The ancient Greeks believed that anyone struck with a seizure was being taken over by a God and given special knowledge. Yeah, those were the days…Heroes and monsters. A God for the sea and one for the sun. Anything unexplainable was caused by a meddling God or Goddess.
The ancient Greeks were my kind of people; philosophical and hedonistic, dancing in celebration of a God one minute and sleeping with one disguised as a swan the next. As for the special knowledge passed on through seizures … I have seen MANY things during those..interludes.
I once took a Greek Mythology class at OSU. The teacher, Laura, was young and bubbly..SO excited to be sharing her knowledge of the ancient Greek world. To her, their myths were truths; grand and logical. The main God was Zeus, the ominous one. The other Gods were like managers, each with their specific gifts and duties. In her opening lecture she sited (among other examples) the way the Greeks explained seizures: They believed that the one stricken with a seizure was being given special knowledge by the Gods. Epileptics were revered as keepers of special insight to the worlds of the Gods…and their dramatic gossip.
After every first class, I felt it was important to tell the professors of my condition. If one of the florescent lights was flickering, I was at risk of a seizure. When I told Laura that I have epilepsy, she spun around with a big smile and said, genuinely excitedly, “Wow! How fortunate for you!” I was speechless. In that one moment my entire perspective on every other moment in my life was changed forever. Perhaps I was an oracle to Apollo or a favorite maiden of Bacchus. It doesn’t matter…she brought whimsy and light back into my memories.
