. Cicero describes it as follows:
Atque ea lenitate senat11s est 11s11s, Quirites, 11t ex tanta coni11mtione tantaqtte hac
JJJtt!titudine domesticomm hostimJJ lloVeJJJ homimtiJJ perditissimormJl poma re
publica conservilta reliqttomm mentis sanmi posse arbitraretur.
And the Senate employed this leniency, Romans, so that from so great
a conspiracy and such a great multitude of traitors, it was believed that
the punishment of nine of these most depraved men would preserve
the Republic and would be able to make sane the minds of those
remaining. (Cat. 3.15)
Discussing Tacitus's treatment of punishment and remedy after the mutiny
in the Annals 29.3-4, Woodman refers to the two groups of advisors with
conflicting opinions regarding the appropriate action. 14 The two possible
courses recall Livy 28.26.2: certabatttrqtte sententiis utrum in auctores tantttm seditionis . . . animadvetteretur, an plttrium supplicio vindicanda tam foedi exempli difectio
magis quam seditio esset ('There was disagreement in opinions over whether
punishment should only be brought for the illstigators of the mutiny ... or
whether more should be punished, in order to vindicate what was more a
defection that set a foul example, than a mutiny'). In the Annals, the first
group of advisors tells Drusus to be lenient, using words such as permulcere, as
if massaging a body. Massage was a treatment for the insane and the word
can also be used in the context of soothing one's mind. The second group of
14
Woodman 2006:317.
"'.
~·.:.:
..
.. . ·:
46
ARANITA
advisors opts for a stronger remedy that involves fear. 15 Drusus chooses the
remedy of fear and slaughters all the ringleaders of the mutiny (30.3).16
Thus, fear appears to be a crucial element of the curing spectacle. In Livy's
account, fear is invoked both by Scipio's expression when he appears before
the crowd and by the horror of watching the thirty-five being tortured, the
latter augmented by the suddenness of the events.
Feldherr's analysis of the events surrounding T. Manlius Torquatus in Livy
8, sheds further light on the remedy of fear, which can also be applied to the
notion of spectacle at Sucro. In Livy 8, T. Manlius Torquatus's son forgets
(oblittts at 8.7.8) his father's instructions by engaging in a duel and taking
spoils stripped from the Tusculan enemy, Geminus Maecius. Feldherr determines that '[h]is son was lured into fighting by a "false image" (vana imago) of
glory (8.7.18), which flnds a corollary in the sight of the .polia with which the
consul has just been confronted.' 17 Although T. Manlius Torquatus the
Younger is victorious, he nonetheless disobeyed his father and by extension,
lacked military discipline. This lack of discipline spells trouble, as it does in
the mutiny at Sucro. In a similar vein, the soldiers at Sucro are lured to
mutiny by the lack of the visual image of their leader in addition to otittm and
languishing without battle, which makes the image of a healthful Scipio with
fire in his eyes so poignant and able to comprise the first part of the
spectacle that cures the soldiers of their 'madness'. T. Manlius Torquatus the
Elder does not hesitate to punish his son and declares that what he is about
to do is a triste exemplum sed in posterJJJn salubre iuventuti erimus ('we shall make a
sad exemplum but one that is beneficial to future youth', 8. 7.17 -18). In a fairly
typical Roman scolding, T. Manlius Torquatus reminds his son of his own
consular authority, his authority as a father and that of the Roman state. But
a scolding alone does not sufflce (if it were, Scipio's speech to the mutineers
would have ended without the spectacle of the thirty-flve being punished) it only precedes the real exemplum. He proceeds to behead his own son and
his Manliana imperia henceforth became famous and feared for eternity. 1B The
15
Woodman 2006 cites Celsus 3.18.21 in that fear is recommended in cases of
chronic insanity: subito etiam temri et expavescere in hoc morbo prodest ('being suddenly
terrified and panicking is also beneficial in the case of this disease').
16 Woodman 2006:319 concludes: 'It is clear from the measures which Drusus takes
(29.4-30.1) that he ... treats the soldiers as madmen.'
17 Feldherr 1998:108.
18 8.7.22: Manlianaque impe1ia non in praesentia modo homnda sed exempli etiam tristis in
posterum essent. Cf. also Sail. Cat. 52.30, where Cato uses Manlius Torquatus as an
exemplum.
~.
[_,.·,
I
,.
.. ·..
•'.
ARANITA
47
punishment is the key to keeping the rest of the soldiers in line so that they
do not follow the same path as the headstrong T. Manlius Torquatus the
Younger:
Fecit tamen atrocitas poenae oboedientiorem duci militem, et praeterqttam quod
mstodiae vigiliaeqtte et ordo stationttm intentioris ttbique curae erant, in ttltimo
etiam cettamine, cum descenst/JJJ in aciem est, ea severitas profuit.
Nevertheless, the atrocity of the punishment made the soldiers more
obedient to their general, and not only were the guarding, watches and
the order of the stations more carefully observed everywhere, but in
the last struggle, when the soldiers went into battle, this severity
benefited them' (8.8.1).
Watching the beheading of the younger Torquatus, his fellow soldiers are
purged of whatever affinity they felt with the rebel. The punishment at Sucro
has a similar chastening effect, which goes on to include the forgetting and
total erasure of bad behaviour. Feldherr explains how the spectaclepunishment works:
To correct his son's error, the consul produces another spectacle, the
young champion's execution, to be witnessed by precisely the same
audience who exulted in his success. This spectacle ought to put on
display all the personal and national qualities conspicuously absent in
the duel itself. Personal fortitude, family honor, and the authorization
of the consul unite in an image which will restore and 'sanctify'
(sancienda 8.7.19) that bond between each individual and the power of
the state that is the secret of Roman difference . ... The punishment of
the victim here becomes the punishment of the audience who, having
identified with his success in the duel, now experience his execution as
19
their own.
In the same way, the eight thousand remrurung soldiers at Sucro must
identify with the thirty-five being punished in front of them. The fears
incited by the cruelty and suddenness of the punishment make the remedy
effective. The actual punishment in Book 8 is reflected in the audience's
reactions to the spectacle, as is the punishment in Book 28. While the
atrocity is delineated, it is not described in detail. The horror comes via the
audience's shouts or stunned silence.
19
Feldherr 1998:109,111.
48
ARANITA
There is a religious aspect to the purgation that comes across in Scipio's
diction. His scolding implies that, although words and the image of the
leader may have a chastening effect, there must be a sacrifice to right the
religious wrong. The mutiny was a religious offence. Scipio declares that if
the entire army was involved, it would not sine piaculis ingentibus expiari possint
('be able to be expiated without huge sacrifice', 28.27.6). These are words
laden with religious aspects, as if disease could, like a plague, be a prodigy.
The seizure of the fasces and secures is also treated as a religious offence. In
28.27.16, Scipio wonders how, if they believe in portents such as falling
stones and thunderbolts, they cannot have seen the bearing of the fasces and
secures for Albius and Atrius as a portent. He also spells out in what ways
their madness was treacherous (28.27.12):
qui mihi ne hodie quidem scire videmini quo amentiae progressi sitis, q11id facinoris
in me, q11id in patriam parentesq11e ac liberos vestros, quid in deos sacramenti testes,
quid adversus auspicia sub quibtts militatis, quid ad1;ersus morem militiae
disciplinamque maiomm, quid adversus sttmmi imperii maiestatem ausi sitis.
Not even today, it appears to me, you seem to know how far your
madness had gone, what crime against me, against your country,
parents and children, against the gods, witnesses of your oath, you had
attempted against the auspices under which you waged war, against the
custom of the military and the discipline of your ancestors, against the
majesty of the highest command.
Crimes against the state are religious crimes, so, too, broken oaths made
before gods. Scipio lists all the things that his army was unaware of in their
'mad' state of mind. And though their madness may be regarded as a sort of
excuse, the crime requires atonement.
Livy's reference to the exempla of Rhegium and Messana highlights their
difference to the mutiny at Sucro: in these cases there was total and complete
annihilation. Scipio brings up these exempla in order to indicate that he could
have punished his soldiers in like manner. This is, after all, typical of how
Livy uses exempla in the voices of historical personages: 'the speaker extracts
meaning from histmy and attempts to persuade others of his interpretation.'20 That Scipio's soldiers do not recall the incidents at Rhegium and
Messana is a further indication of their 'madness' by foreign contagion. Jane
Chaplin points out that Romans in Livy are constantly learning from the
°Chaplin 2000:3.
2
.....
ARANITA
49
past. But if this is Livy's aim, why does he always show people rejecting
exempla?Z1 Discussing the rejection of Herennius Pontius's advice in one use
of Caudium as an exemplum, Chaplin notes: 'The failure to follow his advice
will turn out to be characteristic of foreigners: in Livy, Romans are always
superior students of ex empla.' 22 Romans, when in their right minds, know the
value of history. It must be by the influence of foreigners (or an Umbrian
and a Calenian) that they forget history. Scipio reminds them in his speech
and removes the veil of foreign-flavoured madness through a spectacle that
essentially scares the insanity out of them. The punishment in Book 8, in all
its similarities with that of Book 28 in terms of spectacle and effect, differs in
an important aspect: it is predicted by T. Manlius Torquatus to become an
ex emplum and it does just that, not rejected by later generations.
Mutinous madness as pretext for purgatory punishment
The mutiny at Sucro, on the other hand, never approaches the lasting
effectiveness ofT. Manlius Torquatus's actions. Sucro is not intended to be
manipulated in d1e speeches of orators in d1e way Caudium and other events
are. The punishment of the mutiny at Sucro is self-contained. It is a lesson to
the soldiers at Sucro more than to Livy's readers. It destroys memory rather
than becoming part of it. The atrociousness of the punishment Scipio
chooses - as shocking as it is to Scipio's audience, and as effective as that of
T. Manlius Torquatus's to his audience - is not quite like the brutality
required for an exemplum in the league of Rhegium or Messana. It functions
rather as purgation. Immediately afterwards, evetything returns to normal.
The ground is cleansed, the soldiers are paid and they swear an oath of
loyalty. Scipio chooses to see the mutiny at Sucro not as a crime, but rather
as an instance of temporary insanity which shadows the exempla of Rhegium
and Messana in the minds of the soldiers. Madness as a disease (which
relieves the soldiers of guilt in their dereliction of duty), is the pretext for not
having a standard, Roman-style, mass execution. A visual spectacle, resembling a blood sacrifice, consequendy suffices as proper expiation.
It seems, therefore, that Livy's Scipio rhetorically treats his soldiers as
madmen because it allows him to be more lenient in punishment, a kind of
leniency reserved for fellow Romans. Two sets of standards are obviously at
work. On the one hand, his actions towards the thirty-five leaders weigh
21
22
Chaplin 2000:4.
Chaplin 2000:38.
'
~
.
so
ARANITA
heavily on his mind (tum se haud secus quam viscera secantem sua cum gemitu et
lacrimis triginta hominum capitibtts expiasse octo milium seu imprudentiam sett noxam,
'it was by no means unlike cutting out his own viscera, as with groans and
tears he had taken the lives of thirty men to expiate the imprudence or crime
of eight thousand', 28.32.4). This is, on the other hand, not at all the case
when it comes to destroying mutinous foreigners (nunc laeto et erecto animo ad
caedem Ilergetem ire, 'now with a happy and excited mentality he goes to
slaughter the Ilergetes', 28.32.5). Scipio has no qualms about killing many
insurgent foreigners such as the Ilergetes, ruled by Indibilis: non enim eos neque
natos in eadem terra nee ttl/a secum societate ittnctos esse; eam quae sola fuerit fidei atque
amicitiae ipsos per sce!tts rupisse ('for indeed neither were the Ilergetes born of
the same land as he, nor was there any fellowship which joined them; the
only links of faith or friendship they had were ruptured through their crime',
28.32.5-6) . There is no reason for Scipio to be lenient or to justify their crime
with the notion of madness or temporary insanity. He only needs to obliterate them. Scipio thinks of the Umbrian Atrius and Calenian Albius as
foreign contagion, as if they are on the same level as the Ilergetes, or
Mandonius and Indibilis - which renders Albius and Atrius more easily
punishable.
Conclusion
While Livy's account has precursors in descriptions of those involved in
Catiline's conspiracy, the parallels between Livy 28 and Tacitus suggest that
the link between madness and mutiny originated in Livy's justification of the
events at Sucro. Unlike Polybius's account, the incident in Livy is not
designed to serve as an exemplum. Livy clearly wishes to exonerate both the
soldiers' actions and their subsequent treatment by Scipio. The typical
crowd susceptibility to be observed among the Roman soldiers, he decides
to describe as a form of insanity as contagious, as a plague. This particular
type of madness, which erases the memory of the state, families and obligations to one's leader, is directly linked to the health of the state. Naturally, it
must have been induced and encouraged from outside the state: Livy
presents the events as entangled in foreign treacheries and subtly blames the
mutiny itself on foreign influences. Livy thus literalises tl1e metaphor
originally provided by Polybius and allows the mutiny at Sucro to develop in
a natural, bodily course of purgation and healing, brought about by the
presence and influence of Scipio. Consequently, the soldiers who succumb
to the mutiny are themselves as innocent and hapless as victims of a plague.
ARANITA
51
Its proper treatment 1s to get purged by means of spectacle, then be
forgotten.
Bibliography
Austin, R.G. 1971. Aeneidos Liber Primus. Oxford.
Chaplin, J.D. 2000. Liry's Exemplary History. Oxford.
Feldherr, A. 1998. Spectacle and Society in Liry's History. California.
Schneider, M. 2004. Cicero 'Haruspex': Political Prognostication and the Vzscera of a
Deceased Bocfy Politic. Piscataway, NJ.
Walsh, P.G. 1961. Liry: His Historical Aims and Methods. Cambridge.
Woodman, A.J. 2006. 'Mutiny and madness: Tacitus Annals 1.16-49.'
Arethusa 39.2:303-329.
MENS EXERCITUUM:
THE PATHOLOGY OF ROMAN SOLDIERS IN CONFLICT*
D.B. Saddington
University of the Witwatersrand
Royal warriors and ordinary generals have been celebrated throughout
history, especially by splendid statuary. But it was not until the 20th century
that state and civic honour came to be accorded to the common soldier on a
large scale. Such memorialising is exemplified by the Tomb of the Unknown
Warrior (significantly not called the Grave of an Unknown Soldier) in Westminster Abbey in London. More prosaic is a monument to 3719 men of the
Middlesex and Scottish Regiments who fell in the First World War, erected
by the former London and North Western Railway outside Euston Station.
Four figures stand round a plinth. Though armed, they are shown in their
greatcoats and their heads are bowed in grief.
A modest South African example may be cited, a memorial to the dead of
the South African Scottish and Transvaal Scottish Regiments sited on a hill
in Parktown, a suburb of Johannesburg. It shows a soldier in Scottish regalia.
Its history is of some interest. It was designed by a Scot who had emigrated
to South Africa and served in the regiment. Another member of the regiment wrote to a sculptor in Aberdeen, persuading him to carve the monument free in honour of the Scots in the regiment who had been killed in the
First World War. Scottish Rail was persuaded to transport the monument
free to Southampton. It is inscribed with a suitable inscription.
It is interesting to see how in these monuments, not only regimental pride
played its part, but also group factors, English, Afrikaans, 'Native' or
African, Scottish and Middlesex. 1
* I am grateful to those participants at the Colloquium who raised useful points in
the discussion and to the referees for their helpful coqunents.
There is a national memorial to South African dead of the First World War in
France, at Delville Wood. Designed by Sir Herbert Baker, it is a statue of Castor and
Pollux with a single steed between them which is meant to celebrate unity between
soldiers of Dutch and of English descent. An African contingent, the Native Labour
Corps, is not commemorated. They celebrated their dead by a separate monument,
at Arques-la-Bataille near Dieppe. It is interesting that the Scottish Horse Memorial
in Johannesburg, made of Scottish granite and in the form of a Celtic Cross for
those killed in the Anglo-Boer War in 1901-2 (a copy of that is erected on d1e
1
SADDINGTON
53
For the torment of war, one turns from monuments to poetry. In the
First World War Wilfred Owen wrote 'Mental Cases':
Who are these? ~'hy sit they here in twilight? ...
- These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished ...
Therefore still their eyeballs shrink tormented
Back into their brains ...
- Thus their hands are plucking at each other;
Picking at the rope-knouts of their scourging;
Snatching after us who smote them, brother,
Pawing us who dealt them war and madness.
Such themes do not often sound in Latin poetry, but one may note Propertius, in a poem celebrating Augustus's naval triumph at Actium, referring
darkly to 'the Actian sea tossing our bones around.' 2
Roman soldiers were often portrayed on their tombstones or on official
triumphant monuments. But problems of interpretation are notorious and, in
any case, the main motif shown is victory, or parade, or fighting correctness.
The pathology of the men3 can hardly be discovered in this milieu: rather
one has to turn to the historians and other authors.
An instructive story is preserved by Suetonius (Aug. 19). A person armed
with a hunting knife was intercepted outside Octavian's bedroom in a military camp. He came from the army in Illyricum, but was not a soldier, but a
lixa or camp-follower. At his trial it could not be established whether he was
compos mentis or not - he revealed nothing. At our remove it is even more
difficult to ascertain his mental state.
Many Romans believed that when soldiers became involved in civil war
or mutiny, they were seized by a sort of irrational fury. But there were those
who were prepared to act on the assumption that even rebellious soldiers
could respond to logical argument. In the Year of the Four Emperors, AD
Esplanade of Edinburgh Casde in Scodand) has four 'African' (Zulu) names
included in the list of the dead. The inscription reads: 'Pro Patria. In grateful
memory of the officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the South African
Scottish Regiment who fell in the Great War. Ye honoured mighty dead who nobly
perished in the glorious cause. 1914-1918.' For information on this monument I am
indebted to Mr. E. Itzkin of the Johannesburg Public Library and on that in Euston
to Mr. A.R. Braithwaite of London.
2 Prop. 2.15.44; cf. also 1.21, a moving and disturbing address by a dying soldier to a
wounded fellow-soldier.
soldiers' morale cf. Goldsworthy 1996:171-228; 248-82.
54
SADDINGTON
69, when the legions supporting Vespasian's attempt to become emperor
closed in on Rome, Vitellius summoned the Senate which sent a delegation
to negotiate with them. It urged reconciliation and peace, concordia and pax.
But the miles, the soldiers as a collective, rejected this, wounding the head of
the embassy, the praetor Arulenus Rusticus (PIR2 I 730) and killing hls senior
lictor or bodyguard. Tacitus (Hist. 3.80) goes on to remark wryly that unless
the Flavians had provided Rusticus with a guard, he would have been killed:
outside the very walls of Rome itself; ciuilis rabies would have broken the law
of the inviolability of ambassadors, respected even by foreign peoples. The
delegation sent to the force under Antonius Primus (PIR2 A 866), however,
met more disciplined troops. Musonius Rufus (PIR2 M 753), a man of
equestrian status who had been prominent in opposition circles under Nero,
had got himself included in it. Many equestrians had held at least a military
tribunate, if not other officer positions, but it is not known whether Rufus
did. He was a distinguished writer on Stoicism. He mingled with the ordinary
soldiers, the manipuli (Tac. Hist. 3.81) and discoursed on the values of peace.
He may have realised that effective decision-making had descended from the
commander to the ranks, but was obviously of the opinion that the men
were amenable to logical argument. However, his Stoicism proved completely inapposite in an army camp.
Fighting soon broke out between the Vitellians and the Flavians, even
spilling over into the streets of Rome. 4 There, Tacitus says, the Roman
citizen body behaved as if it were at a gladiatorial show. The citizens actually
pointed out victims to the soldiers so that they could rob the corpses.s
4
Arnold 1911:117-18 says that the incident 'speaks much for [his] courage and the
respect in which the profession' (of philosophy) 'was held.' Charlesworth 1936:3335, however, feels little sympathy for Musonius's actiqn. He calls his address 'unseasonable preaching' and commented that 'such was the fate of those who interfere
uninvited in others' quarrels.' In an article on Musonius Rufus, Lutz 1947:3-31 at 15
refers to the incident but withholds actual comment. To Morgan 2006:250 he was a
'busybody'. But rather than trying to find the correct moral term to describe his
behaviour, it probably would be best to view it in the context of the 'house
philosopher' in the homes of Roman nobles. Musonius was probably associated with
Arulenus Rusticus, a noted Stoic, as he had been with Rubellius Plautus (PIR2 R 115)
before his execution by Nero. Was Musonius trying to put his philosophy to
practical use for a patron?
5 Tac. Hist. 3.83. Seneca's account (Ep. 7. 2-5) of how the spectators themselves at
gladiatorial shows demanded more and more brutal deaths may be compared.
'"
SADDINGTON
55
Tacitus was intensely interested in military behaviour. At one point, as
Michael Grant put it in his 1956 translation of the Annals, he refers to
'students of military psychology'. In 2004, AJ. Woodman rendered the
phrase 'anyone making a deeper diagnosis of the soldiers' spirits', but in the
19th century the more prosaic Church and Brodribb had 'those who could
guess the temper of the soldiers with some penetration.' Tacitus's actual
words were militares animos altius coniectantibus.6 He seems to have been referring to those who could fathom the military mind with greater penetration
than others.
Tacitus used the expression mens exercituum (Hist. 1.4) to cover one of the
three critical factors in the crisis of the Year of the Four Emperors, the
others being the situation in the capital and the attitude of the provinces.
Urban administration and affairs in the provinces were the traditional chief
concerns of Roman politics: Tacitus here gives the armies there was no
unitary Roman army - equal weight.
To place this in context it will be of advantage to consider first what was
regarded as the proper condition of a Roman army.
The army in its ideal state
A Roman army was ideally considered to have been a well-trained and
superbly disciplined force led by a sagacious general which might lose an
occasional battle, but never the war. A very detailed description was given by
the Jewish historian Josephus who had been unsuccessful as the leader of
newly recruited fighters in Galilee and who had spent some years as a cooperative captive in the Roman camp. In essence, the Roman soldier was
subject to constant training and was indoctrinated to unquestioning obedience (Jos. BJ 3.70-75). Intense competition was encouraged between regiments and within smaller units in them.?
6
Tac. Ann. 1.32.3. On this passage, see O'Gorman 2000:34-36.
Jos. BJ 5.502. Cf. Nonius Datus, a retired surveyor (ueteranus ... librator'J of the III
Augusta in Africa sent to a town in Mauretania Caesariensis to deal with problems in
the construction of a tunnel through a nearby mountain (II.S 5795). He divided the
soldiers assigned to the operation, classici milites and gaesati, i.e., men from a fleet and
auxiliaries, into separate work parties to compete against each other (certamen operis).
The monument erected to commemorate this in the legions' headquarters at Lambaesis did not omit the ideological element. It was crowned by busts of Patientia,
Virtus and Spes: the first two were the essential components of military Disciplina.
7
56
SADDINGTON
But, in spite of Josephus's encomium, even in Judaea under his idealised
commander Titus, the troops failed to meet the required standards. At one
stage in the war, for example, Metilius (PME M 51), the commander of the
Roman garrison in Jerusalem, hard-pressed by the rebels, had his men offer
their arms and their possessions in return for their lives. Yet they were
slaughtered. Metilius himself begged for mercy, agreeing to Judaise and even
to be circumcised, but in vain. Josephus wryly remarks that the massacre was
done on the Sabbath, a day on which not even good deeds were supposed to
be done (B] 2.449-56). When the Roman forces had finally broken through
the walls of the city and were facing the Temple, Josephus says Titus, after a
full debate in a plenaty council with his commanding officers, promised to
spare it (B] 6.236-43) .
But, in spite of this, a soldier seized a lighted brand of wood, climbed
onto the back of another and flung it into the Temple. Josephus says he
acted without waiting for orders. 8 His account of the behaviour of the
soldiers in tlus episode is instructive. The soldiers were in a 'warlike frenzy'
(apELflclVLOL, 6.46) and so hardly amenable to discipline, like 'berserk'
Germanic warriors. The legions were over-excited (rrToT]8EvTa) and not
keeping their ranks (6.255- although one must recall that they were fighting
witllin the confines of city streets and not on a classic battlefield). Titus
could not enforce his order to extinguish the flames engulfing the Temple
either by encouragement or by threat (6.257) : in fact, Josephus says the
soldiers even pretended not to hear his commands (6.258). They were
'possessed' (E:v8oucnwvTES"), held back neither by respect for tl1eir commander (to whom Josephus gives the emotive title of 'Caesar' at tllis stage) nor
by fear of punishment (Titus had even sent Liberalius [PIR2 L 164], a
centurion of his bodyguard, to belabour them with a cudgel, 6.262) . In spite
of the emphasis on disciplina Roman troops were not easy to control even in
foreign wars.
In fact, disciplina (RE V:1176-83) had to be regularly reinforced in the
army.9 It covered two different aspects of the soldier's life, morale and
military expertise. A soldier was expected to display ttirtus or physical and
mental courage, patientia, endurance and the acceptance of difficult conditions and labor, readiness to engage in hard physical labour in camp-
BJ 6.252; cf. 250. Josephus also explains the deed in terms of his own theology.
God was allowing the destruction of the Temple as a punishment for the Jews'
impiety.
9 On the place of discipline in military training, see Horsmann 1991:187-97. For the
relation of discipline to behaviour on the field of battle, see Lendon 2006:212-32.
8 Jos.
r.·'
SADDINGTON
57
construction, road-building and similar work. There was continuous
weapons practice, drilling, marching and engaging in mock battles. And
punishment was savage.
Roman commanders felt a constant need to reinforce disciplina militaris. It
is not suprising that, after the Civil Wars of the late Republic, Augustus
himself felt it necessary to write a work called Disciplina (Dig. 49.16, 12, 1).
Pliny praised Trajan for restoring it after its alleged decline under Domitian
(Pan. 18) and Hadrian placed especial emphasis on it. He even instituted a
religious cult of Disciplina Augusti. Of course, disciplina often produced the
desired result, as soldiers' proud tombstones attest. That of a legionary
promoted to duplicarius and decurion in an auxiliary regiment may be
quoted (AE 1969/1970:583). He had been decorated by Domitian and then
(twice) by Trajan in the Dacian Wars. He had succeeded in cornering
Decebalus, the Dacian king, cutting off his head and conveying it to Trajan:
the scene is displayed on his tombstone.
But it is time to tum to the unprofessional behaviour of the armies
covered by Tacitus's phrase mens exercituum.
From Sulla to Caesar
Sallust gives a description of an undisciplined army in Africa at the end of
the 2nd century BC. (lug. 44). Contrary to military custom (mos militaris) the
soldiers did not keep watch. They wandered from their standards. The camp
followers (Jixae) were allowed into the camp, day and night. The soldiers
plundered farmlands and farmsteads alike, selling both cattle and slaves for
imported wine.
But it was the importation of a political element into the soldiers'
behaviour that gave the real cause for concern. 10 Plutarch firmly ascribed the
decline in military morale at the end of the Republic to Sulla. 11 In general, it
was basically the generals who had allowed indiscipline to spread. Many of
them had risen to prominence by violence rather than thtough merit. They
spent money lavishly to make the soldiers' life easy. They had turned themselves into the slaves of the worst elements in society. Sulla's special contribution was actually to politicise the soldiers. By persuading them to right his
personal wrongs, and this by violence, he had actualised the latent political
10
On this aspect of the late Republican armies, see Botermann 1968 and Keaveney
2007.
11 Plut. Sull 12.7. Cf. Sail. Cat. 11.5-7 on Sulla allowing his soldiers to live luxuriously
contra Htorem maiorum and to be corrupted by excessive booty.
58
SADDINGTON
power of the men. It is interesting, however, that his officers deserted him
on his march on Rome (App. BCiv. 1.57).
During his ten-year governorship in Gaul, Caesar had forged a close
relationship with the legionaries under his command. However, when, like
Sulla, he decided to use them for his personal political purposes, he proceeded with caution. When he decided to cross the Rubicon, which divided his
province from Italy, he initially approached only one of his legions and did it
in the formal context of a contio (Caes. BCiv. 1.7 - for the contio cf. RE
IV:1149-53 at 1153). This was the standard context in which generals
explained their strategy and their decisions to gain the men's support: one
must recall that the legionaries were Roman citizens who, when in Rome,
could vote in the political assemblies there. Caesar was successful: the
soldiers enthusiastically agreed to right his wrongs and those of the tribunes
of the plebs who had fled to him from Rome (the soldiers were of course
themselves plebeians).
Caesar doubled the soldiers' pay and often gave them special rewards
(Suet. IuL 26, 38; App. BCiv. 2.102). But he faced two serious mutinies, one
at Placentia (Piacenza) in 49 BC and another outside Rome itself in 47.12
Though the men in the first case were in an uproar (tumuftuantes according to
Suet. IuL 69) and in the second were threatening violence in Rome itself,
Caesar approached them boldly, attempting to apply traditional discipline.
He threatened them with decimation, the killing of every tenth man in a unit
by his fellow-soldiers (RE N:2272), and with dishonourable discharge. But
in the end, only the ringleaders were executed. When he had faced military
unrest after the battle of Pharsalus in 48, he sent an envoy to the men as his
spokesman, a full senator, probably then a praetor, Sallust (RE IA:1913-55,
at 1919 [10]), who barely escaped with his life.
Even the great Caesar, beloved of his men, could not enforce traditional
discipline. In fact, one hardly ever finds Roman generals prepared to use the
traditional punishments during mutinies.
The Second Triumvirate
Velleius Paterculus, an historian who had spent much of his life in the army,
characterised the period after the assassination of Caesar as one of armed
madness (armorttm furor, 2.89). The soldiers were not only infuriated by their
12 For mutlnles in the Roman army, see Messer 1920; for the mutiny in 47,
Chrissanthos 2001.
I,.- •,
. ··
SADDINGTON
59
champion's death, but were anxious about the security of their discharge
benefits. Their anger and fear were masterfully exploited by Octavian,
Caesar's heir and adopted son. His use of bribery was lavish. In 43 he
marched on Rome at the head of eight legions, demanding the consulship,
which he duly received, though only 19 years old. He soon came into dispute
with M. Antony about the leadership of the Caesarians. Neither could oust
the other. This was due to the political will of the troops.
Their modus operandi is instructive. They massed together in Rome as if
going to negotiate with the Senate and the people. They then assembled on
the Capitol (one of the most prestigious meeting places of the Senate). They
had forced Octavian and Antony to make a compact. This they now had
formally read out. They then appointed themselves as otKacrTat (iudices or
arbiters) of any further disputes between their leaders. They then committed
their decision to writing and entrusted it to the Vestal Virgins for safekeeping. Some scoffed at this ~ovA.iJ KaA.t ydTa, 'this senate in soldiers' boots'
(Dio 48.12; senators wore a distinctive shoe of their own). But what is
significant is that mutinous soldiers and discontented veterans adopted the
procedures of the Roman state. It was part of the military mentality that,
when acting responsibly, soldiers adopted correct procedures.
The soldiers were not completely cut off from political events in Rome,
even in the principate: Tacitus reports that, under Nero, the exercitus read the
urban acta diuma carefully to follow the actions of Thrasea Paetus (PIR2 C
1187), a prominent anti-Neronian senator (Ann. 16.22).
Octavian, however, like Caesar, also had to face mutinies. After his
victory in 36 over Sextus Pompeius at Naulochus he tried to apply the
traditional disciplina militaris to his rebellious troops. He immediately found
that he had to back down. He tried offering them honours: in particular,
centurions would be city councillors in their home towns and the military
tribunes given special decorations '(Dio 49.14). However, one of them,
Ofillius (RE XVII:2039 [2]) by name, with the enthusiastic support of the
soldiers, shouted out that such things were children's toys: what soldiers
needed were land and money. The troops were only cowed into submission
the next morning when it was found that he had unaccountably disappeared
(App. BCiv. 5.128).
60
SADDINGTON
Augustus and the mutinies at his death13
The legions fighting in Spain mutinied in 19 BC. Two reasons given for their
action are of interest: they feared the Spaniards as particularly tough opponents; and they were also worn out by continuous fighting (Dio 54.11).
Battle fatigue is a new component in explanations of military behaviour.
In spite of all the attention Augustus gave to the soldiers, how fragile the
situation really was is shown by the mutinies that broke out on his death. A
major concern of the troops was whether their current privileges would
remain in force, while they also hoped that their terms of service would be
improved. Apart from the opportunity offered by the change of regime,
there were three special factors to note. After the Pannonian Revolt of AD 6
and the Varian Disaster in Germany in 9, Augustus had been forced to turn
to the unemployed poor in Rome itself, and even to freedmen, to fill the
large gaps in the army. Given the right circumstances they might employ
urban tactics in evincing discontent in the army. Secondly, there was a
prospect of civil war (recreating the conditions of the Second Triumvirate)
should Germanicus dispute the principate with Tiberius. Thirdly, all official
duties and fatigues had been suspended in the camps for the iustitium or
cessation of public business proclaimed for the mourning of Augustus.14 The
troops had time for reflection and discussion and saw their strength. Those
in the three legions in Pannonia tried to unite into a single force, but internal
discord prevented more than the (illegal) collation of their eagles and
standards, the erection of a tribunal (a technical term for the platform from
which a general formally addressed his troops- cf. RE VIA:2430-32 [2]; Tac.
Ann. 1.18). As noted above, Tacitus said that military experts would take
troop solidarity very seriously: that of the German legions was absolute.IS
In Pannonia the spark was provided by a recent urban recruit, Percennius
(PIR2 P 230), a former claqueur in the theatre in Rome. Tacitus dispairingly
says he spoke uelut contionabundus, 'as if in a contio',, But in fact, the soldiers had
13
For the army of the principate, see Keppie 1984:145-98; for conditions of service,
see Watson 1969, esp. 75-126; 147-54. For the army in Tacitus, see Saddington
1991:3484-555.
14 Tac. Ann. 1.16.2. In Germany, trouble broke out in Legions I and XX in Ubian
territory (around Cologne) when they were allowed oti11m aut lmia mtmia (31.3).
IS Tac. Ann. 1.32.3.
• •· I!"
I
SADDINGTON
61
genuine grievances and they were acting formally: as noted above, when a
general harangued his men a formal contio was in progress. 16
In spite of Tacitus's disdain for him it should be stressed that Percennius
voiced genuine grievances, especially delayed discharges from the army,
unsuitable land for settlement and poor pay. And he advanced the perfectly
reasonable request that militia, 'military service', should be governed by fixed
laws, certis sub legibus (Tac. Ann. 1.17).
The men were in a state of furor and seem to have regarded it as a sign of
strength that their commander, Junius Blaesus (PJR2 I 738), chose his own
son (PJRZ I 739), then a military tribune under him, to take their demands to
Tiberius in Rome. 1? But while he was on his way, trouble broke out again.
This time they chose as their representative a man who had risen from the
ranks, a centurion Julius Clemens (PJRZ I 270), singled out because of his
intelligence (Tac. Ann. 1.23): it should not be forgotten that many centurions
were men of high competence.
Legati were also used internally: the Lower German army chose its
'ambassadors' to send to the Upper German army (fac. Ann. 1.36). Tacitus
relates a rather bizarre incident of a soldier, Vibulenus (PIR1 V 420), in
Pannonia, who created a fictitious brother whom he claimed Blaesus had had
murdered: he said he had come from the German army de communibus
commodis, 'for mutual benefit' (Ann. 1.22).
In fact, the soldiers were aware of their broad political importance: sua in
manu sitam rem Romanam was a claim they made (Tac. Ann. 1.31 ).
What horrified Tacitus most was the mutineers' attacks on the representatives the Senate sent to them. The distinguished consular Cn. Lentulus
(1.27), surely Cornelius Lentulus the Augur (PIR2 C 1379), was stoned. In
Germany Munatius Plancus (PIR2 M 729) was reduced to embracing the
legionary standards and eagle to be protected by their religio (1.39): in fact he
was only just saved from death by the eagle-bearer, Calpurnius (PIR2 C 241).
16
Tac. Ann. 1.16.3-17. For Caesar addressing his men in a contio, see above, p. 58.
For the German legionaries holding a contio cf. Tac. Ann. 1.34.3. When punishment
was meted out to the mutineers there, it was done by legionaries with drawn swords
pro contione (44.2), which seems to mean that, although mob justice was being administered, the soldiers regarded themselves as acting in a duly-constituted assembly.
17 Tac. Ann. 1.18.2. For the German troops cf. 31.3; 35.5. When they attacked their
centurions, Tacitus (Ann. 32.1) called them !Jmphati or 'frenzied', by a metaphor
similar to that in 'moonstruck'. Later, when attempting to kill the ambassador from
the Senate, they were filled with 'rabies', 'madness' (31.3). For Blaesus, see Saddington 1991:3500 n. 56.
62
SADDINGTON
Tacitus remarked that such an incident, 'the blood of an ambassador of the
Roman people staining the altars of the gods in a Roman camp', would have
been rare even among the enemy. He made Germanicus stigmatise this as
'madness',jatalis ... rabies.
Tacitus also brings out the religious dimension in the soldiers' thinking.
This of course is a difficult aspect to analyse. To take a simple example, at
Bremetennacum (Ribchester) in England there is an altar by the Coh. N
Gallorum for the Nttmina Augustorum, the Religious Powers of the Emperors
(RIB 1227). The gods of the army, Mars and Victoria, are portrayed in niches
on the altar sides. The religious context seems official: gods of war and the
imperial cult. But beneath Mars a goose is portrayed and beneath Victoria a
crane. There is also a tricephalus on the stone. It is clear that there was an
important Celtic substratum on what seems a purely Roman altar. Religious
factors rarely operate at the surface level alone.
What occurred in the Pannonian Mutiny was an eclipse of the moon. Not
only did the soldiers interpret this as a sign of divine displeasure for their
actions, but they instituted ceremonies to make the moon wax again. Tacitus,
who knew the scientific explanation for an eclipse, dismissed the soldiers'
reaction as superstitio, credulity or irrational religion (fac. Ann. 1.28). The
soldiers also interpreted the particularly unseasonable winter weather which
occurred at the time as a sign of divine anger (1.30). The authorities were
quick to capitalise on this. In fact, army commanders were skilled at manipulating religious events to their advantage. For example, when Hadrian
visited the headquarters of the Legio III Augusta at Lambaesis in Africa, it
suddenly rained after five years of drought (SHA Hadr. 22.14). The legion
under the legate then erected altars suited to the occasion, one to Jupiter
Optimus Maximus, Powerful over Divine Rainstorms (ILS 3061), and
another to the Winds that Hold Sway over Good Storms (ILS 3935).
Finally, Tacitus noticed the role of normal human emotions. After the
attack on Munatius Plancus, Germanicus decided to send his wife Agrippina,
who was with him and who was pregnant, and their young son, whom the
soldiers had nicknamed Caligula from his wearing their type of boot, to Trier
for safety. The soldiers were horrified: Tacitus explains their mood-swing in
detail (Ann. 1.40-41). How could their general's wife (the granddaughter of
Augustus) not have a proper military escort? They were especially shocked
SADDINGTON
63
that the muliebre et miserabile agmen (an agmen was normally a battle line of
soldiers) was going to the Trevirans, a people externae fldei.tB
The complexity of Roman military thinking, from skilful calculation to
terrified emotionalism, is fully apparent in Tacitus's account of the two
mutinies. A non-literary source may be compared.
An incident under Nero
In 63, all the branches of the army and the fleet in Egypt expressed dissatisfaction. The governor of Egypt, Caecina Tuscus (PJR2 C 109), decided to
institute a formal hearing. This took place on his tribunal: he was flanked by
senior civil financial officials of the province and five military tribunes. The
soldiers had engaged in an acrEj3Es Tapayf!a (C. 5), a riot that offended the
gods: as always, the divine aspect is present. They had become apyol. (C. 22)
or 'idle' - not observing the labor inherent in disciplina: the iustitium on the
death of Augustus mentioned above may be compared. The governor gained
control of the situation by insisting that correct Roman procedure be
followed. In particular, the troops had to present their demands in writing.
And it is interesting that they made their own record of the proceedings.
Tuscus was able to reassert the status differentials between the different
service arms: legionaries, auxiliary cavalrymen, infantrymen and fleet
personnel could not expect the same treatment. 19 This incident illustrates
how readily aggrieved soldiers were prepared to take action and how careful
commanders were to observe due procedure.
Auxiliaries
Auxiliaries were referred to in the mutiny on the Rhine. The authorities
contemplated using the regular auxiliaries and allied contingents against the
legionaries, but feared that civil war might result (Tac. Ann. 1.36). When
Germanicus rescued Munatius Plancus, he assigned him a guard of auxiliary
cavalry (1.39). In the end he was prepared to send auxiliaries against the
legions (1.45). The sending of Agrippina to Trier had particularly disturbed
the soldiers: they felt inuidia against the Trevirans (1.41): Tacitus does not say
so, but the party of Agrippina would have been protected by Treviran
18
The Trevirans were neither extemi nor foreigners at this date: in fact, their capital
may have already become the colony of Augusta Treverorum; c£ RE VIA:2301-53 at
2307; 2321.
19 PFouadi 21; PYale 1528
FlRA III 171 a+b.
=
64
SADDINGTON
auxiliaries, a standing element in the Roman army. But the legionaries
preferred to regard them as 'foreigners', ex terni.
Although the sources pay little attention to the auxiliaries, it is clear that
they had a mind of their own. In 26, Thracian auxiliaries explained their
rebellion on the grounds that, whereas previously they had chosen their own
commanders and had been employed only against neighbouring tribes, they
were now being sent abroad far from home (Tac. Ann. 4.46).
In 44, at the funeral of Agrippa I in Judaea, the troops (an ala and five
cohorts of Sebastenians [i.e. Samaritans]) behaved with extreme
insubordination. Claudius decided to transfer them to Pontus (the Black
Sea). But they actually dared to petition him to be allowed to stay in Judaea,
and he agreed Oos. A] 19.365).
Considerable detail on auxiliaries survives in Tacitus's account of the
Year of the Four Emperors. Some incidents may be noted. When the legions
at Mainz entered into a secret foedus or treaty to rebel against their commander, the governor of Upper Germany, Hordeonius Flaccus (PIR2 H 202),
they drew in the auxiliaries. They did this because they feared the governor
might use the auxiliaries against them. The auxiliaries ended up keener on the
mutiny than the legionaries: as Tacitus remarked, when soldiers are mali or
evil, it is easier to get consent for war than peace (Hist. 1.54).
Even before the actual Batavian Revolt, which broke out towards the end
of the year, eight Batavian cohorts left the legion, XIV Gemina, to which
they were attached without authority. They had proved disruptive in the
camp: they actually approached legionaries in their tents saying that they had
cowed the XIVth, that it was they who had wrested Italy from Nero and that
the outcome of the (civil) war was in their hands. At one stage the situation
had almost sunk to the level of open warfare. The legionary commander,
Fabius Valens (PIR2 F 68), punished some and adjured the rest as obliti
imperzi, 'forgetting that they were under orders.' 20 When, just before the actual
revolt, Vitellius ordered the Batavians to march to Rome, they broke out in
superbia ferociaque, 'savage insolence'. But they made specific demands (as the
mutinous legionaries on the Rhine had done in 14): a donative, a doubling of
their pay and an increase in the number of cavalrymen (horsemen were paid
more than infantrymen). The governor on the spot, Hordeonius Flaccus,
consulted his military tribunes and centurions. They realised that the loyalty
20
Tac. H ist. 1.59.1; 64.2; 2.27.2. In Britain there was another instance of independent
action by auxiliaries. Trebellius Maximus (PIR1 T 239), unpopular with the legions,
turned to them for support. But they deserted him for the legions' champion,
Roscius Coelius (PIR2 R 94; Tac. Hist. 1.60).
SADDINGTON
65
of the auxiliaries was doubtful, ambiguus auxi/iomm animus (they had in fact
already decided to rebel; Tac. Hist. 4.19). Like legionaries, the Batavians at
one point also alleged war fatigue: they were tonga atque inrita militia ftssi
(4.20).
Even an individual within the system might be prepared to take a
grievance to the authorities. Under Antoninus Pius an infantryman in a
cohort petitioned the governor of Egypt, Valerius Eudaemon (RE VIlA:
2496 [149]), in 142 for citizenship for his son. But the son had been born
while he was still on active service and was accordingly illegitimate in Roman
law, as were his other children. The governor (himself Egyptian by origin)
said it made no difference even if the children had been born to someone
serving in a higher category of regiment 'whether in a legion or an ala or a
cohort.' The soldier even dared to ask the governor to sign his petition so
that if he was transferred to a different province, he could get his rights (Ta
o(Kma). 'What wrong have the children committed?' he called out
indignantly. The governor said he had been kind enough to explain in detail
what he could have settled in a single word, and dismissed the case.z1
It is clear that in spite of the hierarchy of the Roman army, the auxiliaries
regarded themselves as equivalent in value to the legionaries.
The Year of the Four Emperors22
As noted above, an investigation of the mens exercituum is a major theme of
Tacitus's Histories. There are many striking vignettes, such as his account of
the deterioration of the army in Germany which Vitellius brought to Rome.
It was preceded by the eagles of the four legions which formed its core, the
standards of the detachments of the other legions joined to them, then those
of the twelve alae of auxiliary cavalry. The twenty-four auxiliary cohorts were
distinguished by tribal name or weapon speciality. But in no time the army
was corrupted by the pleasures of the city and intrigues to be promoted into
the Praetorian Guard. When sent to the front shortly thereafter, the force
presented a completely demoralised appearance. Even mutiny threatened
(hebes ad sustinendum laborem mile ... .ad discordias promptior, Tac. Hist. 2.89, 93,
99).
But the main feature of military behaviour analysed in the Histories is the
political dimension. Tacitus discussed first the attitude of the 'soldiers in the
21
22
PCattaui V FIRA 2 III 19.
For the Year of the Four Emperors, see Wellesley 1975; Ash 1999.
66
SADDINGTON
city', presumably especially the Praetorian Guard (1.5). He stated that their
desertion of Nero arose not from a habit of disloyalty, but as a result of
trickery and impulsiveness. However, when they felt that the legions in the
provinces were being preferred to them, they were ready for revolution.
They were prepared to criticise the character of the emperor and his
approach to disciplina.
The mood of the legions in Lower Germany was especially ominous
(1.8). They were anxious and resentful, because they had not backed the new
emperor. Those in Upper Germany despised their commander (1.9). Their
mood turned ugly: they became furentes. Further, they were conscious of their
strength. They had just been involved in warfare. By contrast the legions in
Britain were acting with propriety: they reserved their hatred for the enemy
(1.9).
At the opposite end of the scale Tacitus was aware of the effect of
personal and family loyalty on the soldiers' behaviour. Julius Gratus (PIR2 I
348), a prefect of the camp in the Vitellian forces, was put in chains because
his brother, Julius Pronto (PIR2 I 325), was a tribune of the Vigiles under
Otho (he was also bound - Tac. H ist. 2.26). In a pathetic incident which
Tacitus reports, a son happened to kill his father (Hist. 3.25). Tacitus did not
just mention this, or add a moralising comment. He went to his sources to
unearth the father's name, Julius Mansuetus, (PIR2 I 400) and legion (the
XXI Rapax). He states that he had been recruited in Spain, leaving a young
son behind, who had then been recruited by Galba into a new formation, the
VIIth. The son only recognised his father in the moment of death but, as in
duty bound, duly buried him. All the soldiers in the area duly cursed the war
but, as Tacitus remarks, soon returned to the fighting, killing and despoiling
their relatives.
But war might even distort family relationships. Again referring to his
sources, Tacitus mentioned a cavalryman who happened to kill his brother.
Instead of showing remorse, he actually sought a reward from his commanders. Natural law forbade them giving a decoration for the deed, but 'the
rules of war', ratio belli, did not allow them to punish him either. Tacitus
shows his interest in the moral issues raised by then referring to a similar
incident which had occurred in the late Republic when, however, the
surviving brother committed suicide (Hist. 3.51).
I
.
S.ADDINGTON
67
Conclusion
The Romans were alert to the psychology of the military. They recognised
irrational behaviour among the soldiers. They were aware that prolonged
military service took its toll on the men. They also felt that irrational
behaviour in the army needed explanation. Tacitus seems to have sought
answers in historical precedents, but others turned elsewhere. For example,
in his life of Galba (1.3-5.) Plutarch turned to philosophy. He referred to
Plato who had stated that soldiers were governed by irrational impulses.
These could be harnessed to good use by correct training. Plutarch also
turned to literature: he compared the behaviour of mutinous soldiers to that
of the blinded Cyclops in the Ocfyssry.
In recruiting, the Romans did not look for physical attributes only. As
Vegetius (1.7) said, what was the use of training a coward? One should use
physiognomy (an important science in antiquity), carefully scrutinising the
recruit's face and eyes for signs of the character you wanted (1.6). As Seneca
said, those selected for the labor and periculum of the camp had to be chosen
'with care',jastidiose (Ep. 44.2). The Romans are also said to have kept official
records of the behaviour of soldiers on duty (App. BCiv. 3.43). They feared
that soldiers stationed among prosperous civilians were liable to be
corrupted. They were alert to the temptation the troops suffered from the
lure of booty and wealth. But soldiers could also be affected by anger and
anxiety. And although virtually separated from civilian society for almost half
their lives, they were very sensitive about family issues. Religion and the
inexplicable loomed large in their thinking. Although they would happily
engage in civil war with unspeakable brutality, they realised all its horrors.
When they sensed an opportunity to serve their own interests. they
readily resorted to all the techniques of mob violence. They easily became
filled with unreasoning furor or even blind rage one should not forget that
there was a tradition of the berserk warrior even in parts of the Roman army.
But strangely, they could be cowed comparatively easily. Most interestingly,
when not on the actual rampage, they would adopt the techniques of Roman
civic or political assemblies. Poorer plebeians by origin, they typically
preferred negotiations on their behalf to be conducted by persons of higher
status or greater education. Their discussions in their self-appointed assemblies were properly regulated. One might have suspected that this could have
spilled over into civic life at large. But such situations occurred only infrequently and were against the ethos of the unquestioning submissiveness
inculcated into the army by its disciplina militaris.
68
SADDINGTON
Bibliography
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Ash, R. 1999. Ordering Anarcf?y: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus' Histories. London.
Botermann, H. 1968. Die S oldaten und die romische Politik in der Zeit von Caesars
Tod bis iflr Begriindung des Z1veiten Triumvirats. Munich.
Chrissanthos, S.G. 2001. 'Caesar and the mutiny of 47 BC.' ]RS 91:63-75.
Charlesworth, M.P. 1936. Five Men. Character Studies .from the Roman Empire.
Cambridge.
Goldsworthy, A.K. 1996. The Roman Army at War 100 BC-AD 200. Oxford.
Horsmann, G. 1991. Untersuchungen zur militarischen Ausbildung im republikanischen und kaizerzeitlichen Rom. Boppard am Rhein.
Keaveney, A. 2007. TheArnry in the Roman Revolution. London.
Keppie, L. 1984. The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire.
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Lendon, J.E. 2006. Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity.
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Lutz, C.E. 1947. 'Musonius Rufus, the Roman Socrates.' YCIS 10:3-31.
Messer, W.S. 1920. 'Mutiny in the Roman army. The Republic.' CPh 15:158175.
Morgan, G. 2006. 69 AD: The Year of the Four Emperors. New York.
O'Gorman, E. 2000. Iro'!Y and Misreading in the Annals ofTacitus. Cambridge.
Saddington, D.B. 1991. 'Tacitus and the Roman Army.' ANRW2.33.5:34843555.
Watson, G.R. 1969. The Roman Soldier. London.
Wellesley, K 1975 (repr. 2000). The Long Year AD 69. 3rd edition. London.
.: :
.,_
~
•• •.,
•
'
~.
'
I
DEVOTION, DELUSION AND EPIC PARODY:
l\1ASKS OF MADNESS IN CATULLUS 63
Wakefield Foster t
University of Missouri-Columbia
Visiting scholar, Unisa
Catullus 63, the Attis poem, examines madness from two very different
viewpoints: from that of myth, 1 where chronological distance and artistic
representation render Attis's behaviour palatable in the guise of religious
devotion, and from that of contemporary Greco-Roman reality, from which
perspective his insane actions must have threatened even the most psychologically durable Roman males. Carmen 63's power derives in large part from
its juxtaposition of myth and reality, religious zeal and insanity. Features of
traditional epic serve to highlight the strong contrast between a potentially
heroic figure of epic and the epicene Attis of myth and religious cult.
Initially, Catullus's Attis, presumably the religious fanatic of eastern legend,
castrates himself as an offering to the goddess Cybele. However, midway
through the poem, he suddenly reveals himself as a Greek youth (58-60 and
64), a boy who inexplicably has left home and homeland for the wilderness
of Phrygian Asia Minor, willingly exchanging a comfortable upper-class
lifestyle for a physical and psychological nightmare.2 This revelation casts a
terrifying light on the predicament of the mythic Attis, the Attises of Roman
cult, and perhaps of any Greek or, by implication, Roman youth on the
threshold of adulthood. Catullus restructures, adds and omits elements from
the mythic tradition to create a poem of extraordinary vitality and energy.
This paper discusses how the poet incorporates features of traditional
Homeric-style epic in order to parody the Attis of myth, juxtaposing the epic
caricature with a realistic image of any Greek or Roman youth.
The poem's opening lines suggest a straight forward retelling of the Attis
legend:
1
For a succinct historical survey of modern studies of the poem, see Lancellotti
2002:9-15; also Burkert 1979:99-111, who effectively discredits Frazer's interpretation of the myth by integrating into his study fresh evidence derived from the
cultures of Asia Minor, and Bremmer 2004 for a succinct and recent reassessment of
the entire subject; on the Roman context for this poem, see Nauta 2004.
2 The fact that he is not from Phrygia itself is, of course, implied in the first line of
the poem super alta vecttts: he has arrived from somewhere else over the sea.
~;·
'
..
...: ·.
... _,._.
_')
.. ;.'.
~-- ~
••
4
70
FOSTER
Super alta vectus Attis celeri rate mmia
Phrygium ut nemus citato cupide pede tetigit ...
When Attis, carried over the high seas in a speedy craft,
eagerly touched Phrygian grove with quick step .. ?
But neoteric experimentation soon comes into play, not only in Catullus's
use of the rare galliambic meter (associated with the cult of Cybele and
sometimes described as antithetical to the hexameter), 4 but also in his
exploitation of epic techniques in a poem about a eunuch. It has been much
observed and discussed how Catullus frequently throughout his collection
belittles epic poetry, its ideals, and old-fashioned poets - such as Suffenus,
Volusius, and others - who persist in 'manufacturing' long, tedious, and
distinctly mediocre epic narratives.s In Carm. 36, for example, Catullus
attacks with viciously humorous invective the dull, malodorous logorrhea
(cacata charta, 'shitty pages') of Volusius's Annales by parodying the lofty style
of historical epic in a lengthy mock-solemn invocation of Venus.6 For the
'back-alley fornicators' (semitarii moechz) in Carm. 37.16, who have queued up
for Lesbia's sexual favours at the local tavern, Catullus writes in language
both epic and tragic that Lesbia is the girl 'for whom great wars were fought
by me' (pro qua mihi sunt magna bella pugnata, 37.13).
In an intimate tableau setting, Catullus begins this bipartite7 poem within
a high epic framework - Day 1 - but sheds its confines - Day 2 - to focus
on Attis's remorse, agony, and ineluctable defeat. Nearly half of the poemB is
modelled on a parergon, or side-story, from Apollonius's Argonautica, the
Alexandrian epic that chronicles the Argonauts' pursuit of the legendary
3
All translations are my own unless noted otherwise. ·
See Thompson 1893; Ross 1969; Kirby 1989; Thomson 1997:377. If, and this
remains controversial, Catullus's poem is somehow related to short narrative poems
of the Hellenistic period, it must be remembered, as Harrison 2004:528 reminds us,
that the latter were invariably composed in hexameters.
5 For an in-depth discussion of Catullus's disparagement of the epic genre, see
especially Richlin 1995.
6 Fordyce 1961:181; Quinn 1972:198; Thomson 1997:297.
7 In line with Thomson 1997:371-72, I see the structure of Cam1. 63 as bipartite, i.e.
Day 1 (1-38), Day 2 (39-90), and a short coda (91-93).
8 Lines 1-43, excluding, of course, Attis's self-castration (5-7).
4
71
FOSTER
golden fleece: 9 After bad weather has kept the Argonauts from putting out to
sea from their landfall near Mt. Dindymon/Mt. Ida, an omen reveals that
Jason must climb the mountain to propitiate Cybele, who will thus calm the
storms. The outline of Jason's p arergon corresponds sequentially to the first
half of Catullus's poem: Jason exhorts his companions to follow him; after
their ascent, he and his men invoke the goddess and perform sacrifices; while
Jason pours libations and beseeches Cybele, the younger men, dressed in full
armor, enact a high-stepping, raucous dance, beating their shields and
swords. 1 Concluding Cybele's rites, the Argonauts sing the goddess's praises,
feast in her honour, and sleep. The new dawn presents joyful prospects: mild
weather allows the heroes to resume their voyage and quest for the fleece.
Catullus transforms this episode so that Attis traverses the high seas to
make landfall on the Phrygian coast near Cybele's sacred groves, where he
castrates himself,tt invokes the goddess and excitedly urges his companions
to scale Ida's heights and rejoice in her praises. Their revel is marked by
leaping dances and the banging of tambourines and cymbals; they celebrate
holy rites and then go to sleep, exhausted and hungry; the sunshine of dawn
clears Attis's mind, allowing a self-examination, both emotional and physical,
which inspires his seditious speech of longing for the life he has renounced.
Until Carm. 63's midpoint, the two narratives share basic structural
elements: the wilderness setting near Phrygian Mt. Dindymon/Ida, the
exhilaration and haste to reach the goddess's abode, invocations to Cybele,
raucous and energetic dancing, the beating of shields and swords/tambourines and cymbals, and the sunny calm of the next morning:
'•
°
A~gon.
1.1092-108 / Catull. 63.1-20 =wilderness setting in Phrygia;
1.1125 / Catull. 63.24
=invocations to Cybele;
A~gon. 1.1134-36 / Catull. 63.21-26 =dancing, beating of shields,
swords/tambourines, cymbals;
A~gon. 1.1149-50 / Catull. 63.28-38 = feast and sleep/ collapse,
A~gon.
?
9 Ellis 1889:264, seems to be the first to link Carm. 63 to this passage in the
Atgonautica.
10 Here, in an aetiological aside, Apollonius (A~gon. 1.1137-39) interjects that this is
why the Phrygians of his day propitiate the Mother of the Gods with tambourines
and drums. In Phrygian mythology, the Corybantes accompanied Cybele with wild
dances and music; the Curetes, from Cretan myth, protected the infant Zeus from the
predations of Kronos by loud rattling of their spears and swords; see Lindner 1997
and Gordon 2003.
11 Catull. 63.5: devolsit iii acuto sibi pondera silice ('he tore with sharpened stone the
weights from his groin').
. '
;
72
FOSTER
exhausted and hungry;
Argon. 1.1152-60 / Catull. 63.39-43 =sunny calm of next morning:
positive/ negative ramifications.
With the dawn of the new day, the Argonauts' parergon is complete, its
positive intent successful. For Attis, however, Day 2 - the concluding half of
the poem - initiates a relentless downward spiral into an abyss of terror. The
eunuch Attis, a grotesque caricature of Apollonius's Jason, becomes a
Boschian phantasm streaking through darkened woods, a slave of the
goddess, bereft of the powers of reflection and cognition.
On Day 2, Attis's brief lucidity and subsequent regret present a new twist
to an old story, a train of thought that must have occurred to many a Roman
who pondered the psychological and physical realities of Cybele's human
consort and his unlikely relationship with her. After all, the goddess's
processions had been an annual part of Roman public life for well over a
century, and it was well known that her priests (by law non-Romans)
underwent castration as part of membership in Cybele's cult worship. But
how could a civilised Greek or Roman youth do such a thing to himself? The
madness that lured Attis to such a fate derived from religious belief, the
same impulse that spurred the Argonauts to Dindymon's summit. It may be
that Lucretius's attack on theological concepts of the world and his
discussion of religion/ superstition 12 prompted his contemporary Catullus to
chip away further at the anthropomorphic gods and the old mythic
cosmology. Few scholars have commented on poem 63's affinities to epic or
on its features starkly antithetical to epic,B but Catullus clearly models the
fust half of the Attis on the short episode from Apollonius's Hellenistic epic.
The vibrant relationship between gods and mortals, diffused as it is throughout so many aspects of traditional epic, 14 partially deftnes epic as genre, the
same genre which Catullus elsewhere in his collection seeks to degrade.
Attis's tale is about shame rather than glory. He is opposite to the virile
Odysseus, the 'man of many turns', who succeeds in the struggle to maintain
his manhood in the face of overwhelmingly dominant female ftgures like
12
Lucr. 5.198-99: neqttaquam nobis divinit11s esse paratam / nattJram rerum: tanta stat
praedita ct1lpa ('[I would dare confirm] that by no means did the gods create the world
for us: it has too many faults') .
13 See Thompson 1893:46. Interestingly, Elder 1940:xxxiii-iv briefly mentioned
resemblances to hymn and epic in the Attis but withdrew his remarks in a later
article, 1947:398.
14 See Feeney 1991: passim.
FOSTER
73
Calypso and Circe. 15 Attis, beguiled and insufficient to the twists and turns of
adult life, willingly relinquishes his manhood, both physically and psychologically.16 As Quinn remarks, a central device of Catullus's technique is his
reinterpretation of myth, bringing it up to date and enhancing its relevance
to a collection of poems about love and contemporary society.17 Catullus's
deeply pessimistic, modernised version of Attis's tale demonstrates in the
extreme the irrelevance and anachronism - at least for the sophisticated
Roman elite - of values expressed in the mythic tradition. Attis is the
antithesis of epic masculinity. His figure, placed in contexts of the heroic
quest and respect for the gods, mocks the high-flown virtues and religious
pietas inculcated by Homeric, Hellenistic and Roman epic. Beye suggests that
Jason's world, too, is that of the anti-hero and that Apollonius probably
understood him in these modern terms. 18 Catullus's Attis is literally impotent
and certainly vacuous in the sense that his religious zealotry proves in the
end not to have originated from within himself. But it is Attis's 'morningafter' soWoquy that thrusts upon Catullus's audience a jarring realism which
irrevocably transforms an otherwise benign lunatic of myth and cult into a
grotesque and pathetic - if not contagious - madman, regardless of cult
associations.
In an inversion of the sensibilities of traditional epic, Attis's jubilation can
be seen as a parody of epic's typical mourning scene.19 By means of tra:ditional referentiality and metonymic extension, Attis is aligned with epic
figures who are about to suffer hopeless despair when he tears away his
genitals (devolsit, 5 <vello) and defiles (maculans, 7) the ground with blood.
Foley remarks on the descriptive powers of traditional referentiality: '[T]hus
it is that a common referentiality contextualises the very different, even
singular experiences of these characters, amplifying and articulating the
15 Rubino 1974:167-69; on p. 168, Rubino cjraws an astute analogy between
Odysseus's relationships with Calypso/Circe and the scenario in Ken Kesey's One
Fle1v over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), which applies tangentially to Attis and Cybele:
Although subjugated (through mutilation) by Nurse Ratchet, a dominant modern
female of mythic stature, Randall succeeds posthumously in asserting his manhood
and independence by having passed on to his friend 'Chief the strength of spirit that
enables him to escape the asylum in his place.
16 Rubino 1974:165.
17
Quinn 1972:250.
18 Beye 1968:209-11.
19 For a discussion of traditional structures underlying the 'mourning scene-type' in
Homeric and Serbo-Croatian epic, see Foley 1991:158-59.
74
FOSTER
-
particulars of their losses by association with a pattern of behavior larger
than any one instance.' 20 For example, in the Iliad 22.406-07 Hecuba tears
(TLAAE [Latin vello]) at her hair, casting her veil into the dirt and screaming as
she looks down at Hector's mutilated corpse. Vergil, like Catullus, later uses
forms of vello and maculo together to symbolise the act of mourning as Aeneas
describes the cornel bushes' mute grief for the murdered young prince
Polydorus:
arbos
vellitur, huic afro liqtmntur sanguine guttae
et terram tabo maculant ...
from the bush,
which is torn from the ground, flow drops of black blood
that stain the earth with gore ...
(Aen. 3.27-29)
But Attis, far from grieving, is driven by ecstasy to a self-deftlement that
serves as preparation for the goddess's service. The acts of tearing and
staining/ deftling establish a common referentiality between the very different
experiences of Attis and figures of heroic epic.
Embedded also within the poem's narrative introduction are two distorted 'snapshots' from traditional martial epic: first, lines 8-10 describe in
burlesque a traditional epic scene-type, the 'arming scene', as the newly
feminised Attis takes up with snow-white hands (niveis minibus, 8) her
'weapon', the light tambourine (!eve rypanum, 8), which symbolises her new
authority and power. The travesty is then carried into line 11, as Attis,
equipped now with the symbolic accoutrement of Cybele's cult, is depicted
addressing her comrades in diction that resounds with epic associations
(63.8-11):
niveis citata cepit manibus /eve !Jpanum,
rypanum tuum, ybebe, tua, mater, initia,
quatiensque terga tuari tenens cava digitis,
canere haec suis adorta est tremebunda comitibus ...
hurriedly she seized with snow-white hands the light
tambourine,
zo Foley 1991:158.
FOSTER
75
your tambourine, Cybele, the emblem of your rites,
Mother,
and shaking the hollow bull's hide with delicate fingers
trembling, she began to sing [these words] to her
companions ...
This transitional line (63.11), with its form of the verb 'sing', connects the
opening narrative to Attis's f.t.rst speech, helping further to encode the text
with the traditional referentiality of high epic, which sets a mocking tone for
what follows, underpinning the scene's parodic thrust by echoing formulaic
transitional devices found in the epic poets.
Catullus's use of the verb canere ('sing') to describe Attis's address to the
Galli associates his diction particularly with heroic narrative. A central term
in the traditional language of Greek and Roman epic, canere (Gk. ad8ELv)
conveys - in addition to its explicit meaning, 'to sing a song' - the essential
idea of heroic narrative as the tale 'sung' or revealed to the bard and passed
on by him in the same way (singing) to his audience. The Iliad begins with an
appeal to the Muse to 'sing to me goddess the rage [of Achilles)' (MflvLv
aEL8E ElEci, Hom. II. 1.1). Hesiod opens the Theogo1!)1 with an invocation: 'Of
the Muses of Helicon, let us begin to sing' (Mouaciwv 'EA.LKWVLci8wv
apx~~EEl' ad8ELV, Hes. Theog. 1). The term canere is used by Lucretius in his
didactic poem in contexts that evoke the bardic spirit of heroic narrative: 'So
forsooth sang the old poets of the Greeks' (scilicet tit veteres Graium cecinere
poetae, 5.405). And remonstrating against men's belief in the supernatural, he
reminds us f.t.rst of the f.tctions of poets: 'As our own Ennius sang .. .' (Ennius
ut noster cecinit ... , 1.117). Because of canere/ ad8ELv's strong associations with
the epic genre, V ergil later will claim authority as an epic poet in part by
'singing' Aeneas's exploits: 'Arma virttmque cano .. .' (Aen. 1.1). In Carm. 63,
Catullus borrows the potency of epic diction to lend an ironic gravitas to his
parodic treatment of the Attis myth.
,
As a prelude to battle, the arming scene is often followed by an address
to an assembly of warriors. In traditional epic language, Homeric heroes
'grasp' or 'seize' by hand their spears or lances. Thus Agamemnon, awakened
from a dream, 'seizes (EAETO) the royal sceptre of his fathers as he strides to
the ships ... and commands (KEAEUGE) heralds to muster the Achaeans to
assembly':
EAETO 8E: O"KfjiTTpov iiaTpWLOV acp9L TOV ULEL.
cruv T/ii E~T] KUTU vfjas , Axmwv XUAKOXL TWVWV"
aUT Up
0 KT]pUKEO"O"L AL yucp96yyoLcrL KEAEUO"E
: · ·.J.-"
76
FOSTER
KTJPUUUELV ayopT)V 8E KapT] KOJ.l-OWVTaS ' Axawvs
(Hom. II. 2.46-47, 50-51)
Exhortatory appeals incite the assembled heroes to battle; thus Agamemnon
in Book 2 and Nestor in Book 10. In Carm. 63, Catullus uses epic imagery
and diction from the arming-scene type and its subsequent exhortatory
address to serve as verbal structural props in his parodic treatment of Attis as
a ridiculous, epic-like figure 'armed' with tambourine, exhorting his eunuch
'warriors' to follow.
The opening vignette, then, introduces Attis to the audience/reader with
language and imagery that conflict at once with that figure's mythic and cult
associations. Attis's incarnation as a feminised 'epic-hero' assembles itself
gradually as thematic and lexical echoes collide and intermingle, materialising
fmally into what must seem an hallucination: Catullus would have us
envision the eunuch Attis thinly disguised in epic drag, an image of conspicuous effrontery to the epic tradition. But, as we have seen elsewhere in his
collection, Catullus (and other neoteric poets) is concerned with establishing
a new poetic voice that strives to supplant, or at least reject as inferior, the
'old' epic ideology; 21 his depiction of Attis in Carm. 63 represents an exploratory raid into that august realm. Such an egregiously antithetical 'heroic'
figure as Attis rips at the very fabric of epic poetry, flinging it into the dust,
as it were, in a comically brutal disavowal of traditional epic representations
of madness or grief.
Subsequently, Catullus inverts crucial particulars of epic's thematic
template for sacrifice. Traditional sacrifice, including games and feasting,
takes on a farcical quality as Attis and his companions engage in orgiastic
dancing, their ravings accentuated by a complete loss of self-control, ending
only after they collapse from exhaustion and hunger (lassttlae ... sine Cerere, 3536). After rest and sunshine have cleared Attis's mind, lucidity brings
remorse and a swell of homesickness. As he comes quickly to regret the loss
of his former sexual and social identity, Attis retUrns to the shore and reveals
his urban Greek background with its attendant cultural trappings - the
21
The Attis continues to elude precise generic categorisation, but I point out that in
Carm. 63 Catullus alludes to the same complex of generic themes that are central to
Cam1. 64: marriage between mortal and goddess (epithalamium), isolation and
abandonment (tragedy), and the adventurous journey (epic), themes which Konstan
1993:75-76 associates with Alexandrian experimentation and the neoterics' delight in
novelty and generic mixing.
FOSTER
77
gymnasium, palaestra, stadium, and the family threshold festooned with
suitors' flowers (59-67):
patria, bonis, amicis, genitoribtts abero?
abero foro, palaestra, stadio et gyminasiis?
miser a miser, qmrendum est etiam atque etiam, anime.
quod enim gemts.ftguraest, ego non quod obierim?
ego mulier, ego adulescens, ego ephebus, ego puer,
ego gymnasi fui flos, ego eram decus olei:
mihi ianuae freqmntes, mihi /imina tepida,
mihi jlon.dis corollis redimita dotmts erat,
linquendttm ubi esset otto mihi sole cubicu/tm;.
Am I to be carried far away from my home to these forests?
Will I be separated from homeland, possessions, friends, and parents?
Shall I be absent from the forum, palaestra, stadium, and gymnasia?
Ah wretched, wretched spirit, forever must your grief endure.
For what type of human form have I not experienced?
I, a woman, have been youth, boy, and child.
I was the flower of the gymnasium, the glory of the oil:
for me were doorways crowded, thresholds warm,
for me was home bedecked with flowers' crowns
when I would rise at morning to leave my bed.
It is this revelation of his past civilised identity that, in the audiences' eyes,
condemns Attis to a loathsome and threatening insanity. 22 Cybele, however,
who brooks no wavering allegiance, dispatches one of her lions to chivy Attis
back into the fold . Bellowing as it approaches, the lion prepares its charge,
and Attis - by now thoroughly demented - flees into the wild woodlands
where he/she remains a lifelong slave. The poem's final three lines offer up a
short, apotropaic prayer entreating Cybele to spare the author such frenzy
and, instead, drive others to raving madness. '
Essentially, then, Catullus gives us two starkly contrasting portraits of
Attis: first, as a burlesque, epic-like parody of Cybele's mythic consort; and
second, as a disturbingly realistic Greek or Roman 'Everyman', who awakens
22 Wiseman 1985:205 contends that, although culturally alien eastern aspects of the
ritual such as castration and orgiastic dancing were viewed by many Romans as
potentially damaging, even subversive, to traditional values and were carefully
regulated by the state, a proper balance between wholehearted assimilation and
disrespectful censure must have been difficult to achieve.
78
FOSTER
from a hellish dream only to discover a dreamscape that is, in fact, quite
three-dimensional as, in line 46, liquidaqtte mente vidit sine quis ubique foret ('Attis
sees with lucid mind without what [his testicles) and where he is [a
wilderness mountaintop]').
The essential kernel of Attis's identity is inextricably tied to his relationship with Cybele. Attis's role as worshipper, son, or lover of the goddess
relies consistently on his attributes of youth and exceptional beauty, while
the catastrophic consequences of the relationship stem predominantly from
an inability or failure on his part to make the transition from youth to adult.
Whether as shepherd or prince, Attis is identified in myth as Cybele's mortal
lover, and rarely as her divine son. 23 More commonly, Attis is portrayed as a
young herdsman (sometimes even as a child) whose outstanding beauty
attracts Cybele's notice.
Three central features recur in the majority of extant versions of the Attis
myth: the youth's remarkable beauty, his self-castration or some other form
of sexual deformity, and his self-destructive madness.24 The Roman cult of
Cybele that was familiar to Catullus emphasised the castration and orgiastic
dancing of Cybele's priests, the Galli, sometimes called Attises, and not the
madness per se that led the Attis of myth to self-castration and death. Dionysius of Halicarnassus records that Roman citizens were forbidden to participate in the goddess's rites because of their unseemly and un-Roman nature
(Ant. Rom. 2.19.3-5; 18.3-19.1). Thus Attis's castration, the central and
essential feature of Cybele's worship, is precisely what was excluded from
public cult participation.25
Ovid describes a relationship between Attis and Cybele which at the same
time expresses the sexual fidelity expected of lovers and the young child's
material and emotional dependence upon his mother. 26 In the Fasti, Ovid
petitions Erato, a Muse and granddaughter of Cybele, to participate in a sort
of mythological news conference that addresses many of the same issues
under review here. Ovid asks about the cult's r~quirement of castration for
membership in its priesthood. In Erato's response, we find a 'Peter Pan'
23
Vermaseren 1966:6-9, 1977:92.
A lone and therefore noteworthy exception is the account of Diodorus Siculus
3.58-59 in which castration/sexual deformity is absent. Diodorus's Attis is killed by
Cybele's father when he discovers that his daughter is pregnant by the youth. Cybele,
grief stricken, then wanders the countryside, beside herself with despair at his
murder, echoing the distraught Demeter in her search for Persephone.
25 Wiseman 1985:202.
26 For Freudian discussions/ analyses, see especially Skinner 1991 and 1993.
24
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79
theme of eternal boyhood as well as the single element central to Catullus's
own reshaping of the myth: Artis's breach of fidelity to the goddess by
wishing to return home, thus abandoning her service. From the Fasti, Book
4, Erato explains:
Phryx puer in silvis,Jacie spectabilis, Attis
turrigeram casto vinxit amore deam.
Hunc sibi servari voluit, sua temp/a tueri,
et dixit 'semperjac puer esse velis. '
I lie fidem iussis dedit et 'si mentiar, 'inquit
'ultima, qua fa/lam, sit Venus i/la mihz: '
Fallit et in f!)ltnpha S agaritide desinit esse
quodjttit: hincpoenas exigit ira deae.
In the woods, a Phrygian boy of beautiful aspect, Artis,
won the turreted27 goddess with his chaste love.
She wanted him to serve her, to watch over her temples
aU:d said, 'see to it that you remain a boy forever.'
He vowed to keep faith with her commands and said, 'if I lie,
may that love with which I deceive you be my last.'
He deceived her by dallying with the nymph Sangaritis, and ceased
to be
what he had been: from this the goddess's anger exacted
punishment.
(Ov. Fasti 4.223-30)
Accordingly, Cybele kills Sangaritis and causes Artis to go mad. The youth
runs to the top of Mt. Dindymon and, beside himself with remorse at having
broken faith with the goddess, severs his genitals. Erato ends by saying that
Artis's self-mutilation serves as the example which Cybele's priests still
follow when they castrate themselves at the culmination of hysterical dancing
and singing.
Ovid's account of Attis's and Cybele's relationship shares important
parallels with Catullus's poem: although the Cybele of Carm. 63 is an icily
remote and fearsome deity who never solicits Attis's attentions, his voluntary
self-castration and role as the leading participant in her rites represent a vow
whose abrogation brings crushing despair and madness. In Ovid's account,
The epithet 'turreted' (turrigeram) signifies Cybele's role as 'protectress of cities' and
was mentioned earlier by Ovid, Fast. 4.219-21. See also Lucr. 2.606-09 and for a
somewhat more detailed explanation, Arnobius Adv. Nat. 5.7.
27
i,
.. :
'
~
..,
80
FOSTER
the youth's beauty and apparent chastity attract Cybele's attention. Her
requirement that he remain a boy forever is essentially her expectation of his
future chastity that imposes (or bestows) upon Attis the necessity to be a lad
'that thought there was no more behind, but such a day tomorrow, as today,
and to be boy eternal.'28 But the youth's dalliance with the nymph Sangaritis
represents a brief foray into adult sexuality, violating his promise of fidelity
and unleashing the goddess's rage. Madness and self-emasculation are his
punishment. Catullus's Attis, however, deluded by religious zeal and youthful
enthusiasm, mutilates himself in an unsolicited offering to the goddess that
highlights ironically the positive expectations of his love for her. On the
other hand, as represented by Ovid, the Galli commemorate a deeply negative aspect of the legend when they re-enact the sentence imposed by Cybele
upon Attis the philanderer.
Catullus's audience would have known Attis as a priest or central participant in public processions of the Ludi Megalensis, the state-sponsored cult
of Cybele, the Great Mother or Magna Mater. Varro (Ling. 6.14-15) and Livy
(34.54) report that the week of April 4-10 celebrated the goddess's Roman
'birthday' and dedication of her temple and consisted of processions,
sacrifices, banquets, games in the circus and plays in the theatres. 29
As reconstructed by Frazer and Vermaseren,3° the stages of the festival
were as follows. On the first day a pine-tree is cut down and dressed like a
corpse with an effigy of Attis attached to the trunk. Chosen tree-bearers
carry it with great solemnity to Cybele's Palatine temple. The second day (the
Tubulustrium) is taken up with ritual purifications and the blowing of
trumpets. On the third day, the Day of Blood (Dies Sanguinis), to the
accompaniment of loud, frenetic music, the chief priest or Archigallus, also
called the 'Attis,' draws his own blood - from his arms - with which to
anoint the high altar. His associates, the Galli, slash at their bodies with
knives, whirling themselves into hysterical delirium in an attempt to sling
their own blood upon the altar and Attis's effigy, still affixed to the sacred
pine. In the evening of the Day of Blood, the effigy of Attis is buried and
sealed in a cave. Upon opening the tomb the following morning, Attis's
absence assures his resurrection, which happy event inspires a jubilant
28
29
...·•·.
•'
Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale 1.2.63-65.
Vermaseren 1977:124-25.
Frazer 1922:403-08; Vermaseren 1977:125.
°
3
.-,
.•
...
I
81
FOSTER
carnival atmosphere throughout the city, the Day of Joy or Hilaria.3 1 Appropriately, Catullus supplies his Attis with the verb hi/are (to make joyful,
gladden) when he enjoins his companions to 'cheer the Mistress's heart with
your frantic roving' (hilarate erae citatis erroribus anim11m, Carm. 63.18). The fifth
day, the Day of Rest, was necessary, no doubt, for sleeping off the excesses
of the Hilaria. The sixth day, the Lavatio or ritual cleansing of the goddess's
effigy, prefaced the rededication of the goddess's temple (April 10) and the
conclusion of the festival.
In his discourse on the folly of religion in the De rerum nat11ra, Lucretius
offers an eye-witness account of a public procession of Cybele's priests as
they accompany the car upon which is seated an effigy of the goddess
flanked by her lions. Undoubtedly fomenting a sympathetic abandon among
the spectators, 'the Galll, Lucretius writes, 'with their Phrygian rhythms bang
hollow cymbals and tight-skinned tambourines to the threatening accompaniment of horns and tibiae.' He notes that, as emblems of their threatening
fury, her priests brandish sharp weapons with which to instill terror in the
hearts of impious onlookers.32
Lucretius offers a moralising admonition to explain the Gallls emasculation. He attributes the origins of the eunuch priesthood to filial ingratitude
and disdain for the goddess's majesty, writing that such men were to be
considered unworthy of bringing forth living progeny. 33 He entirely omits
reference to Attis - whether as lover or son - but seems to imply a mother/
son relationship between the deity and her priests. In their accounts of the
myth and corresponding rituals, both Ovid and Lucretius portray fidelity as
the central issue, the betrayal of which exacts castration and madness as its
pnce.
Attitudes toward the Galli in Catullan Rome ranged from contempt to
sympathetic tolerance. The 'xenophobic and right-wing anecdotalist Valerius
;
31
Herodian 1.10.5-7 reports a failed assassination attempt on the emperor Commodus's life during a festival of the Hilaria when conspirators, dressed as imperial
lancers, were thus able to infiltrate the royal presence.
32 Lucr. 2.621-23: tefaque praepottant, viofenti signa fitroris I ingratos animos atque impia
pectora vofgi I conterrere mettt quae possint numine divae. Lucretius continues that 'their path
is showered with a rich snowfall of rose petals as the Gaffi forage through crowds of
spectators soliciting alms' (stzpes), aere atque m-gento stermmt iter omne viamm I fmyjjica
stzpe ditantes ninguntque rosarum I floribus umbrantes matrem comitumque catervam (2.626-28).
33 Lucr. 2.615: ingrati genitotib11s; 2.614-17: Gaffos attribmmt, qttia, nttmen qui violarint I
Matris et ingrati genitoribus inventi sint, I signijicare vofunt indignos esse putandos, I vivam
progeniem qui in oras fuminis edant.
• ,·1,
..
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FOSTER
Maximus' 34 relates a legal case involving a Gallus who was listed as heir to a
Roman citizen. He was denied inheritance rights on the grounds that, having
willingly castrated himself, he was neither man nor woman and therefore
failed to meet the essential criterion for citizenship. Maximus commented
that the judgment was in Rome's best interests, since it succeeded in warding
off the pollution threatened by such a plaintiff's 'obscene presence.'35
Valerius Maximus was apparently not offended by the mental state that
would seem to associate itself with self-castration. On the other hand, the
Palatine Anthology preserves a winsome epitaph written by the poet Philodemus for the Roman archigallus Trygonion ('Little Dove'), who is described
respectfully as a sincere and devout servant of the goddess.36 Wiseman has
described Catullus's Attis poem as a syncretism of unacceptable cult ritual
and traditional Roman moralityY This assessment, in my view, accounts in
part for Catullus's two 'faces' of madness in his characterisation of Attis. In
his mythic persona, Attis is a burlesque of the traditional epic hero. Catullus
intended this parody as a defilement of the genre that he elsewhere ridicules
as pompous and irrelevant to modern life. The castration of such a character
is an act of madness that would elicit little if any sympathy; whereas a selfcastrated youth hailing from the Greco-Roman world would imprint upon a
Catullan audience the indelible and terrifying image of a demented human
being, one of their own, standing by the marbled sea, a primal scream upon
his lips, his face the tortured rictus of Edvard Munch's Der Schreck.
Bibliography
Beye, C.R. 1968. Ancient Epic Poetry: Homer, Apollonius, Virgil. Ithaca.
Bremmer, J.N. 2004. 'Attis: a Greek god in Anatolian Pessinous and Catullan
Rome.' Mnemo!Jne 57:534-573.
Burkert, W. 1979. S tmcture and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. Berkeley.
Elder, J.P. 1940. 'The art of Catullus' Attis.' TAPA 71:xxxili-xxxiv
(abstracts).
.
Elder, J.P. 1947. 'Catullus' "Attis".' A]Ph 68:394-403.
Ellis, R. 1889. Commentary on Catullus. Oxford.
Feeney, D. 1991. The Gods in Epic. Oxford.
Wiseman 1985:204-05.
Val. Max. 7.7.5: obscaena praesentia.
For a thorough discussion of the Trygonion epitaph attributed to Philodemus, see
Sider 1997:177-85.
37
Wiseman 1985:205-06.
34
35
36
. ·~
FOSTER
83
Foley, J.M. 1991. Immanent Art. Bloomington.
Fordyce, C.]. 1961. Catullus: A Commentary. Oxford.
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Epic, 59-78. London.
Lancellotti, M.G. 2002. Attis. Between Myth and History: King, Priest and God.
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Lindner, R. 1997. 'Kouretes, Korybantes.' LIMC8.1:736-741.
Nauta, R.R. 2004. 'Catullus 63 in a Roman context.' Mnemosyne 57:596-628.
Quinn, K . 1972. Catulltts. The Poems. London.
Richlin, A. 199 5. The Garden of Priaptts: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman
Humor. New Y ark.
Ross, R.C. 1969. 'Catullus 63 and the galliambic meter.' CJ 64:145-152.
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Sider, D . 1997. The Epigrams of Philodemus: Introduction, Text, and Commentary.
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Skinner, M. 1991. 'The dynamics of Catullan obscenity: cc. 3 7, 58, and 11.'
SyllC/ass 3:1-11.
Skinner, M. 1993. 'Ego Mulier. the construction of male sexuality in Catullus.'
Helios 20:107-130.
Thomson, D.F.S. 1997. Catullus. Toronto.
Thompson, E.S. 1893. 'The galliambic metre. ~ CR 7:145-148.
Vermaseren, M.J. 1966. The Legend ofAttis in Greek and Roman Art. Leiden.
Vermaseren, M.J . 1977. ybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult. London.
Wiseman, T.P. 1985. Catullus and His World: A Reappraisal. Cambridge.
FUROR, DEMENTIA, RABIES:
SOCIAL DISPLACEMENT, :MADNESS AND RELIGION
IN THE METAMORPHOSES OF APULEIUS
J.L. Hilton
University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban)
Apud VivianttJJJ quanitur, si servus inter fanaticos 11on semper caput
iactaret et afiqua profatus esset, an nihifo minus sanus videretur. et ail
Viviamts nihifo minus hunc sanmn esse: neque enim nos, inquit, minus
animi vitiis afiquos sanos esse inteffegere debet"IJ: afioquin, inquit, fidttrum, ut
in infinito hac ratione muftos sanos esse negaremus, tit pttta fevem sttperstitiosttm iracundum contmnacem et si qua simifia sunt animi vitia: magis
enim de corporis sanitate, quam de animi vitiis promitti. interdum !amen,
inqttit, vitittm corporate usque ad animum pervenire et eum vitiare: vefuti
contingeret <j>pEVTJTLKijl, quia id ei ex jebribus accident. quid ergo est? si
quid sit animi vitium tale, ut id a venditore excipi oporteret neque id venditor
cum scire! prommtiasset, ex empto eum teneri. 10. Idem Viviamts ait,
quamvis afiquando quis circa fana bacchatus sit et responsa reddiderit,
tamm, si nunc hoc non faciat, nuffum vitittm esse: neque eo nomine, qttod
afiquando id fecit, actio est, sicuti si afiquando febrem habuit: ceterum si
nihifo minus permaneret in eo vitio, td circa fana bacchari soferet et quasi
demens responsa daret, etiamsi per fuxuriam id factum est, vitium !amen
esse, sed vitium anismi, non corporis, ideoque redhiberi non posse, qt~oniam
aedifes de corporafibus vitiis foqmmtur: attamen ex etnpto actionem admittit.
The question is raised in Vivian whether a slave who, from time
to time, tosses his head about among religious fanatics and makes
some pronouncements, is nonetheless to be regarded as healthy.
Vivian says that he is; for he says that we should still regard as
sane those with mental defects; otherwise, he proceeds, the
position would be reached that on this sort of ground, we would
deny that slaves are healthy without limit, for example, because
he is frivolous, superstitious, quick-tempered, obstinate, or has
some other flaw of mind. The undertaking relates to physical, not
mental health. Still, says Vivian, it does happen that a physical
defect affects the mind also and makes the slave thereby defective; just as happens in the case of a lunatic, because his madness
comes about as a result of a fever. What then? If the mental
defect be such that it ought to be taken up by the vendor and if
the vendor did not say anything, although he knew of it, he will
be liable to an action on the purchase. 10. Vivian says further that
HILTON
85
although, at some time in the past, a slave indulged in Bacchanalian revels around the shrines and chanted responses, it is still the
case that if he does it no longer, there is no defect in him and
there will be no more liability in respect of him than if he once
had a fever; but if he persist still in that bad habit, running mad
around the shrines and uttering what appear to be demented
ravings, even though this be the consequence of riotous living
and thus a defect, it is still a mental, not a physical defect and so
constitutes no ground for rescission, because the aediles pronounce in respect of physical defects; however, such facts give
occasion for the action on purchase.
Oustinian, Dzgest21.1.1.9-10, tr. Watson etaL 1985, modified.)
In the Metamorphoses, Apuleius exhibits his desultoria scientia (Met. 1.1) - his
skill in driving his rhetorical chariot - as he jumps like a daredevil jockey
from one galloping Milesian tale to another, describing in the process how
the 'shapes and fates' (jigurae jortunaeque) of humans are transformed into
other forms (imagines) under the power of Egyptian magic, and then miraculously changed back by a shared and reciprocal bond (mutuus nexus). 1 The
manic transformations of the title often involve humans turning into animals
and (sometimes) back again: Lucius becomes an ass, Pamphile an owl,
witches become weasels, robbers become bears, an old man becomes a
dragon. Apuleius's choice of the word nexus for these reciprocities calls to
mind its cognate, nexum, a form of voluntary and temporary bondage that
became the grounds of an important struggle in the early history of Rome
between patricians intent on enforcing the law and their rights, and plebeians
who strove to assert their natural liberty. 2 The prologue also proleptically
invokes the adventures of Lucius by mentioning places he will meet in his
travels: Athens (Hymettos Attica; cf. 1.24), Corinth (Isthmos Epf?yrea; cf. Book
11), and Taenarus (the place from which Psyche descends into the underworld, 6.18-20) - all places in the heartland of ancient Greece. It further
hints at his difficulties as an ass in communicating (exotici ac forensis sermonis
locutor, 1.1; cf. 3.29, 7.3, 8.29), his labours in acquiring knowledge of Latin
(aerumnabilis labor), and his change of voice or language in moving from
Greek to Latin (vocis immutatio). From the beginning of the narrative a
number of polarities are set up: human and animal, slave and free, and one
1
For the prologue to the Metamorphoses, see Harrison 1990, Kahane 1996, the various
contributions in Kahane & Laird 2001, and Graverini 2005. In this paper, I use the
text and translation of Hanson 1989.
2 Winkler 1985:188-92, esp. 189.
t
. •.
.~·
•• •.
·~·
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.
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86
HILTON
-
and the same person acts as both insider and outsider in the social world of
the novel. All these starting and ending points are united in the metaphor of
slavery that permeates the work. Only a slave - whom Aristotle assimilates to
animals, but whom Roman law views as at least partly human; who were
enslaved, but often, at least in Rome, later freed; and who regularly came
from outside the hegemonic culture of Greece and Rome, but who were
often later enrolled as citizens of the Roman state -would have been able to
unify these opposites. Servitude is the central metaphor of the work and one
that lends the many narratives within it a degree of coherence.
Bradley has shown how the 'transformation of Lucius can be taken as a
paradigmatic illustration of the animalization of the slave in real life, and as a
guide to the meaning of animalization in the master-slave relationship.' He
argues that 'the Metamorphoses shows how animalizing the slave served the
interests of slave-owners by functioning as a mechanism of control and
domination', but that 'the novel reveals the limits of how far manipulation of
the slave could be taken.'3 He identifies in the Metamorphoses a dialectical play
of opposites between slave and free, tame and wild. The present article adds
to Bradley's analysis an exploration of the function of madness in the novel
in the context of social and religious upheaval in the Roman Empire in the
2nd century of our era. I will argue that the interpretation of episodes of
insanity in the work (expressed by furor, dementia, rabies and related words) is
not only a reflection of their literary antecedents, 4 but also particularly resonant within the socio-economic and religious contexts of the Roman Empire
in the 2nd century. s
Feigned or real madness occurs frequently in slave societies, especially
where free men and women are suddenly enslaved or slaves experience a
Bradley 2000:110-25, here 113; see also Fitzgerald 2000:94-111.
Shumate 1996a:241-42 associates madness in the, novel directly with religious
conversion. I welcome her analysis, but argue here that the episodes of insanity in
the work are primarily driven by power relations in society rather than an innate
desire for God. This is not to say that madness and religion are not linked in
Graeco-Roman antiquity, as the quotation from the Digest at the beginning of this
article shows. For the madness (furor) of Charite and others in the novel see also
Shumate 1996b: 103-16, who argues (115-16) that furor plays a similar, but
symmetrically opposite role in the development of the narrative of the Metamorphoses
to that of Dido in the Aeneid.
5 For the social background to the Metamorphoses, see Millar 1981:63-75, esp. 65: 'It is
undeniable that the novel expresses a rare and distinctive level of sympathy with the
working lives of the poor.'
3
4
i~
i
' . . ; .. .' :. . .
HILTON
87
dramatic and shocking humiliation.6 Such traumatic events may ultimately
lead to religious conversion.7 Justinian's Digest (21.1.1.9, given above) records
a discussion raised by the jurist Vivian concerning whether a slave who
'tosses his head about among religious fanatics and makes some pronouncements' is to be considered sane. 8 Vivian's question is raised in the context of
the legal conditions for a rescission of sale on the grounds that the slave was
sold with a latent defect. According to him, slaves who appear to be religious
fanatics should not be considered to have a latent defect, since otherwise
slaves with other faults such as those who are 'frivolous, superstitious, quicktempered, obstinate' (levis superstitiosus iracundus contumax) would have to be
considered defective, whereas their behaviour can be put down to shortcomings in their character rather than to a permanent mental deficiency. The
most important criterion appears to be whether the disassociative state of
mind is temporary or permanent. Vivian does allow the possibility that the
insanity of a slave might be permanent and that it might have a physical
basis, as in the case of phrenetici whose condition may arise from a fever and
so, if the demented behaviour of a slave in hanging around shrines and
talking nonsense (aliquando quis circa fana bacchattts sit et responsa reddiderit)
persisted and was not a passing phase, the purchaser would have an action
arising from the sale. 9 This legal discussion raises a number of important
Spores's 1988 study of 'running amok' in Indonesian slave societies shows how
dishonoured slaves and people who experience a sudden loss of status often react
with indiscriminate violence and self-destruction. The phenomenon of 'running
amok' originated probably among soldiers of the Indian kings ('martial amok'), who
dedicated their lives to royal service and who would go on a destructive rampage,
generally ending in their own deaths, if the ruler was injured or killed. Bladed
weapons, such as the kris, were generally preferred in these attacks. An 'amok' could
also be an individual ('solitary amok'), who went on an indiscriminate spree of
murder directed at his own family and friends, as .well as his perceived enemies, as a
result of an insult to his honour.
7 The religious experience of slaves has not been adequately researched to date.
Slaves enjoyed the right of asylum at the altars of the gods in cases of extremely
harsh treatment, at least in the Greek world. This right is attested in Eur. S11pp. 268.
At Athens the slaves could take refuge at the Theseum or at the altar of the Eumenides (At. fr. 567; Eq. 1312; Thesm. 224). Diod. Sic. 11.89.8 records the pledge of
slave owners on oath to the god to treat slaves who had claimed asylum mercifully.
For asylum under the Roman Empire, see Justinian, Inst. 1.8.2.
8 For a discussion of this passage, see Gardner 1986:154.
9 The recognition of temporary insanity is clear from Dig. 1.18.14, where Marcus
Aurelius and Commodus rule that Aelius Priscus should not be punished for the
6
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88
HILTON
points in relation to the Roman understanding of insanity: first, it suggests
that religious fanaticism was so alien to the established religious outlook of
the day, at least in Roman society, that it could be seen as a mental defect
(animi vitium) with a physical rather than a psycho-social basis; and second,
that persistent ravings were a product of excess (luxuria) that, by implication
at least, merited pruning and restraint (the metaphor is one of a plant that
has become overgrown) through the exercise of power. This legal discussion
raises questions concerning the extent to which insanity, real or apparent,
occurred within Roman society, and the degree to which it was associated
with shifting power relations. The Digest passage is written entirely from the
point of view of lawyers who had the interests of the slave-owning class in
mind, but it nevertheless suggests that religious fanaticism was a powerful
force among slaves at the height of Roman imperialism.
There is certainly evidence of slave involvement in religious organisations
such as the Bacchanalian cult in 186 BC. It was spread by 'a low-born Greek
sacrificer and prophet' (Graectts ignobilis ... sacrificulus et vates, Livy 39.8) and the
chief priestess was a woman from Campania assisted by two plebeian
Romans. Two years later, in 184 BC, the propraetor at Tarentum, L. Postumius
Tempsanus, 'suppressed serious conspiracies among the shepherds and the
remnants of the Bacchanals' (magnas pastomm coniurationes vindicavit, Livy
39.41), during which he condemned about 7000 men (39.29).10 Further
action was taken against the cult in 182 and 181 BC (40.19). Ranch owners in
South Italy would have brought large numbers of slaves to Italy from the
recent wars in the East. 11 Unrest sparked by religion occurred again in 213,
and in 181 the books ofNuma were burnt by Q. Petilius, 'at a time when the
Bacchanalian quaestio was being reactivated.' 12 The appeal of the cult of
Bacchus to slaves lay in the elimination of the distinctions in status in a
world of brotherhood (ILS 3360, 4215). 13 Slaves were also found in the
Campanian cult in 98 BC (CIL 1 [2] :618) and in the list of magistrates from
Minturnae. They could undertake religious obligations and their graves were
considered sacred (Dig. 11.7.2 [Ulpian]). Plautus's play Bacchides appears to
murder of his mother, as his insanity was penalty enough. However, they also allow
the possibility that Priscus was only intermittently insane. They therefore impose on
his relatives the obligation of looking after him.
10 See also Bauman 1990:341 , 342 n. 26: 'it can reasonably be supposed that the
quaestio was directed at the shepherds, hence at slaves.'
11 Frank 1927:130-31.
12 Bauman 1990:347.
13 Westermann 1955:108.
HILTON
89
have been composed at the time of this unrest as a parody of this major
contemporary social crisis. 14 Moreover, the importance of religion in the
First Slave War is emphasised by Photius, Bib. 384 and Diodorus Siculus
34.2. Spartacus's wife was a prophetess, initiated into the ecstatic cult of
Dionysos (Plut. Crassus 8.3). Finally, Macrobius (Sat. 1.11.3-5) tells the story
of Autronius Maximus in 280 BC, whose ill-treatment of his slave was
punished by Jupiter with physical illness. During the imperial period poor
immigrant foreigners and slaves introduced Christianity, Isism and other
mystery religions into the Roman world. These found a ready response
among slaves.1 5 There is therefore adequate evidence to show that Roman
slaves participated enthusiastically in religious cults. Apuleius's Metamorphoses
reflects many of the socio-economic concerns of the 2nd century and
provides the reader with perspectives on life in the Roman Empire that are
not those of the dominant elite. To what extent does it reveal the psychological and religious consequences of the volatile social order in the Roman
Empire?
Changes in shape - especially into animals such as lions, bulls, snakes, or
dogs, but also into trees, rivers, or fountains -were regarded in antiquity as a
trope for madness.16 Ovid's Metamorphoses provides a brief example: when her
incestuous love (surely a perversion of normal family relations) is rejected,
Byblis is consumed with insane fury, which overwhelms her to such an
extent that she is transformed into a fountainY It therefore comes as no
surprise that episodes of insanity appear from the beginning of Apuleius's
similarly themed and entitled narrative. In the tale of Aristomenes, the
witches Pantheia and Meroe pay a nocturnal visit to the narrator and his old
friend, Socrates, in order that Meroe can get revenge on Socrates for disdaining her love and slandering her. 18 At his first appearance, Socrates,
although he carries the name of a key figure in Greek intellectual life, is
Arcellaschi 1990:35-44.
For Isis as the friend of slaves, see Witt 1971:23. The religious changes introduced
at the height of the Roman Empire were fueled by massive demographic changes; cf.
Nock 1933:99-137. For the importance of the metaphor of slavery in early Christianity, see Martin 1990. Pliny, Ep. 10.96 concedes that Christianity was practised by
'every rank, age and sex' - a revolution in the context of elitist pagan religious cults.
Minucius Felix's dialogue Octavius shows that Christianity included the 'illiterate,
poor, and uneducated' (16.5-6); see Lane Fox 1986:300-01.
16 Hershkowitz 1998:164.
17 Ov. Met. 9.450-64; Hershkowitz 1998:164.
18 For the attempted suicide, see Effe 1976:362-73.
14
15
• r
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HILTON
depicted as a social outcast (qualia solen! Forttmae decermina stipes in triviis erogare,
'like those broken branches of Fortune's tree who beg for money at street
corners', 1.6). In some ways Socrates resembles Lucius- both are businessmen and sensualists who come to ruin (1. 7) - and Lucius is shocked by this
scandal lflagitium) and by the fact that Socrates's children have been put
under guardianship and his wife has been urged to remarry.t9 Although
witches are generally marginalised in Roman society, Socrates appears to be
utterly subservient to Meroe, who enjoys erotic power over all men, including Indians and those who live on the opposite side of the world (Met.
1.8). 20 She also has the ability to transform them into animals (Met. 1.9) and
to transport entire houses to remote locations. In their nocturnal visitation,
with Aristomenes at their mercy, Pantheia asks Meroe whether they should
tear him limb from limb in a Baechle frenzy (hunc primum bacchatim discerpimus,
1.13) as Agave did Pentheus in Euripides's Bacchae (another case of the
inversion of social norms). Instead, they decide to allow him to survive, but
only so that he can bury his friend (undertakers were of low social status).21
When the porter of the lodge at which they are staying enquires about
Socrates, whom Aristomenes believes to have been murdered by the witches,
leaving him to take the blame, he envisages himself transported to hell: 'I
saw the earth gape open and beheld the pit of Tartarus with the dog Cerberus there ready to devour me' (memini me terra dehiscente ima Tartara inque his
canem Cerberum prorsus esurientem mei prospexisse, 1.15). He awakes to find himself on the ground, naked and covered in urine like a new-born baby (quasi
recens utero matris editus, 1.14).22 He believes that he has survived his own death
(supervivens et postumus, 1.14). Yet, mysteriously, when the porter enters, Socrates awakes, seemingly unaffected by the visit of the nocturnal hags. Aristomenes can only think that he has gone mad, or at least that he has been
drunk and has had a nightmare (vesane ... qui poculis et vino sepultus extrema somniasti, 1.18). Later, Aristomenes imagines them as 'those Furies of the night
before' (nocturnas etiam Furias illas imaginans, 1.19) ~, This story is set in Hypata
and prepares the reader paradigmatically for the mind-altering experiences of
Lucius in that town. In it the social order is inverted -women whose deviant
19
Fitzgerald 2000:98 notes that merchants are like slaves in being detached from the
community.
20 Her name marks her as an outsider (Meroe, 1.7), and she is compared with Colchian Medea as a practitioner of necromantic magic (1.10). See Ferguson 1970:15964.
21 For the status of undertakers, see Petronius, Sat. 38.15; 78.6.
22 For the metaphor of death and rebirth here, see Frangoulidis 2005:197-209.
HILTON
91
supernatural power is associated with people living outside the borders of
the Roman world, humiliate a prosperous Roman businessman. He finds
himself cowering under his bed, transformed into a tortoise (de Aristomene
testudo jactus, 1.12) or like a slave 'a candidate for a cross that had already been
decided on' (certe destinatae iam cruci candidatus, 1.14). Such an extreme
derangement of the Roman order produces in Lucius a sense that he has
gone mad, and that he has transgressed a religious sanction as sacrilegiously
as did Pentheus. The forces of magic, servitude and insanity that are at work
in this narrative will also confront him when he reaches his destination.
When Lucius, a handsome, well-educated, wealthy, young gentleman with
good connections (1.2; 2.2-3; 11.15) arrives in Hypata,23 he is consumed with
curiosity about Thessalian magic. 24 Although he is warned by his aunt
Byrrhaena, a respectable Roman matrona, 25 to avoid the witch Pamphile, he is
crazed with impatience to escape her chains (vecors animi manu eius velttt catena
quadam memet expedio, 2.6) and rushes from her house like a madman (amenti
simi/is celero vestigittm) to grasp the opportunity that presents itself to witness
acts of magic from beyond the everyday world. To facilitate his desire for
what is supernatural and alien, Lucius plans to avoid forming any sexual
bond with his hostess, but to take the low road and seduce the slave girl
Photis instead. In this way, paradoxically, his enslavement really begins. The
erotic relationship between Lucius and Photis is so excessive that it resembles a mad Bacchic revel (bacchamttr in venerem, 3.20). Through this bond, he
soon succumbs to the power of Pamphile's magic. Returning from Byrrhaena's dinner-party, he finds himself attacking three wineskins under the belief
that they are robbers intent on ransacking Milo's house, whereas in reality
they have been animated by Pamphile, using hairs shorn from the skins,
because Photis had failed to obtain hair from the heads of her mistress's
lovers (2.32). In this attack he is described as the legendary Ajax, driven
insane by the award of the armour of Achilles to Odysseus, with the result
that he attacks sheep thinking that they are his enemies (in insani modttm Aiacis
armaftts, 3.18). Put on trial on a charge of manslaughter, Lucius becomes a
ridiculous spectacle to the community of Hypata, 26 and although this occurs
during Hypata's Festival of Laughter and although the Hypatans offer to put
23
On the social status of Lucius as reflected in his physiognomy, see Keulen 2006:
168-202, esp. 169-70.
24 On the theme of curiosity in the novel, see Sandy 1972:179-83.
25 For the social status ofByrrhaena, see Keulen 2006:168-202, esp. 196.
26 For Lucius as a spectacle here, see Slater 2003:88.
92
HILTON
up a statue in his honour,27 this experience is an indication of his increasing
social isolation. 28 When Lucius finally gains his wish to witness the transformation of Pamphile, who is herself quite out of her mind (Pamphile mea iam
vecors animi tectum scandulare conscendit, 3.17), he becomes utterly deranged:
At ego nullo decantat11s carmine, praesentis tantum facti stupore difixus, quidvis
aliud magis videbar esse quam Lucius. Sic exterminat11s animi, attonit11s in
amentiam vigilans somniabar.
I, who had not been enchanted by any spell, yet was so transfixed
with awe at the occurrence that I seemed to be something other than
Lucius. I was outside the limits of my own mind, amazed to the
point of madness, dreaming while awake (3.22, tt. Hanson).
During this time of madness, Lucius loses his freedom. Although, ironically,
he tells Byrrhaena that he believes he has never been as free as he was in
Hypata (nee usquam gentium magis me liberum quam hie jttisse credidi, 2.20), in fact it
is here that he becomes enslaved, at first to Pharis and later to the magic
drugs of Pamphile, whose secret knowledge even the spirits of the dead, the
stars, elements of the universe and the gods themselves obey (secreta quibus
obaudiunt manes, turbantur sidera, coguntur numina, servitmt elementa, 3.15). In Book
11, he is told by a priest of Isis that in Hypata he had plunged into slavish
pleasures (ad serviles delapsus voluptates, 11.15). 29 When Lucius initiates his
relationship with Pharis, he tellingly thinks of it as sexual bondage (nexus
venerius, 2.6).30 Lucius is willingly brought totally under the power of the
fragrant breasts of his servile mistress ifraglantibus papillis in servilem modum
addictum atque mancipatum teneas volentem, 3.19). On his metamorphosis, Lucius
submits to his harsh fate like a slave (durissimo casui meo serviens, 3.26) and
27
An honour granted to Apuleius, Flor. 16, who must have been very aware of the
politics surrounding such matters.
28 Frangoulidis 2002:177-88 interprets this episode as a community initiation rite.
However, Lucius's initial sense of alienation is of greater importance for my interpretation because of its psychological effect on him as an individual. See also Finkelpearl1991:221-36.
29 As Socrates had done (1.7). I take the phrase to mean 'the pleasures of a slave'
rather than 'pleasures that come from a slave'. See the discussion in Sandy 1974:23444; Penwill1975:49-82; and Bradley 2000:124-25.
30 The phrase is used of the relationship with Pamphile, which he avoids (a nexu
quidem venerio hospitis tuae tempera), but, by implication, it also refers to the connection
with Photis, which he actively pursues. The words recall the prologue.
HILTON
93
from this point on the language of slavery is regularly applied to him. In
these episodes Lucius's social degradation to the status of a slave results in
an extreme sense of alienation and madness expressed in terms of magic. 31
By venturing outside of his social class, Lucius is transported into an unreal
world that shocks him into what resembles the experience of religious initiation.32 His sense of wonder at the transformation of Pamphile is expressed in
terms that resemble his amazement at the revelation ofisis (9.7).33
A similar pattern can be observed in the case of Psyche, who is often
taken as a counterpart of Lucius.34 Like Lucius, her experiences sweep her
out of her everyday world into a vortex of magic and madness. Her marriage
cuts her off from her family and transports her to another world of magical
pleasure. Her sisters become swollen with insane envy (vesania turgzdae, 5.11)
at the sudden transformation of their sister and they reflect on their own
social inferiority. They behave like awful Furies (taeterrimae Furiae, 5.12), and
it is the force of this insane passion that brings them to their ruin (vesanae
libidinis et invidiae noxiae stimulis agitatae, 5.27). The rams from which Psyche
must gather wool are equally ferocious - they are governed by jttria and rabies
(6.12) - and she must also negotiate her way past the rabid Cerberus in the
underworld (6.20) . As a result, Psyche loses her mind (amens, 5.7), and falls
under the power of Venus, who advertises for Psyche's recovery like
Romans would for a runaway slave (5.28), indicating that Psyche has been
traumatically demoted from her elite social position. When Psyche is found,
Venus humiliates her further by having her punished by her slaves (6.9). For
Psyche, just as for Lucius, sexual initiation is a magical but socially disruptive
experience, one that brings with it derangement and servitude before her
eventual salvation and marriage. Her katabasis is in itself a metaphor for her
altered psychological state.35
31 On the degradation and humiliation of Lucius and his attempts to regain his
dignity, see James & O'Brien 2006:234-51.
32 For the experience of initiation into a mystery cult, see Burkert 1987:89-114.
33 The astonishment of Lucius here resembles the amazement of Socrates at the
blasphemies of Aristomenes against Pantheia and Meroe (1.8), Lucius's wonder at
the magic of Thessaly (2.2), the astonishment of the priest of Isis at the appearance
of Lucius (11.14), and the amazement of Lucius at the dream he experiences (11.20).
34 See, for example, Walsh 1970:190.
35 Psychological interpretations of the Cupid and Psyche tale are numerous; see, for
example, Neumann 1956; Katz 1976:111-14; Makowski 1985:73-78;Johnson 1989;
Von Franz 1992; Gollnick 1992; and Paglia 2006:1-14 on Neumann.
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HILTON
As in the tales of Aristomenes, Lucius and Psyche, the story of Charite
features the onset of madness after her sudden transition from the position
of a free and privileged young woman to a captive at the mercy of outlaws.
At 4.25 a young girl, later identified as Charite, awakens 'like a madwoman'
from a dream (jymphatico ritu somno recttssa) of how her fiance had been
attacked and she had been kidnapped on her wedding day by a gang of
gladiators. 36 Tellingly, none of her slaves had offered any resistance (nee ul/o de
familiaribus nostris repugnante, 4.26). The gladiators had shown no interest in
murder or robbery. Theirs was an act of targetted kidnapping directed at a
wealthy and prosperous family. Charite's terror arises from her transformation from being the daughter of respectable parents, in a home with many
slaves (tanta familia), cared for by loving home-bred slaves (cari vermtlz), to
being the loot of robbers and a slave herself (mancipium), who is treated as a
slave (serviliter) . Her madness may have been exacerbated by her powerlessness- she had been unable to do anything during the attack.37 In contrast, in
a later narrative, Platina behaves fearlessly among the bands of soldiers
guarding her, and their naked swords (inter ipsas custodientittm militttm mantts et
gladios nttdos intrepida, 7.6). Charite, on the other hand, like her mother, is
'pathetic and fainting from intense fear' (misera, exanimis saevo pavore) during
the attack (the gladiators likewise have swords drawn: nttdis et infestis
mttcronibtts coruscans, 4.26). Whereas Charite does nothing to rouse her slaves
to her defence, Platina reacts immediately to the sound of Haemus's men
breaking into their house, calling on her soldiers and her own slaves by
name, and generally rousing the neighbourhood to their help (milites sttosque
famulos nominatim, sed et omnem viciniam suppetiatttm convocans, 7.7). One important difference between the two cases is instructive. While Platina retains her
social position, Charite experiences a violent displacement. Charite's loss of
status and her servile degradation by her attackers produce within her a sense
of alienation, unreality and madness, emphasised by the fantastic tale of
Psyche, with whom she is closely associated.
Charite is eventually rescued by her fiance Tlepolemus and restored to
her family (7.13). On their return they are greeted by 'parents, relatives,
clients, wards and slaves' (procttrrunt parentes, cifftnes, clientes, alumni, famttlz).
After her marriage, Charite becomes a matrona and able to dispense patronage to all, including Lucius, who had aided her escape. Her happiness does
36
37
For the wedding imagery in this narrative, see Frangoulidis 1999:601-19.
Charite is initially nameless, a fact that underlines her marginalised status in the
story in comparison with her actual social position; cf. Frangoulidis 1991:387-94.
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HILTON
not last, however. Her husband, Tlepolemus, is killed by a jealous lover,
Thrasyllus. Once more Charite's status changes, she is now no longer matrona
but vidua, and her grief, exacerbated by her public following, is intense. In
her deranged state she is visited by the ghost of her husband (8.8), who could
not wait for her disturbed state of mind (percitae mentis ... fitroi) to calm
down. 3S Like Dido, she runs out of the crowded public spaces of her city to
the country meadows in a frenzy of grief, lamenting her husband's death in a
crazy voice (amens et vecordia percita cursuque bacchata furibundo per plateas populosas
et arva mrestria ftrtur, insana voce casum mariti quiritans, 8.6), accompanied by the
whole city (civitas cuncta) drawn by a desire to see this public spectacle (studio
visionis). Her fellow citizens attempt to reassert the social order by preventing
her suicide and giving her husband a public funeral (prosequente populo).
Charite nevertheless exacts her self-destructive revenge. In language reminiscent of Seneca's Oedipus, she entices Thrasyllus into a trap, gets him drunk
and stabs his eyes out with a pin, before stabbing herself to death with
Tlepolemus's sword which she clutches in her 'frenzied hands' (vesanis manibus), after a crazy chase through the middle of the city (per mediam civitatem
cursu fitrioso proripit se, 8.13). By contrast with this public drama, Thrasyllus's
solitary suicide by starvation occurs in the same tomb, but without the
accompanying crowds and spectacle. The narrative recalls the breakdown in
the social order in Dido's Carthage, and at Thebes during the reign of
Oedipus. 39
Another episode in the narrative, which also has a lot in common with its
counterpart in the pseudo-Lucianic Ass (35), illustrates how madness could
be used as an act of resistance within the context of the humiliations of
Roman slavery. Arriving at a large and famous city, Lucius in his asinine
form is put on sale at an auction (8.23-35). The other animals are sold off
quickly at high prices, but Lucius is left alone and suffers the repeated
;
38
See Lateiner 2003:219-38. Charite here is as insanely suicidal as Dido. For this see
Finkelpearl 1998:115-48.
39 The intertexts here are well-known. For example, the word used to describe her
frenzy (jymphatico) recalls how, after her rejection by Aeneas, Dido rages through the
city of Carthage like a madwoman (ju1it fymphata per ttrbem); there are many other
parallels between these two narratives. However, the basic facts of the Charite story
are present also in the Ass narrative attributed to Lucian, which shows no intertextual relationship with the Aeneid. Charite's madness may therefore be taken to be
independent of the Dido story. Nevertheless, in both cases self-destructive rage is
the result of a traumatic social humiliation. On the function of madness in the novel
as a whole, see Shumate 1996b:103-17.
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HILTON
indignity of having his teeth inspected by potential buyers to assess his age.
Annoyed by this, he viciously crushes the hand of the next customer in his
jaws (manum ... mordicus arreptam plenissime contemi, 8.23). As a result he is considered ferocissimus and no-one shows any interest in buying him until he is
bought by a bald old cinaedus making a living out of exhibiting his devotion to
the Syrian goddess in the streets of the city. In a scene that recalls a secondhand car sale today, the auctioneer at first plays up his goods, describing the
ass as a Cappadocian, as Cappadocian slaves were famous for their strength.
%en the cinaedtts goes on to ask the age of the ass, the auctioneer sarcastically responds that an astrologer had told him that he was only five years old,
as the ass himself could confirm on the evidence of his tax returns (ipse scilicet
me/ius istud de suis novit prrfessionibus, 8.24), which only Roman citizens were
liable for. The auctioneer goes on to deliver a transparent sales pitch:
Qttamquam enim prudens crimen Comeliae legis incun-atJJ, si civem Romanttm
pro servo tibi vendidero, quin emis bonum et jntgi mancipittm, quod te et]oris et
domi poterit i11vare?
Now, though I know full well that I am risking a charge under the
Cornelian law if I sell you a Roman citizen as a slave, why not buy
yourself a good and useful piece of property here, which can give you
satisfaction both at home and away? (8.24, tr. Hanson)
These words are ironic because the auctioneer is indeed selling a Roman
citizen, Lucius, into slavery. This is made clear by the auctioneer's assurance
that the ass is so tame that 'you would think that inside this ass's hide dwelt a
mild-mannered human being' (in asini corio modesfttm hominem inhabitare credas;
8.25). The reader recalls that before his metamorphosis, Lucius actually was
mild-mannered and considerate -he allows his horse to rest while climbing a
steep hill, for example (1.2).40 The words also suggest by innuendo that the
cinaedus does not want the ass only for transport, but also for the kind of
sexual exploitation no doubt often carried out by Roman masters on their
slaves - this is made clear by the auctioneer's recommendation that his client
put his head between the thighs of the ass to find out 'how great a passivity
he would display': nam si faciem tuam mediis eius feminibtts immiseris, jaczle
periclitaberis qttam grandem tibi demonstret patientiam (8.25). If they are not entirely
ironic, these words imply that the ass's large sexual organs would guarantee
40 Fitzgerald 2000:103 sees Lucius's sympathy for his horse as an anticipation of his
sufferings as an ass.
0
~.
I ...
:-:.'
.. ,.
.··.· ..
HILTON
97
his compliance. His servitude is a consequence of his prodigious sexuality.
For Lucius, this is a deeply humiliating experience. He is reminded of the
contrast between his former status as a Roman citizen and his present
condition as an ass sold as the last of the lot to Syrian priests for their sexual
gratification. 41 He is not only treated as an instrumentum but also as a woman
who would demonstrate great passivity (grandis patientia) in matters of sex.
His 'femaleness' is borne out by the use of the variant form feminibus for
femoribus ('thighs') here. Apuleius uses the regular form at 7.23, after Lucius is
accused of murdering the cruel boy who had been put in charge of him. One
of the ass's handlers proposes to castrate him to make him more docile. This
is the way, he says, in which even the most wild horses who are driven mad
by excessive sexual desire (ftrocissimi equi, nimio libidinis laborantes atque ob id
truces vesanique), are made tame (mansueti ac mansues exinde facti et oneri ferundo non
inhabiles et cetero ministerio patientes, 7.23). He proposes to get the necessary
tools and spread the ass's thighs, castrate him and make him gentler than any
wether (dissitis femoribus emasculare et quovis vervece mitiorem dftcere, 7.23). The two
passages are linked; the earlier one underlines Lucius's degradation here.
Lucius is appalled at the prospect of being sold to the Syrian priest at the
auction and thinks of pretending to be mad (8.25), so that he would be
judged unsuitable for carrying the image of the goddess around the towns of
Greece (cogitabam subito ve!ttt !Jmphaticus exsilire, ut me ferocitate cern ens exasperatum
emptionem disineret, 8.25). The word !Jmphare is also found at 8.27, where the
devotees of the Syrian goddess perform a 'frenzied ecstatic dance' (!Ymphaticum tripudium) during one of their dervish performances. Varro (Ling. 7.87)
notes Pacuvius's use of the word and traces its origin from rrympha ('water
goddess') and the Greek belief that men could be driven mad by nymphs
(rrympholeptoz). He associates it closely with the ecstatic Bacchantes. The word
occurs also in the dramas of Seneca in contexts of the sudden and traumatic
change of status from royalty to slave. Thus the fall of Troy is foretold by
Cassandra (ore !Jmphatico, Tro. 34). In Medea the nurse describes the behaviour
of her crazed mistress on hearing of Jason's remarriage, 'bearing the marks
of insane frenzy on her face' ifuroris ore signa !Jmphati gerens):
Ineetta qua/is entheos gressus tulit
cum iam reeepto maenas insanit deo
Pindi niualis uettiee aut Njsae iugis,
talis reeursat hue et hue motu iffero,
juroris ore signa !Jmphati gerens.
41
On the sexual exploitation of slaves, see Glancy 2002:21-23, 49-53, 61-70.
,.
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HILTON
jlammata facies, spiritum ex alto citat,
proclamat, oculos uberi jletu rigat,
renidet: omnis specimen ciffecttiS capit.
Just as a maenad uncertainly directs her ecstatic steps
when she has taken in the god and rages
on the peak of snowy Pindus or the ridge ofNysa,
so she runs back and forth with wild movements this way and that
bearing the marks of insane frenzy on her face.
Her face is aflame, she draws her breath from deep within,
shouts out, and waters her eyes with copious weeping,
smiles, and wears the mask of every emotion.
(Sen. Med 382-88, my translation)
Lucius's plan to act mad comes to nothing, however, as he is quickly sold
before he is able to do so. Ironically, his intended 'madness' is directed
towards a rational end. Nevertheless, the episode suggests that 'mad' behaviour from a slave, especially one who could not communicate, would have
been considered a defect (as Justinian, Digest 21.1.1.9 - discussed above makes clear) and could have been an effective form of slave resistance to
abusive treatment.
Apuleius's account of this episode is considerably longer than what we
have in the Ass version. What is similar in both is that there was an auction;
that the teeth of the asses were inspected by buyers; that Lucius was the last
to go; that Fortune had turned on him for the worse. However, in the
Metamorphoses it is the auctioneer who describes the ass as a Cappadocian,
whereas in the Ass it is the Syrian priest who does so, when he presents his
new purchase to his fellow devotees. There is no suggestion in the Ass that
he was in any way Roman and, rather surprisingly, there is no overt
discussion of his sexual organ. Missing also are the biting of the hand of a
purchaser, the repartee between auctioneer and ~yrian priest and the plan to
act mad. Judging from this, Apuleius's narrative has irony, humour, social
realism and more authentic emotional sensitivity to the humiliations experienced by slaves. It brings together Lucius's humiliating loss of his Roman
identity, his sexual degradation and his resulting feigned insanity.
Lucius's ploy to escape his sale to the cinaed11s does not succeed, but he
does manage to turn the tables on his human persecutors in a later episode
of madness. To escape the fate of being butchered to cover up the loss of a
.
~
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HILTON
99
haunch of venison,42 Lucius flees from a cook into the dining-room of a rich
man who has shown hospitality to the devotees of the Syrian goddess. He is
ordered to be locked up, but before this instruction can be carried out, a
slave brings a report of a rabid dog that has bitten a number of people and
animals in a frenzied attack (ardentique prorsus f urore, 9.2). Everyone assumes
that the strange behaviour of Lucius means that he has been bitten and that
he is rabid. They therefore hunt him down in order to kill him, but Lucius
escapes into the house-owner's bedroom, where he is locked up for the night
in the hope that the poison will do the job for them. The next day they offer
Lucius water as a test to prove whether he is still rabid, as such animals were
said to shun water. Lucius understands this and drinks the water avidly until
he has disproved the madness of his human handlers (quoad contra uesanam
eorum praesumptionem modestiam meam liquido cunctis adprobaretn, 9.4). The
incident neatly subverts the social order - the bestialised Lucius is able to use
his human knowledge against his handlers. Once again, unlike the version in
the Ass, Apuleius adds the detail of the rabid dog in order to expose insane
assumptions of the rich man's household. The incident belongs to the
context of slavery; Lucius is a runaway ifugitivus), but one who is able to turn
the tables on his owners through his intelligence and knowledge of arcane
lore - the water test for rabies was one found only in ancient books (libri
pristini, 9.3).
From this point on in the narrative, episodes of madness escalate. While
Lucius and his owner were visiting the farm of a neighbour, for example
(9.35-38), a slave reported the deaths of the owner's three sons. A young,
rich and lawless aristocrat had reached a position of power that enabled him
to do whatever he liked (cuncta facile faciens in civitate, 9.35). 43 In a model of
what often became wars between entire states, this youth attempted to drive
his poor neighbour off his land by instigating a baseless lawsuit over the
boundaries of the property, killing his cattle and destroying his crops. The
poor farmer, supported by others, including three brothers of the landowner
whom Lucius and his owner were visiting, attempted to reason with the
youth and to resist his encroachments. However, the madman (vesanus),
although addressed in gentle terms (blanditiae), expressed his contempt for
the mediators in violent and unrestrained language (non ... verbis temperare
voltti~ and swore that he would have the poor farmer immediately ejected
42
The story is Aesopic, and as such emanates from slave discourse. See further
Finkelpearl2003:37 -52.
43
For this episode, see also Shumate 1996a:111-13.
'·
.. ..
100
HILTON
from his hut by his slaves (per suos servulos sublatum de casu/a longissime statimque
proiectum in). One of the three brothers intervened to say that even the poor
were protected from arrogant tyrants by the law. This provoked the youth to
rage (ad extremam insaniam vecors, 9.36) and he ordered savage farm dogs
ifuriosa rabie concift) to be let loose on the crowd. The insane savagery of these
dogs gains colour from the description of the wolves the travellers had met
earlier. These are rabid and driven mad by insane hunger (vesana fame rabidi,
8.15). The dogs belonging to the rural workers, who attack them on their
way, are 'mad, enormous creatures, fiercer than any wolf or bear' (canes rabidi
et immanes et quibusvis lupis et ursis saeviores, 8.17). The youngest of the three
brothers was devoured by the ferocious hounds iferocissimis canibus) after
tripping over a stone. The other two, in turn driven to madness by grief
(ardentibus animis impetuqe vesano, 9.37), attacked the dives, only for a second to
be struck by a lance. The third brother was wounded by a sling-stone fired
by the rich man's slave, and pretended to have been lamed by it. He further
incited the dives, who then attacked him in a frenzy ifuriosus) with a sword,
only to be killed by the repeated blows of the last surviving son, who in turn
cut his own throat 'to liberate himself from the slaves of the dives, who were
running up to attack him' (ut accurentium etiam familiarium manu se liberaret,
9.38). This incident portrays both parties in the conflict in a state of mad
fury: the young aristocrat driven insane by the slightest rebuke from those he
considered his social inferiors; the three brothers enraged by the overbearing
arrogance of the rich aristocrat. The emotions of these four young men are
exacerbated by the crowd watching events unfold and by the repudiation of
their only remaining recourse - the law. With the restraints of civil governance removed, all are consumed by madness that reduces them to the level
of savage animals, like the ferocious mastiffs.
The story shows a resemblance to the duel between the Horatii and
Curiatii in Livy (1.22.3-1.26.14). Whereas in Livy two sets of three brothers
fight, in Apuleius the rich landowner is assisted py his dogs and slaves in his
contest with three sons of a poor farmer. Livy's account concerns 'the love
of power' (cupido impenz, 1.23.7) and a choice between 'power or slavery'
(imperium servitiumque, 1.23.9), just as Apuleius's youth was motivated by
outrage at an attempt to curb his desires by his social inferiors. In both
stories two brothers die before the third flees, turns on his pursuers and kills
them all. Apuleius's tale ends in the tragic suicide of the remaining son and
his father, while Livy has the surviving Horatius stab his sister to death for
mourning her lover, who was one of the Curiatii. Livy's narrative explains
how Rome came to control Alba Longa, whereas Apuleius's story of savage-
HILTON
101
ry provides an ominous precursor to an act of resistance against an arrogant
Roman soldier (9.39) by his current master, a poor gardener. In the world of
Apuleius's Metamorphoses, justice is rarely upheld and the corruption of the
courts is commented on openly (10.33), although the cases cited are from
mythology and ancient history and Lucius himself undercuts his own lecture
by commenting that it is asinine. 44 Unlike Lucius, Psyche and Charite, the
insanity of the aristocrat and his sons is not brought on by their displacement from their social position but from an abuse of power (maiorum gloria
male utens, 9.35).
Turning from the arbitrary madness of men, we find a group of equally
mad women towards the end of the novel. In a story recalling the passions of
Phaedra, a stepmother is driven mad with the raving fire of lust and is turned
into a bacchant of love by her desire for her step-son (completis igne vesano totis
praecordiis, immodice bacchatus Amor exaestuabat, 10.2). She becomes more and
more agitated by her intolerable madness (impatientia furoris ... agitata, 10.3) to
the extent that she comes down with an illness (aegritudo) . Eventually, she
confesses her love to the boy. He rejects her and, after an abortive plot to
poison him, she unsuccessfully frames him for both rape and murder. Her
counterpart is a Corinthian lady who, like Pasiphae, is overcome by an insane
passion (vesana libido, 10.19) for the ass and indulges in full-on sex with him,
complete with rabid thrusting (nisus rabidus, 10.22). Finally, a vile woman,
who is later condemned to be executed in the arena (vi/is bestiis addicta), is
driven mad by jealous fury (libidinosae furiae stimulis efferata, 10.24) for a
woman whom she suspects of having an affair with her husband and
savagely murders her. Her husband is driven insane (acerrimae bilis noxio furore
peifusus, 10.25) by this act of malice and falls into a burning fever, for which
she finds the cure in poison. These women are all led by erotic mania to
destroy themselves and others. The social world they inhabit is overturned
by their emotional excess; they are swept up in self-destructive criminality
that transforms them into bestialised outcast!J.45
This series of insane acts is finally resolved when Lucius flees from his
enslavement to the human world to reach 'the harbour of Peace and the altar
of Mercy' (11.15). He becomes a slave oflsis and his whole life is pledged to
her service. Like many Roman slaves, including those working in the mill
that Lucius observes (9.12), his hair is shaved off to mark his servitude to the
44
Tarrant 1999:71-89; Summers 1970:511-31.
Shumate 1996a:114 comments here that these stories create 'an overwhelming
sense that social law has entirely broken down. There is a cataclysmic movement of
the action toward a total dissolution of the social fabric .. .'
45
102
HILTON
goddess.46 His conversion is as much social as it is religious - unlike his old
friend Socrates, he avoids the fate of being one of the decermina Forttmae.
Lucius now joins a universal cult (Isis's numen is unicum multiformi specie, 11.5).
Isis promises that no-one will shrink from his ugly appearance and that he
will return to the world of men (redieris ad homines, 11.6) in all their variety.
The multiplicity of these homines is represented according to their own choice
(votivis studiis) in the Isiac procession (11.8): soldiers, men playing women,
gladiators, magistrates, philosophers, fowlers, fishermen, bears dressed as
women, a monkey dressed as Ganymede. The Isiac initiates belong to every.
gender, rank and age (viri Jeminaeque omnis dignitatis et omnis aetatis, 11.10).
Lucius eventually recovers his family, status and wealth, and leaves behind
the madness of fortune (eat nunc et summo f urore saeviat, 11.15). Ironically, it is
the malice of fortune that won him his present happiness (ad religiosam istam
beatitudinem improvida produxit malitia, 11.15). But he cannot leave the world
entirely behind him- his frustration with the long process of initiation drives
him once more to the point of madness (ad instar insaniae percitus, 11.29). 47
Nevertheless, he revisits his ancestral home (patrius far, 11.26) and travels to
the heart of the Empire, Rome, where he conducts a successful legal practice
(11.28).
The above analysis of madness in the M etamorphoses argues that it is the
progressive breakdown of Lucius's social world that brings about his psychological disorientation. Unlike madness in epic, there is no heroic code to
fulfil or to question (as in the Iliad), no imperial mission to promote or
subvert (as in the Aeneid), no chain of civil wars to condemn (as in Lucan). 48
Even the insanity arising from the shifting boundaries of the self in Ovid's
Metamorphoses cannot adequately embrace them. 49 At the beginning of the
work Lucius appears to have it all; he is kind, well-educated, handsome (2.23), rich and born into the ranks of the elite in the Roman Empire, but this is
not enough to save him from madness and a life of suffering and slavery
(11.15). Once a slave, he is exposed to the insane passions of the powerful
and attempts to resist them with his own invented delirium or to expose
Shaving the head as a sign of enslavement is found also in Petron. Sat. 103, and
Achilles Tatius 5.17, 8.5.4. For other interpretations of Lucius's baldness, see
Schmeling & Montiglio 2006:39; James & O'Brien 2006:241, 246-50.
47 Shumate 1996b:116 sees the Metamorphoses ending in a resolution at least on the
level of Lucius the actor. But 11.29 shows that this resolution is not total.
4B Apuleius's work has been characterised as an 'anti-epic'; Cooper 1980:436.
49 Hershkowitz 1998:125-60 (Homer); 68-124 (Virgil); 197-246 (Lucan); 161-96
(Ovid).
46
HILTON
103
them to criticism and punishment. Increasingly, however, he finds his own
judgement at fault and experiences a level of meaningless mania that makes
moral condemnation pointless. He seeks to escape into the service of or
slavery to Isis, but while this is a temporary reprieve, it is only a partial refuge
from the world and Lucius still needs to reintegrate fully with the human
society he had left behind.
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MAPPING MADNESS: TWO MEDICAL RESPONSES TO
INSANITY IN LATER ANTIQUITY*
Glenda McDonald
University of Newcastle
Visiting scholar, Unisa
Introduction
Madness, or the process of becoming mad, is a common subject in ancient
literature. Examples and discussions of mad people can be found in tragedy,
history and even philosophical works. 1 For the most part, the madness
presented in these works is explained as being of divine origin: the gods
inflict the madness upon a person either as punishment for some blasphemous action, or as a gift, in the form of philosophical or literary inspiration.
We therefore see heroes such as Orestes and Hercules go mad at the hands
of an offended goddess, 2 while Socrates tells Phaedrus that 'the greatest of
good things come to us through madness, when it is given by divine gift.'3
In medical literature, we are presented with a very different view of madness. Here, physicians identify madness as impairment or loss of reason, and
consider it as a symptom of disease rather than a condition of its own.4
Generally, the three main diseases said to cause loss of reason are mania, 5
* I am most grateful to Philip van der Eijk and Jonathan Andrews for their
suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to extend my thanks to
Philip Bosman for the opportunity to present my research at the Colloquium. Any
errors that remain are my own.
1 For scholarly reviews of madness in ancient literature see the following: Dodds
1964, Simon 1978, Feder 1980:35-97, Padel1992 and 1995.
2 In Eur. Or., Orestes is driven mad by the furies, while Heracles's madness (Eur.
Her.) is brought upon him by Lyssa on the orders of Hera.
3 Pl. Phdr. 244a6-8: vvv 8£: Ta ~EyLaTa TWV ayaewv ~~LV y( YVETaL 8u1 ~avLaS'' BEL\{
~EVTOL 86aEL 8L8o~EVT]S'. All translations are my own.
4 For general discussions of mental illness in ancient medicine, see Rosen 1968:90101, and Pigeaud 1981.
5 On the ancient concept of ~av(a, see Pigeaud 1987.
MCDONALD
107
melancholia, 6 and phrenitis.7 In describing these illnesses, medical writers
give special attention to how they are manifested within the body, how they
differ from one another, the physical explanations of how they arise in the
body and the methods by which these diseases might be treated.
This article presents perceptions and concepts of mania, melancholia and
phrenitis, as they were put forth by Aretaeus of Cappadocia and Caelius
Aurelianus, two authors who represent opposing theoretical approaches to
medicine. 8 Aretaeus's ideas are in keeping with the traditional Hippocratic
approach to medicine, which focuses on balancing the composition of the
body. Caelius Aurelianus, a Methodist, represents an innovative approach to
medicine unconcerned with, and often critical of, the Hippocratic authority.
Throughout this study, specific attention will be given to the methods these
physicians used to differentiate between each of the three mental diseases
and their causes. In this way it will become apparent that although Caelius
and Aretaeus give comparable symptomatic descriptions of mania, melancholia and phrenitis, their opinions vary widely with regard to the explanations of the causes of these diseases and the detailed mechanics of how they
come to affect mental function.
The physicians
. Aretaeus of Cappadocia was a Pneumatic physician from the 1st century AD.
Pneumatic medicine takes its name from the emphasis it places on the role
6
In using the term 'melancholia', I am referring to the Greco-Roman concept of this
disease, not the modern concept commonly described as 'melancholy'. Flashar 1966
gives a comprehensive discussion of melancholia in ancient medicine.
7 Other diseases said to cause mental impairment include epilepsy, lethargy, apoplexy, hydrophobia and satyriasis. Currently, there' is no comprehensive work discussing ancient views of phrenitis. For more limited discussions of this disease, see
Sakai 1991, Byl & Szafran 1996, Pigeaud 1994 and 1998.
8 This discussion is part of a larger project, in which I am studying different approaches to phrenitis presented by three roughly contemporary physicians from the early
Imperial period. While that study will incorporate the ideas of Galen as well, I have
chosen to exclude Galen from the present discussion for reasons of space. Whereas
Caelius and Aretaeus give unified, systematic discussions of mania, melancholy and
phrenitis, Galen's references to these diseases and their diagnoses are spread over a
large number of texts and require considerable explanation to fit them together in a
coherent manner. Such an endeavour would go beyond the scope of the current
discussion.
108
MCDONALD
of pneuma in determining illness and health.9 Galen tells us that this type of
medicine was 'founded' by Athenaeus of Attaleia, probably around AD 60.10
Athenaeus's theories combined elements of Stoicism and Hippocratic medicine. From the very beginning, followers of this school combined Athenaeus's ideas with those of other schools, producing very eclectic forms of
medical theory. This, and the limited number of so-called 'pneumatic' works
surviving today, make it very difficult to know whether adherents to these
ideas ever formed a cohesive 'school' of medicine. 11
Aretaeus's work on diseases is the most complete Pneumatic text surviving today. 12 Like the Hippocratic Corpus, it is written in the Ionic dialect
and contains many allusions to the Hippocratic Corpus. 13 From its current
form, we know that Aretaeus grouped his discussions of diseases under four
headings, with two books for each title: On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute
Diseases, On the Causes and Symptoms of Chronic Diseases, Therapeutics of Acute
Diseases, and Therapeutics of Chronic Diseases. 14 In this system, each disease has
two chapters of the work devoted to it: a chapter in one of the first four
books to describe its causes and symptoms, and one from the latter four
books, discussing the method of treatment it requires. While the division of
diseases by acute and chronic was common among the works of ancient
physicians, the separation of the discussion of pathology and treatment of
one and the same disease into separate books seems to be unique to
Aretaeus. 15
9
Nutton 2004:202. The most extensive discussion of the Pneumatic School is the now outdated - Wellmann 1895; cf. also Smith 1979:230-33 and Oberhelman
1994:941-66.
IO Galen, De Cmtsis Contentivis 1.2; cf. Lyons 1969.
11 Nutton 2004:206, 385 n. 30.
12 Book 1, chapters 1-4 are lost entirely. These included discussions of the causes
and symptoms of phrenitis, lethargy, marasmus and apoplexy. Chapter 5, on epilepsy, commences part-way through the chapter. The titles of these chapters can be
restored by their parallel chapters in Book 5, which provide the treatments of these
illnesses.
13 Nutton 2004:205.
14 The only modern critical edition of this text is Hude 1958 (CMG 2). Hereafter, I
will follow Rude's number system, and refer to these books as follows: On the Causes
and Symptoms rif Acute Diseases - Books 1 and 2; On the Causes and Symptoms rif Chronic
Diseases- Books 3 and 4; Therapeutics rif Acttte Diseases- Books 5 and 6; Therapeutics rif
Chronic Diseases- Books 7 and 8.
15 Roselli 2004:164-65. WlUle it is true that other physicians- such as Diodes (Van
der Eijk 2000-1), Anonymous Parisinus (Garofalo & Fuchs 1997) and Praxagoras
... . .;.-• ·r'
MCDONALD
109
Another interesting aspect of Aretaeus's work is the prefaces at the start
of each major section of the text. 16 The preface to Book 5 is of a style rather
typical of medical prefaces: it appears prior to the beginning of chapter 1 and
outlines the contents of the subsequent book.17 In contrast to this, and more
uncommon in this genre, are the prefaces to Books 3 and 7, which are listed
as the opening chapters to each of these books. 18 In these, Aretaeus outlines
the painful and often dangerous nature of chronic diseases and their treatments, and depicts something of the relationship that must exist between a
successful physician and his patient. In the preface to Book 3, for example,
Aretaeus urges the physician to encourage his patient by way of diversified
treatments and leniency in less important aspects of regimen; he also reminds
patients that they must be courageous and willing to cooperate with their
physicians. 19 Only in this way will a chronic disease be prevented from
wearing down the patient's soul as well as his body.zo
Caelius Aurelianus was active during the 5th century AD. He espouses the
Methodist view of disease, a form of medical theory that challenged the
more typical, humoural approaches to disease. The Methodist sect was
founded in the 1st century BC by Themison of Laodicea, a follower of
Asclepiades~2 1 Toward the end of his life, Themison broke from
Asclepiades's teachings and developed the theory of the three KOLVOTT]TES or
common states, in which all diseases are said to develop from one of three
common states: stricture, looseness, or a mix of the two. 22 Around AD 50,
(Steckerl 1958) - separated their discussions of each disease into causes, signs and
treatments, these physicians seemed to have kept the topics together in a single
chapter for each disease. The uniqueness of Aretaeus's work is that the causes and
symptoms sections of each disease are entirely isolated from their related sections on
treatment. There is some indication that Archigenes's lost work on nosology may
have used a similar organisational scheme as Aretaeus; however, this is not known
for certain. For more information, see Roselli 2004:165 n. 6; Mavroudis 2000.
16 Roselli 2004:165. The prefaces are found at the start of Books 3, 5 and 7;
presumably, there would also have been a preface to Book 1, although this part of
the work is now lost.
17 Aret. 5.0.1 (Hude 1958:91.3-11). One is reminded of the preface to Celsus's De
M edicina, which outlines the historical development of medicine and serves as an
introduction to the eight books of Celsus's work. See Mudry 1982.
18 Aret. 3.1.1 (Hude 1958:36.4-18) and 7.1.1 (Hude 1958:144.3-15).
19 Aret. 3.1.1-3.1.2 (Hude 1958:36.11-14).
zo Aret. 3.1.2 (Hude 1958:36.14-18).
21 Tecusan 2004:13.
22 Celsus, De med. praef. 11 and Plin. HN 29.5.6; see Nutton 2004:190-91.
f• .
I
··.
110
MCDONALD
Thessalus of Tralles further developed these ideas, producing a form of
medicine that focused on the method of healing rather than the theories
behind it.23
Caelius's primary extant work, On Acute and Chronic Diseases, was
composed around AD 400. 24 Written in Latin, this treatise is the most
substantial surviving Methodist work on the subject of disease.25 As can be
inferred from the title, Caelius divides his discussion by acute and chronic
diseases. For each disease, he provides causes, symptoms and treatments,
and frequently offers lengthy, though biased, doxographic information about
earlier authors' ideas on that disease. In creating this text, Caelius drew
heavily from a Greek work on the same subject written by Soranus, a wellknown Methodist from the early part of the 2nd century AD.26 While the
exact connection between these works cannot be known, there is sufficient
evidence in Caelius's work - especially as regards phrenitis - to indicate that
his ideas are representative of 2nd century Methodist doctrine.27 It is on this
basis that Caelius's work may be compared with that of Aretaeus, despite the
time span between them.
When comparing the opinions of Caelius and Aretaeus, one must be
aware of the difference in style between these authors. Aretaeus's work, for
example, contains many features which indicate that he was a practicing
physician whose primary concern was the treatment of his patients. His
discussions of disease and treatment are interspersed with first-person
comments which give an impression of the relationship that existed between
doctor and patient. 28 In his discussion of treatment for cardiac affections, for
example, Aretaeus points out that illnesses and therapies can be very taxing
for a patient. Thus, the physician must encourage the patient with cheerful
Nutton 2004:167.
Nutton 2004:294. The most recent critical edition of this text is by Bendz 1990;
the most recent English translation is by Drabkin 1950.
zs Nutton 2004:188.
26 Modern scholars are now in agreement that Caelius's Acute and Chronic Affections is
more than just a Latin translation of Soranus's Greek work of the same name. What
is still in debate, however, is the extent to which Caelius has expanded upon Soranus's ideas. For further discussion of this relationship, see Pigeaud 1982:105-18;
Uoyd 1983:186 n. 258; Rubinstein 1985:185 n. 3; Vallance 1990:5 n. 7; Vazquez
Bujan 1991:87-97; Hanson & Green 1994:979; and Vander Eijk 1999a:48 n. 2.
27 These aspects will become evident in the following discussion.
zs Roselli 2004:166.
..
23
24
0
•
. . .
MCDONALD
111
words and assist him by offering diversified versions of treatment. 29 In his
discussion of tetanus, Aretaeus laments that in some cases, a physician
cannot . offer his patient any assistance as regards life, relief from pain or
from deformity. In these cases the physician can only offer sympathy, as the
patient slowly succumbs to the illness. This type of comment is not common
in medicalliterature.30
Caelius's work, on the other hand, presents itself as a more refined, systematic approach. Throughout his work, Caelius is very concerned with proper
diagnosis: he bases his discussion of each disease around a basic framework
of issues, emphasising such aspects as character and symptoms of the
disease, the part of the body most affected, 31 and the aspects of one disease
which can make it appear similar to another. 32 Caelius also includes commentary on earlier authors' views of the diseases, particularly in respect to
definitions, the location of the illness in the body (locus ciffecttts) and appropriate therapy. 33 These reviews are very critical and usually introduced only
for the purpose of pointing out mistakes Caelius believes these physicians to
have made. Caelius does provide descriptions of individual patients, but
these give the impression of being formulaic examples rather than patients in
whom he has any particular interest. Caelius presents his therapeutic
measures in the order they are to be administered; in some instances, he
includes theoretical discussions about why these treatments are effective. As
a result, the overall impression one gets from this work is that Caelius meant
to produce a theoretical discussion rather than a practical manual.
29 Aret. 5.3.12 (Hude 1958:128.27-30): XPD wv atiT6v TE aAK~EVTU KUL EU8Uf.l.OV
Ef.l.f.l.EVm Kal. TCJV LTJTpov ErrEaL f.l.EV rrapa<jlcia8m E:s EuEA.maTLTJV Ef.l.f.l.EVm, ws
ap~yELv TrOLKLAlJ Tpo<jlfj TE KUL OLV(jl ('Artd so it is necessary for the patient to be
8e
courageous and cheerful and for the doctor to remain speaking in hopeful terms,
and to assist with varied food and wine').
30 Roselli 2004:172.
31 Methodists oppose the belief that a disease affects only one part of the body: they
argue that the entire body is affected by an illness, especially in those cases where
fever is present. In some cases, however, they are willing to admit that a disease may
affect one part of the body more than others; cf. Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.8.55; 2.6.26, etc.;
Vander Eijk 1998:347.
32 Cf. Vander Eijk 1998:345-47.
33 Vander Eijk 1998:346-47. These three doxographic areas are evident in Caelius's
discussion of phrenitis, Acut. 1. Caelius's critique of incorrect definitions appears at
Acut. 1. praef. 4-21; comments on incorrect designations of the locus ciffecttls are at
Act1t. 1.8.53-57, and an extensive review of his predecessors' faulty treatment regimes
range fromAcut. 1.12.100 toAct1t. 1.17.183.
112
MCDONALD
Symptomatology
Ever since the Hippocratic writings, opinions were divided on the connection between the name and the precise nature of phrenitis, melancholia and
mania. 34 The controversy is reflected in the works of both Aretaeus and
Caelius Aurelianus. One explanation for the name of phrenitis, for example,
is to link it with the ¢p~v, the diaphragm, which from Homeric times was
considered to be the location of rational thought. Others, such as Galen,3S
explained the name of phrenitis as relating to the word ¢pov~cns-, intelligence, the function that was compromised when this illness was present.36 A
similar case is presented by melancholia, which some claimed acquired its
name from the belief that it was caused by an excess of black bile within the
body. 37 Aretaeus supports this belief, explaining that melancholia appears
when black bile moves upwards from the bowel to the stomach and diaphragm.38 In contrast, Caelius states that melancholia makes one vomit black
bile, but that the disease is not actually caused by it. 39 The term 'mania' has
an equally disputed history. Caelius is able to give six possible derivations,
including the Greek words av(a, anguish, 'because it produces great mental
anguish'; f1av6c:,-, 'relaxed' 'because there is excessive relaxation of the mind';
and AUflULVELV, to defile, 'because the disease defiles the patient.'40 Caelius
does not give a source for any of these possibilities.
The most fundamental distinction made by physicians when diagnosing
the various forms of madness, or indeed of any form of disease, was to
determine whether the illness was acute or chronic. This distinction is used
as an organisational scheme in many Greek medical texts. According to
Caelius, Themison was the first to use this classification system in a written
34 Vander Eijk 2005:120; e.g. Anonymous
Parisinus,Ano~rymi Medici 1, in which the
different opinions of Erasistratus, Praxagoras, Diodes, and Hippocrates are compared; see also Garofalo 1997:2.
35 Ps.-Galen, Intr. 13 (14.733K): auv(aTaTm of. iTEpl. EYKE<jlaA.ov, ~ iJ.~VLyyas, ~ ws
TLVES AEyouaL iTEpl. <jlpEvas, 8 oLa<jlpayiJ.a KUAELTm ('[Phrenitis] occurs around the
head, or the membranes of the brain, or as certain people say, around the phrenes,
which is called the diaphragm'); see also Galen, De foe. qff. 5.4.
36 Vander Eijk 2005:120.
37 !J.EA.as ='black'; xoA.~ = 'bile'; Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.180.
38 Aret. 3.5.1 (Hude 1958:39.14-15).
39 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.180.
40 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.145.
I.
t
..·~
··· .·
MCDONALD
113
text,41 but there is evidence that physicians were aware of this difference as
early as the Hippocratic Corpus. 42 Acute diseases are those which appear
suddenly and come to a swift conclusion through recovery, death, or transformation into another illness. Chronic diseases, on the other hand, cause
long-term suffering and have uncertain recoveries: the illness may remain
with the patient permanently, or it may appear to be cured, only to recur at a
later date.
In the case of madness, phrenitis is the acute disease, while mania and
melancholia are chronic. Phrenitis always appears shortly after the onset of a
fever; both Caelius and Aretaeus indicate that loss of reason usually begins
one to seven days after the commencement of fever. 43 This disease also
resolves itself quickly, either in complete recovery of the patient or- perhaps
the more common outcome - in death. Melancholia and mania, on the other
hand, are of longer duration, with symptoms often going into remission and
reappearing as much as several years later. 44
In terms of the clinical picture of these diseases, Aretaeus and Caelius
seem to be in broad agreement as to their overall nature, although they have
some differences of opinion regarding the finer details. In his discussion of
phrenitis, Caelius tells us that the loss of reason caused by this disease can
make patients incoherent, so that they stare fixedly and do not blink for long
periods. 45 He reports that patients can become either excited and cheerful,
laughing, singing and even dancing around, or sad and depressed, moaning
and crying out in sadness or fear. 46 Caelius also believes that irrational behaviour is common ill phrenitis: actions such as tearing at one's clothes and
hair, violently striking out at people nearby, or speaking with people who are
absent or even dead. 47 Aretaeus's chapter on the causes and symptoms of
phrenitis is no longer extant, but it is evident from his discussion of its treatment that he believed phrenitis to cause severe delirium, which can sometimes lead to violent behaviour. 48 He reports that phrenitis might cause
41
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1. praef. 3.
Nutton 2004:34; 380 n. 31; see also Cael. Aur. Chron. 1. praef. 3.
43 Aret. 5.1.4 (Hude 1958:92.15-21); Cael. Aur. Act1t. 1.3.35.
44 Aret. 6.5.10 (Hude 1958:158.3-4).
45 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.3.36.
46 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.7.52.
47 Cael. Aur. Act~t. 1.3.35-36.
48 Aret. 5.1.3 (Hude 1958:92.1-2): rravTa yap EVElu~EECT9aL XP~. ~aA.wTa To1aL €s
opy~v ~ rrapa<jlop~ ('For it is necessary to be pleasing in all things, especially in those
whom the derangement tends towards anger').
42
!.·
'·
0
•
•• '
.·:· ·
114
MCDONALD
patients to dislike the light, since it may cause them to see things that do not
exist or are not present, to confuse one thing with another, or to see strange
images that frighten them.49 Caelius is also aware of the possible dislike of
light among phrenitis patients. so
A further distinguishing characteristic of phrenitis which both Caelius
and Aretaeus describe is a grasping motion of the patient's hands, usually
towards hairs in the bed covers, or straws in the walls and mattress. 51 These
actions, which are referred to in Greek as KpOKu8wjl6s and KapcpoA.oy(a
respectively, 52 are seen in descriptions of phrenitis as early as the Hippocratic
Corpus.s3 Although Caelius does not explain why phrenitis patients exhibit
this trait, Aretaeus attributes it to a form of visual hallucination that is
brought upon by the disease. Phrenitis patients, he tells us, 'grasp at certain
false appearances before their eyes, and feel around at non-protruding things
as if they were projecting out, and any occasion brings unprovoked stimulation of the hands.'54
Caelius gives a detailed account of ailments that could accompany phrenitis, such as nosebleeds, insomnia, unintelligible speech, restlessness, conti-
I .,
49 Aret. 5.1.3. (Hude 19 58:92.2-7): KaTaKALCJLS" ~ EV ( 6q,tp ~ EV q,wTL 1rpos- TO v6crrnw
TEK!lUPTETl. ~v yap iTpOS" TTJV avyi]v aypw(vwcrL KUL opEwcrL Ta llTJ OVTQ KUL Ta llTJ
lJiTEOVTa q,avTa(WVTaL ~ ave ' ETEpwv ETEpa YLYVWO"KWO"L, ~ ~Eva i.v8ciAilaTa
iTpoMHwvTm KUL TO ~VVOAOV TTJV avyi]v ~ Ta EV auyfjs- 8E8( TTWVTUL, (6q,ov
atpEw8m XP~ ('Determine whether to lie [the patient] in darkness or in light
according to the disease. For if in the light they become angered and they see things
that are not present, and they imagine things that do not exist, or if they understand
one thing in place of another, or strange images appear before them, and altogether
they fear the light or being in the light, it is necessary to choose darkness').
5 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.9.60-63. For Caelius, a patient's preference for light or dark will
affect the type of treatment that may be provided. Aretaeus uses a patient's ability to
remain calm while in the light as an indicator of his state of mental stability. See
Aret. 5.1.3 (Hude 1958:92.7-8).
51 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1. praef. 21; Aret. 5.1.2 (Hude 1958:91.21-93.1).
52 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.5.48; Aret. 5.1.2 (Hude 1958:91.22-23). Caelius tells us that these
are the Greek terms for this behaviour, whereas Aretaeus actually uses the term
itself: EV t\!LAo'LcrL TOLcrL crTpw11acrL, WS" llTJ KpoKu8((ELV im611v11crLS" EOL ('In smooth
bedclothes, so that he might not be reminded to pick at the nap of the bedding').
53 Hippoc. Prog. 4.2 (Littre 2.122). These actions are also described at Hippoc. Epid.
3.33.17(15) (Littre 3.142-46), but it is not clear whether this patient actually suffered
from phrenitis.
54 Aret. 5.1.1 (Hude 1958:91.18-21): Kat yap 1rpo Twv 6q,8aA11wv cillq,mpEoucr( nva
tjJEu8Ea i.v8ciAilaTa, Kat Ta llTJ E~(crxovTa ci11q,aq,6wcrL WS" imEp(crxovTa, KUL 1racra
°
iTp6q,acrLS" avaLTL 11 iTpOKAllO"LS" XEL iTWV q,opfjs-
0
I
·,•
MCDONALD
115
nued numbness of the extremities, hiccups, and convulsions. 55 He believes
that the presence and duration of these additional complaints are indicative
of the severity of a particular case of phrenitis. 56 Aretaeus provides a similar
list, including such things as insomnia, heartburn, constipated bowels, difficult breathing, painful liver and spleen, and hypochondria that are either
inflamed and hardened, or collapsed and retracted upwards .57 The fact that
Aretaeus provides treatments for all of these ailments indicates that they
were common to patients with phrenitis, although it is not clear what, if any,
significance he placed on their occurrence during a case of phrenitis.
When a patient's loss of reason was chronic and not preceded by a fever,
he was said to be suffering from either mania or melancholia. 'Mania,'
Caelius tells us, 'is a chronic aberration of the mind without a fever, by which
aspects it is to be differentiated from phrenitis.'SBIf a fever does appear in
what is otherwise believed to be a case of mania, both Caelius and Aretaeus
say that it must be due to a different yet simultaneous condition.S9 For this
reason, Caelius provides a detailed method of distinguishing between cases
of phrenitis and cases of mania in which fever is also present.60 There are
three parts to this process. First, Caelius instructs the physician to look at the
timing of the fever, whether it came before or after the mental derangement.
55
56
Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.3.35-38.
Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.3.35: magnitudinis vero atque proprietatis differentiam plurima atque alia
sunt quae designant, a Graecis !Jmptomata appel/ata, ut ... ('Truly, there are many other
signs, which the Greeks call !Jmptomata, that indicate differences of severity and the
quality of the diseases, such as ...'); and Acut. 1.3.39: gravitls autem ac perniciose qffici
dicimus eos quos ut sttpradictos plurima atque varia fuerint secuta et iugiter et sine u//a indulgentia
·/axammti ('We, however, say that patients are gravely and ruinously ill when they
have many different symptoms of those described above, and when [the symptoms]
follow continuously without any yielding or respite').
57 Aret. 5.1. References to these accompanying complaints are spread throughout the
chapter.
58 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.146: est autun alienatio tardans sine febribus, q11o a phreneticis
discernitur ....
59 Aret. 3.6.1 (Hude 1958:41.13-15): EL yap KOTE Kal. 1TUpEToS' EmA6.~oL, auK a1ro
~av( T]S' av t8LOS' y[ yvoLTO, ci.U' EK ~UVTUXL T]S' aX\T]S' ('For if ever a fever also takes
hold, the origin is not from mania, but from another occurrence'); and Cael. Aur.
Chron. 1.5.146: siquidem neque ce/er neque cum febrictila esse videatur. vel si qtlisquam furiosus
jebticitaverit, discernat11r a phrenetico temporis consideratione ('[For mania] is neither an acute
disease nor does it appear with a fever. Or, if at any time mania does appear with a
fever, it can be discerned from phrenitis by the consideration of time') .
60 Cael. Aur. Act1t. 1.5.45-48. See also Chron. 1.5.146.
116
MCDONALD
Mental impairment that follows a fever indicates that it is caused by
phrenitis. If this information cannot be determined, the physician should
examine the pulse: 'in phrenitis the pulse is inevitably small and rapid, but in
mania it is larger.'6 1 This method is also fallible, however, since the pulse in
mania commonly increases at the beginning of the disease and again at the
start of its attacks. One must therefore look for the third differentiator,
namely the presence of Kap<j>oA.oy(a and KpOKUOtUIJ.OS'. Caelius strongly
believes that these symptoms are only ever present in cases of phrenitis. If a
patient with mania suddenly developed these symptoms, or if they ceased to
be present in a phrenitis patient, Caelius would say that the disease has
simply changed from mania into phrenitis, or from phrenitis into another
disease. 62
The loss of reason produced by mania can appear suddenly or it might
increase gradually. 63 For the most part, mania causes a happy sort of madness: patients were known to laugh and play, and go into the market
crowned like the winner of a competition. 64 Other patients might become
violently angry, or they might acquire strange fears or beliefs. 65 Aretaeus, for
example, tells of a man who believed he was a brick and was therefore afraid
to drink anything for fear that he might cause himself to dissolve.66 Another
man thought he was an infant and wanted to be carried in someone's arms.
A third man fancied himself a piece of grain and believed he was located at
the centre of the universe. 67 Other symptoms which Caelius associates with
mania are bloodshot eyes, vivid dreams which cause insomnia, distended
veins, heaviness of the head and a constant ringing in the ears.68
Melancholia is also defined as chronic mental impairment without a fever.
The mental disorder produced by this disease is believed to be more sorrowful in nature, with only the occasional moment of joviality. Aretaeus states
61 Cael. Aur. Act1t. 1.5.47: in phreniticis panmm atque crebrum esse pulsum necessario, in
furiosis vero maiorem.
62 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.5.48.
63 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.146.
64 Aret. 3.6.4 (Hude 1958:42.9-11).
65 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.150.
66 Aret. 3.6.5 (Hude 1958:42.19-20). See also Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.152, where a very
brief reference is made to a man who thought he was a brick.
67 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.152.
68 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.153-54.
MCDONALD
117
that melancholia is 'the beginning and a part of mania.'6 9 In his op11Uon,
mania produces cheerful madness while melancholia causes depression and
sadness. He also believes that melancholia makes people very superstitious
and suspicious of others to the point where they might avoid public places or
flee society to live as hermits in the wilderness. 70 In extreme cases, it can
cause patients to become desirous of death, or to be so insensible of themselves and things around them that they 'live the life of animals.'71
While Caelius also describes patients with melancholia as being primarily
sad and dejected, he does not believe that melancholia and mania are two
parts of the same illness. He does not explain this in detail, however, telling
us only that mania primarily affects the head, while melancholia chiefly
affects the oesophagus.7 2 In his opinion, melancholia can also be identified
by symptoms such as dejection, silence, irrational suspicions of those around
him, and physical aspects such as pain in the oesophagus, heaviness of the
head, and vomiting of yellowish, rusty, or black matter.7 3 It is important to
note that Caelius does not say that melancholia causes alienatio mentis, impairment of the senses: to him, melancholia causes only animi anxietas, mental
anguishJ4
Causal explanation
The explanations of the cause of these diseases reveal the key differences
between Caelius's and Aretaeus's theoretical backgrounds. As a Methodist,
Caelius rejected traditional humoural ideas of disease theory, instead arguing
that the cause of every disease can be explained by the presence of one of
the three common states: looseness, stricture, or the mixed state, which combines both looseness and stricture.75 Methodist common states are manifest
69
Aret. 3.5.3 (Hude 1958:39.27-28): 80KEEL TE 8E iJ.OL iJ.UVLT)S YE EiJ.iJ.EVQL
apx~ KQL
iJ.Epos ~ iJ.EAUYXOALT).
70
71
Aret. 3.5.4 (Hude 1958:40.21-24).
Aret. 3.5.6 (Hude 1958:40.24-25): TfOAAOLO"L 8€ ES avma9T)ULT]V KQL iJ.WpwaLV ~
YVWiJ.T] pETrEL, OKWS ayvwTES amivTWV ~ ETfLA~UiJ.OVES EWVTEWV ~(ov (wwaL (ww8Ea.
72
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.183.
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.181-82.
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.181: eos vero q11i iam passione possessi s11nt animi anxietas atq11e
diffictt!tas tenet ... ('In truth, those who are already possessed by madness suffer mental
anguish and difficulty').
75 That Caelius represents Methodist doctrine, despite the time-span between him
and Soranus, is evident in his adherence to the basic tenets of Methodism. For more
detailed discussion of the Methodist doctrine, see Frede 1987:261-78; Gourevitch
73
74
118
MCDONALD
qualities; they can be seen and understood by the expert's naked eye, without
any speculation or theorising about their effects on the body.76 Differentiation of the states is possible through examination of the bodily excretions,
which increase when looseness is present. 77 Thus, simple medical examination is all that is required to diagnose which common state is present. Proper
treatment for disease is inherent to the concept of the common states: cases
of stricture are always treated with relaxing remedies and cases of looseness
with astringent remedies.78
Caelius's explanation of cause goes no further than the common states;
he says that mania is caused by the state of stricture, while phrenitis and
melancholia are caused either by stricture or the mixed state.7 9 Caelius does
not offer further explanation of how the common states are able to cause
disease. Methodists placed very little emphasis on the internal and therefore
hidden processes involved in disease, nor did they develop complex theories
about how the states act within the body to create disease. 80 Theories of
internal processes are not relevant to treatment, so Methodists rarely attempt
to explain them. Caelius also indicates certain antecedent causes which may
help bring about the common states. For mania, these include exposure to
extreme heat or cold, indigestion, drunkenness, excess of anger and grief,
and the intense straining of the mind and senses in study, business or other
ambitious pursuits. 81 The antecedent causes of melancholia include frequent
vomiting after eating, grief, fear, acrid food and indigestion. 82
Aretaeus's explanation of the causes of disease reflects the Hippocratic
influence on the development of Pneumatic medicine. He explains that
health is dependent upon an internal balance of the pneuma and the four
elemental qualities - heat, cold, dryness and moisture. When these five entities are balanced, a condition known as EUKpaa(a, the pneuma retains its
Tovos, or tension, and health is maintained. When the elements fall out of
1991; Hanson & Green 1994; Uoyd 1983:182-200; Pigeaud 1991 and 1985; and
Rubinstein 1985:178-94. For a discussion of the paradoxes in and possible developments of Caelius's Methodism, see Vander Eijk 1999a.
76 Frede 1987:262.
77 Loose bowels, excessive sweating and other bodily excretions are indicative that
looseness is present alongside the stricture; see Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.183;Acut.1.9.68.
78 Hanson & Green 1994:989.
79 Mania: Chron. 1.5.153; phrenitis: Acut. 1.7.52; melancholia: Chron. 1.6.183.
80 Frede 1987:275.
81 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.147.
82 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.181.
MCDONALD
119
balance, 8u<JKpa<J(a is produced, a condition that causes chov(a or dissolution of the pneuma, and results in illness and, eventually, death.83 Diseases
emerge during the shift from EUKpa<J(a to 8u<JKpa<J(a.84 According to
Aretaeus, the causes of disease are both internal and external, and include
such things as imbalances in the elements or humours, climate, wine, deficiencies in the quality or quantity of one's food, wounds, medicines and even
other illnesses.85 It is up to the physician to determine which of the elements
has become unbalanced, so that he may work to counteract the 8u<JKpa<J(a.
Aretaeus believes that phrenitis, mania and melancholia are all caused by
an excess of dryness and heat. The difference in the diseases is due to the
source of the excess heat. 86 Phrenitis appears when excess heat builds up in
the chest and sends heated vapours into the head. These vapours disorder
the senses and bring about loss of reason. In mania and melancholia, the
heat appears to be produced when black bile moves upward to the stomach
and diaphragm, producing foul-smelling air; when this air moves downward,
it disturbs the understanding and causes the irrational behaviour associated
with mania and melancholia. 87
83
Stannard 1964:30 n. 2; Smith 1979:231; Oberhelman 1994:962; see also Aret. 2.3
(Hude 1958:23.7-11).
84 Stannard 1964:31.
85 Oberhelman 1994:963. Descriptions of these causes are numerous throughout
Books 1 to 4 of Aretaeus's work.
86 Mania: Aret., 3.6 (Hude 1958:41.20-21); Melancholia: Aret. 3.5 (Hude 1958:40.1011). That phrenitis is caused by heat and dryness is derived from Aretaeus's use of
cooling and moistening treatments: Aret. 5.1.24 (Hude 1958:96.31-32).
87 Aret. 3.5.1 (Hude 1958:39.10-15).
120
MCDONALD
Treatment
The treatments used by Caelius and Aretaeus further emphasise their
opposing theoretical backgrounds. Although many of their procedures and
medications are similar, the physicians disagree about why these remedies are
effective. As we have seen, Aretaeus's treatment regimes are based on the
need to restore balance to the patient's elemental qualities and pneuma. In
order to do this, Aretaeus has to determine which type of 8vuKpau[a is
causing the patient's illness, and then select the remedies that would be most
effective at restoring that balance. His first phase of treatment involves
cleansing the body of the excess blood, humours and/ or pneuma. This is
carried out with treatments such as venesection, cupping and/ or purgative
medications. When this process is complete, Aretaeus works to restore the
balance of humours through the administration of remedies that possess
qualities opposite to those which are in excess. Mania, melancholy and
phrenitis are caused by too much heat and dryness; thus, treatment for these
illnesses involves the oral and topical application of cooling and moistening
foods and pharmaceutical substances. While administering these remedies,
Aretaeus is careful to maintain the patient's overall strength by means of
both diet and exercise.ss He does not believe it is safe to starve patients at
any point during their treatment. 89 In phrenitis, for example, he recommends
a continuous diet of liquid foods such as porridges and thick soups; if extra
nourishment becomes necessary, cereals, meat, poultry and fish can be added
to the soups by dissolving them into the liquid during the boiling process. 90
Exercise can be provided to patients by means of baths, massage or participation in physical activities, according to the individual abilities of each
patient.
When treating his patients, Caelius, like other Methodists, looks to the
common states for indication of the appropriate treatment. Regardless of the
.
~
...
•·
:·: :
Oberhehnan 1994:964.
Aret. 5.1.3 (Hude 1958:92.8-9).
90 Aret. 5.1.8 (Hude 1958:93.18-21): ~v OE ES !J.fjKOS ~ VOUGOS llJ,
88
89
!liJ u<j>a(pELV
a<j>mpEELV nilv rrpou8w(wv, ana (JLT!DOEQ OLOOVQL, ws E~apKEGlJ 0 VOUEwv· EUTE
Kal. KpEwv aKpEwv Kal. ITETEtvwv XPEOS Ta rroAA.a ToLGL xuA.o'LuL EKTTJKO!J.Evwv·
KapTa yap xpi] TaBE
Tfj E:tj;~uEL A.uw8m ('And if the disease is long-lasting, do
ev
not abstain from nourishment, but give cereals, equivalent to the strength of the
disease; and when necessary, meat from the extremities of animals and poultry,
mostly dissolved into these decoctions. For it is extremely necessary to dissolve
these during the boiling process').
.~
•
•· t
MCDONALD
121
disease that is being treated, relaxing remedies are always prescribed for cases
of stricture, and astringent remedies for cases of looseness. In cases where
the mixed state is the cause of disease, a combination of astringent and
relaxing remedies is recommended. This applies to qualities both of food and
herbal remedies, and of physical and environmental treatments. Light and
heat, for example, were seen to be relaxing remedies, whereas darkness and
cold were believed to be astringent. 91 These properties also extended to
purgative treatments such as venesection and cupping; these are considered
relaxing treatments and are therefore inappropriate for cases of looseness.92
While recognising the need to maintain a patient's overall strength
throughout treatment, Caelius is not opposed to limiting a patient's intake of
food. In his treatment of mania and melancholy, for example, Caelius does
not feed his patients until the end of the third day of their illness. 93 In phrenitis, he starves the patient until venesection is complete and then provides
food only on alternate days, increasing nourishment only when the patient
begins to recover. 94 Caelius is also wary of prescribing exercise to his
patients, since he believes that movement served only to relax the body;
consequently, it was only suitable in cases of stricture. 95 When looseness is
the cause of illness, Caelius frequently prescribes rest and fasting. 96
Psychological aspects
The descriptions of how mania, melancholy and phrenitis are produced
illustrate some of Aretaeus and Caelius's ideas about rational thought.
Aretaeus's explanation clearly shows that he believes rational thought to be
centred in the torso, while the senses are located in the head. This is
91
Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.9.58. Some variation was peq.nitted in this type of treatment in
order to suit it to the needs of each individual patient: Cael. Aur. Ac11t. 1.9.61.
92 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.10.70; 1.17.167.
93 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.158: adhibenda cibi abstinentia 11sq11e ad primam diatriton
('Employ abstinence from food up to the [end of] the first three-day period .. .').
Melancholy is treated in the same way as mania, with a few minor variations; cf.
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.6.183.
94 Feeding after venesection: Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.10.73; alternating days of fasting and
feeding: Acut. 1.11.82; increasing food in accordance with recovery of strength: Ac11t.
1.11.92.
95 Cael. Aur. Ac11t. 1.15.142.
96 An example of this is the treatment of earache; cf. Cael. Aur. Chron. 2.3.66.
122
MCDONALD
emphasised by his brief explanation of the differences between these
diseases:
The cause of this disease [mania] rests in the head and the hypochondria, sometimes originating in both together, at other times
each contributing to the other reciprocally. But the origin in
mania and melancholia is in the bowels, just as many times in
phreniris it is in the head and the senses. For people with phreniris
are subject to illusory rnisperceprions and they see things that are
not present as if they were present, and things that are not
manifest to others appear before their eyes. But people who are
mad see things just as it is proper to see them, but they do not
rationalise about these things as it is proper for them to do. 97
t .::: .~:.
•":r. =;·. =
:< ;~/ i_';:
;·. :,
From this passage, we can determine that Aretaeus believes that the senses,
in this case sight, function independently from the faculty of reason. Thus,
patients with phrenitis see things incorrectly, but their judgment is actually
sound. Mania and melancholia, on the other hand, leave the senses intact;
patients with these illnesses are compromised only insofar as they cannot
properly understand that which they have sensed.
Caelius also believes that the senses are located in the head. 98 In mania
and phrenitis, impairment of the senses is just one of the symptoms which
indicate that the head is the part most affected by these diseases. 99 This does
not, however, imply that the head is the only part affected by the illnesses, a
belief encouraged by many earlier physicians and developed thoroughly by
Galen. 100 Methodists believed that the whole body was affected by a disease,
which is why the entire body must be treated. 101 Caelius introduces this locus
ciffectus debate into his discussion of phrenitis as a means of asserting the
1.
r ·. .
Aret. 3.6.7 (Hude 1958:42.29-43.4): '(axouaL 8E T~V aLTLTlV TOU VOU~f!aTOS"
KE<j>aA.~ Kal. imox6v8pw, UAAOTE fl.EV Uf!a Ufl<i>W ap~Ufl.Eva, UAAOTE 8E: aA.A.~AOLUL
97
~VVTLf!wpovvTa· To 8E: KDpos- EV TOLUL arrA.ayxvOLa( €an €rrl. f!aVLlJ Kal. f!EA.ayXOALlJ, oKwarrEp €v Tfj KE<j>aA.fj Kal. Tfjm atae~aEUL Ta rroAA.a TotaL <j>pEvLnKo'iaL.
OL8E fl.EV yap rrapawMvoVTaL Kal. TO fl.~ rrapEOVTa opEOUUL 8fi9Ev WS" rrapEOVTa,
Kal. TO fl.~ <j>aLVOfl.EVa aA.A.<p KaT' oljJLV tv8ciAA.ETaL. OL 8E: flaLVOfl.EVOL opEOUUL fl.EV
WS" XP~ opfiv, ou YL yvwaKOUUL 8E: lTEpl. auTEWV WS" XP~ yvyvWUKELV.
98
Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.153.
99 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.150;Acut. 1.8.55.
100 Galen, De locis ciffectis (8.1-452K).
101
Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.8.53.
'·
. ·.·.:· . . .
~ :.· ,:;
MCDONALD
123
Methodist view on the location of the faculty of reason within the body, 102
namely, that the location of the ruling part is unknown.tOJ
While Caelius will not identify where the faculty of reason is located, he
clearly believes that it is somehow compromised when a patient develops
mania. This is evident from his rather unique instructions for the treatment
of mania, which include both medical remedies for the body and intellectual
remedies for the mind. In addition to treatments such as venesection, cupping, and massage with therapeutic oils, Caelius also has his patients deliver
speeches to an audience, attend performances of mimes or tragedies, and
listen to the discourses of philosophers. 104 Caelius explains that the subject
of these shows and speeches should be chosen according to the type of
madness displayed by the patient: serious or sad topics are useful in cases
where madness is cheerful; happier topics should be used when the patient is
depressed. 105 Just as physical remedies are to be selected so that they work to
counteract the effects of a common state, 'the qualities of a certain case of
mental impairment ought to be corrected with opposite qualities, so that
even the condition of the mind may achieve a balanced state of health.'106 As
for the philosophers, Caelius believes that their words can remove fear,
sorrow and wrath from the mind, which helps contribute to the overall
health of the body. 107 Interestingly, Caelius does not approve of the use of
musical melodies to soothe the mind. Rather, he believes that music only
congests the mind and arouses people to madness. 10s
102 For further discussion of this point, and the doxographic aspects that are related
to it, see Vander Eijk 1998:347,350-53 and 199%:442-47.
103 Cael. Aur. Acut. 1.8.56: ita expugnatmts ut primo regale locum incertum remanserit.
Methodists used the wide variety of opinions expressed by other physicians as proof
that this issue could not be irrefutably proven. This, combined with the fact that the
issue did not affect their treatment, meant that they could dismiss the issue as being
both inconclusive and irrelevant to their doctrine of medicine. See also Van der Eijk
199%:443 and 2005:120.
104 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.162-64.
10s Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.163.
106 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.163: oportet enim contrarietate quadam alienationis corrigere qttalitatem, quo animi quoque habitus sanitatis mediocritatem agnoscat.
107 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.167.
108 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.176: ... cum cantilenae sonus caput impleat, ut etiam recte valentibtts
apertissime videtur, vel certe, ttt plerique memorant, accendat aliquos in furorem, quo saepe
vaticinantes detltJJ accepisse videantur.
124
MCDONALD
Medicine and literature
Given these detailed descriptions of mania, melancholia and phrenitis, one
questions whether medical writers like Caelius and Aretaeus were isolated in
their attempts to provide physical explanations for the causes and variations
of madness. Some medical authors do take account of literary references to
madness, matching the characters with specific physical diseases. In De
medicina, Celsus says that Orestes and Ajax suffered from a form of insania in
which they were tormented by false images.1D9 Celsus distinguishes this type
of insania from an acute form which appears with fever and is called
<j>pEVTJGLS by the Greeks; from a chronic form that produces depression and
is caused by black bile; and from a delirium that results from fear.11o In
contrast, Caelius diagnoses Hercules and Orestes with phrenitis; he makes
this connection on the basis of their inability to recognise family members:
phrenitis compromised their sense of sight and caused them to see enemies
in place of their friends .111
When incorporating these examples into their own theoretical frameworks, physicians do two things. First, they provide physical explanations for
literary illness in terms of both symptom and cause, thereby removing all
references to divine force. Secondly, they differentiate between the different
kinds of madness described in literature, working to align each example with
a particular form of mental disease. In doing this, they go beyond what
philosophers such as Plato and (Ps.?)Aristotle had done in their explanations
of madness. In the Phaedrus, Plato describes three separate forms of divine
madness, yet makes only a passing reference to madness that is produced by
!09 Celsus, Med. 3.1 8.19: Territtllll gmus insaniae est ex his longissimum, adeo tit vitam ipsam
non impediat; quod robusti cotpons esse consuevit. H uitts autem ipsitiS species duae sunt: nam
quidam imaginibus, non mmte falluntur, quales insanientem Aiacem vel Orestem percepisse poetae
ferunt: quidam animo desipiunt ('The third type of insanity is the longest of these, except
that it does not hinder one's very life; because it is customary [for the sufferer] to be
of a robust constitution. Of this type, however, there are two species: for some are
led astray by images, not by their mind, such as the poets held the insane Ajax or
Orestes to have perceived: others are foolish in their spirit'). Although Celsus uses
the term insania, it is likely that he is referring to a form of mania: Caelius lists both
insania and furor as Latin equivalents for the Greek term 11av( T] (Cael. Aur. Chron.
1.5.1).
11 0 Celsus, Med. 3.18.1, 3.1 8.17, and 3.18.24 respectively.
Ill Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.15.122-23.
MCDONALD
125
sickness of the body.m Caelius is aware of Plato's distinctions but does not
find them satisfactory.m In Prob/emata 30, chapter 1, (Ps.?)Aristotle provides
a physical explanation for the madness of Ajax, Hercules, and Bellerophon.114 To him, the madness of these heroes stems from their melancholic
constitutions. While this is clearly an attempt to explain madness by way of
reference to bodily condition, (Ps.?)Aristotle lacks the refmed differentiation
of disease we find in the texts of Aretaeus and Caelius. Unlike the physicians,
(Ps.?)Aristotle ignores the different symptoms displayed by each man, and
reduces each of their conditions to the same melancholic state.
Perhaps the difference between literary madness and medical madness is
due to considerations other than a mere difference in understanding. Literary
authors may have been reluctant to define types and causes of madness for
fear that it would lessen the torment of the great heroes. Unclassified,
divinely-inspired madness is suitable for those who associate freely with the
gods; it is only in the human realm that diseases require bodily explanations.
Thus, like other Greek and Roman physicians, Aretaeus and Caelius sought
to create a guide to the various kinds of madness, providing both a means of
differentiating between its various forms and a physical explanation of its
various causes. Since impairment of reason was a significant symptom of
several conditions, Aretaeus and Caelius used the accompanying symptoms
of each mental illness as the means of differentiating between them: phrenitis
is always characterised by fever and KapcpoA.oy(a, whereas mania and
melancholy are set off by the type of emotion displayed by the patient or the
part of his body most affected by the illness.
To explain why madness occurs, Aretaeus and Caelius fit these mental
illnesses into their overall conceptions of disease. Their opposing theoretical
backgrounds are consequently most evident in this section of their disease
descriptions. Aretaeus, a Pneumatist, kept with Hippocratic tradition and
explained disease as an imbalance of the bodily composition. In his opinion,
mental illness results from an excess of he~t and dryness. Treatment is by
opposing properties, namely, remedies with cooling, moistening properties.
Caelius, on tl1e otl1er hand, supported the Methodist belief that madness, like
any other disease, is caused by one of the common states: in mania, stricture
is the culprit; in melancholia and phrenitis, stricture or the mixed state.
112 Descriptions of divine madness: Pl. Phdr. 244a6-245a; bodily madness: Phdr. 265a
9-11.
113 Cael. Aur. Chron. 1.5.144.
114 Arist. Pr. 30.1, 953a.
_.. ,..;..·
126
MCDONALD
Treatment is simply a matter of removing these common states, relaxing or
constricting the body as appropriate.
In spite of their detailed physical explanations of disease, Aretaeus and
Caelius - like their predecessors and contemporaries - recognised that madness is more than just a physical affectation of the body. Somehow, the
human rational powers are also affected, resulting in the characteristic 'mad'
behaviour. Aretaeus contributed his opinions to the ongoing discussions of
how disease affects this so-called 'mind', where that mind is located and
whether or not the senses are able to function independently from it. Caelius
was a little more hesitant on these subjects, since the nature and location of
the mind is seen as undetermined and, in fact, irrelevant to Methodist medicine. Nevertheless, he does believe in the existence of a rational mind, located somewhere inside the body.
Aretaeus and Caelius are just two examples of the many physicians who
sought to categorise and explain the occurrence of madness in the human
body. Aretaeus's description of these illnesses reflects the more traditional,
Hippocratic-inspired approach to disease and mental illness, whereas Caelius
Aurelianus represents a more innovative approach, one which breaks from
the conventional views of his fellow physicians. In both cases, however, we
see the medical desire to leave aside the divine associations of madness and
seek out a purely human explanation of these diseases.
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••
0
MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE GRECO-ROJ\1AN ERA
Louise Cilliers and Franc;:ois P. Retief
University of the Free State
Introduction
Mental illness was the subject of significant attention during the GrecoRoman era, but within two distinct groups: literary and philosophical texts
on the one hand, and medical writings on the other. While there were many
similarities in the descriptions of these two groups, the most prominent
difference was that from the 5th century BC physicians ascribed illness
almost exclusively to biological-organic causes, while literature consistently
held it to be of supernatural origin and in particular a result of divine intervention.1
From a modern medical perspective, the precise definition and classification of mental illness remain an extremely challenging problem, inextricably interwoven over the centuries with cultural, religious and educational
views. 2 Feder· suggests that psychosis (the most advanced psychiatric disorder) should be defined as a condition in which uncontrollable processes
overcome voluntary action to such an extent that logical thought, emotions
and actions become confused and inappropriate as judged by normal,
generally-accepted standards. 3 Mental illness could then be seen as comprising a continuum of conditions ranging from such total disassociation from
reality to a completely compos mentis state, nevertheless marked by minor
derangement(s). The discussion below will be conducted in terms of the
following simplified classification of mental illness: 4
f
.
r,,
I .
1. Psychoses (loss of contact with reality)
(a) without demonstrable brain damage: schizophrenia, paranoia, maruc
depressive illness;
(b) with organic brain damage caused by chemical or physical toxins, infections or trauma.
1 Longrigg 1998:27-29.
z Simon 1978:31.
3 Feder 1980:5.
4 Based on that of Sim 1981:262-461.
. .,
_
.•.
CILLIERS & RETIEF
131
2. Psychoneuroses (where contact with reality is maintained) associated for
example with states of anxiety, hysterical reactions, obsessions,
tension, sexual problems and reactive depression.
3. Personality deviance (e.g. psychopathy, drug addiction).
4. Mental retardation, especially from birth (inherited; inflective or metabolic
embryonic damage) .
Mental illness in early Greek literature
Mental derangement in one form or another occurs frequently in Greek and
Latin literature - from the earliest myths, via the epics of Homer, to the later
dramas and other poetic works of the Greek and Roman eras. The spectrum
of derangements described in the literature includes a continuum of afflictions from mild to full-blown madness.
Various hints and possibilities of derangement in Homer proved to be
fertile in later reworkings, and the degree of documented insanity appears to
have increased over time.s Homer's Erinyes, for example, would persecute
guilty individuals mercilessly in order to remind them of their transgressions.
Their Lati.J:i equivalents, the Furies, were themselves mad and also drove
their victims to madness. Ate, the goddess of delusions, in later eras became
associated with madness; while Lycurgus, only blinded in Homer, in Roman
times is struck with madness. Homer relates that Bellerophon wanders in
lonely places, but he is later described as melancholic.
Greek drama abounds with examples of mental derangements, often
resulting from guilt. Aeschylus's Oresteia constantly mentions open and
repressed wrath, offence, fear and sadness, frightening dreams, and personalities on the edge of madness. In Euripides's Orestes the dramatist treats the
old myths in a realistic mode: his goddesses of vengeance are no longer
actual beings, as in Aeschylus, but the creations of Orestes's afflicted psyche.
The Hercules Furens, Troades, Iphigenia Taurica 'and particularly the Bacchae all
exploit the theme of delusion and madness in one way or another. This is
explicitly the case in Sophocles's Ajax, while three lost plays, the Athamas,
Alkmaeon and Ocfysseus Mainomenos apparently contained scenes of madness
more or less central to the plot. 6
Philosophical literature of the classical era also explored the topic. Plato
argued that serious mental derangement was idiocy (avow), caused by
5
6
Simon 1978:33-36; Hirschkowitz 1998:48.
Simon 1978:108-13.
132
CILLIERS & RETIEF
madness (1-lav(a) or ignorance (a!-la9(a) -and that 1-lav(a, in fact, included all
thought beneath the highest form of wisdom (Soph. 227e-28e; Tz: 86b). He
distinguished four forms of divine madness, i.e. those of the poet, the
prophet, the Bacchanalian rites, and love. The notion of poetic madness
recurs centuries later in Horace's description of a poet in a state of mental
ecstasy (AP 453-75).
Any attempt to link the mental derangements in literary depictions to
currently acknowledged mental illnesses should be considered problematic.
The Greek myths, adapted by dramatists, often reflect stereotypes of mental
derangement, in particular that of a terrifying, raving madman with wild eyes,
foaming at the mouth, wandering aimlessly and transgressing all decent
Greek mores and traditions, to the advantage of the enemy and the detriment of his own people. This, surely, was the madness of Orestes (in
Euripides and Aeschylus), Hercules (Euripides) and Ajax (Sophocles), among
others.? Nonetheless, modern medical explanations of literary depiction
remain tempting. A modern psychiatrist would probably explain Ajax's
hallucinations as a schizophrenic phenomenon. Similarly, the irrational,
ecstatic behaviour described in the Bacchae would be considered typical of
mass hysteria, a condition in which otherwise normal people lapse into
temporary insanity due to group pressure. 8 A variation on this communal
hysteria (described as early as the 3rd century Be), called lycanthropy, is
characterised by the participants adopting the nature of wild animals wolves in particular. A similar phenomenon to Agave killing her own son is
to be found in Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica, when the Argonauts kill their
hosts, mistaking them for the enemy.
The established belief that genuine prophecy through divine inspiration
was possible during periods of mental derangement is reflected in Cassandra's behaviour in Aeschylus's Agamemnon and Euripides's Troades. Other
instances of temporary insanity in ancient literature would not make the cut
and might be better interpreted as moments of intense emotional conflict:
for example, the struggles of Antigone and Haemon in Sophocles's play, or
the declarations of love by Medea (and even Heracles) in Apollonius's
Argonautica. Dido's suicide in Vergil's Aeneid should rather be viewed as the
result of overwhelming sorrow, while Turnus's unremitting, fanatical and
divinely-inspired struggle should perhaps be seen as an expression of
extreme patriotism rather than of insanity. One might even go so far as to
Simon 1978:152.
s Arieti & Brody 1974:719-20.
7
CULlERS & RETIEF
133
speculate that the troublesome elderly father in Aristophanes's Waps was
suffering from Alzheimer's disease!
Madness in medical writings
Some remarks in tragedy and philosophy, particularly in the works of
Euripides and Aristotle, reflect contemporary ideas critical of traditional
views, namely that the origins of madness are not supernatural, but must be
explained from natural causes. Hippocrates, applying the views of the 'preSocratic' physician-philosophers of the 6th and 5th centuries to mental
illness, ascribed it (in terms of the current humoral theory) to an imbalance
of humours and primary energies (in particular, an excess of moisture) within
the body, which negatively affect the human centre of thought, emotion and
sensation (Morb. Sacr. 17). 9 A residue of belief in the supernatural did survive,
however, in that Hippocrates postulated that the position of the heavenly
bodies could influence a person's mental state (fugimen 4.89). Two centuries
later, the moon would be identified by Manetho as the cause of mental
affliction, 'lunacy'.lO
The notion of three main types of mental illness gradually gained support
and in the 1st century AD Celsus (Med. 3.2-24) propounded the following
division: 11
•
•
•
·.··.··:.
acute afflictions associated with feverish diseases (phrenesis, phrenitis);
chronic mental illness without fever, associated with black bile
(melancholia);
a particular chronic mental illness generally characterised by mental
confusion and hallucinations, but sometimes by complete alienation
(mania).
While melancholia was generally believed to be caused by an accumulation of
black bile, yellow bile was considered to be responsible for phrenitis. 12
Hippocrates remarked that erotic dreams can, in general, be a precursor of
9
Longrigg 1998:38-39.
Temkin 1971:92-96.
Cf. Jackson 1986:30.
12 Jackson 1986:30.
10
11
J
134
CILLIERS & RETIEF
insanity (Gen. c.l) and that seriously ill patients who feel no pain must be
mentally ill (Aph. 6).
Phrenitis
Phrenitis means 'affliction of the mind' (<j>p~v, 'diaphragm') and may be
defined as the presence of significant mental illness accompanied by fever
(Caelius Aurelianus, Acut. 1.1-183). Hippocrates seldom used the word
<j>pEv( ns, but was the flrst to attempt a detailed description of the condition,
mentioning at least thirty-seven case studies, most of which presented with a
degree of delirium (confusion) or even loss of control (probably mania), and
a few with melancholia; convulsions were also often present (Epid. 1.2-28;
3.1.1-13; 3.17.1-16). Later authors claimed that Hippocrates had never prescribed any treatment for phrenitis, but he did in fact suggest a therapeutic
regimen for acute delirium and hallucinations associated with fever: it comprised mainly purgatives, sweet wine and a mixture of soup, honey and
vinegar. 13
The term phrenitis was in general usage by later physicians like
Herophilus, his pupil Demetrius, and Asclepiades (1st century Be) and in
particular Soranus (AD 98-138), whose work was recorded by Caelius
Aurelianus (5th century AD) (Acut. 1-183). It was considered to be a disease
of the body as well as the mind (deliberatio and alienatio). The clinical picture
was characterised by fever and varying degrees of confusion in patients who
would often pluck at their garments or bedding, engage in meaningless
conversation, sometimes remain silent for long periods, or exhibit attacks of
hyperactivity, hallucination (<j>avTCIUf.LUTa) and inappropriate emotional
reactions. Treatment included isolation of the patient, forcible restraint if
hyperactive, blood-letting, hot or cold compresses (applied in accordance
with the law of opposing forces) and appropriate nourishment. Patients
usually experienced periods of remission as well as recurrences of the
confusion.
Melancholia
This condition was generally considered to result from a humoral imbalance
in which an accumulation of cold black bile negatively influenced the brain
(f.LEAas, 'black'+ xoA.~, 'gall'). Soranus, however, held that black bile was not
13
Simon 1978:218-219; Von Staden 1989:413.
CILLIERS & RETIEF
135
in fact the cause of the disease, although melancholic patients were inclined
to vomit the substance and to excrete it per rectum (in Cael. Aur. Acut. 6.18084). There was also the notion (held by Aristotle, among others) that while
cold, dry, black bile caused depression, hot, wet, black bile caused a joie de
vivre which could verge on madness. Melancholia was held to be experienced
mainly in spring, along with the seasonal welling up of the blood. It was
believed to occur more in older men than in women, and almost never in
adolescents and children. Melancholia in women was considered to be a
serious disease. The clinical picture was characterised by reserve, insomnia,
depression, suspicion, tearfulness and suicidal thoughts, among other things.
A common feature of the various treatments was the removal of undesirable
humours (black bile in particular) by means of purgation, vomiting or bloodletting. 14
Hippocrates referred only sporadically to melancholia, mentioning that it
was associated with epilepsy; that it might involve hallucinations, delusions
and bad dreams, and that bleeding haemorrhoids could exert a healing
effect.lS Herophilus16 and Celsus (Med. 1.25) also described the condition,
but it was Soranus (in Cael. Aur. Acut. 6.180-84) and in particular Rufus (1st
century AD) 17 who made major contributions. Like Aristotle, Rufus saw
melancholia as a characteristic of gifted people. He was quoted by Galen
(2nd century AD) as well as by later Arab physicians, and became known in
the Middle Ages as the expert on melancholia. Themison (31 BC-4 AD) and
Aretaeus (late 1st century AD) emphasised the relationship between
melancholia and mania, while Soranus considered them to be distinct
diseases, among other things, because the pharynx was affected only in the
former (in Cael. Aur. Acut. 6.182-84).
The clinical picture described by ancient physicians would cohere with
degrees of depression (reactive as well as endogenous). 18 However, Hippocrates's and Rufus's mention of accompanying delusions and hallucinations
in particular, is suggestive of associated schizophrenia. 19 Schizophrenia was
never described as an identifiable syndrome, though. Bipolar (manicdepressive) psychosis, as understood today,20 was not described, but signifi14 Jackson
1986:35-45.
1986:31-32.
16 In Von Staden 1989:244.
17 In Abou-Aly 1992:256-75.
18 Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1016-19.
!9 Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1008-10, 1017.
20 See Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1017-18.
IS Jackson
- ·· .. -: .
·:···
136
CILLIERS & RETIEF
cant elements of manic behaviour as part of the melancholia complex were
mentioned in places. It is also possible that forms of psychoneurosis presented
as melancholia.
Mania
Mania was often used as a general term for insanity. Hippocrates, however,
described it as a specific disease occurring mostly in young girls and characterised by fear and hallucinations (Vitg. 1). Soranus provided the clearest
description, calling it a condition characterised by mental disturbances
without fever. According to him it occurred mostly in young men, seldom in
women or the elderly. Its multiple causes included severe exposure to heat or
cold, drunkenness, excessive sexual activity, superstition, or emotional crisis.
Patients would often be exhausted and depressed, and experience insomnia,
amnesia and unmotivated fears; they could also be troubled by hallucinations
and exhibit unstable emotional behaviour (hyperactivity as well as apathy).
There were also systemic complaints such as palpitations, indigestion, flatulence and headache (in Cael. Aur. Chron. 5.144-63).
Soranus's treatment, typical of the medical sect of his day known as the
Methodists, consisted mainly in gently calming patients, using physical
restraint only during serious bouts of insanity, along with therapeutic vomiting, blood-letting and appropriate nutrition. The calming techniques included calm conversations, music, story-telling, and even the theatre. Other
authors, including Caelius Aurelianus, were much more drastic in their severe
physical restraint of hyperactive patients, their prescription of strong medicines and even their use of corporal punishment (Chron. 5.144-63).
Dioscorides believed the motion plant and thorn-apples were effective in
treating mental illness (De materia medica 4.75).
As formulated in ancient times, mania was characterised by a depressed
temperament, rather than the currently popular concept of a hyperactive
one. 21 References to hyperactive behaviour do appear, but the clinical picture
is predominantly that of melancholia (depression). Aretaeus noted the similarity between the two conditions, but Soranus insisted that they were two
distinct diseases, among other reasons because the pharynx is not affected as
in melancholia - a strange argument to a modern reader. The fact that
hallucinations without extraordinary hyperactivity were also described,
21
Eisenclrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1017.
CILLIERS & RETIEF
137
creates the impression that schizophrenia is sometimes associated with the
syndrome.
Other mental illnesses
Hysteria
Ancient physicians bizarrely held that the womb 'wandered' around in the
body, causing symptoms by pressing on organs such as the heart, lungs,
pharynx and liver. 22 These symptoms were called hysterical disturbances
(from U<JTEpa, 'womb'). The Corpus Hippocraticum describes the clinical
picture, including the comment that a hysterical woman's sneeze is a good
prognosis (Aph. 5.35). Soranus (Gynaecia 3.4) described 'hysterical suffocation' as a condition consequent upon multiple miscarriages, premature births,
widowhood, the retention of menstrual blood and the end of female fertility.
The condition was characterised by sudden collapse, loss of voice (a¢ov(a),
difficulty in breathing, grinding of teeth, stridor, problems in swallowing and
convulsive spasms. Recovery was usually speedy, without retrospective
memory loss, but the condition could recur. There was a connection with
epilepsy and catalepsy (see below).
For a long time the standard therapy included tight binding of the abdomen (to force the uterus back into its normal position) as well as malodorous
fumigation of the head (to move the uterus downwards) and application of
pleasant-smelling scents to the genitalia (to entice the uterus back into place).
Soranus, however, did not consider the uterus to be mobile and dismissed
these manoeuvres with contempt. He nevertheless believed hysteria to be
due to an abnormal uterine 'retraction' and inflammation. His treatment
included calm rehabilitation, compresses, suppositories, a potion of honey
and water, and blood-letting, if necessary. Soranus's picture of hysteria fits
well with the syndrome currently known as hysterical conversion, although it
is naturally not restricted to females (or to uterine problems).23
Modern scholars speculate that the subordinate position of women in
Greco-Roman society was partly responsible for the hysteria syndrome, since
a woman might hope to attract her husband's sympathy, or at least his
attention, by means of the complaint. 24 In addition to the therapy described
1... ,:·
0
;·
.:.-: '
22 Simon 1978:238-39.
23
24
Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:999.
See Simon 1978:242.
..
·
138
CILLIERS & RETIEF
above, young girls were advised from the Hippocratic period onwards to
marry early and fall pregnant soon.
Lethargy
Caelius Aurelianus (Acut. 2.1-55) provides a description of this condition,
almost certainly originally taken from Soranus, and inscribed as early as the
3rd century BC by Diodes and Praxagoras. The name was derived from the
Greek word A.T]8apyta, 'drowsiness' (from A.~8TJ, 'forgetfulness' + apy[a,
'idleness') and was an acute condition occurring in the elderly, associated
with fever and with a variety of symptoms. Acute amnesia, sleepiness (but
sometimes also violent behaviour), delayed reactions, speech defects (disartry) and temporary incontinence with respect to both urine and faeces were
characteristic - sometimes also mental confusion or even convulsions. The
condition usually cleared up but it could recur. It was considered more
dangerous than phrenitis.
Lethargy was almost certainly of multiple origins, caused by the degenerative problems of age such as cerebral arterio-sclerosis and pre-senile dementia. A psychoneurosis brought on by underlying depression or loneliness
would also fit the bill.
Catalep!J
This condition is described in various variants by Hippocrates (Aph. 6.51),
Diodes, Praxagoras and Asclepiades, among others, and occurred mainly
among young girls (Cael. Aur. Acut. 10.56-57). Soranus considered that it was
closely related to febrile diseases and epilepsy, and that it could be confused
with lethargy. Patients would experience acute immobilisation of all movement: the eyes would stare; the voice would disappear; the jaws would tense,
with spasmodic contractions of the muscles o[ the face and hands; there
would be a noisy hiccuping and a tendency to weep. Most cases cleared up
over time. Conservative treatment could include blood-letting (Cael. Aur.
Acut. 10.56-86).
Caelius Aurelianus's catalep!J would perhaps coincide with a rare condition
(cataplexy) which occurs in particular among children and adolescents and
which is closely related to narcolepsy. 25 The modern disease, however,
25
Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1030.
. ·:
~
CILLIERS & RETIEF
139
involves brief attacks, while the classical version could also run a lengthy
course.
Stress-related and other mental diseases
Hippocrates held that chronic fear over an extended period of time could
cause melancholia (Aph. 6.23). However, Galen in particular demonstrated
that non-specific symptoms of delayed recovery after illness could be a
consequence of stress, which was not always obvious. A hidden transgression or love relationship, repressed sorrow, fear of the future, or of the
emperor's anger, could cause tension. According to Galen, in order to
understand and cure these diseases, the physician had to win the complete
trust of his patient and then take action with the wisdom of a philosopher. 26
Interestingly, paranoia was not recognised as a specific mental illness. The
word does occur in Euripides's Orestes, but only as a general synonym for
mental derangement without the modern concept of a pathological persecution complex. 27 The group of conditions known today as personality disorders is not identifiable as such. Physical or emotional hyperactivity (manic
behaviour in modern terms) was described as a subset of melancholia and
mania (or even phrenitis). Hippocrates appears to refer to this (under febrile
diseases) in Epidemics 1.8 and 3.17.13-14. Inherited mental retardation (dementia) is not mentioned, although Celsus's description of chronic mental illness
which does not shorten the patient's lifespan, as well as his mention of
'foolishness of the spirit' (Med. 3.19), may refer to advanced dementia.
Of further interest is Hippocrates's claims that insanity disappeared when
varicose veins or haemorrhoids occurred (Aph. 5.21), that melancholia was
primarily a condition occurring in autumn, zs and that bleeding around a
woman's nipples was a sign of insanity (Aph. 5.40).
Today many substances, especially drugs and alcohol, are known to cause
brain damage and psychological disturbance~. 29 Caelius Aurelianus noted that
henbane (hiosiamine), a curative, could cause mental illness, and Hippocrates
described the relationship between excessive alcohol intake and delirium
(probably delirium tremens). 30 Certain unassociated symptoms are also mentioned in the literature, including amnesia (memory loss) consequent upon
'•
Nutton 2004:236.
Simon 1978:108; Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1008.
28 Jackson 1986:31.
29 See Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1033-34.
30 In Simon 1978:218-19.
26
27
J
140
CILLIERS & RETIEF
epileptic episodes and pantophobia as an abnormal generalised fear.31 The
latter would probably be considered a psychoneurosis. 32 Psychoneuroses as
such were anticipated by Galen in particular, who noted that conditions of
stress can cause a wide range of non-specific symptoms.
When mental illness (other than melancholia or mania) co-occurred with
fever, phrenitis was diagnosed by definition. This term apparently described
a collection of distinct diseases in which a significant degree of fever either
caused the mental disturbance or coincidentally occurred simultaneously.
The vast majority of these illnesses would probably be classified today as
'organic brain syndromes', particularly those caused by infections involving
high fever.3 3 The Corpus Hippocraticum mentions clinical cases which could be
described as meningitis and/or encephalitis (Epid. 1.2.10; 2.1.5), puerperal
fever (Epid. 1.4.11; 3.1.10), malaria (Ae"r. 7), septicaemia (Epid. 1.9), peri-anal
abscesses (Epid. 3.1.6) and probably also typhoid (Epid. 3.1.8 and 16). The
symptoms varied from delirium to apparently manic behaviour.
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32 Von Staden 1989:473.
33
Eisendrath & Lichtmacher 1999:1041-43.