ABSTRACT
Rabies has a long and interesting history that is lost in antiquity. Plutarch asserts that, according to Athenodorus, it was first observed in mankind in the days of the Asclepiadae, the descendants of the god of medicine, Asculapius. Acteon, the famous hunter of myth who was torn to pieces by his hounds when he surprised Diana and her attendants at the bath, was thought to have been destroyed by rabid dogs. In the Iliad, Homer is thought to refer to rabies when he mentions that Sirius, the dog star of the Orion, exerts a malignant influence upon the health of mankind. The dog, Sirius, was associated with mad dogs all through the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt, and later Rome. Homer further uses the term “raging dog” in the epithets that are thrown at Hector by Teucer. The Greeks had a special god in their mythology to counteract the effect of rabies, Arisaeus, son of Apollo. Artemis is represented as the healer of rabies. 1
