The vocabulary of madness from Homer to Hippocrates. Part 1: The verbal group of µαίνοµαι

Abstract

In Part 1 of this two-part paper, I examine the evolution of the concept of madness expressed by the various forms--verbal and nominal, simple and compound--of the verbal group of mualphaiotanuomicronmualphaiota in the archaic and classical periods. I point out how the divine madness is contrasted to pathological madness considered as a psychic and mental disease and foreseeable by doctors as well as curable by medications. This new procedure highlights rational knowledge of the Greeks about the cause and the medical care of madness.