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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2020; 78(10): 660-662
DOI: 10.1590/0004-282X20200085
Articles

Heracles and epilepsy: the sacred disease

Hércules y la epilepsia: la enfermedad sagrada
Eduardo ORREGO-GONZÁLEZ 
1   Universidad del Rosario, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience Research Group NEUROS, Bogotá, Colombia.
,
Ana PERALTA-GARCÍA 
1   Universidad del Rosario, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience Research Group NEUROS, Bogotá, Colombia.
,
Leonardo PALACIOS-SÁNCHEZ 
1   Universidad del Rosario, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience Research Group NEUROS, Bogotá, Colombia.
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ABSTRACT

Epilepsy is one of the most dreaded and terrifying human afflictions. One of the many names it has received was Sacred Disease, during Greek times. Heracles served as a source of the divine connotation that epilepsy received in ancient times, as he was one of the most important demigods in Greek mythology. However, several authors have attributed Heracles’ actions to a seizure, including Hippocrates, who described the sacred disease on his “Corpus Hippocraticum.” This paper reviewed some of the publications on the myth and content of the text of Hippocrates, in relation to the current knowledge of the disease.

RESUMEN

La epilepsia es una de las enfermedades más temidas y terroríficas de la humanidad. Durante el periodo griego, recibió uno de sus muchos nombres, el de enfermedad sagrada. Hércules sirvió como una de las fuentes para la connotación divina que la epilepsia recibió en tiempos antiguos, debido a que fue uno de los semidioses más importantes de la mitología griega. Sin embargo, muchos autores atribuyeron las acciones de Hércules a convulsiones, incluyendo Hipócrates, quien describió la enfermedad sagrada en su “Corpus Hippocraticum”. Este artículo revisa algunas de las publicaciones sobre el mito y el contenido del texto de Hipócrates, en relación al conocimiento actual de la enfermedad.

Keywords:

Epilepsy - Mythology - Neurosciences - History of Medicine

Palabras clave:

Epilepsia - Mitología - Neurociencias - Historia de la medicina

Authors’ contributions:

Eduardo Orrego-González and Ana Peralta-García contributed to the conception and design of the study. Eduardo Orrego-González, Leonardo Palacios-Sánchez, and Ana Peralta-García contributed to manuscript drafting and critical revisions of the manuscript. all authors critically revised the article and reviewed the submitted version of the manuscript. The role of authors was defined according to the guidelines of ICMJE.




Publication History

Received: 13 April 2020

Accepted: 23 April 2020

Article published online:
13 June 2023

© 2020. Academia Brasileira de Neurologia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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