Pain with a PR Problem: Narrating Gout-Induced Pain in the Second Sophistic

Georgia Petridou

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Chapter 6 Pain with a PR Problem: Narrating Gout-Induced Pain in the Second Sophistic

In: Pain Narratives in Greco-Roman Writings

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Georgia Petridou

Georgia Petridou
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 121–144

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004677463_007

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Abstract

This chapter focusses on gout-induced pain in the first and second centuries CE. It discusses the correlations between narrative strategies and the individual experience of acute and chronic pain in the ancient world as documented in key textual (literary, medical, and epigraphic) and material evidence (amulets, inscriptions) from this period. Gout-induced pain, this chapter argues, provided ample opportunity for denigration and mockery in the Graeco-Roman world because of its persistent cultural framing as the disease of the privileged few who could afford both a rich diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Gout was thus dubbed the “patrician malady” and attracted a great deal of unsympathetic PR, from which it still suffers today. But how did it feel to suffer from the kind of acute and chronic gout-induced pain that often leads to debilitating disability? Whether theatrically re-enacted, comically subverted, stoically tolerated, or exorcised by extreme measures, such as suicide, this study argues that gout-induced pain was experienced as impacting heavily on the ‘lived bodies’. Despite the radical changes in modern biomedicine, the cultural framing of gout continues to be negatively preconditioned by assumptions about the lifestyles of sufferers. For this reason, it deserves our attention and a more empathetic reappraisal.

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Pain Narratives in Greco-Roman Writings

Studies in the Representation of Physical and Mental Suffering

Series: Studies in Ancient Medicine, Volume: 58

Cover Pain Narratives in Greco-Roman Writings

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004677463

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 29 Jun 2023

Subjects
- Classical Studies
  - Ancient Science & Medicine
  - Greek & Latin Literature
- History
  - History of Medicine

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Chapter 6 Pain with a PR Problem: Narrating Gout-Induced Pain in the Second Sophistic

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Pain Narratives in Greco-Roman Writings

Studies in the Representation of Physical and Mental Suffering

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