“All-seeing monarch! whether Lycia’s coast, Or sacred Ilion, thy bright presence boast, Powerful alike to ease the wretch’s smart; O hear me! god of every healing art! Lo! stiff with clotted blood, and pierced with pain, That thrills my arm, and shoots through every vein, I stand unable to sustain the spear, And sigh, at distance from the glorious war. Low in the dust is great Sarpedon laid, Nor Jove vouchsafed his hapless offspring aid; But thou, O god of health! thy succour lend, To guard the relics of my slaughter’d friend: For thou, though distant, canst restore my might, To head my Lycians, and support the fight.”Iliad 16.49 · Iliad · 16
Iliad 16.49
Iliad · translated by Alexander Pope
Themes in this passage
HealingThe DivineStrengthWarChildrenComfortFriendshipPride
Healing in other traditions
The same theme, as Hinduism, Christianity and Islam address it.
1. Headache and suffering in the head, pain in the ears and flow of blood, every disease of the head, do we charm forth from thee. 2. From thy ears, from thy kankûshas the earpain, and the neuralgia--every disease of the head do we charm forth from thee. 3. (With the charm) through whose agency disease hastens forth from the ears and the mouth- every disease of the head do we charm forth from thee. 4. (The disease) that renders a man deaf and blind--every disease of the head do we charm forth from thee. 5. Pain in the limbs, fever in the limbs, the neuralgia that affects every limb-every disease of the head do we charm forth from thee. 6. (The disease) whose frightful aspect makes man tremble, the takman (fever) that comes every autumn, do we charm forth from thee. 7. The disease that creeps along the thighs, and then enters the canals, out of thy inner parts do we charm forth. 8. If from the heart, from love, or from disgust, it arises, from thy heart and from thy limbs the balâsa do we charm forth. 9. Jaundice from thy limbs, diarrhoea from within thy bowels, the core of disease from thy inner soul do we charm forth. 10. To ashes (âsa) the balâsa shall turn; what is diseased shall turn to urine! The poison of all diseases I have charmed forth from thee. 11. Outside the opening (of the bladder) it shall run off; the rumbling shall pass from thy belly! The poison of all diseases I have charmed forth from thee. 12. From thy belly, lungs, navel, and heart-the poison of all diseases I have charmed forth from 13. (The pains) that split the crown (of the head), pierce the head, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 14. They that pierce the heart, creep along the ribs, without doing injury, without causing disease, they shall run off outside the opening (of the bladder)! 15.AV 2.29a · Atharva Veda · 2
And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.2 Chronicles 21:15 · Bible · 2 Chronicles
“Yudhishthira said, ‘O Sanjaya, the son of Gavalgana, hath thy journey here been safe? We are pleased with thy sight. I ask thee in return how thou art. I am, O learned man, in excellent health with my younger brothers. O Suta, after a long while do I now receive news of the aged king of the Kurus, that descendant of Bharata. Having seen thee, O Sanjaya, I feel as if I have seen the king himself, so pleased I am! Is our aged grandsire Bhishma, the descendant of Kuru, endued with great energy and the highest wisdom and always devoted to the practices of his own order, O sire, in health? I hope he still retains all his former habits. I hope the high-souled king Dhritarashtra, the son of Vichitravirya, is in health with his sons. I hope the great king Vahlika, the son of Pratipa, endued with great learning, is also in health. I hope, O sire, that Somadatta is in health, and Bhurisravas, and Satyasandha, and Sala, and Drona with his son, and the Brahmana Kripa are also well. I hope all those mighty bowmen are free from disease. O Sanjaya, all those greatest and best of bowmen, endued with the highest intelligence and versed in letters, and occupying the very top of those who wield weapons, have attached themselves to the Kurus. I hope those bowmen receive their honours due. I hope they are free from disease. How happy are they in whose kingdom dwells the mighty and handsome bowman, the well-behaved son of Drona! I hope Yuyutsu, the highly intelligent son of Dhritarashtra by his Vaisya wife is in health. I hope, O sire, the adviser Karna, whose counsels are followed by the dull-headed Suyodhana, is in health. I hope, the aged ladies, the mothers of the Bharata race, and the kitchen-maidens, the bond-maids, the daughters-in-law, the boys, the sister’s sons, and the sisters, and the daughters’ sons of Dhritarashtra’s house are all free from trouble. O sire, I hope the king still allows their former subsistence to the Brahmanas.Mbh 5.23.2a · Mahabharata · UDYOGA PARVA
In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie.Quran 2:10 · Quran · The Cow
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