For decades now the plague represents in the collective imagination a terrible vision of death typical of the late medieval period; but it wasn't always like that. Paintings, stories, poems and even legends have followed one another to try to represent an evil that is often considered divine and therefore inexplicable in the eyes of man, an evil that in various eras has never left a chance and on which the most authoritative have repeatedly questioned themselves. doctors, authors, teachers and philosophers of the time.
In fact, over the centuries serious plagues have struck the whole old continent, in very different times and places. One of the most disastrous plague epidemics in history occurred in classical Athens, around the fifth century BC, during a historical period that was troubled to say the least for the history of Greece:the “ Peloponnesian War "(431-404 BC).
The Thucydidean work and the conflict between Athens and Sparta
Narrator of these events is precisely one of the greatest historians of the time, Thucydides , who lived between the 5th and 4th centuries BC , proponent of a work that will bring with it sources and historical elements of great importance:" The Peloponnesian War ". The famous work, divided into eight books, also offers an essential starting point for obtaining accurate reflections on what today we define a scrupulous, almost scientific "historical method", that is, based on certain and reliable sources, of which Thucydides is considered the father and founder. On this basis, the author chooses to introduce the narrative in this way:
Since this is a purely historical text, numerous direct references to the "Peloponnesian War" obviously prevail, including war strategies and political choices, due to the active participation of Thucydides as an eyewitness, who fought personally as a strategist and was then exiled due to a serious and unforgivable failure. This is an unprecedented conflict, which broke out between 431 and 404 BC , aimed solely at the thriving city of Athens.
Among the secondary causes is the “ casus belli ”However, the main thing is to consider the situation of the whole of Greece, now exhausted by the huge tributes to which it was subjected and by the harassment imposed by the harsh Athenian hegemonic imperialism. However, despite Athens dominating the sea with a very powerful fleet, Sparta managed to invade Attica with a large army, forcing a large part of the population to seek refuge within the great walls of Piraeus, the Athenian port.
It was precisely in that tragic situation of overcrowding that the epidemic broke out, aggravated even more by a torrid climate and poor and precarious hygiene conditions.
Thucydides then focuses on three famous speeches relating to the conflict held by Pericles, a key figure in the historical and political events of classical Athens, who also died of the disease.
Last but not least, the author in the second book, in addition to narrating the war events, dedicates an extensive historical excursus referring to the epidemic that devastated Athens between 430 and 427 BC at the same time as the war, already extremely ruinous in itself for the fate of the conflict and the city. It is therefore a complete work, historically and politically, especially for the attention paid to detail and the accuracy shown towards the main historical facts narrated.
However, what makes Thucydides a master of the "historical method" is not only a text based on certain clues and historical truths (that is, based on real events), but his keen ability to describe events unrelated to noteworthy historical events , like the plague.
The plague from the medical, scientific and human point of view
Thucydides dedicates a long paragraph to the theme of the Athenian epidemic, in which he chooses to focus not on the historical event itself, but rather on the theme of pestilence at a scientific and humanitarian level.
The main purpose of the author is in fact to narrate and document, or to warn the reader of a story that is never totally " magistra vitae "But rather pessimistic, from which man never really learns and of which he is not the only protagonist of the events, but he actively participates in them together with epidemics, famines, eclipses and earthquakes; elements never overlooked despite the narratives of Thucydides have a purely historical character.
The story of Thucydides should therefore be "taught" in order to allow man not to repeat the same mistakes of the past. However, this teaching is very relative, since these errors are very easily repeated cyclically, despite Thucydides trying to convey how to fight them.
The plague represents in fact the great Thucydid opportunity to implement his "historical method" . It is described in a scientific and rational way to understand it and get to know it better also from the human point of view, as well as obviously from a medical point of view.
In describing the terrible disease, hitherto unknown to the Athenians, Thucydides dwells on the initial moment of the disease:the causes, symptoms, deaths and the doctors' reaction to a totally unknown disease; and it was the doctors who died first, due to the necessary proximity to patients.
He then comes to a description that is strongly humanitarian and full of pathos , in which he highlights the main human reactions, among which fear, dismay, loneliness and discouragement stand out.
One of the main purposes of the author is also to report various daily events, to underline how they were completely upset by the disease, among which we find:numerous thefts for the depopulation of houses due to the disease, no more solemn single funerals but common fires to get rid corpses, more and more people massed in temples to pour out the general dismay on prayers and entrust themselves to the gods, and finally various conjectures with the aim of making sense of this unknown evil, such as the accusation against the Peloponnesians of having poisoned the wells.
Although the disease has been cataloged for a very long time as a real plague, today experts and scholars actually think that it was another type of disease, and that more likely it was a kind of smallpox or typhoid fever, due to the symptoms which he obtained in a very short time.
However, it had all the characteristics of any epidemic in history, managing to psychologically break down people's mood and daily life, and causing thousands of deaths; perhaps it even halved the Athenian population, truly frightening figures for the time that Thucydides himself realized.
The importance of human-behaviors in the course of history
Through such a poignant digression, Thucydides demonstrates once again that history cannot be summarized in a silent succession of more or less relevant events, but must instead be represented and studied also through human reactions. Therefore, psychology, men's behaviors and daily actions in relation to these phenomena which are so significant for the study of history take on a role of absolute importance.
Thucydides chooses to expose the plague in great detail precisely because of the effect it had on the soul of men, and not for how it influenced the course of future historical events. In a critical war situation, the onset of an epidemic brought the Athenians to the limit of endurance, making them capable of ignoble and inhuman actions, and this the author expresses with great attention to detail.
In fact, "anomie" reigns, that is the total absence of laws, which will inevitably lead to a situation of disorder and anarchy in which individuals desperately try to survive by clinging to their instincts without any more inhibition.
Therefore strictly adhering to his role as historian Thucydides shows himself as a direct witness of the event and reports it to us depriving himself of every possible ethical or moral element, with the sole and sole purpose of informing and documenting posterity regarding the progress of history and of how it can interact with the labile human nature. And, just as the author writes:
“ Athens was destroyed by fear of the plague, not by the plague " (Thucydides).
It is certainly a gruesome glimpse, incapable of instilling confidence and therefore still perfectly capable of suggesting any modern reader.
Yesterday's plague and today's plague
The theme of the plague has been for centuries one of the greatest opportunities to talk about history, science and medicine at the same time. Authors, poets, writers and even painters and sculptors have juggled this theme trying to show in the best possible way the effects of evil, how it affects human psychology and how it is dealt with according to different historical epochs. The idea of a disease that suddenly explodes, triggering panic and uncertainty towards unobtainable cures and cures still guarantees a tragic source on which to build great historical narratives but also possible fictional stories.
The tragedy caused by death and destruction also represents an opportunity to highlight the effects of the disease on the human body, therefore at a medical / scientific level , but it often and above all leads to profound reflections of a religious / divine type , since man has always needed a superior element to lean on in the event of extreme pessimism.
It is therefore a subject that is still widely discussed today, capable of sparking fervent discussions and, but also capable of leaving an enormous fascination in literature and history of all times.