The Venerable Bede and Disability in the Middle Ages

 

Welcome to my latest blog post. Recently, I have been discussing the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Specifically, their beliefs surrounding disabled people and their abilities. It is clear that disabled people were not deemed to be useless. While I would love to go on and on about various ancient civilisations for a long time, I won’t. I feel that would discriminate against other time periods and we wouldn’t want that, would we? With that in mind, I shall launch myself into the period known as the Middle Ages. I have not found it as easy as I thought to find relevant information, but I will start by looking at Bede and his work.

Who was Bede?

Bede, also known as Bede the Venerable, was a monk from what is now England. He was born in 672/673 CE in the Kingdom of Northumbria. As well as being a monk, he was a fruitful writer of history. He spent a large portion of his life writing. Was it an interesting life? I think that depends on what you deem to be an interesting life. Much of the evidence about Bede’s life comes from what he tells us in his writings. Some historians have speculated that Bede may have been part of a noble family in that region. They point out that the name Beda (The Old English for Bede) can be found in the list of kings for the Kingdom of Lindsey, which was next to Northumbria. This link to high society through birth may explain how he was connected to all the right people when it came to gathering knowledge for his works.

He states that he was born on the grounds of the monastery at Jarrow, where he lived his entire life. However, it is more likely that he was sent there at the age of possibly 7 or 9, so that his family could have a member in the clergy. He really did stay in Jarrow for the rest of his life. Obviously, travel in the 7th and 8th century was very different to what it is now. Historians have only found concrete evidence of Bede leaving Jarrow twice in his lifetime.  Once to Lindisfarne, an island roughly 100 kilometres away. While the other was to York, roughly 130 kilometres away. So, what did he spend his time doing? Well, writing mostly. He wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People which I will discuss in a moment. As a result, he is sometimes remembered as the ‘Father of English History’. He is also credited with popularising the use of AD to denote any year after the birth of Christ. So whilst he was fairly stationary throughout his life, you cannot say he wasn’t productive!

The Ecclesiastical History and Disability

You might be wondering what Bede has to do with disability. As he wrote so extensively and was so influential, Bede’s works may indicate what Medieval attitudes towards disability were, particularly within the church. The Ecclesiastical History for which he is best known contains various references to disabled people. It was written in Latin in the year 721. I think I will pick my favourite examples and use them to emphasise my point. Wait! What is my point? I’m sure I will remember it.

Anyway, there once was a man named Germanus, who severely damaged his foot in a snare. Unable to bare weight, he was stuck in his house. The neighbouring building caught fire and the flames quickly encircled Germanus. The villagers tried to fight the fire to save him, but every part they attacked intensified instead. However, through the power of prayer alone, Germanus was able to quench the flames. Not only this, but a short while later an angel appeared and healed his foot completely. You see, a strong belief in God cured him of his impairment!

There is a similar story which I also enjoy. Two bishops headed out to convert the English to Christianity. They encountered a king named Elafius, who had a disabled son (his leg was bent out of shape). Elafius is preached to and blessed before they heal his son. All of his people gather around to watch the miraculous healing. They are so in awe of what they see that they all become Christian. I think it is safe to assume that the son’s deformity was a metaphor for the wickedness of the pagan English. This in a roundabout way suggests that disability was equated to sin and faith was the only way to avoid it.

I know I’ve only discussed a small percentage of one man’s work, but I think it sums up Medieval attitudes to disability quite well.

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Next time I will be discussing the idea of monsters and monstrosities.

 

                                                           The Wheelchair Historian

Further Reading

BBC, ‘The Venerable Bede (673 AD - 735 AD)’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bede_st.shtml Accessed: 30^th January, 2021.

Bede, Maura Bailey, Autumn Battista, Ashley Corliss, Eammon Gosselin, Rebecca Laughlin, Sara Moller, Shayne Simahk, Taylor Specker, Alyssa Stanton, Kellyn Welch, and Kisha G. Tracy. "Physical Disability, Muteness, Pregnancy, Possession, and Alcoholism from Ecclesiastical History (ca. 731)." In Medieval Disability Sourcebook: Western Europe, edited by McNabb Cameron Hunt, 345-64. Punctum Books, 2020. Accessed: January 18, 2021. doi:10.2307/j.ctv11hptcd.33.

British Library, ‘Bede’, https://www.bl.uk/people/bede# Accessed: 30^th January, 2021.

Fiorentino, Wesley, ‘Bede’, published on 10 May 2017 https://www.ancient.eu/Bede/ Accessed: 30^th January, 2021.

Wilde, Robert, ‘The Venerable Bede’, Updated May 30, 2019 https://www.thoughtco.com/the-venerable-bede-1222001 Accessed: 30^th January, 2021.

Blindness and Prophecy in Ancient Greece and Rome

 

Welcome to my latest blog post. If I remember correctly, last week I discussed how the ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the physically disabled and deformed could counteract the effects of the Evil Eye. However, it was not only deformed people that were believed to have special capabilities. This week, I will be writing about the concept of blind prophets and how their blindness somehow enhanced their prophetic powers.

What are Prophets and Oracles?

I think I should start by explaining what a prophet was in the world of the Greeks and Romans. They worked in a similar way to oracles. As I have mentioned before, the gods played a significant role in the daily lives of ordinary people. However, how were regular folk supposed to know what the gods wanted when they were far away on Mount Olympus? Luckily, there were a select group of humans who could interpret what the gods said, so that mere mortals could understand. Perhaps the most famous of these was the Pythia, better known as the Oracle of Delphi. She was the high priestess of the temple of Apollo and interpreted the gods meaning. The fact that she was the high priestess was apt as shall become clear in a minute.

You see, in order to connect with Apollo, she had to enter a trance like state. To achieve this, she reportedly drank from the holy spring and chewed on laurel leaves. The fact that laurel leaves are poisonous may explain what happened next. In this poison induced trance, she would answer the pilgrim’s question. It is probable that what she said was unintelligible, leaving pilgrims perplexed, or forcing temple priests to convey what she said. Prophets were similar, but they possessed knowledge of the future, rather than just relaying a message from the gods.

Why Were the Best Prophets Blind?

In mythology, there were quite a few prophets who were blind. From what I have read on the subject, blind prophets were a balancing act. In some cases, the gods blinded prophets because they were too accurate in their predictions and mankind was learning too much. Conversely, someone could be compensated with the gift of prophecy if they had lost their sight. In most cases it was the gods (usually quarrelling among themselves) that did both the taking and the giving. I know that what I am discussing occurs in myth, but it gives an interesting insight into common beliefs surrounding blindness. It seems as though people could not comprehend that a person could have one sense less. They must therefore have enhanced capabilities elsewhere. For the Greeks and Romans this resulted in eyesight being replaced by foresight. Even today it is believed that the other senses of blind people are heightened. To push it even further, if you believed the world of comic books, being blind can make you a superhero! It seems that vision is deemed so essential, that there simply must be some form of compensation.

Tiresias

Tiresias is perhaps the best example of a blind prophet from antiquity. He appears in many stories of Greek myth and is probably best known for his role in the story of Oedipus. I will come back to that tale shortly, but first I will try and explain a bit more about who Tiresias was. I mistakenly said he a moment ago. You see, one day Tiresias came across snakes mating and struck them killing one or both of them, depending on which version you read. This angered the goddess Hera who turned him into a woman as punishment. As a woman, Tiresias was married and had children. After 7 years, Hera turned her back into a man.

It is important to note that at this point in his life, Tiresias still had his sight. In one version of his story, he only became blind after a later encounter with Hera. Zeus and Hera were having an argument related to gender. I think it’s safest to leave it at that. Anyway, as Tiresias had lived as both a man and a woman, he was best placed to resolve the dispute. He sided with Zeus, leading Hera to blind him as punishment. Although there was nothing Zeus could do about the blinding, he granted Tiresias a long life and the power of prophecy. Tiresias was said to have lived for seven generations and even maintained his powers in the underworld after death to help Odysseus complete his journey in Homer’s Odyssey (shown above).

Another version of how he went blind and received his powers was that he stumbled across the goddess Athena bathing and could not look away. She therefore blinded him as punishment. However, she eventually took pity on him after his mother pleaded for the punishment to be undone. Even Athena could not undo what she had done, so granted him his powers instead.

I mentioned the story of Oedipus earlier. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, I will let you know how Tiresias fits into it. Oedipus became king of Thebes after marrying Jocasta, the queen. The new king Oedipus set out to discover what happened to the previous king. He consulted Tiresias who informed him that he really does not want to know what happened to Jocasta’s former husband. Emphasis being on the really. Oedipus did not listen to the wise old man and continued his investigation. This ultimately led to Oedipus being blinded as punishment. Ah! The circle of life!

As you can see, being blind in the Greco-Roman world was linked to prophetic abilities. This could be both a gift and a curse.

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

Next week I will investigate the beliefs surrounding disability and its causes in the Medieval Period.

 

                                                                         The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Encyclopedia.com, ‘Tiresias’, Updated: Feb 8 2021 https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/classical-literature-mythology-and-folklore/folklore-and-mythology/tiresias Accessed: 22^nd January 2021.

Gartziou-Tatti, Ariadni, ‘Blindness as punishment’ in Menelaos Christopoulos, Efimia Karakantza, Olga Levaniouk (eds.) Light and Darkness in Ancient Greek Myth and Religion (Lexington Books, 2010).

Jrank.org, ‘Prophecy: Greece And Rome’, https://science.jrank.org/pages/10883/Prophecy-Greece-Rome.html Accessed: 22^nd January 2021.

Prof. Geller, ‘Tiresias’, Last Updated: November 10, 2016 https://mythology.net/greek/mortals/tiresias/ Accessed: 22^nd January 2021.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Tiresias’, February 06, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tiresias Accessed: January 11, 2021.

Disability vs The Evil Eye

 

Welcome to the latest post in my series on beliefs surrounding disability. Last week I discussed the Evil Eye and its effects. This week I will look at how the Greeks and Romans used disabled people to counteract the Evil Eye. Kind of like a human shield. As I explain it further it will make more sense.

Talismans and the Evil Eye

A few weeks ago, I discussed the Egyptian god, Bes and all his demon scaring abilities. The demons that he was warding off were very similar to the Evil Eye that later generations would try to combat. I have a feeling that the physical appearance of Bes heavily influenced the ways in which the Greeks and Romans chose to defend themselves against the eye. Dwarfs were used as talismans, in the form of people, as well as amulets. However, it was not only with dwarfs that this belief is true, but also with hunchbacks. I think I may have mentioned this before, but the hump on a hunchback was deemed to be lucky, meaning that the greater the severity of the hump, the greater the protection it offered. The idea being that the deformity drew the attention of the Evil Eye, therefore protecting others. People were known to rub the humps for this reason.

However, what happened if you were unlucky enough to not own a deformed slave? For these unfortunate folk, there was also the option of amulets. Lisa Trentin has written a book examining over 50 different hunchback representations. She noted that of these, 6 were fitted with suspension holes, meaning that they could be hung up on the walls of buildings, or potentially worn around people’s necks. Some of these statuettes had the hole from which they were hung placed through the centre of the hump, further highlighting its peculiarity. It is clear that these amulets were seen as an important protection against the Evil Eye and all its effects.

Other Protective Items

It was not only these small amulets that were used to fend off the Evil Eye which featured disabled people. A bronze mirror was discovered which included an image of a nude hunchback kneeling down, surrounded by birds and plants. I find this quite strange and not just because he is in the nude! Why would something that is perceived to be ugly be surrounded by a scene of such beauty? The answer may lie in the item on which the image was placed. You see, the Evil Eye of Envy had a thing for beautiful women. The image of the hunchback was placed on the reverse of the mirror, as a subtle (or maybe not so subtle) reminder that the woman’s good looks should not be taken for granted and will not last forever.

The fact that an image of nature appears on a household item such as a mirror is very interesting to me. Lisa Trentin believes this indicates that the creatures i.e. the birds and the hunchback, were being domesticated and brought in from the wild. The fact that the Romans saw hunchbacks as being equivalent to animals does not reflect well on their attitudes towards disability. This particular item does however suggest that they believed disabled people had magical powers to fight off evil. Wait! Does that mean I’m a superhero?

Music also played an important role when keeping the wicked intentions of the Evil Eye at bay. Some figurines of dwarfs and hunchbacks carrying musical instruments such as rattles, and rhythm sticks have been found. It has been thought that a terracotta dwarf figurine with rattles in hand (shown above) was used to guard a tomb from evil spirits. I can only assume from this that evil spirits are like wild bears and are scared off by loud noises.

Marble sculpture of hunchback, 2nd century C.E., Villa Albani- Torlonia, Rome, 964. Trentin (2009) 130 figure 1.

(Reverse of) Marble sculpture of hunchback, 2nd century C.E., Villa Albani- Torlonia, Rome, 964. Trentin (2009) 130 figure 1.

 It was not only small figurines which protected people from the Evil Eye. In the 1700s an unusual statue of a hunchback (shown directly above) was uncovered at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. What is strange about this particular statue is that while it has the customary hump, it has a ‘normal’ face. While most hunchback depictions have grotesque facial features, this one did not and may even be described as handsome. The hump on its back has been worn down which suggests that it was rubbed for luck regularly by passers-by. The shock of discovering that the hunchback had a handsome face may have added to its potency against the eye.

This is just a small snapshot of the abilities which the Greeks and Romans thought that disabled people possessed. It is clear that they thought disabled people were somewhat useful.

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

Next week I will examine the role played by blind prophets in the Greco-Roman world.

 

                                                        The Wheelchair Historian

Further Reading

Dunbabin, K. M. D., and Dickie, M. W, 1983. "Invida rumpantur pectora,” JAC, 26, 7-37.

Masséglia, Jane, 2015. Body Language in Hellenistic Art and Society (Oxford).

Trentin, Lisa, 2015. The Hunchback in Hellenistic and Roman Art, (London: Bloomsbury).  

Trentin, Lisa, 2009. ‘What's in a hump? Re-examining the hunchback in the Villa-Albani-Torlonia’, The Cambridge Classical Journal, 55 130-156.  

Uhlenbrock, J.P. 1990. The Coroplast’s Art (New York).