They are apparently good for treating pain, even chronic pain, and this was know to some civilisations thousands of years ago.
Anteros, a freed slave of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, had decided it was a good day for a walk on the beach. Damp sand stuck to his bare feet as he walked, probably deep in great thoughts about matters that continue to remain a mystery, when he felt shock travel from his foot to the rest of his body, knocking him out of breath. The source of the shock, upon close inspection, was a live torpedo ray.
“Although he initially suffered an excruciating cramp, the pain he had long endured from what might have been gout miraculously disappeared,”
Migraine and epilepsy were also treated with it.
3 comments:
Reminds me of "The Wanderer," a lament in Old English by a warrior who has survived his lord. That was, in turn, the inspiration for the Lament of the Rohirrim in Lord of the Rings:
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
I assume this was meant for the Lament post...
I agree though. "The Wanderer" and Apollonius of Tyre were the only things I translated accurately when I took Old English.
Bleah! Yes! Commented on the wrong article. Sorry.
Post a Comment