Pharmakos

Pharmakos Greek φαρμακος Plural Pharmakoi)

Introduction

In Ancient Greece the pharmakoi were a groups of people often consisting of the mentally ill and physically afflicted who were housed near the gates of large Greek cities.(refactored from Calcagnetti) In early civilizations, the pharmkoi were viewed as scapegoats. Early traditions in social catharis involved citizens voting to send someone out of the community, forever or for a fixed time. (refactored from Burkert1) The elimination of the Pharmakoi would be viewed as the "cure for the public ills." (refactored from Calcagnetti)

In or around 600 B.C. the pharmakoi began to be sacraficed to appease to the Gods. (refactored from Calcagnetti). Around the same time, the term pharmakos was applied by analogy other cures for public ills including the following: drugs; ancient medicines; poisons; and other sacrificial animals such as pigs.(refactored from Calcagnetti) (refactored from Harrison1) While the term had multiple meanings, there existed an underlying principle, 'That which can cure can kill.' This connection could be explicit as is the case in sacrifice, or it may be less obvious such as the possibility of death by using medicine.

The term pharmakos was later adapted to the term Pharmacos and refers to a 'prisoner, poisoner, magician or a sorcerer. A later variation became Pharmacon (φάρμακον) meaning magical substance or 'drug.' From this, the discipline of pharmacology emerged.

Traditions and Ceremonies

On the first day of the Thargelia, a festival of Apollo at Athens, two men, the Pharmakoi, were led out as if to be sacrificed as an expiation, and at an earlier date were actually sacrificed. The poetry of Hipponax details that pharmakoi were sacrificed after being fed well, and their ashes scattered to the ocean. This was a purification ritual.

Footnotes

• Template:Ent Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, p.82
• Template:Ent Jane Ellen Harrison, Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p.152.
• Template:Ent Daniel J. Calcagnetti, Neuropharmacology: From Cellular Receptors and Neurotransmitter Synthesis to Neuropathology & Drug Addiction, First Edition. p.2

References

• Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985.
• Daniel J. Calcagnetti, "Neuropharmacology: From Cellular Receptors and Neurotransmitter Synthesis to Neuropathology & Drug Addiction", First Edition, 2006.
• Jane Ellen Harrison, Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 1921.
• Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 1908.
• Jane Ellen Harrison, Themis: a Study of the social Origin of Greek Religion, 1921.
• Leonard Whibley, MA, A companion to Greek studies. Cambridge University Press.