To an archaeologist who specializes in disease and medical practice in the Aegean Bronze Age,1 the article by Dr Johnson (October 2003 JRSM2) seems rather curious. Whilst the mythology on which he writes may have been believed to be true at the time that the Athenian playwright Sophocles (c.496–406 bc) wrote them or indeed when the potter made the lekythos illustrated in the article, there is absolutely no evidence to show an historical or cultural link with the Late Bronze Age. His proposal that the story originated in 'the 13th century BCE' is therefore pure speculation.
Johnson's retrospective diagnosis of osteomyelitis may be interesting in itself, but Sophocles and even Homer are not known for their medical texts and we cannot guarantee accuracy in their descriptions; even Hippocrates got things wrong. Plays such as Philoctetes, written at the very end of the 5th century BC, were designed partly to give an historical legitimacy, however imaginary, to an Athens in rapid decline. We must not be misled into thinking that, by examining Sophocles' play, we can learn anything about disease in the period when the Siege of Troy is supposed to have happened, at the end of the Late Bronze Age eight hundred years earlier.
References
- 1.Arnott R. Healing and medicine in the Aegean Bronze Age. J R Soc Med 1996;89: 265-70 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Johnson HA. The foot that stalled a thousand ships: a controversial case from the 13th century BCE. J R Soc Med 2003;96: 507-8 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]