Disability in Antiquity

Christian Laes is Associate Professor of Latin and Ancient History at the University of Antwerp (Belgium), and Adjunct Professor of Ancient History at the University of Tampere (Finland). From 2014–16, he has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere. He has published five monographs, four edited volumes and over seventy international contributions on the human life course in Roman and Late Antiquity. Childhood, youth, old age, family, marriage and sexuality as well as disabilities are the main focuses of his scholarly work.

"After two millennia the voices of some of the most silent people of antiquity are finally being heard. This volume opens up a world previously all but unknown to us. It is an important collection of essays, in terms of both content and approach, that every ancient historian and classicist, as well as anyone interested in the history of disability, needs to read." - Tim Parkin, University of Manchester, UK"Christian Laes and the contributors to this volume emancipate the disabled in antiquity, not only in the Greek and Roman world, but also in the Near, Middle and Far East. They show them in their social and cultural context and in comparative perspective, making visible the invisible."- Manfred Horstmanshoff, Leiden University, The Netherlands"...the volume’s strength is the breadth of material that has been selected for inclusion ... the volume serves as a fitting starting point for a new era in disability history focussing on the ancient Mediterranean."- Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017"Disability in Antiquity is a valuable contribution to the recent field of historical disability studies ... The strength of this book lies in its endeavor to be comprehensive and comparative: collating a wide range of materials from different eras and cultures provides the reader with a holistic understanding of the topic at hand ... this book is an excellent addition to any scholarly library and a must-read for anyone interested in the history of disability. Readers are left not just with a thorough understanding of the topic but also an invitation for future research, as the authors put forth compelling and insightful questions to continue the conversation regarding disability in antiquity."- Heidi De Baerdemaeker-Poole, The Waterford School, USA, The Classical Journal 2018"This collection, richly diverse, holds much of use for the future work in the field. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter are extensive and current and care has been taken by the editor to locate the individual studies in the context of the history of disability studies as a whole."- Patricia Clark, University of Victoria, Canada, H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online

• Preface and AcknowledgementsNote on the BibliographyList of Contributors Introduction: Disability History and the Ancient World. Past, Present and Future - Christian Laes Disability and Infirmitas in the Ancient World: Demographic and Biological facts in the longue durée - April Pudsey The Ancient (Near) East Disabilities from Head to Toe in Hittite Civilisation - Richard Beal Mesopotamia and Israel - Edgar Kellenberger Ancient Persia and Silent Disability - Omar Coloru Egyptian Medicine and Disabilities: from Pharaonic to Graeco-Roman Egypt - Rosalie David India: Demystifying Disability in Antiquity - M. Miles Disability in Ancient China - Olivia Milburn The Greek World The Greek vocabulary of disabilities - Evelyn Samama Ability and Disability in Classical Athenian Oratory - Martha Lynn Rose Disabilities in Comedy and Tragedy - Robert Garland Legal (and Customary?) Approaches to the Disabled in Ancient Greece - Matthew Dillon The Hellenistic Turn in Bodily Representations: Venting Anxiety in Terracotta Figurines - Alexandre Mitchell Plutarch's 'Philosophy' of Disability: Human after All - Michiel Meeusen The Roman World Roman Perfect bodies. The Stoic View - Bert Gevaert Foul and Fair Bodies, Minds, and Poetry in Roman Satire - Sarah Bond and T.H.M. Gellar-Goad The 'Other' Romans: Deformed Bodies in the Visual Arts of Rome - Lisa Trentin Mobility Impairment in the Sanctuaries of Early Roman Italy - Emma-Jayne Graham Mental Disability? Galen on Mental Health - Chiara Thumiger Madness and Mad Patients According to Caelius Aurelianus - Danielle Gourevitch Disability in the Roman Digest - Peter Toohey The Late Ancient World Hysterical Women? Gender and Disability in Early Christian Narrative – Anna Rebecca Solevåg Augustine's Sermons and Disabilities - Martin Claes and Anthony Dupont Infirmitas in Monastic Rules - Jenni Kuuliala The Coptic and Ethiopic Tradition on Disabilities - Carol Downer The Disability Within: Sexual Desire as Disability in Syriac Christianity - John Martens The Disabled in the Byzantine Empire - Stephanos Efthymiadis What Difference did Islam Make? Disease and Disability in Early Medieval North Africa - Matthew Gaumer Impotent Husbands, Eunuchs and Flawed Women in Early Islamic Law - Hocine Benkheira Disability in Rabbinic Judaism - Lennart Lehmhaus and Julia Watts Belser The endurance of tradition Then and now. Canonical law on disabilities - Irina Metzler The Imperfect body in Nazi Germany: Ancient Concepts, Modern Technologies - Toon Van Houdt BibliographyIndex