It's all Greek

It’s all Greek

Benjamin McNeillis brings some classicism back to medicine

Snakes as symbols

We are all familiar with “the medical symbol”—that thing with the snake wrapped around a staff. This is the rod of Asclepius, the official symbol of doctors around the world. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, is the Greek god of medicine and healing. He is thought by some to be the first doctor. The original Hippocratic oath begins “I swear by Apollo the physician and by Asclepius.” The first followers of Asclepius opened a sanctuary, known as “the Asclepion,” which pilgrims visited to be healed. On arrival they would spend the night on the floor, often sharing it with non-venomous snakes. In the morning they would tell the priest their dream—that is, the “doctor” would take a history—and would give them medical advice.
Although most doctors’ professional bodies use the rod of Asclepius as their symbol,1 76% of commercial medical companies and drug makers use the Caduceus. This is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it, brandished by the god Hermes. Hermes was not a healing deity, and although he is most well known for being the messenger of the gods, he was also the god of thieves, gamblers, and tricksters.
Asclepius with his staff coiled by a snake(left) and (below) Heracles. Battles the Centor.
Snakes were clearly important to early doctors. Some claim that the African doctor Melampus, Greek for “black foot,” was the first doctor. As a favour for saving their lives, two young snakes licked his ears out so that he could hear animals talk. With this power Melampus is reputed to have cured the impotence of Iphiclus, allegedly one of the fastest mortals. One day Melampus had overheard two vultures nattering about Iphiclus’s condition. They said that it had developed at a young age after witnessing his father wield a bloody knife and then stick it in a tree. Making some ingenious mental leaps, Melampus deduced Iphiclus’s cure to be the penile application of rust from the knife, which was still in the same tree.

Origins of priapism

god priapus

Another mythological character who had impotence, albeit of a different nature, is Priapus, son of Aphrodite. Hera was bitter about losing a beauty contest to the goddess of love and cursed Priapus while he was still in Aphrodite’s womb, with lustiness, ugliness, and impotence. One day, Priapus was pursuing the nymph Lotis. He had nearly pinned the nymph down, when a donkey brayed loudly, causing him to lose his erection and letting Lotis escape. He became so enraged with lust that he got a permanent erection, with which he beat the donkey to death. Hence the medical condition “priapism.” In some Greek villages small statues of Priapus would be placed at important gateways, often at the entry, and as travellers passed they would rub his erection for good luck.

Titans and liver regeneration

titans atlas and prometheus
Another god who often featured on doorways was the two headed Roman god Janus, god of doors, gateways, beginnings, and endings. From him we get the month January, the gateway to a new year, but also the startlingly rare congenital malformation of janiceps, or cephalothoracopagus janiceps disymmetros—twins conjoined at the head and chest with the two heads looking in opposite directions. Other congenital malformations with a distinctly mythological flavour include cyclopia, children born with one eye, and sirenomelia, children born with their legs fused together, also known as mermaid syndrome.
Both the Cyclops and the Sirens, after whom these two conditions are named, were encountered by Odysseus on his epic journey back from the Trojan War, as recounted in Homer’s Odyssey. One of the key Achaean heroes with whom Odysseus fought in the Trojan war was the swift footed Achilles. His involvement in the war was decisive, although he remains most famous for the “Achilles’ heel,” and he gives his name to the Achilles tendon. Legend has it that his mother, the demigod Thetis, held him in the water of the river Styx, leading to the underworld, to make him invulnerable. But because she was holding him by the ankle his heel remained susceptible to damage, and it was a blow to his heel that killed him.
Achilles was trained by Chiron, the legendary centaur, a beast half man and half horse. He trained many of the Greek heroes, the most famous being Heracles, who the Romans knew as Hercules. Heracles’s main adventure was the 12 labours, performed to free himself from the service of Eurystheus, king of Tiryns. The 12th and final labour was to retrieve the golden apples of the Hesperides from the nymphs of the evening. They dwelled in the westernmost reaches of the known world, where Atlas, a Titan, had been set the task of holding the heavens above the world. The mountain range in present day Morocco draws its name from this Titan, as does the first cervical vertebrae, the atlas, which holds our most heavenly instrument above our bodies. Having completed 11 tasks already, Heracles was tired and persuaded Atlas to get the apples while he held up the heavens in Atlas’s place. When Atlas returned he offered to take the apples to the king himself. Heracles realised that he could be stuck in Morocco far longer than he had anticipated. So he agreed to let Atlas take the apples, but, claiming that he was burning in the sun, asked if Atlas would take the heavens from him for one second while he picked his hat up off the floor. The dim witted Atlas took the heavens, and Heracles grabbed the apples and ran.
Heracles also freed Prometheus from eternal torture in the underworld. For daring to steal fire from the gods, Hephaestus chained him to a high peak in the Caucasus. An eagle would come down and eat his liver every day, but it would regenerate each night. Did the ancient Greeks know of the liver’s regenerative properties? If so, how would they have observed this? Or was it simply speculation? Of course, this is not the only link between the liver and mythology: severe liver damage can lead to portal hypertension and thus caput medusae—the head of Medusa.

Pan and Syrinx

god pan
Pan, the god of shepherds and hunting, who also inspired sudden fear in lonely or exposed places—hence, panic—was wandering through the Arcadian forests when he met the lovely nymph Syrinx. Her rejection of him led to pursuit, and in her efforts to avoid the lusty god she plunged into a river. The gods had mercy on her and changed her into some reeds. Still longing for her, Pan cut the reeds down to different lengths. Many maintain that he made them into the pan syrinx, or panpipes, whose beautiful music could put people to sleep, but anaesthetists think that he made a range of syringes for the same purpose.

Origins of drug names

god morpheus

Morphine derives its name from the god Morpheus, the shape shifter, the god of sleep and dreams. Atrophine takes its name from Atropos, one of the three godessess of fate, who decided when a human’s life would end by cutting their thread.

LIFE It’s all Greek (Benjamin McNeillis, November 2008)
Andreas K. Charidimou (October 30th, 2008) Final year medical student, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece charidimou@gmail.com

The story behind the word: Greek mythology and medicine
From the rod of Asclepius and the Hippocratic oath, to the Cyclops and Achilles, the rich legacy of Hellenic civilization, history and mythology is found all over the medical nomenclature. To Benjamin McNeillis delightful article [1], I would like to add some more narratives from the medical lexicon [2],[3].

A cobweb in the central nervous system

The arachnoid mater of the CNS (Greek; arachnoid, "spider-like") owns its name to Arachne [4]. This woman was a great mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of Athena, the goddess of crafts, challenging her to a contest. With her flawless tapestry the mortal weaver won; angry and jealous of her arrogance and skill, Athena destroyed her masterpiece. Arachne then committed suicide; the goddess pitying Arachne, turn her into a spider.

A sea-horse in the brain

Hippocampi (Greek; hippos, horse; campia, wormlike) were the sea-horses that drawn the sea-chariot of Poseidon. Instead of hind legs they had tails, the spiral appearance of which gave the name to the well-known sea horses and to the hippocampus of the brain.
Lost in the labyrinth with the Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure (like the cochlea of the ear which has a mazelike form on cross-sectional images) designed and builted by the legendary master engineer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a half man and half bull creature, eventually killed by the hero Theseus.

Echography
Echo was a mountain nymph, who's chatter distracted Hera (queen of the gods) and prevented her from discovering the love affairs of her husband, Zeus. As punishment, Hera took away Echo's power of speech so that she could say nothing except the last words spoken by someone else.

Eosinophils and the goddess of dawn
Named after Eos,eosinophil granulocytes appear brick-red when stained with eosin. Eos, the goddess of the dawn and of the morning red, brings up the light of day from the east. Sister of Helios and Selene, she rose front the couch of her beloved Tithonus at the close of night, and on a chariot she ascended up to heaven, to announce the coming light of the sun to the gods and to mortals.
Searching through the origins, history and literature of medicine can be indeed very interesting, rewarding and fruitful.