ERICHTHO THE DOCTOR? MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS ON LUCAN'S NECROMANTIC EPISODE

Abstract

This article aims to offer a fresh analysis of two passages in the extensive necromancy episode in Lucan's Bellum Ciuile: the ritual to reanimate the dead soldier's corpse (6.667–73), and the surgical procedure Erichtho then proceeds to undertake (6.750–7), resembling the practice of a vivisection. The study will focus mostly on the strong connection of magic to medical traditions in antiquity, with a commentary on, and analysis of, these verses through the lenses of medical vocabulary, themes and motifs. It ultimately concludes that Lucan was familiar with the language and characteristics of the medical tradition, enriched his report with them, and was playing with his audience's knowledge of the same.

INTRODUCTION

The border that separated medical practices from magic in antiquity was very tenuous, to the point that it is sometimes blurred; Pliny the Elder shows that the idea that magic was born from medicine was well established (HN 30.2 natam primum e medicina nemo dubitabit ac specie salutari inrepsisse uelut altiorem sanctioremque medicinam …).¹ Thus, in a given context, it may not be obvious whether one is reading about a magical ritual or about medical care. Faraone, in an article related to both magic and medicine, called attention to the fact that doctors and sorcerers sometimes shared the same education, which may be seen in the recipes/spells used to cure the sick.² Cordovana, in a comprehensive study of magic and medicine in Pliny the Elder, also stresses the points of contact between these two domains.³ Terminology points in the same direction: in Greek and Latin, ambiguous terms are used to mean both a remedy and a poison—φάρμακον and uenenum—and, as noted by Costantini, these words were associated early on with goetic magic.⁴

Lucan's necromancy (6.413–830), one of the longest literary descriptions of a magic ritual in ancient literature, deals with the practices performed by the ‘superwitch’ Erichtho as Sextus Pompeius questions her about how the Civil War between Pompeius and Julius Caesar will end.⁵ Scholarship has focussed mainly on the gory aspect of the episode and on its originality among literary depictions of magical practices.⁶ None the less, as Tesoriero points out, superstition and medicine go hand in hand in Erichtho's spell, reinforcing the close relation between Pliny the Elder's recipes and magical practices.⁷

To extend the discussion of Lucan's necromantic episode in a new direction, towards its strong relation with medicine and medical practices, I would like to highlight the many parallels between Erichtho's spell and medicine, offering an analysis of the materia medica and of the language present in the ritual (which is also used by ancient physicians), as well as of the anatomical practice of vivisection, in close dialogue with ancient medical traditions, such as those of Hippocrates, Celsus and Galen.⁸

NOTES ON LUC. 6.667–73

Latin poetry seems to have developed a taste for medical language and motifs, even when they are not specifically related to medicine, and many are the examples where one may find hints of medical language or practices.⁹ One such example is Venus’ use of materia medica in Verg. Aen. 12.411–19 to heal Aeneas,¹⁰ and Lucan uses a medical analogy elsewhere (2.141–3) to describe the dramatic situation under Sulla.¹¹ However, in the passage of interest here, Lucan goes into greater depth and offers his readers a detailed description of ingredients used to perform Erichtho's spell, all with clear links to magical tradition but also used by physicians who dismissed magic. Therefore, I wish to highlight Lucan's use of medical language and themes. The text reads as follows:

pectora tunc primum feruenti sanguine supplet

uolneribus laxata nouis taboque medullas

abluit et uirus large lunare ministrat.

huc quidquid fetu genuit natura sinistro

miscetur. non spuma canum quibus unda timori est,

uiscera non lyncis, non dirae nodus hyaenae

defuit et cerui pastae serpente medullae.

Then she began by piercing the breast of the corpse with fresh wounds, which she filled with hot blood; she washed the inward parts clean of clotted gore; she liberally poured in the poison that the moon supplies. With this was blended all that Nature inauspiciously conceives and brings forth. The froth of dogs that dread water was not wanting, nor the innards of a lynx, nor the hump of a foul hyena, nor the marrow of a stag that had fed on snakes.¹²

667 feruenti … sanguine: the adjective feruens is also applied to blood by Caelius Aurelianus, who writes of the blood of a haemorrhage rising up in the throat: plurimus tenuis et spumosus et plurimum feruens sanguis excluditur (Chron. 2.11.130).¹³

668 uolneribus … nouis: in Latin medical prose, Celsus and Caelius Aurelianus refer to fresh wounds as recentia uulnera, for example Celsus, Med. 5.19, 5.26, Cael. Aurel. Acut. 2.12.86, Chron. 2.12.146. However, Seneca and Statius also refer to fresh wounds with the adjective nouus, perhaps for metrical reasons: Sen. Ag. 188 en Paridis hostem! nunc nouum uulnus gerens;¹⁴ Stat. Theb. 5.235 excipit et laceros premit in noua uulnera crines,¹⁵ 10.744 nunc spargit torquens uolucri noua uulnera plumbo.¹⁶ Quintus Serenus uses the same adjective: Lib. med. 8.108, 35.688.

laxata: Celsus uses similar vocabulary. In Med. 7.5 he mentions the extraction of darts from the body with emphasis on the opening of the wound: item si ex alia parte uulnus aperiatur, laxius esse debet.¹⁷ See also 7.19.12 in id demittendus est sinistrae manus digitus index, ut deductis interuenientibus membranulis sinum laxet.¹⁸

669 abluit … ministrat: abluere is a term widely used by medical authors. Scribonius Largus employs it for the cleaning of the nostrils with fresh water (8). Pliny the Elder uses it for the medical properties of roses (HN 21.125) and for the washing of herbs’ roots (23.26). Marcellus mentions the repeated washing of pomegranate peel after it has been boiled (Med. 4.29) and notes that spots may be washed using goat's blood (19.38).¹⁹ In using ministrat, as noted by Tesoriero, Lucan may have in mind Ovid and the lamentation of Acontius for failing to take care of Cydippe: Her. 20.135 me miserum, quod non medicorum iussa ministro.²⁰ This verb is also used in a wide range of prose texts concerning medicine.²¹ For example, the physician Philumenus states that water must be administered to a sick person (Med. 1.113) and refers to the beneficial effects of heat when administered inside the body via warm water (1.107).

671 spuma canum: according to Pliny the Elder, the foam of rabid dogs is used to prevent hydrophobia (HN 29.99), and the ashes of a mad dog's head to cure toothache (30.21). Ovid mentions hydrophobia in a series of medical metaphors, stating that medicine is ineffective against this disease (Pont. 1.3.23–4 tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram | nec formidatis auxiliatur aquis).²² According to Celsus, Med. 5.27.2c, hydrophobia is a miserrimum genus morbi (‘the most dreadful kind of disease’), which simultaneously provokes a huge thirst and a fear of water. Scribonius Largus describes a treatment to relieve the patient's suffering, although he knows it will be ineffective (171). Paulus of Aegina also treats this theme, explaining the effects of the disease (5.3), but it is to Caelius Aurelianus that we owe the lengthiest description of hydrophobia and its effects. His Acutae passiones 3.9 offers the possible causes of infection and a complete list of symptoms, concluding that death will come quickly after the signs:

communiter autem est passio stricturae atque uehemens et acuta uel celeris. etenim ob nimium tumorem et humoris defectum aegrotantes celeriter interficiuntur.

In general, hydrophobia is a disease which involves a state of stricture; it is severe and acute, that is, swift; for, because of the severe inflammation and lack of moisture, the patients die quickly.²³

672 uiscera … lyncis: the lynx is also mentioned by Pliny the Elder at HN 28.122. He states that on the island of Carpathus the ashes of lynx claws are considered an effective medical means of inhibiting men's libido or of achieving the opposite effect in women.

hyaenae: hyenas were held to possess many properties useful in magic and were prized by the magi (Plin. HN 28.92). They were also widely used in ancient medical practices, as Aetius of Amida (Libri medicinales 7.48) states:

Ἡρόφιλος … ἐν τῷ περὶ ὀφθαλμῶν φησι· ‘πρὸς τοὺς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μὴ βλέποντας κόμμι κροκοδείλου χερσαίου κόπρον μίσυ χολὴν ὑαίνης λείαν μετὰ μέλιτος ὑπόχριε δὶς τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ ἐσθίειν δίδου νήστει ἧπαρ τράγου.’

Herophilus says … in his work On Eyes: ‘For those who cannot see in daytime, twice daily rub on an ointment [composed of] gum, the manure of a land crocodile, vitriolic copper, and the bile [gall] of a hyena made smooth with honey; and give the patient goat's liver to eat on an empty stomach.’²⁴

Herophilus was probably the first to recommend the use of hyena's bile for medical purposes. After him, many writers made the same recommendation: see, for example, Plin. HN 28.94–5, Scribonius Largus 38. Galen also mentions hyena's bile, for instance, in SMT 12.280.5 K and 12.368.5 K, and refers to the use of hyena's fat in a chapter on alopecia (12.392.6 K).

673 cerui … medullae: stag's marrow was highly valued for use in both magic rituals and medical treatments.²⁵ Tesoriero remarks that ‘the annual loss and renewal of the stag's antlers made it a powerful symbol of death and rebirth’.²⁶ Ovid advises women not to use mixtures prepared with deer's marrow for cosmetic purposes (Ars am. 3.215 nec coram mixtas ceruae sumpsisse medullas).²⁷ Horace (Epod. 5.37–8) denounces the intentions of Canidia, who tries to use the marrow and liver of a young boy in an erotic spell (exsecta uti medulla et aridum iecur | amoris esset poculum).²⁸ Besides the power of the stag's marrow in magical rituals, one must note the great number of medical sources concerning its use. Dioscorides, in a chapter about animal marrow of his De materia medica, states that the stag's is the most powerful of them all.²⁹ Even Nicander mentions stag's marrow in the preparation of an unguent at Ther. 101. Hippocrates recommends deer's marrow or fat for the purgation of the uterus, melted and applied with a piece of wool (Nat. mul. 32.104); he also recommends their use as a cathartic (Nat. mul. 109.11). Soranus of Ephesus (Gyn. 3.38) refers to vaginal suppositories made with deer's marrow.³⁰ The marrow of this animal is described as ‘excellent’ (κάλλιστος) by Galen in the SMT (12.332.2 K), and he dedicates a chapter of the SMT to stag's antlers and goat's horns, which, when burned, produce powder of the greatest utility (12.334.13–14 K); he also states that antlers boiled in wine are a good remedy for the teeth (12.882.1 K). In the Latin medical tradition, Celsus recommends the use of medulla ceruina for dysentery (Med. 4.22) and as an emollient to treat the induration of the uterus (Med. 4.27), and as one of the ingredients in a widely known poultice called enneapharmacum (Med. 5.19.10).³¹

This analysis, though not exhaustive, is intended to highlight the medical and healing possibilities of the ingredients used by Erichtho during her ritual. If this episode reflects a strong and well-established tradition concerning magic and necromancy, it is also true that it contains a medical hypotext. The use of particular language and themes shows that Lucan was well acquainted with the medical literary tradition. This reinforces the hypothesis that in the following verses the witch-doctor Erichtho engages in practices which, given the tenuous line separating magic from medicine, can be understood to be medical, not only necromantic, in nature.

A CASE OF VIVISECTION?

The above commentary shows that Erichtho's spell has a strong link to the medical traditions of antiquity. A look at Erichtho's treatment given of the corpse of the dead soldier (6.750–7) will strengthen and develop the analysis above:

protinus astrictus caluit cruor atraque fouit,

uolnera et in uenas extremaque membra cucurrit.

percussae gelido trepidant sub pectore fibrae,

et noua desuetis subrepens uita medullis

miscetur morti. tunc omnis palpitat artus,

tenduntur nerui; nec se tellure cadauer

paulatim per membra leuat, terraque repulsum est

erectumque semel.

Instantly the clotted blood grew warm; it warmed the livid wounds, coursing into the veins and the extremities of the limbs. Struck by it, the vital organs thrilled within the cold breast; and a new life, stealing into the inward parts that had lost it, wrestled with death. Next, the dead man quivered in every limb; the sinews were strained, and he rose, not slowly or limb by limb, but rebounding from the earth and standing erect at once.³²

As noted, Lucan seems to have a marked taste for medical language, throughout the Bellum Ciuile, and gives particular attention to dead and dismembered bodies,³³ for instance the mutilation of Marius Gratidianus, to be explored in this article, and of soldiers’ bodies in 3.657–8. The poet's vocabulary and images in 6.750–7 may be said to recall a vivisection, since he offers an accurate description of the internal organs and the reactions of an open body.³⁴ Although such practices belong to a very specific and scientific field of activity, they seem to have been familiar to a broad range of ancient writers, not only those with specialist knowledge or interest in medicine. Among them are several who give these practices a poetic treatment, for instance Ovid's description of Marsyas’ punishment for challenging Apollo (Met. 6.387–91) or Seneca's description of Atreus’ impious act of killing his nephews (Thy. 755–63).³⁵

Erichtho's treatment of the soldier's body shows similarities in theme and vocabulary to the passages of Ovid and Seneca.³⁶ But another text may be called on in a discussion concerning the literary tradition of vivisection, namely Ps.-Quintilian's Declamationes maiores 8, which recounts a tale of sick twins. In desperation, the twins’ parents call a doctor who says that he can cure one of the children if he observes the internal organs of the other. After the father gives his permission, one of the children is killed and the other recovers. Overwhelmed by grief, the mother takes the father to court.

Throughout this rhetorical piece the author shows knowledge of such practices and often condemns them.³⁷ The use of vivisection as a theme for a rhetorical exercise may suggest that contemporary Roman society was familiar with the subject, so that, as Bernstein notes, ‘[w]e may therefore make the reasonable assumption that the audience of DM 8 could have been expected to assess the advocate's claims regarding the relationship between body and kinship in terms of the basic medical knowledge that formed part of a cultured person's curriculum.’³⁸ Ps.-Quintilian makes extensive use of medical/surgical vocabulary, showing what seems to be a strong acquaintance with the subject. At the end of the declamatio, the mother says:

quod solum tamen potui, corpus, quod medicus, quod reliquerat pater, hoc sinu misera collegi ac uacuum pectus frigidis abiectisque uisceribus rursus impleui, sparsos artus amplexibus iunxi, membra diducta conposui et de tristi terribilique facie tandem aegri cadauer imitata sum.

But the only thing I could, I did: in my wretchedness, I brought together in the fold of this dress what the doctor and the father had left behind, and replenished your empty breast with the organs they had discarded, now grown cold. I made the scattered members embrace each other, put the limbs together again, and out of that grievous and ghastly spectacle finally contrived the semblance of the sick youth's corpse.³⁹

Although not part of the poetic tradition, this source allows us to link Erichtho's ritual to the practice of vivisection. If one compares the vocabulary used by Lucan and Ps.-Quintilian, it is possible to note many similarities that cannot be mere coincidence; in Ps.-Quint. Decl. mai. 8, the mother states that she has done everything she can: she has gathered together her son's body, returning his internal organs to their places and reuniting the limbs. This image creates a thematic bond with the text of Lucan. As noted, the detailed information used in this passage, and throughout the text of the declamatio, reinforces the acquaintance of its author with such practice.⁴⁰

It is pertinent here to mention the description of the mutilation of Marius Gratidianus, which Martin Dinter compares to butchery,⁴¹ portrayed by Lucan in 2.177–85:

cum laceros artus aequataque uulnera membris

uidimus et toto quamuis corpore caeso

nil animae letale datum, moremque nefandae

dirum saeuitiae, pereuntis parcere morti.

auulsae cecidere manus exectaque lingua

palpitat et muto uacuum ferit aera motu.

hic aures, alius spiramina naris aduncae

amputat, ille cauis euoluit sedibus orbes

ultimaque effodit spectatis lumina membris.

We saw his mangled frame with a wound for every limb; we saw every part of the body mutilated and yet no death-stroke dealt to the life; we saw the terrible form taken by savage cruelty, of not suffering the dying to die. The arms, wrenched from the shoulders, fell to the ground; the tongue, cut out, quivered and beat the empty air with dumb motion; one man cut off the ears, another the nostrils of the curved nose; a third pushed the eye-balls from their hollow sockets and scooped the eyes out last of all when they had witnessed the fate of the limbs.⁴²

Scholarship on this episode has noted the influence of Philomela's mutilation in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Oedipus’ blinding.⁴³ When one compares the mutilation of Marius Gratidianus with Erichtho's treatment of the corpse, the parallels of vocabulary may induce one to connect these grim episodes.⁴⁴ Both are marked by hints of medical and anatomical knowledge but also by Lucan's opprobrium.

Although different in their main core, the idea remains the same for these three texts and episodes: Decl. mai. 8, a text openly about vivisection, shows the grief of a mother who has lost her son; Luc. 2.177–85 and 6.750–7 portray the horrors of the war and the wickedness of a witch, both with associations to medicine and vivisection. If poetically Lucan is closer to Ovid and Seneca, with many common expressions, sounds and ideas, I would argue that thematically Lucan is closer to Ps.-Quintilian's text, filiating himself openly in such anatomical practice, thus playing with the medical knowledge of his audience. The medical tropes, language and paraphernalia featured could suggest that these practices were, to some extent, familiar to educated people of Lucan's time.⁴⁵

CONCLUSION

The suggestion of a vivisection in 6.750–7 links this episode to the medical tradition. By inserting into the description of Erichtho's ritual a considerable amount of materia medica used by ancient physicians, both Greek and Latin, Lucan is challenging his audience regarding the knowledge that people would have concerning medicine and other surgical practices, knowing that the ingredients he mentions were used and consumed in medical treatments. Therefore, I propose that the poet echoes these medical tropes in order to portray the ritual more realistically, since he would expect his audience to recognize the symbiotic relationship between magic rituals and medicine.