Pre-Modern Bosom Serpents and Hippocrates' Epidemiae 5: 86: A Comparative and Contextual Folklore Approach

A short Hippocratic passage (Epidemiae 5: 86) might constitute the earliest Western surviving variant of the well-known narrative and experiential theme of snakes or other animals getting into the human body (motif B784, tale-type ATU 285B*). This paper aims: 1) to throw light on this ancient passage through a comparative folkloric analysis and through a philological-contextual study, with reference to modern and contemporary interpretations; and 2) to offer an examination of previous scholarly enquiries on the fantastic intrusion of animals into the human body. In medieval and post-medieval folklore and medicine, sleeping out in the field was dangerous: snakes and similar animals could, it was believed, crawl into the sleeper’s body through the ears, eyes, mouth, nostrils, anus and vagina. Comparative material demonstrates, meanwhile, that the thirsty snake often entered the sleeper’s mouth because of its love of milk and wine. I will argue that while Epidemiae 5: 86 is modelled on this long-standing legendary pattern, for which many interesting literary pre-modern (and modern) parallels exist, its relatively precise historical and cultural framework can be efficiently analysed. The story is embedded in a broad set of Graeco-Roman ideas and practices surrounding ancient beliefs about snakes and attitudes to the drinking of unmixed wine

From the frater Salernitanorum to the sooterkin

Reports of women giving birth to a baby together with an animal (toad, mouse, bird, etc.), are documented in Europe from the 1100s onwards: the most important traditions of which are the frater Salernitanorum and the sooterkin. Throughout the centuries, authors have typically attempted to explain monstrous animal siblings in the light of contemporary medical knowledge. The present paper compares the medieval frater Salernitanorum with the later sooterkin and investigates both in historico-folklore terms. It argues that it is important to understand monstrous birth traditions not only in the light of medical history, but as beliefs and narratives actively shared through acts of communication. In so doing, this article is informed by both the history of medicine and folklore studies

Monstrous animal siblings in Europe: From the frater Salernitanorum to the sooterkin

Reports of women giving birth to a baby together with an animal (toad, mouse, bird, etc.), are documented in Europe from the 1100s onwards: the most important traditions of which are the frater Salernitanorum and the sooterkin. Throughout the centuries, authors have typically attempted to explain monstrous animal siblings in the light of contemporary medical knowledge. The present paper compares the medieval frater Salernitanorum with the later sooterkin and investigates both in historico-folklore terms. It argues that it is important to understand monstrous birth traditions not only in the light of medical history, but as beliefs and narratives actively shared through acts of communication. In so doing, this article is informed by both the history of medicine and folklore studies.Los informes de mujeres que dan a luz a un bebé junto con un animal (sapo, ratón, pájaro, etc.) están documentados en Europa desde el 1100 en adelante: las tradiciones más importantes son el frater Salernitanorum y el sooterkin. A lo largo de los siglos, los autores generalmente han intentado explicar los hermanos animales monstruosos a la luz del conocimiento médico contemporáneo. El presente trabajo compara al frater Salernitanorum medieval con el posterior sooterkin e investiga ambos en términos histórico-folclóricos. Se argumenta que es importante comprender las tradiciones de nacimientos monstruosos no solo a la luz de la historia médica, sino como creencias y narraciones compartidas activamente a través de actos de comunicación. A este propósito, este trabajo se basa tanto en la historia de la medicina como en los estudios del folclore

The Geriatric G8 Score Is Associated with Survival Outcomes in Older Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer in the ADHERE Prospective Study of the Meet-URO Network

Introduction: Androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPIs) have been increasingly offered to older patients with prostate cancer (PC). However, prognostic factors relevant to their outcome with ARPIs are still little investigated. Methods and Materials: The Meet-URO network ADHERE was a prospective multicentre observational cohort study evaluating and monitoring adherence to ARPIs metastatic castrate-resistant PC (mCRPC) patients aged ≥70. Cox regression univariable and multivariable analyses for radiographic progression-free (rPFS) and overall survival (OS) were performed. Unsupervised median values and literature-based thresholds where available were used as cut-offs for quantitative variables. Results: Overall, 234 patients were enrolled with a median age of 78 years (73–82); 86 were treated with abiraterone (ABI) and 148 with enzalutamide (ENZ). With a median follow-up of 15.4 months (mo.), the median rPFS was 26.0 mo. (95% CI, 22.8–29.3) and OS 48.8 mo. (95% CI, 36.8–60.8). At the MVA, independent prognostic factors for both worse rPFS and OS were Geriatric G8 assessment ≤ 14 (p < 0.001 and p = 0.004) and PSA decline ≥50% (p < 0.001 for both); time to castration resistance ≥ 31 mo. and setting of treatment (i.e., post-ABI/ENZ) for rPFS only (p < 0.001 and p = 0.01, respectively); age ≥78 years for OS only (p = 0.008). Conclusions: Baseline G8 screening is recommended for mCRPC patients aged ≥70 to optimise ARPIs in vulnerable individuals, including early introduction of palliative care

“Un serpente chiamato argès scivolò nella sua bocca” : il complesso di storie sul bosom serpent (folklore, religione, medicina ed etnologia) da Ippocrate ad Erasmus da Rotterdam

L’ensemble d'histoires autour du bosom serpent se réfère à des croyances et des récits diffus qui attribuent, de manière interculturelle, le mal-être physique à l’intrusion présumée d'animaux qui entrent et vivent dans le corps du souffrant. Les recherches se sont concentrées jusqu’alors sur le folklore bosom serpent moderne et contemporain : les témoignages prémodernes ont été, de fait, largement ignorés. En me concentrant, dans cette étude, sur une vaste gamme de sources prémodernes, dont les exemples proviennent en grande partie d’Eurasie, et en adoptant une perspective comparée à la fois folklorique, historique, médicale et ethnologique, mon objectif sera de mettre en lumière ce thème d’un point de vue diachronique. Je remonterai dans le temps en suivant les occurrences des bosom serpents et j’examinerai les ramification et les adaptations variées des ethiologies traditionnelles qui les concernent. Dans leur ensemble, ces disciplines (folklore, histoire, médecine et ethnologie) offrent une apporche crédible, promeuvent la recherche collaborative et permettent l’utilisation d’une méthode scientifique basée sur une multiplicité de sources. Je montrerai qu’une grande quantité de ressemblances interculturlles, jusqu'alors considérées étrangères ou même inexplicables, font en réalité partie d'un même ensemble narratif. Ces ressemblances sont les adaptations de l’idée polymorphe, mais prédominante, centrée sur l'impossible intrusion d’animaux dans le corps humain. Les bosom serpents prémodernes, solidement ancrés dans les notions médicales et religieuses de tous les jours, furent formellement acceptés comme des faits concrets et tangibles, pouvant être appréhendés par la médecine, la démonologie et la sorcellerie. Leur charge émotive était puissante, parfois latente, et ils figurèrent probablement depuis toujours dans les traditions narratives humaines et dans les expériences personnelles. Dans ce contexte, une attention particulière sera donnée aux thèmes expérientiels et aux délires chrnoniques d’hommes et de femmes qui croient avoir été pénétrés par des animaux fantastiques. De la même manière que les bosom serpents entendus comme agents et causes de maladie, ces patients souffrant de zoopathie interne peuvent être retracé sur une longue période temporelle, jusqu’aux origines de la psychopathologie.The bosom serpent story-complex refers to widespread cross-cultural narratives and beliefs attributing physical discomfort to alleged animals entering and living in the body of the sufferer. Scholarly enquiries have concentrated on modern and contemporary bosom serpent folklore: pre-modern evidence has been largely neglected. Focusing, in this dissertation, on a vast range of pre-modern sources – examples can be found from much of Eurasia –, and adopting a folklore, a historical, a medical and an ethnological comparative perspective, my aim will be to throw more light on the theme from a diachronic point of view. I will, in fact, follow evidence for bosom serpents back through time and examine the ramifications and various adaptations of traditional aetiologies involving them. Taken together these disciplines (folklore, history, medicine and ethnology) offer a credible approach, encourage collaborative research and allow a multi-source method. I will show that a great deal of cross-cultural similarities, hitherto considered unrelated or unexplained, belong to the same story-complex. They are adaptations of the polymorphic and predominant idea of the impossible intrusion of animals into a human body. Pre-modern bosom serpents, firmly grounded in everyday medical and religious notions, were formerly accepted as concrete and tangible facts to be understood in terms of medicine, demonology, and sorcery. They had a powerful or latent emotional charge and have perhaps always figured in story-telling traditions and personal experience narratives. In this context, particular attention will be devoted to experiential themes and the chronic delusions of men and women who believed themselves to have been involuntarily penetrated by fantastic animals. Like bosom serpents cast as causative agents of disease, these suffers from internal zoopathy can be traced back in time at the beginnings of psychopathology.Il complesso di storie sul bosom serpent si riferisce a diffusi racconti e credenze che attribuiscono, cross-culturalmente, il disagio fisico a presunti animali intrusivi che entrano e vivono nel corpo del sofferente. Le indagini degli studiosi si sono concentrate sul folklore bosom serpent moderno e contemporaneo: l’evidenza pre-moderna è stata largamente ignorata. Concentrandomi, in questa dissertazione, su una vasta gamma di fonti pre-moderne – esempi possono essere rintracciati in gran parte dell’Eurasia –, e adottando una prospettiva comparata folklorica, storica, medica e etnologica, il mio obiettivo sarà quello di gettare più luce sul tema da un punto di vista diacronico. Seguirò, infatti, le evidenze di bosom serpents indietro nel tempo ed esaminerò le ramificazioni e i vari adattamenti delle eziologie tradizionali che li riguardano. Nel loro insieme queste discipline (folklore, storia, medicina ed etnologia) offrono un approccio credibile, promuovono la ricerca collaborativa e permettono l’utilizzo di un metodo scientifico basato su molteplici fonti. Mostrerò che una grande quantità di somiglianze cross-culturali, fino a questo momento considerate estranee o addirittura inspiegabili, appartengono allo stesso complesso narrativo. Esse sono adattamenti dell’idea polimorfica, ma predominante, incentrata sull’impossibile intrusione di animali nel corpo umano. I bosom serpents pre-moderni, saldamente radicati nella nozioni mediche e religiose di tutti i giorni, furono formalmente accettati come fatti concreti e tangibili intesi in termini di medicina, demonologia e stregoneria. Essi ebbero una carica emotiva potente, talvolta latente, e probabilmente figurarono da sempre nelle tradizioni umane del narrare e nelle esperienze personali. In questo contesto, un’attenzione particolare verrà dedicata ai temi esperienziali ed ai deliri cronici di uomini e donne che credettero di essere stati penetrati da animali fantastici. Esattamente come i bosom serpents intesi come agenti causa di malattia, questi pazienti sofferenti di zoopatia interna possono essere rintracciati molto indietro nel tempo nei primordi della psicopatologia

FIG. 7. — A medallion with a snake milking a cow from a in The comparative milk-suckling reptile

FIG. 7. — A medallion with a snake milking a cow from a tapestry preserved in the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. From Crick-Kuntziger (1948: 73).Published as part of Ermacora, Davide, 2017, The comparative milk-suckling reptile, pp. 59-81 in Anthropozoologica 52 (1) on page 69, DOI: 10.5252/az2017n1a6, http://zenodo.org/record/431352

Plants growing in and on bodies in folklore

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence for three themes related to ‘botanical bosom serpents’, i.e. stories about plants growing in and on bodies. First, the sprouting of flowers from the body in medieval Christian tales, to be contrasted to ‘bottom flowers’ attested in Dutch profane paintings produced in the later Middle-Ages; second, the presence of botanical bosom serpent narratives in Japan; and, third, the topic of plants growing in, and on animals in oral traditions and works of natural history.El objetivo de este ensayo es ofrecer más materiales e interpretaciones relacionados con el tópico de la botanical bosom serpent, es decir, con historias acerca de plantas que crecen en el interior o en la piel de los cuerpos. En primer lugar, analizo el tema del brote de flores sobre el cuerpo, que aparece en cuentos cristianos medievales, y que contrasto con las «flores que nacen de los traseros» que aparecen en pinturas profanas de Holanda en la Edad Media y el Renacimiento; en segundo lugar, estudio la presencia de relatos acerca de plantas que nacen del cuerpo en Japón; y, en tercer lugar, me ocupo del tema de las plantas que crecen en y sobre los animales en diversas tradiciones orales y en obras de historia natural

Plantas que crecen dentro o fuera de los cuerpos en el Folclore

The aim of this paper is to provide evidence for three themes related to ‘botanical bosom serpents’, i.e. stories about plants growing in and on bodies. First, the sprouting of flowers from the body in medieval Christian tales, to be contrasted to ‘bottom flowers’ attested in Dutch profane paintings produced in the later Middle-Ages; second, the presence of botanical bosom serpent narratives in Japan; and, third, the topic of plants growing in, and on animals in oral traditions and works of natural history.El objetivo de este ensayo es ofrecer más materiales e interpretaciones relacionados con el tópico de la botanical bosom serpent, es decir, con historias acerca de plantas que crecen en el interior o en la piel de los cuerpos. En primer lugar, analizo el tema del brote de flores sobre el cuerpo, que aparece en cuentos cristianos medievales, y que contrasto con las «flores que nacen de los traseros» que aparecen en pinturas profanas de Holanda en la Edad Media y el Renacimiento; en segundo lugar, estudio la presencia de relatos acerca de plantas que nacen del cuerpo en Japón; y, en tercer lugar, me ocupo del tema de las plantas que crecen en y sobre los animales en diversas tradiciones orales y en obras de historia natural

The comparative milk-suckling reptile

Ermacora, Davide (2017): The comparative milk-suckling reptile. Anthropozoologica 52 (1): 59-81, DOI: 10.5252/az2017n1a