The Ancients - Prosthetics in Antiquity

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

Prosthetics - an artificial feature or body part commonly used to either help restore functions of lost limbs, or change a person's appearance. Today, advancements in technology mean prosthetics can sense touch and be controlled by the mind - a far cry from their origins in antiquity as ivory embellished arms or hair extensions made out of plant fibres.In this episode, Tristan is joined by Dr Jane Draycott from University of Glasgow to talk about the brilliant uses of prosthetics in ancient societies, where the concept originated from, and how sources like Pliny the Elder and excavated wigs can tell us how their functions have changed across millennia.For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, and in today's podcast, we're talking all about prosthetics, artificial body parts in Greece and Rome, in the ancient Mediterranean. This is such an interesting area of antiquity to look at because it's often overlooked but you do see time and time again in the sources that we have surviving references to these figures who are missing a body part for one reason or another. So what

has the archaeology and the literature therefore revealed about the importance, the prevalence, the prominence of prosthetics in ancient Greek and Roman societies? Well, to explain all, we were delighted to get on the podcast Dr. Jane Dracott from the University of Glasgow. Jane, she's done a lot of work around this topic. We were incredibly grateful for her giving up some of her very busy schedule to talk all about this topic with us. And stay tuned because Jane will be back in the near future for another podcast about another area that she's done a lot of work around, which is the story of the famous Cleopatra's daughter. But without further

ado, to talk all about prosthetics in ancient Greece and Rome is Jane. Jane, it is great to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome. This is such a cool topic. So prosthetics and prostheses, this stretches back all the way back to classical antiquity. Further than that, really. But classical antiquity is the first time that we actually have sustained literary and archaeological evidence for the practice. OK, well, you've sent me on the tangent straight away then.

I mean, do we have any idea, therefore, how far back this potentially goes well all the way back into the prehistoric period really we have archaeological evidence of the use of not exactly functional prosthetics but but probably primarily cosmetic ones being used both during life and after death in skeletal remains from around the world. Wow, fair enough then. Well, I mean, let's delve into the Greco-Roman world today, but it's so interesting to set that kind of global perspective there too from the start. But to provide us some context of this whole podcast, what are contemporary prostheses and how do they differ from ancient prostheses? Well, contemporary prostheses are usually used by people who have either lost a body part during their lifetime through some kind of trauma or illness, something

like that, and they use a prosthesis to replace that body part. Sometimes people who were born without a particular body part use a prosthesis. Sometimes they don't because of course for them they were born that way, they're used to being that way, they don't necessarily see themselves as lacking anything because of course for them their body has always been complete as far as they're concerned and so they they find it easier to manage without using prosthesis whereas somebody who has lost a body part during their lifetime they were used to having that body part so it's very much a personal choice about whether you feel that you want or you need to use this object to supplement your own body. Right. Well, I mean, therefore, if we do go back into the Greco-Roman world and focusing on that,

what source material do we have for learning more about this? So the main source material we have is the ancient literature. So in various different types of works of ancient literature, you get references to people using prostheses. And we get references to all kinds of prostheses, mostly to extremity prostheses, legs, feet, those are the most popular ones, rather than arms or hands. And facial prostheses, we only really have a few references to them. And so these are found in all genres. There are no specific works dedicated to prostheses because they were something that, well, we can hazard a guess as to why nobody is writing specifically about prostheses. And that's because they don't seem to have been seen as a medical issue. So all the medical literature we have that discusses various

different types of illness or injury, the treatment for those things, we don't have anything like that for prostheses. We have medical literature that talks about amputation so the removal of body parts that was a medical issue but what happened after that the ancient physicians didn't see that as their area they weren't interested in rehabilitation really so we don't have any any doctors writing about that aspect where we have the references they are more sort of observational, daily life, throwaway kinds of things that this person had a wooden foot. This person had an iron hand. This person had false teeth. And so those references, sometimes they're literally very just throwaway like that. Sometimes there's a little bit more discussion about whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, what it was made of,

discussion about whether that was a good thing or a bad thing what it was made of how that changed the way the person behaved or was viewed by the people around them so you literally find them everywhere in history in comedy in drama it's it's sort of like a treasure hunt really looking through ancient literature trying to find these references i mean absolutely it's jane it sounds like a mammoth task from as you say like if the medical texts don't really cover it if they stop with removing the limb and so on and so forth as you say the treasure hunt from what you're saying there it does seem like researching this field i said it's almost putting these different pieces of a jigsaw together and seeing what fits after lots and lots of research that's exactly what it's like i had to read a lot of ancient literature and some some of the works of literature you sort of think yes okay that makes sense so

as significant historical figures for example you know that you're going to find discussions of them in historiography, in works like that. But other sorts of literature, you don't necessarily expect to find references in them. And so, yes, I had to read a lot of ancient literature. I had to be quite imaginative about where I thought these might turn up. So, for example, Pliny the Elder's Natural History, he talks about prostheses because he talks about literally everything that was interesting and cool in the Roman period. Epigrams, sort of nasty little satirical poems written by people like Marshall. He talks about various types of prostheses because he's making a point of making fun of people whose physical appearance is a little bit different. So yeah, you sort of think about this kind of stuff. It's hard to search for them because there isn't really a Greek or a Latin word

that's used for them. What tends to happen is that they're described. So it's wooden foot, iron hand, glass eye. And so you sort of put together these combinations of nouns and adjectives and search for those instead. And I found over 100 ancient literary references to prostheses, but I am sure that there are more hidden away in works that are sort of off the beaten track, harder to access, that I haven't even, I kept my attention, I suppose, mainly in the sort of central periods of ancient Greek and ancient Roman history. So I didn't go into Byzantine, for example, so I'm sure there are more there. I didn't really venture into biblical literature, so I'm sure there are more there as well. So I was quite happy with the hundred or so literary references I found and the archaeological examples that I found, sure there are more there as well so I was quite happy with the with the hundred or so literary references I found and the archaeological examples that I found because they gave me enough information to draw I think some fairly solid conclusions about what was used why they were used what people

thought about them being used because I found quite a lot of common attitudes and parallels across all these different genres of literature and they were supported by the archaeological evidence as well so I think I can feel fairly confident in my understanding of ancient processes based on the evidence that I managed to collate. Absolutely fair enough and you mentioned all this variety of sources and you know piecing it all together. I'll ask one of the big questions first before we go into like some examples of this literary and archaeological evidence. I mean from all that research that you've done looking at

these various cases across various sources what has it revealed about what these ancient people thought about prostheses about people who had prostheses? So the key finding, I think, that really, really jumped out at me is that whereas in more recent history, up until very recently, in fact, prosthesis users wanted their prosthesis to be as realistic and naturalistic as possible. They wanted to blend in, to not have people notice that they were using a prosthesis. In antiquity, the reverse was true, that if you were trying to disguise the fact that you were missing a body part and using a prosthesis instead, that was something that would lead you to be criticized quite harshly for trying to deceive people. And this is something that women, particularly female prosthesis users in antiquity encountered, but men did as well. And so what

ancient prosthesis users were trying to do was rather make a feature of their prosthesis in the same way that in the last few years, modern contemporary prosthesis users have as well. their own identity, their own tastes, their own interests. Companies like the Alternative Limb Project that produce bespoke prostheses for people, designed however they want them. And they can have realistic and naturalistic ones, or they can have ones that are a bit more exciting. So there's one guy who has a prosthetic arm like from the Metal Gear Solid video games. Another guy who has, I think it's a leg and it's got alien and predator chasing each other around the leg so things like that any any things will be interesting and quirky that they want on their prosthesis they're getting it now so in antiquity people were doing similar things so they were very much making a point using their prosthesis. And that point, I think broadly was,

look at me, look at the money that I have to be able to afford this, the artisans that I can call on to make this for me. So if they're using metal, it's gold, it's silver, it's iron. If they're using wood, it's beautifully carved. If they're using false hair, it's an eye-catching colour like blonde or red. So it's meant to be noticed. It's meant to draw the eye and have people think about it in a certain way. So in that case, therefore, Jane, as you said, so these prostheses of antiquity, can we imagine some of them at least were prized possessions, rich in decoration, rich in colour? Absolutely. So one of the very interesting things about these

objects is that they are often found in burials, in graves, in tombs. People were buried with their prostheses as their grave goods. And this is interesting because considering how they were often made of precious metals or other very high-end materials that you would think people would want to reuse, very high-end materials that you would think people would want to reuse. This doesn't seem to have happened as far as we can tell from the cases that have been discovered in the archaeological record. The people have been buried or interred with their prostheses, wearing them the way that they would have done in life. So they're seen as part of that individual's body and they're seen as very treasured valued possession of that

individual rather than just being something that is considered valuable because of the material that's made from that is then passed on to somebody else or melted down or recarved or whatever there are some references to prostheses being dedicated in temples but again this is because their users have finished using them and they want to make an offering that is really personal to themselves and valuable to themselves that they believe that the god or the goddess will particularly appreciate so we have an example of a man dedicating his false hair to Aphrodite because he's he's aged out of all that love and romance business so they're sort of seen as being very special so in that regard I was going to go into

the literature first but I think let's go into the archaeological record first because that's a nice link to what you were just saying so does it almost seem that for the archaeological record in regards to prostheses from antiquity that you're most likely to find an example of it surviving from somewhere like a tomb or maybe even a temple yes so the ones that i'm aware of because again you know these depend on the excavations having been published and published fully and so making them available to me to be able to find them. The most prolific shall we say type of prosthesis in the archaeological record is hair. We have examples of false hair, wigs, hair pieces from various different places. It does depend very much on the preservation

conditions so because hair is an organic material it survives in either very hot and dry contexts like Egypt or very cold and wet contexts like northern Europe and we also find them we find them in graves and tombs we also find them in cremation urns as well sometimes and so women in the main seem to have been buried with their wearing their wigs and these were for the most part made from real human hair. There are examples that are made from plant fibres instead, and we can get a sense of the type of hairstyles that these wigs were turned into. So we have a lot of braids for hair pieces, you know, they're being used to supplement style, so they're being used as buns or those sorts of things. And so we find lots of those in various different places. From those, we can reconstruct hairstyles, hair colour. A lot of them have their hairpins and other hair

jewellery still in them. So clearly very, very valued, very luxurious possessions. We have quite a lot of false teeth as well. Those mainly survive from Italy, from Etruscan tombs. A lot of them unfortunately were excavated many years ago when the archaeologists were more akin to treasure hunters and so because they tend to be made from gold they don't tend to survive with their user. They've been taken away from the skeleton because the skeleton was not interesting to these older archaeologists slash treasure hunters. But from the sort of size and shape of them, we can see that they were mainly worn by women as well. And then we also have wooden legs and feet. They seem to survive in tombs and graves in Europe. And those are generally in the tombs

and graves of men. And okay, well, keeping on that then and keeping on Italy, well, first of all, with wood, I'm presuming if we think that wood was a key material for ancient prostheses, the likelihood of this material surviving for archaeology is presumably pretty low. So when you do find an example, it's not to say that there are few and far between. It's just that only few examples have survived to this present day. Yes, we have lots of literary references for wooden legs and other wooden body parts. And that makes sense because yes, wood was freely available. Olive wood seems to have been quite popular. That was what was used to make tools and

sort of little bits and pieces because it was readily available everywhere. Olive groves all over the place, easy to cut, easy to carve, so affordable to people. So wood is the sort of obvious choice. It's also when you're wearing it, it's quite light for you to be able to lift it. It's reasonably comfortable if you sort of have a leather cup or some sort of attachment. And yes, you can acquire it. You can afford it. You can maintain it as you need to change it. Perhaps as you as you get older, you can simply recarve. You can repair it. So wood is wood is the sort of entry level prosthesis for people

of course in the archaeological record sometimes it survives depending again on the preservation conditions other times it doesn't but you can tell it was there because of the way that all the other bits the metal bits are arranged around it and and the way that the sort of the shadow in the soil and things like that yeah archaeological tricks of the shadow in the soil and things like that. Yeah, archaeological tricks of the trade right there. Well, let's therefore focus on one particular archaeological example. I've got in my notes the Capua limb. Now, Jane, what is this and why is it so important? This is probably the most famous ancient prosthesis.

If you've heard of an ancient prosthetic limb, it's probably the Capua limb. It's the one that appears in the books. It's the one that there are some nice photographs of, and it's very interesting for a number of reasons. It was excavated at the end of the 19th century from a tomb in Capua. Now, the tomb itself, the occupant of the tomb didn't survive i suppose that that's that's a funny way to put it they didn't survive twice over they they firstly they didn't survive because obviously they they died and they were entombed but they also their remains did not survive because of the sort of archaeological conditions but what did survive were all their possessions so it seems to have been a reasonably wealthy person based on the grave goods they have with them the the pottery

and of course this prosthetic leg now it's it's an interesting prosthetic because it seems to have been made of a combination of organic and inorganic materials. So based on what the archaeologists excavated and the way that they recorded the excavation, it seems like this prosthesis comprised of a wooden leg that was worn by somebody who had an above the knee amputation. So we have a wooden leg, it had metal decoration around it that resembled a military greave. So sort of a wooden core metal covering. And it was attached to the body with some sort of leather and metal harness. And it was because it was an above the knee amputation and it was it was attached with this sort of harness material. It was probably used in conjunction

with a crutch it's not something that could have easily been used by the individual just themselves so if they were using it as a functional prosthesis they were using it with a crutch if they weren't using it as a functional prosthesis they were probably sort of sitting down with it but in any case the organic materials didn't survive because like the skeleton, the occupant, the archaeological conditions weren't great for them. So we have the metal. Well, we had the metal because the prosthesis itself was destroyed in World War II in an air raid on London where it was being kept at the time. So what we have today is a replica of that that was made back then and it's kept in the storage facility of the Science Museum in London. I've had the good fortune to

actually go there and examine it and measure it and sort of think about how it would have been worn at the time. The replica is of the metal which is what was the only part that had survived so you know you can sort of think about experimental reconstructions of this to get a sense of at the time. The replica is of the metal, which is what was the only part that had survived. So, you know, you can sort of think about experimental reconstructions of this to get a sense of how this would have been used. But the interpretation of it as an object was that it was worn by a man, just based on the style of it, based on the size of it, that that man had potentially got a military or possibly even a gladiatorial background because of the style of it being being like a military grieve and because it was found in Capua, Capua was famous for its gladiators also famous for its bronze working and its metal working so possibly this person was a resident of Capua, had been in the

military or had been a gladiator, was wealthy enough to commission this object. Because of the date of the tomb, it's thought that this person, if they were a military veteran, had been involved in the Second Punic War, so possibly had lost their limb from that. It's so interesting how you can deduce all that information from the archaeology that has survived and the reconstruction that was that was made from it i mean it is such an interesting link also that you say it was from capua you know that potential gladiatorial link there too does it once again stress how as you've been saying previously how these things these items they were valuable to the person who it

was being buried with. Yes, absolutely. Both valuable in its components, but also valuable in what it allowed them to present to other people. So if this person had been a military veteran, then they made a very deliberate choice in their bespoke prosthesis to make that look like armor. And I do also, I have a theory, as I said previously, we don't have any ancient literary discussions of the actual process of making prostheses. But I think it's probably safe to say that they originated out of the military. they originated out of the military. So you have blacksmiths and carpenters and people like that working in conjunction with the ancient military. They're producing armor, they're producing weapons. And who is going to be in need of prostheses? Well, soldiers, because losing a part of your body did not automatically disqualify you from military service. We have lots of ancient literary references to soldiers losing eyes, losing hands, etc. And that didn't

automatically mean that they were implanted out. So it makes sense then that you'd have your military blacksmiths who make your arms and armour make you a prosthesis. So this person clearly made a deliberate choice to have their prosthesis look like that. And so if it was because they were a military veteran, that would remind people that they had been a soldier, they had fought for their community. If they'd been a gladiator, a similar thing really, that they had accumulated their freedom, their social status, their wealth from their prowess in the arena. And so it's a way of reminding people how that injury had occurred and giving people, because of course in ancient society, warriors are lionized in much the same way I suppose as they are today. So

it's a way of reinforcing that person's heroism and prestige. Hello, I'm James Rogers and over on the History Hit Warfare podcast, I bring you cutting edge military histories from around the world. Why was Sitting Bull such a remarkable leader? What was Napoleon's greatest ever battle? How did the Cuban Missile Crisis almost turn the Cold War hot? And who dropped the world's largest nuclear bomb on the Arctic? Through interviews with world-leading historians, policy experts, and the veterans who served, we find the answers to these questions

and so much more. So come and join us on the History Hit Warfare podcast, where we're on the front lines of military history. I'm guessing therefore from what you've said and the military importance in this topic today can we imagine blacksmiths accompanying the Roman army we know they did we know accompanying Hellenistic armies too they're making the weapons they're making the arms the armor but alongside all that as you say the the chance of soldiers losing potential limbs in a clash against the enemy that these blacksmiths on the side were also creating prostheses for let's say the wake of a bloody battle where presumably it was almost certain that there would be soldiers coming back to their camp who had lost limbs and would need a prosthesis? I don't know that they would necessarily make them in advance, because it's a very individual thing. It's not a one-size-fits-all

kind of thing. But I think it's something that would certainly have been on their minds. And we do have literary and archaeological evidence for prostheses being made from a combination of substances. So that says, I think, quite clearly that blacksmiths are working in collaboration with carpenters, in collaboration with leather workers, and other types of artisan to make these objects so you have your person who wants the prosthesis and they are going to these artisans and commissioning them and being quite involved in the design and manufacturing process because of course it's no good if it doesn't fit and if you're paying quite a lot of money for these objects, which of course they must have been, when it comes to things like the metal, the ivory, precious stones, etc, then of course you're going to get exactly what you want,

because you are the person with the superior social status and the superior wealth who the artisans want the patronage. They want to be able to get more patronage either from that person or that person's family friends acquaintances well fair enough indeed well let's focus on a few literary examples now before we completely wrap up and you mentioned the second punic war earlier so let's keep on that because i've got in my notes a figure called marcus sergius silas he's one of these interesting figures. What's his story? Right. Well, he, again, is, if you know anything about ancient prostheses, you will probably know about him because Pliny the Elder, who I mentioned earlier with his fabulous natural

history, he provides us with a lengthy account of Marcus Sergius Silas's life and heroism. And if not for Pliny, we wouldn't know about Marcus Sergius Silas and his prosthetic hands so thank goodness for Pliny I would say but anyway this man Marcus Sergius Silas is mentioned by Pliny in his book about people and he's mentioned because as far as Pliny's concerned he's one of the greatest most heroic Romans to have lived made all the more sort of heroic and virtuous because he is an ancestor of Catiline who of course was was seen as the absolute nadir of Romans at that time so Marcus Sergius Silas was a soldier during the second Punic War. And the reason that Pliny talks about him and thinks that he is so heroic and so virtuous is because he was either an incredibly

good soldier or an incredibly bad one, depending on how you want to view this, because he kept getting injured. He received injury after injury after injury to the point where he was physically very restricted in his movements. But one of the injuries that he received, and this is the one that Pliny is interested in talking about, is he lost his right hand. And this was fairly early on in his military career. So he lost his right hand. Rather than deciding that he was done with his military life, he got himself a prosthetic hand instead. And not just any prosthetic hand, according to Pliny, he got an iron hand. And he then subsequently used that iron hand in his fighting. So normally, a Roman would have their sword in their right hand and their shield on their left arm.

So once Marcus Sergius Silas lost his right hand, well, obviously he couldn't do that. So what he did was he transferred his sword to his left hand and holding his shield onto his right arm so that he could continue to fight Hannibal and the Carthaginians, of course. And this was so singular that his descendants commemorated it with a coin. And you can see on the coin that we have Marcus Sergius Silas on horseback. And you can see that his sword is in the other hand than you would expect. And he's holding the head of an enemy as well. So they're commemorating his military career. But while that's all very well, and he's a very brave, very heroic, very tenacious soldier. When the war was over, the dust had settled,

his peers tried to exclude him from religious activity because of his injury. Because we have this idea that priests needed to be physically perfect. We find that in various different ancient literary accounts, various different ancient traditions as well, not just the Greeks and Romans necessarily, but also the Hebrew tradition as well. So because he wasn't physically perfect and probably as well because it was his right hand that he'd lost. And of course, your right hand is the hand that you're meant to use for religious activity, for sacrificing and things like that. Possibly what they were worried about was that by using his left hand, he wouldn't be as dexterous, therefore the sacrifice might go wrong.

So it possibly wasn't simply prejudice about his imperfection, his perceived imperfection. It was sort of a practical fear that he might make hash of the rituals. And so the reason that Pliny knows about Marcus Sergius Silas, and the reason that, of course, we now know about Marcus Sergius Silas, is that he gave a big long speech defending himself and arguing that he should be able to participate in religious rituals. And so by writing that, which was available for Pliny to read, unfortunately, we don't have it, Pliny read it, and he incorporated it into his natural history. And although we don't get a sense of the precise outcome, one can imagine that Marcus Sergius Silas got his way, because that was why the speech had survived. And that was why Pliny was able to read

it. And that was why Pliny considered him worth talking about. And it does tie in as well very nicely with this idea of Stoic philosophy and making the best of things and being a sort of very Stoic Roman. So it presents Marcus Sergius Silas in a good light in various different ways that the ancient Roman reader would appreciate. And so they could then use him as a role model. I love this idea that he got an iron hand. It's always kind of like the Jamie Lannister. I know Jamie Lannister's gold, but, you know, also that kind of similar vibes there. And it's really interesting what you're saying there,

how he was potentially blocked from these religious rites, but how he fought his corner. And you did highlight how this isn't just in the Greco-Roman world. So I think quickly, there's another name on my list I know you've done a lot of work around, and that's in ancient Egypt, someone called Tabaka Tenmut. She's another figure who's potentially linked to this too, am I correct in saying? Yes. So this is one of the very rare examples of a woman with an extremity prosthesis. And we know about her because in the archaeological record, her toe has survived, not just in isolation, but attached to her. So this allows us to sort of know that this prosthesis was worn by a woman, who that woman was, who her family were, etc. And although

it's from a little bit earlier than the Greco-Roman period, this is a period where we do have Greek colonies sort of get a sense of this is something that, yes, would have been similar to prostheses being used in ancient Greece, ancient Rome. But anyway, yes, she has this very interesting wooden big toe that was tied on to her foot. And because she's known to have been part of an elite priestly family, it's been surmised that the reason that she wore this big toe is to allow her to participate in religious activity. You can manage without your big toe. You don't need to wear a big toe prosthesis, but there might be other reasons why you would want to fair enough indeed i just wanted to get that little one in there because it sounded a really interesting little story there but as we wrap up there's one big name that i know we haven't talked about yet

you probably know which one it is but before we completely wrap up jane talk to us about the greek mythological figure of pelops and how he fits into all of this? Right well that's an interesting question because does he? I mean as far as the myth is concerned he was killed and dismembered and put into a stew and then this stew was served up to the gods and all of the gods except for Demeter didn't want to eat this stew, didn't have any interest in the stew. But because Demeter was so distracted by the fact that her daughter, Persephone, had been abducted by Hades and taken away from her. And she's very sad about this. She ate the stew without realizing she ate Pellops' shoulder blade. And so when the gods found out about the fact that their stew was human stew, they reconstructed

Pelops. And because his shoulder blade had been eaten, they had to replace it and they replaced it with one made from ivory. And so this became something that was quite singular and significant about Pelops and something that gets referenced quite a lot in ancient literary accounts of him. And yes, this is probably the earliest Greco-Roman prosthesis that gets mentioned in ancient literature. But of course, is it really a prosthesis? Well, you can't have a prosthetic shoulder in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. It's not something that's physically possible. There are other accounts, other references to him as not having a shoulder, but having an arm, having a hand. So there is obviously that fluidity as far as the ancient myth is concerned. But while we may not necessarily consider that to be a possible realistic account of prosthesis use. You could

sort of imagine that it serves as something of an inspiration to an ancient amputee in the same way that the god Hephaestus with his physical mobility uses crutches or uses his golden maidens, his automata to assist him. The golden maidens are not something that's possible for an ordinary person, but they can perhaps be considered to be inspirational to other people to get them to think creatively about, well, I have lost this body part and I want to do something about that. What can I do? Well, I can't do what Pelops or Hephaestus have done because I don't have divine power, but I could do something akin to that. So I can get a prosthetic hand, I can get a prosthetic arm, I can get some crutches, I can get physical assistance from other people. And so we can perhaps see the ancient myths influencing and inspiring people and certainly

Hephaestus being the god of artisans and crafts was someone that ancient artisans and craftsmen and craftswomen would have looked to as something of an inspiration something of a patron so they could perhaps envisage themselves making things for people that would help them in their day-to-day lives and we do also have indications that a lot of ancient artisans were themselves physically impaired through the sort of day-to-day use of tools and fire and everything else so very possibly they were also inspired by their own experiences as people who had suffered injury and accidents. And so they maybe made things for themselves.

And then that made them think, oh, you know, I could actually make this for other people as well. It's so interesting to highlight as we finish right there, because it's almost, Jane, as if with Hephaestus, especially, you know, having this, you know, having these A's, these crutches and pedops. It almost feels as if like in the greek world perhaps the roman world of vulcan i don't know how similar it is with vulcan but for those people who had prostheses and of course the crafts men and women themselves that honor worship to hephaestus perhaps we may not have the evidence for this was like was quite important to them because perhaps they could associate more with that particular god than others? Absolutely. It's worth remembering that we do have evidence of ancient people being inspired

by other people. So members of the elite, Roman emperors, members of the imperial family, people were interested in the way they styled their hair, the cosmetics they used, the clothes they wore, and they copied them. They set the fashions and then everybody else copied them. So I think that it certainly makes sense that we would see that in other areas of ancient life as well. So gods would be influential and popular. People at the height of their powers, as far as their crafts were concerned, would be popular as well. Well, Jane, this has been an absolutely great chat. Last but certainly not least, you've written a book all about this, which is called? It is called Prosthetics and Assistive Technology in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Brilliant. Well, it just goes for me to say, Jane, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. Well, thank you for having me. so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today well thank you for having me well there you go there was dr jane dracott explaining all about prosthetics in greece and rome i hope you enjoyed the episode and as hinted at at the start jane will be back very soon for a follow-up episode all about the famous cleopatra the seventh's daughter and how the ptolemaic line well it didn't end with Cleopatra the Seventh. Jane will be coming back in due course to talk all about that but in the meantime if you want more ancients content you know what you can do. You can subscribe to our weekly newsletter via a

link in the description below. Every week I write a bit of a blurb for that newsletter explaining what's been happening in team ancient history hit world that week and of course if you'd also be kind enough to leave us a lovely rating on either Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts from, we, the whole team, would greatly appreciate it. But that's enough from me, and I'll see you in the next episode. We'll be right back. down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.