Tag: greek mythology

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Priapism

Posted on by Jinavie

The penis is an interesting organ that has the ability to harden, despite being made of spongy material. Contrary to the popular slang for erection (boner), the (human) penis contains no bone.

Instead, it is made of a pair of cylindrical, spongy tissue called the corpus cavernosa, and a smaller spongy tube that surrounds the urethra called the corpus spongiosum. An erection happens when the body redirects blood flow to fill these spongy tissues, engorging them with blood. As it expands, the corpora become rigid and tense as they are wrapped by a thick, dense tissue called the tunica albuginea. The tension compresses the surrounding veins, trapping the blood and keeping the penis erect. Once stimulation slows and less blood flows into the penis, the blood drains via the venous system and the erection withers.

A common problem with erections is that of erectile dysfunction (unable to become erect or sustain it), which is well-known to the lay person. However, a lesser-known, opposite problem is priapism.

Priapism refers to an erection that will not die down even when the stimulation has ended, or with no stimulation at all. Although this may not sound like a medical problem other than causing embarrassment, priapism can be a very painful condition and depending on the cause, the penis can become starved of fresh blood (ischaemic), resulting in permanent damage to the cells and tissue.

Priapism is named after the Greek god, Priapus. He was a minor god worshipped in rural Asia Minor as a god of fertility, livestock and gardens. Priapus is depicted as having a permanent erection to symbolise fertility, but ironically, was cursed with impotence by Hera while still in the womb. His massive, erect penis was a popular theme for Roman erotic art and can be seen in various pieces of ancient art.

Priapism can arise from various causes such as blood disorders, medications and spinal cord damage. The problem is usually due to blood being trapped in the penis, or the nervous system continuously stimulating blood flow into the penis. As the main issue is engorgement with blood, the acute treatment for priapism involves decompressing the penis by using a needle to aspirate (draw out) blood directly from the corpus cavernosa.

Posted in Science & Nature

Maze

Posted on by Jinavie

A maze is a puzzle with a simple rule – travel from start to finish. The tricky part is that the path from start to finish is not straightforward, but full of twists and turns. It is usually packed in a compact rectangle or circle, with numerous forks and branches. Because of its simplicity, it has been a popular puzzle for millennia.

Like any puzzle, there are tricks to solving mazes. The most basic, but highly effective rule, is the right-hand rule. This is a form of wall following rule, where you run the maze while tracing the wall your right hand is touching. Keep following a wall with your right hand and you will eventually reach the end. 

The rule works for most simple mazes that are simply-connected, where each wall is connected to the outermost wall. But in some cases, the maze is not simply-connected and you will end up in a loop. In this case, you will eventually end back at the beginning, so you will have to try follow a different wall (i.e. use your left hand instead and see how you go).

One of the most famous mazes in history is the Cretan labyrinth, featured in Greek mythology (likely based on the actual palace of Knossos). The Cretan labyrinth was a cryptic maze within the palace the housed the fearsome minotaur, to whom human sacrifices were sent to be devoured. The minotaur is slain by the hero Theseus, who navigates the labyrinth and safely escapes by using a ball of thread given to him by the princess, Ariadne, as a trace.

Mazes were especially popular amongst nobles in Europe, with many castles featuring hedge mazes as part of their magnificent gardens. It is likely that these mazes were popular not because they offer an intellectual challenge, but because it is an ideal date location. 

Walking a maze gives you a sense of intimacy, because the paths are narrow and you can only perceive a small space of 10-20 square metres, due to its many-walled nature. You walk side-by-side with each other, while your footsteps echo on the hedges. You have nothing else to distract you other than plain walls and the sky, so you can focus on each other. But most importantly, it provides privacy, by transporting you to a secret, little world of your own.

Posted in History & Literature

Your Other Half

Posted on by Jinavie

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. The humans at this time were complete. They felt as if nothing could harm them and that they could conquer the gods. Zeus feared the humans’ power and split them into two separate parts to create humans as they are now. Two arms, two legs, one face, half a soul.

Thanks to Zeus, all human beings are condemned to spend the rest of their lives in search of their other halves. When one of them meets the other half – that is, the other half of his or her original self – the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy. There is an unspoken understanding of one another – an unexplainable longing and attraction for each other. One will not be out of the other’s sight, even for a moment. The two continuously yearn for each other and strive to be together until they are finally united.

Love is simply the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete. It tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.

1 + 1 = 3

(inspiration from The Symposium by Plato)

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(and here’s a sweet illustration of the myth http://imgur.com/gallery/H0f1u)

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Viscera: Liver

Posted on by Jinavie

(Learn more about the organs of the human bodies in other posts in the Viscera series here: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/viscera/?order=asc)

The liver is the second largest organ (next to the skin) in the human body, weighing about 1.4~1.6kg. It is found tucked under the right side of the ribcage, underneath the 5th to 10th rib in height and almost spanning the entire width of the trunk. When enlarged, the liver grows downward and can be felt in an abdominal exam (sometimes it is so large that it covers most of the abdomen).

It is a vital organ with many life-sustaining functions (hence “liver”) such as building various proteins, breaking down toxins, storing sugars in the form of glycogen, decomposing red blood cells and producing bile. The liver metabolises (breaks down) a large proportion of medications and drugs as it treats them as “toxins”. For example, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase breaks down alcohols into acetaldehyde, which causes hangovers and liver damage. Many Asians have a variant of this enzyme that is extremely efficient, causing a massive build-up of acetaldehyde when they drink alcohol. This is responsible for the so-called “Asian flush”.

Liver disease is associated a myriad of symptoms. The classic sign of jaundice (yellow skin and whites of eyes) is caused by obstruction of bile flow. Because of its location, pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen is commonly seen. As the liver is involved in synthesising various proteins, signs such as ascites (fluid in the abdomen) or bleeding may occur when the liver is damaged. A syndrome called portal hypertension is commonly seen in chronic liver disease such as cirrhosis as a major vein to the liver is blocked. This can cause an enlarged spleen, oesophageal varices that can bleed, ascites and prominent veins radiating from the belly button (caput medusae).

An interesting property of the liver is that it can regenerate at an amazing rate. A liver will regenerate to its original size even when a half of it is cut out (this is how live donor liver transplants work). What is more interesting is that the ancient Greeks probably knew of this fact as well. In Greek mythology, the gods punish Prometheus for bringing fire to humans by chaining him to a mountain and commanding an eagle to peck out his liver. The liver would then regenerate overnight and the eagle would return every morning to eviscerate him, causing him eternal anguish.

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Posted in History & Literature

Rod Of Asclepius

Posted on by Jinavie

There are many symbols that represent the field of medicine such as a red cross or a stethoscope. However, one of the most famous symbols representing medicine and healthcare is the rod of Asclepius. This symbol is used in the logos of numerous medical associations and army medical corps. Those who do know of the rod may describe it as a staff with two wings and two snakes intertwining on it, but this is a common misconception. That symbol is called the caduceus and is actually the symbol of Hermes – the Greek god of messengers, merchants, markets, the high roads, gamblers and thieves. The misconception is very common and many medical associations use the caduceus as their symbol instead of the correct Rod of Asclepius.

The Caduceus

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The actual rod of Asclepius is much simpler looking, as it is simply a stick with one serpent intertwining it. The reason that it is associated with medicine and healthcare is that it was wielded by the Greek god Asclepius – the god of medicine and healing. Asclepius was the son of Apollo and had a particular interest in the human body and the healing of ailments. The ancient Greeks often referred to Asclepius in the field of medicine. In fact, the famous Hippocratic Oath originally began with the line “I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods…” (Apollo was the god of many things and medicine was one of his minor domains).

The rod of Asclepius

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So why does the rod of Asclepius have a serpent wrapped around it? In Greek mythology, it is said that Asclepius commanded many non-venomous snakes which he used in healing rituals. The snakes would crawl around the temple, living freely among the physicians and patients. A certain species of snake called the Aesculapian snake is considered to be the model for this story. The reason why the Greeks chose the snake as the animal of healing may be because snakes shed their skin periodically – symbolising rebirth and fertility. 

Another possible root of the symbol may be the traditional treatment for a certain parasitic infection. The Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) is a parasite that lives under the skin, digging itself out through a painful blister when mature. As the blisters burn, the patient immerses the area in cold water to soothe it. The worm detects the change in temperature and releases its larva, completing its life cycle. The traditional treatment was to slowly pull the worm out of the skin, entwine it around a stick and leave it for a period of hours to weeks until it would be completely removed. The Greeks may have taken this image (of the worm wrapped around a stick) and applied it to the rod of Asclepius.

Posted in History & Literature

Week

Posted on by Jinavie

In Genesis from the Old Testament of the Bible, it is said that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. But the system of a seven-day week can be found in many other cultures and religions. The origin of the seven-day week system is ancient Babylonia. The Babylonians believed that every seventh day was one of misfortune, with 7 having the significance that it is the largest single-digit prime number and the number of heavenly bodies known at the time (sun, moon, five planets). This was passed on to the Jewish people who made the seventh day the Sabbath. This was then adopted by Catholics in Rome and in 325AD, it was officially decided at the Concilium Nicaenum (official council that was held to vote for the official religion of Rome) that every week would be seven days long.

There is also a reason for assigning a heavenly body to each day (Monday = Moon, Tuesday = Mars, Wednesday = Mercury, Thursday = Jupiter, Friday = Venus, Saturday = Saturn, Sunday = Sun). At first, the order of the days was the same as the order of heavenly bodies by their distance from the Earth: “Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon”. This was then cross-referenced with the astrological 24-hour system of planetary hours, resulting in a new order of “Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus”. Because of this, the week started on Saturday in ancient times. It was only during Roman times when the week was changed to start on the Sunday, with Sunday becoming an official day of rest.

The Romans named the days after the heavenly body assigned to that day. For example, “Sunday” obviously comes from “Sun”, with the same applying to Monday and Saturday. This system is used in Korea and China, where each day is labelled according to the assigned planet. For example, Thursday is 목요일(mok yo il) in Korean, where 목 means wood, with 목성(mok sung) meaning Jupiter.

In English, the names of each day are mixed. Some are based on planets like the Korean system (Saturday, Sunday, Monday), while others inherit their name from the Germanic people. The Germanic people assigned one of their gods (from Norse mythology) to each day (except Sunday and Monday, which are related to the Sun and the Moon, while Saturday had a completely different name). Tuesday stands for “Tyr’s day”, Wednesday stands for “Wodan’s(or Odin’s) day”, Thursday stands for “Thor’s day” and Friday stands for “Frigg’s day”.

Interestingly, the Norse god assigned to each day correlates with the Greek/Roman god assigned to it. For example, Thursday is “Thor’s day” and also “the day of Jupiter”. Jupiter is the Roman king of gods (same as Zeus from Greek mythology) who uses lightning, while Thor is the Norse god of thunder.

Not every country calls each day a meaningful name. In China, Monday is simply 星期一(xing qi yi), or “first star period”, with each day after that being one number higher (Sunday is specially called 星期日(xing qi ri), where the number is replaced by the character for “Sun”). Although China used the same system as Korea and Japan based on 음양오행설(eum yang oh hang sul, system of Five Elements and Yin Yang), the days were renamed with the simplification of the language.

Posted in History & Literature

Zodiac: Capricorn

Posted on by Jinavie

Capricorn is the Zodiac sign for those born between December 22 and January 19. The symbol for Capricorn is a goat with a fish tail instead of hind legs.

The model for Capricorn is the god of shepherds, Pan. Pan had the upper body of a man but a lower body of a goat and was famous for his sexual behaviour (he is often portrayed in art with a massive penis). He is also famous for his music, especially his hauntingly beautiful pan flute performance. But how did a god with the top half of a man and the bottom half of a goat come to represent a constellation where the top half is a goat and the bottom half is a fish? The back-story of Capricorn is related to that of Pisces; that is the story of how the monster Typhon gatecrashed a feast of the gods. While Aphrodite and Eros transformed into a pair of fish to escape Typhon, Pan turned himself into a goat to run away. However, when he reached the Nile River, he hurriedly tried to change into a fish but messed up the spell, with only his lower half turning into a fish. Just before he crossed the river, he saw that Typhon was attacking Zeus, so he let out a horrible screech to scare Typhon, allowing Zeus to escape. Zeus returned the favour by drawing Pan’s image at the time in the form of a constellation.

(Part of the Zodiac series: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/zodiacs/?order=asc)

Posted in History & Literature

Zodiac: Sagittarius

Posted on by Jinavie

Sagittarius is the Zodiac sign for those born between November 22 and December 21. The symbol for Sagittarius is centaur (half-man, half-horse) with a bow and arrow.

The model for Sagittarius is the wisest and most intelligent centaur, Chiron. Although most centaurs are known to be aggressive beasts only interested in women and alcohol, Chiron was different in that he was culture and civilised. He was interested in gathering knowledge and learning philosophy, especially medical knowledge. Chiron is also famous for being the teacher and master of many famous heroes and gods. Among his students are: the god of medicine, Asclepius; the Trojan War hero, Achilles; leader of the Argonauts, Jason; and the famous hero, Hercules. One day, Hercules ended up in a fight with some centaurs, which resulted in a bloody battle. Hercules used arrows coated with the poison of the Hydra (which he obtained during his twelve labours), swiftly killing many centaurs. Chiron saw this battle and galloped there to try and stop everyone from hurting each other. But Hercules did not see his master and accidentally shot him with a poison arrow. Although Chiron was given the gift of immortality by the gods, the Hydra’s poison still caused excruciating pain. Even though he was one of the best medical professions of his time, he could not alleviate the pain and begged Zeus to put him out of his misery. Zeus accepted this and raised him into the heavens to become a constellation as a sign of respect.

(Part of the Zodiac series: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/zodiacs/?order=asc)

Posted in History & Literature

Zodiac: Scorpio

Posted on by Jinavie

Scorpio is the Zodiac sign for those born between October 22 and November 21. The symbol for Scorpio is a gigantic scorpion.

The model for Scorpio is the scorpion that killed Orion. Orion was a great hunter. He always boasted that there was not a single animal that he could not kill and would kill every beast he saw in the forest. Many gods and goddesses were not pleased with his narcissism, but among them Artemis, the goddess of hunting, particularly disliked him. She was worried that he would kill every animal on Earth, threatening the ecosystem. So she summoned a giant scorpion and commanded it to kill him. The scorpion proceeded to swiftly sneak up to Orion and stung him with a deadly poison, killing him instantly. Thus, the great hunter Orion fell shamefully. Both Orion and the scorpion were lifted into the heavens and became constellation. This is why when the Scorpio constellation rises in the night sky, the Orion constellation hurriedly falls to the west, scared that he might be attacked once more.

(Part of the Zodiac series: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/zodiacs/?order=asc)

Posted in History & Literature

Zodiac: Libra

Posted on by Jinavie

Libra is the Zodiac sign for those born between September 23 and October 21. The symbol for Libra is a pair of large, golden scales.

The model for Libra is the Scales of Justice used by Astraea, the goddess of justice. She would use these scales to compare the arguments of the defendant and the plaintiff in a trial to decide who was right. Interestingly, the concept of using scales in a trial can be found in other cultures such as Egyptian mythology. Anubis, the god of death, would take a person’s heart out when they died, put it on scales and compare the weight against the Feather of Truth. If the heart was lighter, the person’s soul would be sent to heaven; if it was heavier, he would be sent to hell. Astraea’s scales also became a constellation when she ascended to the heavens.

(Part of the Zodiac series: https://jineralknowledge.com/tag/zodiacs/?order=asc)