Courtesy of Pete Millington,
Editor & Researcher
Disability West Midlands
Ancient Times
Sin, Religion and the Body Beautiful
Prehistory Anthropological evidence exists that shows that there were impaired individuals living in prehistoric subhuman primate groups. Berkson argues that individuals survived when an injury (impairment) did not interfere with foraging or escaping predators. Solecki (1971) and Stewart (1958) describe an example of an adult Neanderthal male with severe arm and head injuries incurred at an early age.
2000 BCE Records from ancient Babylonian civili sation indicate that Semitic Chaldean diviners of the future maintained a list of ‘birth deformities’ and specific prophetic meanings connected to each. Thus, the births of children with congenital impairments were used to predict the future.
5th Century BC The holy book of Hinduism, the Bhagavad-Gita begins with the inquiry of the blind King, (Dhritaraashtra) about the victory of his sons (Kauravas) in battle Sage Vyasa, the author of Mahaabhaarata, wanted to give the blind king the boon of eyesight so that the king could see the horrors of the war for which he was primarily responsible.
Written around 3500 BC, the Rig-Veda, an ancient sacred poem of India, is said to be the first written record of a prosthesis. Written in Sanskrit between 3500 and 1800 B.C., it recounts the story of a warrior, Queen Vishpla, who lost her leg in battle, was fitted with an iron prosthesis, and returned to battle.
Old Testament Some of the world's earliest historical manuscripts, such as the books of the Old Testament, have numerous references that associate disability with sin. Leviticus 21: 16-20 cites God himself as being guilty of discrimination when he tells Moses: none of your descendants throughout their generations shall draw near, a blind or lame man, or he that hath a mutilated face or a limb too long, or man that has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or dwarf or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be with scurvy, or scabbed’.
A command contained in Leviticus 19:14 is cited as the world’s earliest example of anti discrimination legislation: “Thou shalt not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling block before the blind, nor maketh the blind to wander out of the path”.
The book of Deuteronomy reminds people of the period to be charitable but also warns them that disability is a curse from the Lord to sinners:
“there will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11)
“If you do not carefully His commands and decrees … all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: the Lord will affect you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday, you will grope around like a blind man in the dark.” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 28-29)
New Testament The view of Disabled people as objects of pity and charity is also rooted in early religious thinking. In the New Testament the emphasis was put on the notion of cure and healing as Disabled people became the focus of Christ's miracles and proverbs.
Jewish Talmud In sections of the Talmud, it is suggested that disability is a holy state and a means of getting to heaven; similar sentiments also expressed towards those that help Disabled people.
Elsewhere in Judaic texts, the Torah describes how Disabled people were said to be forbidden from serving God if they are physically handicapped or tameh (polluted) “for each of these di sabilities wounds the unblemished character of the House of God”. Moreover, any by-products of the Temple service, such as the sections of the offerings that are meant to be eaten or the gifts donated to the Kohanim, may only be devoured by those Kohanim who maintain their unsullied state. Rabbi Joshua b. Levi said: ‘When Israel left Egypt, there were among them men crippled by heavy labor, for as they worked in clay and bricks, now and then a stone would drop from a structure and break a man's arm or sever his leg. Hence the Holy One said: It is not right that I give my Torah to cripples.' What did He do? He beckoned to the ministering angels and they came down and healed them." Midrash Tanachuma, Yitro 8
Ancient Egyptians Carvings in ancient Egyptian tombs depict in one instance a dwarf as Keeper of the Royal Wardrobe, whilst other drawings, such as at Tel el Amama, depict blind people as harpists and singers.
Greek and Roman Times. With the cult of the 'body beautiful' in ancient civilizations, the infanticide of disabled babies became a common practice. In Sparta, Lycurgus ordered that children were the property of the state and that those born ‘puny and ill shaped’ should be taken to Apothetae – a chasm where they would be disposed of.
In Rome disabled children were drowned in the Tiber whilst people considered to be ‘mentally defective’ were prohibited from marrying.
Hephaestus, the Greek God of fire and metal-working can be cited as an almost unique case of a Disabled deity. His Roman counterpart was Vulcan. Also in Greek legend are the stories of Tiresias, a blind ‘seer’ who ‘deprived of wordly sight’ is foremost among seers of magical insight and knowledge far beyond the ken of ordinary men.
It is believed that the Greek and Roman god, Janus, who has two faces, one young and one old may have been based on incidence of conjoined twins. There is a similar theory that Centaurs, a combination of horse and man, could have been inspired by parapagus twins, conjoined twins who may have appeared to have been one person with four legs.
Plato’s Republique first introduces the concept of eugenics.
Life expectancy in ancient Greece and Rome did not exceed 37 and 44 years respectively. Because of the lack of medical care, especially to poorer people, even a broken limb could result in a di sabling impairment.
Aztecs In Aztec society the royal zoo included a display of disabled people who lived on scraps of food tossed in their cages.
355 B.C. Aristotle said "those born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason".
280 B.C. Death of Philetas, a Greek poet and contemporary of Hippocratês. So thin "that he wore leaden shoes lest the wind should blow him away."
218 B.C. Marcus Sergius, a Roman general who led his legion against Carthage (presently Tunis) in the Second Punic War, sustained 23 injuries and a right arm amputation. An iron hand was fashioned to hold his shield and he was able to go back to battle. He was denied a chance to be a priest because one needed two ‘normal’ hands.
100 B.C. The Chinese historian Ch'u Yuann wrote how some of the great Chinese classics had been written when their authors were disabled or "in distress", whether social, physical or emotional, including Confucius (551 – 479 BC) himself who wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals whilst "in distress".
Birth of Julius Caesar. One of history's most significant figures, Julius Caesar was an inspirational general and an unscrupulous politician. He was prone to bouts of epilepsy, sometimes collapsing during military campaigns.
41-54 AD The Roman Emperor Claudius was born on 1 August 10 BC at Lugdunum in Gaul, into the heart of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In an age that despised weakness, Claudius was born with physical impairments, “he limped, drooled, stuttered and was constantly ill”. Family members mistook this physical impairment as reflective of mental disability and generally kept him out of the public eye as an embarrassment, spending his entire childhood and youth in almost complete seclusion. The normal rites de passage of an imperial prince came and went without official notice, allowing Claudius voluminous free time in his youth to read voraciously. He became a scholar of considerable ability and composed works on all subjects in the liberal arts, especially history; he was the last person we know of who could read Etruscan. These skills, and the knowledge of governmental institutions he acquired from studying history, were to stand him in good stead when he came to power. Most famous for invading and annexing Britain during his short reign, Claudius died suddenly in 54 A.D.
129 A.D. Galen born in Pergamum , in what is now Turkey. He died about AD 216. His massive writings on medicine remained the unchallenged authority for over a thousand years. After he died in 203 CE, serious anatomical and physiological research ground to a halt, because everything there was to be said on the subject had been said by Galen, who, it is reported, kept at least 20 scribes on staff to write down his every dictum. Although he was not a Christian, Galen’s writings reflect a belief in only one god, and he declared that the body was an instrument of the soul.
200 A.D. Areataeus records the symptoms of diabetes.
300s A.D. Bishop Nicholas cared for people with intellectual disabilities in a hospice in southern Turkey
700s Asylums for people with mental disability established by the Arabs in Baghdad, Fez ( Morocco) and Cairo. Arab thinking was that mental illness was divinely inspired as opposed to being demonic in origin, therefore these facilities were generally benevolent.
865 A.D. Legend says that the Danish prince, Ivarr the Boneless, responsible for leading the Great Heathen invasion and subsequent occupation of England in 865, was a Disabled man, being unable to walk, who had to be carried into battle on the back of a shield. Most Viking shields at the time were about three foot in diameter, so this would not be difficult to imagine. In a 1981 article on the historical background of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones disease), Dr. Ulrich H. Weil (Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research) writes "According to Seedorf (1949), the first case suggestive of osteogenesis imperfecta was that of a mythical Danish prince, Ivar Benlos (boneless, legless), who had to be carried into battle on a shield as he was unable to walk on his soft legs."
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Page Last Updated on January 16, 2006