Download Epidemic

James Nacua
LIB200. 7656
An epidemic is a harsh and devastating event to befall on any province. No one
in their right mind would want to experience this for it would bring too much pain and
misery too the people internally and externally. As awful as an epidemic is by just sheer
mentioning of the word, one has to wonder on how early individuals may have
documented the source, symptoms and the cause of an epidemic. We are introduced to
two people, Homer who wrote “The Iliad” and Thuycydides, both telling of an epidemic
in different ways.
First off, Homer and Thuycydides write about their epidemic in two different
ways. Homer tells us that the source of the epidemic was of a priest wanting his daughter
back from King Agamemnon but denies the priests request “The girl—I won’t give up
the girl” (Line 34), thus Apollo plagues the Greek army for in exchange the priests
loyalty. Whereas the source of the Epidemic that has taken over the Athenians during the
Peloponnesian War was the Peloponnesians poisoning the reservoirs of Athens port
Piraeus which ultimately spread to their major populace areas. Personally the difference I
see from both writers is one being the work of a story teller describing the source of an
epidemic through a mans vengeance unto a man who had robbed him as to the other work
being more of a logical more practical explanation in which you can understand better.
Although both epidemics are portrayed in two different ways, both still are fatal
when diagnosed. Apollo’s epidemic goes through the stages as any other epidemic, it
starts off with the “mules and circling dogs” (line 58) also known as the “reservoir”
which then infects the humans. The arrows from Apollo’s quiver is in a way represents
the infectious agent infecting whatever it touches which then kill whomever is infected.
It does not go into much detail as to the symptoms of the diseases filled arrows other than
for nine day the arrows have been raining down upon the Greek army and they were
dieing from them. However Thuycydides documents that the source of the epidemic was
of the Peloponnesians poisoning the Athenians reservoirs. Thuycydides then goes into
much detail as to what the symptoms were if you were to have been infected “the body
was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid and breaking
out into small postules and ulcers.” (p37) He then goes on and on about the horrific
symptoms to the greatest detail from the smallest boil to the disfiguring of a limb. Both
writers explains the disease in different ways, one shows great detail on the symptoms,
while the other lacks detail but substitutes it with the explanation of the tools needed to
create the disease.
Both Homer and Thuycydides obviously have the word epidemic in their writing
but it’s more obvious the one of them is about the disease while the other uses the word
epidemic to drive further the plot and create a turning point. Thuycydides and Homer
presented to us what an epidemic can do, that being a magnificent killing instrument. As
different as they may have written about an epidemic they share the same thought on
what it can do.