Marginal Groups
The Ugly and Deformed I
Approaches
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What are the difficulties in researching the
deformed/disabled in antiquity?
Terminology
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Greek and Latin terms for deformities reveal social attitudes
Greek: teras
Latin: monstrum
both terms define humans/animals with gross malformations
Terms have religious connotation: portent, omen, monster, etc.
Modern derivatives:
Teramorphous: 1. Having a monstrous form or nature. 2. Shaped like a monster.
Teratological: 1. In medicine, a reference to the study of birth defects and their
causes. 2. Referring to that division of embryology and pathology that deals with
abnormal development and congenital bodily malformations.
3. Used in biology to denote the study and science of malformations and abnormal
growths in animals and plants.
4. Descriptive of the study of monstrosities or abnormal formations in animals or
plants; involving monstrosity, monstrous.
Etc.,
Other Latin terms: mutus = dumb, mute (an anomatopoeic word = imitates sound of
‘mu’ like animals who cannot speak)
Modern terminology? What does Garland have to say about our terminology?
Modern science and malformation
2 principal categories:
 1. defective or excessive number of body
parts
 2. partial or complete doubling of body
along one of its axes; extreme joining, i.e.
identical twins conjoined or siamese twins
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Category 1
Cyclopian malformation = synophthalmia
 A rare pathological condition: single or
double median eye in one orbit at root of
nose; or orbital cavity lacks eyeball
 Usually combined with other deformities
(brain, skull, extremities, heart) usually
fatal; do not survive to adulthood
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Cyclopes in the Greek Myth
Sons of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky) 1st
generation of gods
 “She (Gaia) bore the Cyclopes too, with hearts
of stone, Brontes, Steropes and ponderous
Arges, Who gave Zeus thunder and made the
thunderbolt; in every other respect they were
just like gods, but a lone eye lay in their
foreheads’ middle. They were nicknamed
Cyclopes because they had a single goggle eye
in their forehead’s middle. Strong as the dickens,
and they knew their craft.: (Hesiod, Theogony
140 ff.)
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Cyclops in Greek Myth
see passage
 In the Odyssey, the Cyclops Polyphemos
and his fellow cyclopes uncivilized, live far
from human habitation; have no laws, do
not practice agriculture; have not social
organization; eat humans
 Monsters not just in appearance but also
in behaviour
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Polyphemos and Odysseus
Category 2.
Modern term – sirenoid – one single foot
or limbs joined throughout length of body
with no separate feet
 Sirens in Greek myth
 Note – terms derived from Greek myths,
both Greeks and Romans familiar with
these monsters
 Do the sirens have a skill?
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Sirens in the Odyssey
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'All these things have thus come to an end.
But you must listen now to what I say—
a god himself will be reminding you.
First of all, you'll run into the Sirens.
They seduce all men who come across them.
Whoever unwittingly goes past them
and hears the Sirens' call never gets back.
His wife and infant children in his home
will never stand beside him full of joy.
No. Instead, the Sirens' clear-toned song
will captivate his heart. They'll be sitting
in a meadow, surrounded by a pile,
a massive heap, of rotting human bones
encased in shriveled skin. (Homer, Odyssey 12. 39 ff)
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A Greek siren
The God Hephaistos
Has crippled feet, is an outsider among
the perfect Olympian gods
 Mythological explanations: special powers
marked by special signs
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The birth of Hephaistos
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“and Hera, furious at her husband, bore a
child without making love, glorious
Hephaistos, the finest artisan of all the
Ouranians. (Hesiod, Theogony 933)
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Hera was disappointed when she saw the
newborn and hurled him from heaven in a
rage.
How Haphaistos became lame
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Then she called the famous artisan Hephaestus:“Come here,
Hephaestus. Thetis needs to see you.” The celebrated lame god
then replied to Charis: “Here’s a fearful honoured goddess in my
home, the one who saved me when I was in pain, after my great
fall, thanks to my mother, that shameless one, eager to conceal me,
because I was a cripple. At that time, I would have suffered
heartfelt agonies, if Thetis and Eurynome, daughter
of circling Ocean stream, had not taken meinto their hearts. With
those two, for nine years I made many lovely things—brooches,
spiral bracelets, earrings, necklaces—inside their hollow cave. The
Ocean stream flowed round me, always with the roar of surf. No
one else knew, neither god nor mortal man. But Thetis and
Eurynome—the ones who rescued me—they knew.* And now Thetis
has come into my home. So I must give her full recompense—fairhaired Thetis saved my life (Homer, Iliad 18.395 ff.)
Deriding Hephaistos
Iliad Book 1, 571-600
 Hephaistos in the role of the cupbearer
Gannimede, a beautiful youth, Zeus lusted
after and kidnapped to Mount Olympos
 Ancient audience familiar with the myths
would have laughed at the image of
limping ugly Hephaistos in that role.
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The cult of Hephaistos
Had own cult only at Athens because of his fling
with Athena
 A smith; craftsmen and craftmanship were
secondary to warrior who had excellence (arete)
 Special importance of smith’s craft in Bronze and
early Iron Ages led to close involvement in
political and religious organization
 Traces of a smith kingship in Late Hittite
tradition; association of a smith workshop and
religious sanctuary on Cyprus (12th century BC)
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The deformed in Greek myths
Hephaistos in Greek myth – crippled, ugly, an
outsider, but exceptionally talented artist
producing beautiful jewellery and weapons
 Sirens, cyclops all have some talents that are
acknowledged
 Likely reflects role of disabled in warrior culture
– as craftsmen, artisans, artists etc., although
marginal, contribution recognized
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Break
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See passage, pg. 23 in Garland
Approaches to the Study of the
Deformed in Antiquity
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What are the major problems for studying
this subject?
Problems
Insufficient sources
 No statistical data to determine prevalence
 Better Approach – Comparative data of
prevalence
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Ancient context
Prevalence of disease; malnutrition
 Social practices: inbreeding, lack of
medical treatment of deformities; poor
survival rates
 Religious association – deformity sign of
gods’ anger
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Deformed children
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Spartans had law that demanded killing of
deformed infant
Is there evidence from other places in antiquity
with such laws?
What were attitudes elsewhere? (Ch. 1)
In the Roman World?
See p. 16 Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Romulus
The law of the XII Tables
Did social status have an impact on decision to
raise or not to raise?
Deformities acquired after Birth
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Accidents, warfare
Archaeological evidence: skeletons from Greece: 10% at least one
fracture; 4 out of 5 were males; serious fractures would be death
sentence
Roman evidence: Herculaneum (79 BCE) – injuries among males 3
times as high as among females
Female malnutrition: iron deficiency caused porotic hyperostosis
(makes bone tissue spongy and soft) – 41% of women, 28% of
men.
Cemetary in England – 4th century – shows 80% of buried sufered
from osteoarthosi/ osteoarthritis
Injuries/disorders of legs and fee (evidence of votive items in shape
of feet and legs – in healing sanctuaries)
For ordinary people loss of use of leg or foot – catastrophic
Slaves particularly vulnerable
War veterans
Pliny, Letters 8.18 (Garland p. 20)
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Crippled and deformed in every limb, he
could only enjoy his vast wealth by
contemplating it and could not even turn
in bed without assistance. He also had to
have his teeth cleaned and brushed for
him – a squalid and pitiful detail – and
when complaining about the humiliations
of his infirmity was often heard to say that
every day he licked the fingers of his
slaves.
malnutrition
High prevalence in antiquity (today in 3rd
world)
 Starvation oedema (see pg. 21 passage
from Hesiod)
 Children and women received less food
than adult males,
 Girls less than boys
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The life of the disabled
General attitudes towards them?
 Were they excluded or included?
 Who supported them?
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