Citation

Kayhanian S, Machado RJ. World Neurosurg. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.wneu.2020.07.037

PMID

32673804

Abstract

The Iliad is a Homeric epic chronicling the journey of Achilles in the Trojan War. The poem is one of the earliest sources of written literature in the Western canon. It is not a medical text, but the many and varied descriptions of injuries and their consequences means that is important source for examining the earliest notions of anatomy and the pathologies that result from trauma. Head injuries feature prominently in the text and represent written accounts of neurotrauma from nearly 3000 years ago. Previous works have suggested an awareness of neurological concepts such as nystagmus, syncope and pupillary dilatation after trauma in the poem. In this paper, we identify and categorise all of the head injuries detailed in the text and examine these to identify concepts of functional neuroanatomy that are revealed by the descriptions. We identify and discuss two detailed descriptions of head injury, suggesting an awareness of decerebrate posturing after brainstem injury and cerebrospinal fluid leakage following a basal skull fracture.

Language: en

Keywords

head injury; Achilles; Ancient Greece; history of medicine; Homer; Iliad