1. Thucydides on the Athenian ”Plague”
Huntley Polanshek

2. How would you compare these to the Athenian ”Plague?”
Athenian plague described as causing intense fever, redness, inflammation of the eyes, blood-red mouth with sneezing, hoarseness, coughing, vile, then move onto a rash that spread throughout the body
Make point that both smallpox and Ebola sound really similar when broken down into very simple, understandable symptoms for the public but are two very, very different diseases!

3. Considering a Smallpox Diagnosis from a Medical Perspective
Transmission could be person to person, especially once sores were present in the mouth and/or nose (CDC), and any open sores on the body were rife with the ability to transmit the disease
Would explain Thucydides’ remarks on why those caring for others in particular were so ill
Distinction between phases differing in intensity and symptoms is present in both modern texts and Thucydides’ account (CDC, Minnesota DOH)
”Small blisters and ulcers” scream smallpox based off both ancient and modern documents, and as the CDC says, they may not be the initial symptom, something that Thucydides comments on
Also, incubation period was 7-17 days, with the rest of the illness taking upwards of a couple of weeks; as long as open scabs, contagious, which would provide ample time to spread the disease
Myriad of other symptoms technically match up, but is the fact that they correlate enough to make this argument? OR just coincidence?

4. Considering a Smallpox Diagnosis from a Historical Perspective
Historically makes sense….to a degree.
Have Egyptian mummies with the well known “pustules” of the illness from upwards of years ago (Henderson)
However, Asia Minor descriptions do not begin until around the 10th C AD (CDC)
Brings into debate the issue of, if this is smallpox, how are there no and/or minimal, identifiable descriptions of it until 4th Century AD (CDC)?
How would it have been transported to Classical Athens?

5. Other things to consider with direct interpretation
Medical background of individual involved: physician as writer or philosopher as writer on medical doctrine, for example
Translation quality
Literal vs. loose reading of the text
Experience with author in question (Alford)
Modern bias towards specific illnesses (Ebola because it is recent, smallpox because it is classic, so on and so forth)

6. Resources .
Alford, Elisabeth M. Thucydides and the Plague in Athens. Written Communication 15.3 (July 1998). file:///Users/huntleypolanshek/Downloads/Thucydides-Plague-Alford.pdf
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. History of Smallpox
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smallpox Fact Sheet
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Transmission
Henderson, Donald A. The Eradication of smallpox – an overview of the past, present, and future. Vaccine 295 (2011) D7-D9. c49cde48e0e5&acdnat= _6a63a7ec41e3f9d436a73b13119b6da2
Minnesota Department of Health. Overview of Smallpox
Thucydides, Plague in Athens.
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