Description
Book SynopsisWhy is it so difficult to talk about pain? As we do today, the Greeks and Romans struggled to communicate their pain: this required a rich and subtle vocabulary which had to be developed over time. Pain Narratives traces the development of this language in literary, philosophical, and medical texts from across antiquity: poets, physicians, and philosophers contributed to an ever-growing lexicon to articulate their own and others’ feelings. The essays within this volume uncover the expanding Greco-Roman vocabulary of pain, analyse the medical discussions on pain symptoms, and explore the religious reinterpretations of pain concepts in late antiquity.
Table of ContentsPreface List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction: A New Approach to Pain in Antiquity Jacqueline Clarke, Daniel King and Han Baltussen 2 Labelling Pain: Early Greek Concepts from Homer to the Hellenistic Era Han Baltussen 3 Painful Drinks: Poison and Pain Experience in Nicander’s Alexipharmaca Daniel King 4 Emotional Persuasion: Communicating Pain in Seneca the Elder’s Controversiae Sarah Lawrence 5 Is Pain Natural? A Study of Stoic Philosophy Jean-Christophe Courtil 6 Pain with a PR Problem: Narrating Gout-Induced Pain in the Second Sophistic Georgia Petridou 7 Perceiving and Diagnosing Pain according to Archigenes of Apamea Orly Lewis 8 Between Aristotle and Stoicism: Alexander of Aphrodisias on the Varieties of Pain Wei Cheng 9 Traumatic Pain and the Transformation of Identity: Prudentius and Ovid Compared Jacqueline Clarke 10 Ignatius of Antioch’s Anticipation of Torture: An Alternative Reading of Romans 4–5 Fiona McMeekin 11 The Bishop’s Case Book: Augustine on Pain Gillian Clark 12 Affective Lexica between Hellenistic Philosophy and Christian Theology Jonathan Zecher Index
