Download Plague of Athens

Questions for discussion
Plague of Athens
1. What is the difference between plague and
2.
3.
A brief introduction
4.
5.
en.wikipedia.org
epidemic? Between disease and epidemic?
Epidemic
What is a breeding ground for disease? Identify
some of its features.
Is Thucydides’ description reliable? Or accurate?
The possible causes of the plague?
Recent research and bibliography
Epidemic, pandemic and endemic
The Plague of Athens was a devastating epidemic which
hit the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the
second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC), when an
Athenian victory still seemed within reach. It is believed to
have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and
sole source of food and supplies.
The city-state of Sparta, and much of the eastern
Mediterranean, was also struck by the disease. The plague
returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/6
BC
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Epi –on
Demic –district or people
A paper:
http://emag.ncnu.edu.tw/article/200703/art2.pdf
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Pericles and City Walls
The functions of the walls
Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth,
They hoped to keep the Spartans at bay while the
were almost exclusively land based powers, able
to summon large land armies which were very
nearly unbeatable.
Under the direction of Pericles, the Athenians
retreated behind the city walls of Athens.
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superior Athenian navy harassed Spartan troop
transports and cut off supply lines. ]
Unfortunately the strategy also resulted in adding many
people from the countryside to an already well populated
city. In addition, people from parts of Athens lying outside
the city wall moved into the more protected central area.
As a result, Athens became a breeding ground for
disease.
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Thucydides
Pericles
ca. 495-429
BC
ints
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The description
Sacred or profane?
Though many lay unburied, birds and
The sacred places also in which they
beasts would not touch them, or died
after tasting them.
The bodies of dying men lay one upon
another, and half-dead creatures reeled
about the streets and gathered round all
the fountains in their longing for water.
had quartered themselves were full of
corpses of persons that had died there,
just as they were; for as the disaster
passed all bounds, men, not knowing
what was to become of them, became
utterly careless of everything, whether
sacred or profane.
The burial rites
Causes of the plague?!
All the burial rites before in use
bubonic plague
were entirely upset, and they
buried the bodies as best they
could. Many from want of the
proper appliances, through so
many of their friends having died
already, had recourse to the most
shameless sepultures: . . .
typhus,
smallpox,
Measles
toxic shock syndrome
Anthrax
Ebola
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Given the possibility that symptoms of a known disease
may have mutated over time, or that the plague was caused
by a disease which no longer exists, the exact nature of the
Athenian plague may never be known. Due to crowding
caused by the influx of refugees into the city, inadequate
food and water supplies, and the increase in insects, lice,
rats and waste, conditions would have encouraged more
than one disease in the outbreak. However, the use of more
modern science is revealing clues.
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