Related Papers
Ancient Warfare Magazine
PTSD in Ancient Greece: Was there mental trauma in Ancient Warfare?
Owen Rees
For over fifteen years it has been an accepted historical practice to refer to episodes within ancient Greek history, and portrayals of characters in Greek drama, as exhibiting behaviours akin to modern veterans suffering with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Indeed, it is becoming more and more common that figures from ancient history are being retrospectively diagnosed with PTSD. Yet, to date no book length treatment exists to debate the validity of this implied universalism: that PTSD can be found and equated in history, with little regard for the social and chronological boundaries which separate the present from the past. So what is the argument for PTSD in ancient Greece, and what, if any, are its flaws? Presented here are two authors presenting the opposing views to the debate, as it stands, using the same quoted sources to highlight the differences in interpretation.
The Europaeum
Colloquium Europaeum: "War and Trauma: Ancient and Modern Dialogues"
Anna Coopey
I was selected as a speaker for the Europaeum's 2023 Classics Colloquium on War and Trauma, and spoke in the third panel, "Trauma and Historical Distance". My paper was titled "'Subjunctive History': A Case for Renewed Empathy in Our Engagement with Ancient Warfare". Paper on Request.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Editorial - How We Can Learn from Analysing Trauma in Past Societies
2022 •
Piers Mitchell
In this issue we have some fascinating papers that vividly bring to light the interplay between trauma and death in past populations. One study examines the remains of German bomber crews who died during the Battle of Britain from 1940 (Verna et al., 2022). We might expect that some of those aircraft who made it back to their airfields in northern France carried dead or dying airmen with injuries sustained from anti-aircraft fire or rounds from Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircraft. Others would have sustained their injuries during crash landings in crippled aircraft. The examples of the high energy trauma noted on the remains of those airmen buried at Beauvais-Tillé airfield from 1940-42, some still wearing their life jackets or wrapped in parachutes, movingly brings to life the horrors of a recent world war that affected many of our own families just two or three generations ago. If we rewind two thousand years, we hear how the bodies of over a hundred women, children and men had been dumped in a disused water cistern located just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem (Dittmar et al., 2022). Dating suggests the event took place during the Hasmonean period, immediately prior to the Roman occupation of Judea in the first century BCE. There was widespread evidence for sharp force and blunt force trauma on the skeletal remains, including a significant number of decapitations. Textual evidence from the period would suggest this may be all that is left of a massacre performed at the command of King Alexander Jannaeus, who was renowned for his vicious suppression of those who opposed him. One text shows how, following a Pharisee rebellion against him in 88 BCE, Jannaeus forced the men to watch the execution of their wives and children before being killed themselves. This description matches the pattern of evidence found in the cistern, and highlights how the violent behaviour of many past rulers led to great misery in their efforts to maintain power. While such studies clearly improve our forensic knowledge of how different kinds of trauma affect the skeleton, they also help us to better understand the visceral nature of conflict and violence in past centuries. Reading of massacres or battles in history texts is one thing, but to see the actual wounds on the bones gives substance and detail to otherwise abstract concepts, enabling our imagination to recreate those events with much greater accuracy.
War Injuries from Past to Present. Proceedings of the Symposium "War Injuries from Past to Present" held at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University of Prague, 5th March 2011. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Medica Monographia CLIX.
The Warfare of the Prehistoric Aegean from the Point of View of Injuries (On the Basis of Archaeological, Literary and Iconographical Sources)
2014 •
Tomas Alusik
The Ancient War’s Impact on the Home Front, ed. by Lucia Cecchet, Christopher Degelmann, Maik Patzelt, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Athens as a 'Landscape of Trauma'. Phrynichus' Sack of Miletus and the Aftermath of the Persian Wars
Recent research demonstrates that the modern category of trauma, and especially that of war trauma, can contribute to a re-examination of postwar psychological and social dynamics in antiquity as well as shed new light on the traumatic consequences of war for veterans and civilians. In this paper I detect traces of what I propose to call a “collective war trauma” in the representation of Persian Wars-related events on the Athenian stage in the immediate aftermath of the war, thus referring to tragedy as a means of “cultural catharsis”. The story connected with the Athenians’ desperate reaction in front of Phrynichus’ Sack of Miletus illuminates the mechanisms, functions and goals of the tragic representations as a means for the civic community to cope with the impact of war, especially with the dramatic destruction of Athens.
Colloquim Europaeum: “War and Trauma: Ancient and Modern Dialogues”
Alessia Borriello
I participated as respondent in the Student Panel 2: “Trauma and Affect: Understanding our Emotional Responses to Trauma Through Literary Devices.”
Wrathful Battle, Bloody War: Trauma, Narrative, and Material Culture in Classical Grek Warfare
Sebastian de Vivo
In this paper, I examine the semantic range of trauma as a phenomenon, focused upon late Archaic and Classical Greece. I set understandings of trauma in the context of material culture studies and attempt to read the significance of armor in constructing narratives of battle.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Ancient Greece: A Methodological Review
Alan Greaves
Imaginibus, non mente falluntur: Post-traumatic Stress in Roman Medicine and Literature, 100 BCE – 100 CE
Scott Brantner
Wiley
New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare
2019 •
Lee L . Brice
New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare brings together essays from specialists in ancient history who employ contemporary tools and approaches to reveal new evidence and increase knowledge of ancient militaries and warfare. In-depth yet highly readable, this volume covers the most recent trends for understanding warfare, militaries, soldiers, non-combatants, and their roles in ancient cultures. Chronologically-organized chapters explore new methodologies, evidence, and topics while offering fresh and original perspectives on recent documentary and archaeological discoveries. Covering the time period from Archaic Greece to the Late Roman Empire, the text asks questions of both new and re-examined old evidence and discusses the everyday military life of soldiers and veterans. Chapters address unique topics such as neurophysiological explanations for why some soldiers panic and others do not in the same battle, Greek society’s handling of combat trauma in returning veterans, the moral aspects and human elements of ancient sieges, medical care in the late Roman Empire, and the personal experience of military servicemembers and their families. Each chapter is self-contained to allow readers to explore topics in any order they prefer. Providing new material and topical focus, New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare is an ideal text for Greek History or Roman History courses, particularly those focusing on ancient warfare, as well as scholars and general readers with interest in the ancient militaries.
