title: The epileptic seizure and the myth of Hyakinthos.
abstract: Epilepsy is, apart from sleep, the essential human experience of what looks like a violent, dramatic but transient form of death, a death a person can recover from. This makes epilepsy interesting in Indo-European tradition where rebirth in its various forms is an established concept. This paper interprets an illumination of the Middle Ages and comments on the promise made to a fallen person with epilepsy through the myth of Hyakinthos. Hyakinthos, Apollo's friend, died in a friendly competition and was reborn from his own blood in the form of a flower that bears his name.
authors: Hôpital St Anne, Department of Neurosurgery (Pr FX Roux), 1 rue Cabanis, F-75014 Paris, France. m.mann@ch-sainte-anne.fr
authors: Michael W
authors: MW
authors: Mann
mesh_terms: D004827:Epilepsy / Q000266:history*; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D009229:Mythology