Homeric wounds in ancient Greek art Horton A. Johnson, MD The author (AΩA, Tulane University 1979) was formerly director of Pathology at St. Luke s-roosevelt Hospital, and professor of Pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. A previous contributor to The Pharos, he is presently a docent at the Photo credit: Andy Sotiriou 4 The Pharos/Autumn 2007
In 1879, when physicians had time for such things, Hermann Frölich, a German military surgeon, counted the wounds enumerated in Homer s Iliad and Odyssey. 1 In the latter work, he found nine from weapons and one from a wild boar. In the more ferocious Iliad, he counted 147 wounds due mostly to spears ( seventy-two percent), with fewer caused by swords (twelve percent), The Pharos/Autumn 2007 5
Homeric wounds in ancient Greek art arrows (eight percent), and stones (eight percent). Of the spear wounds, seventy-nine percent were fatal, fourteen percent were nonfatal, and for seven percent the mortality was unknown. The Homeric text is explicit about the locations of wounds. Frölich found that of the spear wounds, sixty-three percent were in the trunk, sixteen percent in the head, eight percent in the neck, six percent in a lower extremity, and 0.9 percent in an upper extremity. It follows that most of the Homeric wounds shown in ancient Greek art should be fatal spear wounds of the trunk. The Homeric text is also rather specific about the passage of time the days were often counted by the appearance of rosy- fingered Dawn. In 1889, Thomas Seymour, Hillhouse professor of Greek at Yale College, constructed a time line for the Iliad, which amounted to a period of about seven weeks. 2 With such a scheme, the aging of the wounds chronicled in the work can be estimated. As they illustrated scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey, the artists of ancient Greece could consult the texts about the bodily locations of important wounds, but the actual appearances of those wounds must have been taken from the artists own experiences. Examination of three pieces of artwork from the late sixth and fifth centuries BC provides some insight into pre-hippocratic Greek concepts of wounds and wound healing. The unhealed wound: Hemorrhage A fresh wound was illustrated by the outpouring of bright red blood, often projecting at an angle as though under arterial pressure. This could signify an unhealed wound even in a corpse that had been dead for days. Book 22 of the Iliad tells us that Achilles killed Hektor by driving a spear into his neck, after which other Greeks took turns stabbing the body (day 27 of Seymour s time-line). Eleven days later (day 38), King Priam of Troy visited Achilles to ask for his son s body (Book 24). Figure 1, a painting on a sixth century kalpis (water jar), illustrates tragic Priam pleading desperately for the body of his son, while arrogant Achilles reclines on his couch casually finishing his lunch. Hektor s body, feet bound, lies below the couch. The painter shows the body, eleven days dead, with its multiple puncture wounds impossibly hemorrhaging, telling the viewer that they are recent, fatal wounds. There is no sign of healing. The artist knew that healing is a response only of the living body. Figure 1. Pioneer Group. Ransom of Hektor. Attic red-figure kalpis, late sixth century BC. Photo President and Fellows of Harvard College. The healing wound: Hemostasis and granulation tissue Book 5 of the Iliad (day 22) relates the story of Sarpedon, a son of Zeus fighting for the Trojans, who found himself facing the Greek Tlepolemos, son of Herakles. Their spears left their hands at the same instant. Sarpedon s spear flew through the neck of Tlepolemos, killing him instantly. Tlepolemos s spear lodged in Sarpedon s left thigh, just grazing the bone. His comrades carried him off the field, but in their haste they neglected to remove the ashen spear from his thigh. The jostling of the spear caused even more injury. Finally, his companions set him down under an oak tree and withdrew the spear. At that moment he felt he was dying, but with Zeus s help, he was revived by the North wind. Sarpedon lived to fight another day, and the wound of his left thigh became one of Frölich s fifteen nonfatal spear wounds. But four days later, on day 26 (Book 16), Sarpedon was killed by Patroklos, the favorite of Achilles. In his grief, Zeus ordered that his son s body should be carried home by the twin gods Sleep and Death. This scene is painted on the great calyx krater (a vessel used to mix water and wine, in the shape of the calyx of a flower) signed by Euphronios (Figure 2). The winged gods, guided by Hermes, carry the giant Sarpedon to his homeland. His fresh and fatal spear wounds are marked by an outflow of red blood resembling the hemorrhages of Hektor in Figure 1. Faithful to the text, Euphronios reminds the viewer of the four-day-old spear wound of the left thigh. It is indicated by a small dot using the same color of paint used for the blood (Figure 3). 3 Here one sees Euphronios s concept of a healing wound. It is no longer bleeding. The tissue around the wound 6 The Pharos/Autumn 2007
has contracted. It does not have the linear shape of the recent spear wounds, but is now small and rounded. The wound is still the color of fresh blood. Euphronios, having seen the growing granulation tissue of healing wounds, noted that even though bleeding had stopped, wounds remained the color of fresh blood for many days. It was important that the artist show this healing wound. It recalls the fact that Zeus had already saved Sarpedon s life once before, and it reminds the viewer that Sarpedon had a significant disadvantage in his final struggle. Lesser men, some four days after a deep spear wound in the thigh, could scarcely walk, much less do battle. Had he not been weakened by the earlier wound, Sarpedon might have killed Patroklos, and it would have been he instead of Hektor who would have faced the wrath of Achilles. It is interesting to note in passing that there is little either in the Homeric text or in ancient Greek art to suggest wound infection. The chronically infected snake-bite wound of Philoktetes s foot (mentioned in the Iliad but not listed by Frölich) is an exception. 4 The many penetrating wounds caused by dirty bronze spearheads must have left a scourge of deadly anerobic infections. The healed wound: Fibrosis Figure 2. Calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water). Signed by Euxitheos, as potter. Signed by Euphronios, as painter. Late sixth century BC. Terracotta. Side A: Death of Sarpedon. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lent by the Republic of Italy (L.2006.10). Image 1999 The Figure 3. Detail of Figure 2. In the center is Sarpedon s four-day-old healing wound of the left thigh. Hemorrhages from recent fatal wounds are on either side. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lent by the Republic of Italy (L.2006.10). Image 1999 The Healed wounds, of which there must have been many, were almost never shown by ancient Greek artists. The battle scar, surely considered a mark of bravery, was avoided in art, perhaps because it would have been seen as a blemish on an otherwise ideal body. Similarly, the Amazons were never shown with the amputated breasts for which they were named. Strange rows of dots on the skin are seen in a few early blackfigure vase- paintings, and John Boardman proposed that they may represent battle scars. 5 Such markings are not seen in paintings of late Archaic and Classical periods. However, one healed wound, a large mass of fibrous tissue as palpable as it was visible, was so essential to the Homeric narrative that it may have been represented on a fifth- century relief. It was cited in Frölich s tally of wounds in the Odyssey not a battle scar, but a scar left by a wild boar s tusk. As a lad, Odysseus hunted wild boar with his grandfather and uncles on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. He was charged by a boar, which he killed with his spear, but not before the boar s tusk had deeply gashed his leg above the knee. The wound was carefully tended, but it left a scar well known to his family and servants. When he returned home to Ithaca twenty years after he had left for the siege of Troy, that scar served as proof of his identity. While he was away, his faithful wife, Penelope, was harassed by nefarious suitors who wooed her, ravaged her palace, and ravished her housemaids. To take these vile men by surprise, Odysseus, man of many devices, made his first appearance The Pharos/Autumn 2007 7
Homeric wounds in ancient Greek art in the palace disguised as a beggar. During his audience with Queen Penelope, he was not recognized by her or by any of her associates. This scene is represented by the terracotta relief shown in Figure 4. Odysseus, in rags, stands before the grieving Penelope. Behind her are her son and her elderly father-in-law. Seated is the faithful swineherd Eumaeus. On the leg of Odysseus, just above the knee, there is a definite lump (Figure 5). One cannot be entirely certain of the artist s intent, but there are several arguments in favor of its being the twenty-year-old wound made by the boar s tusk. The scar is keenly relevant to this scene. It is the flaw in Odysseus s deception that, moments later, betrays his identity. The lump corresponds to no normal anatomical feature. The lump is large, and the text refers to a great scar. It is in precisely the location specified by the text: above the knee. Figure 5. Detail of Figure 4, showing the twenty-year-old scar above the knee of Odysseus. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1930 (30.11.9). Image The Metropolitan Museum of Art. the moods and carrying the story lines of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and most of the 157 wounds were carefully specified as to bodily location, weapon used, and mortality. But many centuries after bronze-age warfare, the late sixth and fifth century artists could only imagine, based upon their own experiences, what these wounds must have looked like. The three pieces of artwork presented here make up a brief atlas, simple but reasonable, of wounds and wound healing as seen through the eyes of ancient Greek artists a century before Hippocrates. Figure 4. Plaque with the return of Odysseus. Greek terracotta relief, fifth century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1930 (30.11.9). Image The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Out of kindness, Penelope asked an old servant to wash the feet of the stranger. As a precaution, Odysseus moved into the shadows so that the telltale scar could not be seen. But the old woman, the nursemaid of Odysseus, suspected his identity. While washing his feet, she reached up to feel the fibrous scar of the wound made by the boar s tusk. As she began to cry out in joy at recognizing her old master, Odysseus commanded her silence so that he might remain incognito until he could begin the glorious slaughter of the wicked suitors. Conclusion Explicit violence played an important part in setting References 1. Frölich H. Die Militärmedicin Homer s. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1879: 58. 2. Seymour TD. A Concise Vocabulary to the First Six Books of Homer s Iliad. Boston: Ginn and Company; 1889: vi. 3. Johnson HA. The wounds of Sarpedon. Lancet 2001; 357: 1370. 4. Johnson HA. The foot that stalled a thousand ships: a controversial case from the 13th century BCE. J R Soc Med 2003; 96: 507 08. 5. Boardman J. An anatomical puzzle. Archäologischer Anzeiger 1978: 330 33. The author s address is: Three Lincoln Center #47C New York, New York 10023-6566 E-mail: horton_johnson@hotmail.com 8 The Pharos/Autumn 2007