[B-Greek] usual verb for convulsing?

Tim Lewis tim_lewis at dodo.com.au
Sun Mar 25 22:00:59 EDT 2007


I'm wondering what the usual verb for convulsing might have been. 

I'm trying to find Galen's terminology, but it's difficult to come by, I'm currently only finding English translations of him, e.g. cited by O. Temkin (_The Falling Sickness_ 2nd edition; 1971), p25. The verb SPARASSW is not used by Hippocrates (_PERI IERHS NOUSOU_) when he discusses epilepsy.

For numerous reasons I now doubt that SPARASSW (or the compound SUSPARASSW in Lk 9:42) was a verb for convulsing (in any technical sense), despite many Greek lexicons giving such a meaning for the verb in Mk 1:26 & 9:20,26// Lk 9:39 (e.g. L&N). BDAG is quite reserved in simply giving "shake to and fro." 

I now see it as more generally meaning "disturb, disrupt, agitate, agravate" (i.e. "cause [severe] physical disturbance," partly because of the variant manuscript readings). It so far appears to me that the Gospels have avoided using the usual "medical" terms which would not be surprising given that they took a demonic etiology. In looking at Hippocrates I can't see many technical terms at this stage though he used EPILAMBANW, SPASMOS and SPAW.

So I have three questions:

(1) Does anyone by chance know what would be either a more technical or more usual verb for "cause convulsions"? (E.g. as used throughout Galen's writings)
(2) Does anyone know of any evidence of SPARASSW used as a verb for convulsing?
(3) Is SPASMOS or SPAW to be connected or related to SPARASSW (from an ancient perspective)?

Thank you in advance for any help in this area.
Tim Lewis


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