A particularly beautiful marble statue of a boy, a dedication unearthed in Lilaia, Phokis, and on display in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, is an opportunity for us to explore the connection between the boys’ games and the jeopardy in their outcome. Both the expression on the boy’s face and the way he holds an astragal and a goose demand multiple levels of reading. These are related to the intent of the dedication in the first place, the identification of the games requiring an astragal or involving a goose, as well as to the choice of these specific playthings for the particular imagery. Why is he holding a single astragal, and in such a particular way? Why is the goose included in the picture, and what species of Anatidae is this? The apparent originality of the motif and of the work, in comparison with other well-known Hellenistic representations in stone or terracotta, dictated our research into the milieu of artistic and symbolic quests of that period, and also a reflection on the choice of the artist to designate a child as the owner of the playthings within a particular spatial and temporal context, perhaps associated with healing frοm a life-threatening fever.
Résumé Frotter le pénis, geste connu en contexte dionysiaque grec, cité à propos d’un tout petit enfant ne peut concerner que la maladie de la lithiase, autrement dit le calcul vésical. Pour les auteurs hippocratiques du ve siècle av. J.-C. qui observent et enregistrent tout symptôme et réaction de leur patient, même le langage gestuel d’un nourrisson permet de connaître une maladie, d’établir son origine, sa symptοmatologie, sa pathologie, son pronostic et enfin son nom. Malgré l’absence de livre de pédiatrie systématique dans l’Antiquité, les médecins hippocratiques ont pu voir dans la lithiase vésicale des enfants, - maladie peu discutée par nos spécialistes jusqu’à ce jour -, l’une des affections infantiles les plus graves, dont les conséquences sont souvent funestes, et qui a tendance à se développer davantage chez les garçons. Le calcul n’ayant pas pu être extrait, il y a des chances de le retrouver pendant les fouilles archéologiques dans les bassins des squelettes des enfants, ce qui compléterait nos connaissances sur les maladies des nourrissons et des enfants du passé. Si les recherches actuelles montrent que des reflux urinaires avec formation de calculs touchent le fœtus in utero pour des raisons hormonales, on peut en outre se demander pourquoi les auteurs hippocratiques qui ont considéré le lait comme responsable de la lithiase du nourrisson, n’ont pas pensé à accuser son « frère », le sang des menstrues, associé à la nourriture du fœtus pour des naissances avant-terme. L’archéologie devrait ainsi commencer à rechercher dans les enchytrismes, les périnatals et les jeunes enfants ayant soufferts de cette pathologie, car plusieurs chapitres sont encore manquants dans l’histoire de l’allaitement. Alors que l’analyse de la théorie de la formation du lithos est l’affaire de l’histoire de l’Antiquité et de la médecine, l’histoire de l’enfance montre que les symptômes de la maladie et les difficultés de son traitement chez les enfants restent toujours valides. Abstract Title: The child who grasps his willy briskly. Infantile gestures and the detection of lithiasis in the Hippocratic authors Rubbing one’s penis: the gesture, depicted only in Greek Dionysian context, does make sense in relation to a small child only in the case of urolithiasis, (vesical) bladder urinal stones. Hippocratic authors of the 5th century BCE, who observed and recorded all the symptoms and reactions of their patients, communicated with infants in gestational language in order to recognize the disease and establish its prognosis, the origin, the symptoms, pathology and name of the disease. Even in the absence of any systematic pediatric treatise in Antiquity, the Hippocratic authors considered urolithiasis in children - a disease that has so far been little discussed by our specialists - as one of the gravest infantile diseases which tended to favour boys and often proved fatal. As often the stone could not be extracted from the bladder, searching for lithiasis stones during excavations, in the pelvis area of the deceased infants, complements our knowledge on the diseases of babies and children. If we consider that current medical research shows that urinary pathologies and the formation of stones can already affect the fetus in the womb, for hormonal reasons, we can wonder why the Hippocratic authors, who attributed the disease to breast feeding, did not correlate the milk to menstruation which he considers a “sibling” nourishment of the fetus. Archaeological research must begin from pot burials, perinatal burials, and young children; it will take many chapters to complement the history of breast-feeding. While the analysis of the theory of urinal-stone formation was an issue in ancient thought, the history of childhood shows that today children still experience the same symptoms and that treatment of the disease remains difficult.
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