Pain localised (1)

Text
The pain, most commonly mentioned symptom in the Hippocratic treatise Internal Affections, is usually localised rather clearly, in the breast, back, head, abdominal cavity, eyes, skull, shoulder-blade and collar-bone, testicles, etc. The very same observation could be made about the Akkadian Diagnostic Handbook. Particularly interesting is the Greek expression that ‘gnawing pains (dēgmos) attack the body’ (ch. 24), corresponding to Akkadian kaṣāṣu, ‘gnawing’. Pain is also described in Greek as ‘sharp’, such as pain in the kidneys (ch. 202), corresponding to Akkadian zaqātu, ‘to sting’, which often refers to pain while urinating.

Sources (list of abbreviations)
Hippocratic Corpus, Internal Affections 24
Hippocratic Corpus, Internal Affections 202

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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