title: Demystifying the epidemic among Achaeans during the Trojan War.
abstract: Although some modern scholars believe that Homer had at least a basic medical education, given that a plethora of medical terms may be found in his poems, in the case of the pestilence that killed the Achaeans (one of the Hellenic peoples believed to have inhabited the Peloponnese) at Troy, his reference was simply informative. No symptoms were mentioned and the only thing known was that mules and dogs were the first to die. While Delphic Apollo was usually on the side of Peloponnesians, during the Trojan War Apollo Smintheus (the Mouse God) sided with the Trojans. Apollo was invoked as Smintheus by his priest Chryses two times and on both occasions a pestilence ensued. In our paper we try to clarify whether this pestilence, as we believe, was caused by a member of the Alphavirus genus, which can inflict a serious epidemic both on human and animal species, especially in equines.
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsoucalas
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laios
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karamanou
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine Department, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Androutsos
mesh_terms: D018354:Alphavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae; D004285:Dogs; D058872:Epidemics / Q000266:history*; D018645:Greek World / Q000266:history*; D045464:Henipavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D006736:Horses; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D051379:Mice; D014857:Warfare