Menally-Ill
02-21-2003, 02:07 PM
What the heck is a "Snake Oil Seller" anyway?
Once again, I have been accused by someone of being a "snake oil seller" for daring to suggest that herbal remedies might help with Hep C! So often, I have heard this accusation, but never quite understood it.
SO! I've done a little research, that has proven to be MOST ENLIGHTENING!
Pity the poor snake. He lured Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was one of the Biblical Plagues, visited upon the Middle East and Egypt, by an angry God. But when Moses transformed Aaron's staff into a serpent, before the Pharaoh's eyes, he earned his people's freedom from slavery.
"So" I asked myself, "Why was the serpent thought to be so powerful? And how did he come to be so reviled, that today, I would be called a "Snake Oil Seller" by someone?
Well, you guys know me. Rather than start an argument, I hit the research books!
It's Asclepius' fault. In Greek mythology, he was the God of Medicine, son of Apollo and Coronis. Zeus was afraid that Asclepius would make humans immortal with his healing skills, so he slew him with a thunderbolt. A cult came into existance that worshipped Asclepius as a hero and a god, and festivals were regularly held in his honour.
Asclepius' arsenal of elixers arrived in Rome, around 293 B.C., through the Sybelline Books, just in time to relieve a bubonic plague. He was always portrayed as carrying a staff, with a serpent coiled around it. The caducceus of Hippocrates perhaps, that today is still the symbol of medicine? Asclepius also had a daughter, Hygieia, from whence comes our modern word "hygiene".
By the fifth centrury, his cult of healing still endured, but St. Augustine, ever vigilent against all things remotely pagan, bitterly opposed it. And thus began the (religiously-) organized vilification of snakes, that were until that time, revered for their magic and healing powers.
But the snake's supposed curative powers endured. Snake poison, snake blood, and even roasted, dried snakemeat continued to all be considered common cure-alls.
In Medieval Europe, skinned snake flesh was mashed, then left to age for a year or more. It was then called THERIAC or TREACLE, and it was the most prized and most expensive of all medicines.
In 1348 and 1349, wars throughout Europe had disrupted the trade and distribution of theriac. Unfortunately, these were the very same years that Bubonic Plague killed FORTY PERCENT of Europe's entire population.
Gentile of Foligno, the pre-emminent physician teaching at the Universities of Bologna and Perugia, wrote that theriac must be at least a year old, before being ingested. Once properly aged, it could safely be taken by adults twice a day, dissolved in a clear wine, or rosewater. But, to use it with children, it was recommended that you merely rub it onto their skin. Poor Gentile, he himself died of the Plague, in June 1348.
In England, Henry of Grosmont, the Duke of Lancaster, in his "Book of the Holy Doctors" also prescribed theriac because A) "Since it is made of poison, it can destroy other poisons" and B) "Since God was inflicting this disease (Plague)on people as a punsihment for sin", theriac was a moral curative that could "make man reject the poisons of sin that had entered his soul". Poor Henry. He survived the 1348 epidemic, but succumbed to the Plague in it's next wave, in 1361.
The typical purveyor of theriac, (or medieval "Snake Oil Seller") was a very busy man in times of Bubonic Plague. Demand often surpassed his supply. Thus some of them would dilute the medicine, in order to give some to more customers, all of whom were desparate. Others would only sell tiny quantities to each individual, agains so that more people would benefit from whatever little stock he had on hand.
And who were these purveyors of theriac? Why, they were usually Jews, many of whom were apothecaries or doctors at that time. Most of them also studied the "Kabbalah" which consisted of hermeneutic secrets of magic, potions and spells. Jews for some reason, unfathomable to this day, were peculiarly spared the ravages of the Plague. Perhaps because they tended to live in walled "Ghettoes". Perhaps because they did not usually earn a living in the trades that brought them in close proximity with flea-infested rats. Perhaps some peculiarity in their genetic makeup protected them from this scourge.
But, in frightened Medieval minds, the thinking was that perhaps they survived because they were hoarding the supply of Theriac for themselves.
In any event, a rumour spread that the Plague was caused by Jews who were poisoning the wells, cisterns and springs of Europe. The Jews of Europe were rounded up, and burnt at the stake, not without a bit of torture and Inquisition first, of course. Those who survived these "Pogroms" were expelled from city after city, all across Europe. Luckily, Duke Casimir II of Poland, offered them refuge. By the early 1600's, 3.5 million Jews lived peacefully and unmolested, in Poland.
So, thus, the theriac seller came to be reviled. He seemed to hoard the cure most miserly in times of greatest need. He seems to keep it for himself or his co-religionists. He seemed to brew black magic with "the skin of the Basilisk" (a mythical serpent or lizard). And he might even be a Jew, poisoning Europe's water supply. To add insult to injury, he DARED to stay healthy, while people were dying everywhere!
The Medeival "Snake Oil Seller" through economics, genetics, superstition and sheer racism, came to be one of the most distrusted of men!
The legacy of this history today?
Any remedy proposed as rare, or miraculous, or that seems to be procured by dificult or clandestine means, earns the epithet of "Snake Oil Treatment".
And anyone, such as myself, who passes around any kind of knowledge of such remedies, earns themselves the vitriputive sobriquet of "Snake Oil Seller".
So, maybe I should get myself a T-Shirt that proclaims that this is what I am, and the person who most recently called me this can rejoice finally, that they were absolutely right!
And I am PROUD OF IT!
All My Love,
Menolly
Once again, I have been accused by someone of being a "snake oil seller" for daring to suggest that herbal remedies might help with Hep C! So often, I have heard this accusation, but never quite understood it.
SO! I've done a little research, that has proven to be MOST ENLIGHTENING!
Pity the poor snake. He lured Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was one of the Biblical Plagues, visited upon the Middle East and Egypt, by an angry God. But when Moses transformed Aaron's staff into a serpent, before the Pharaoh's eyes, he earned his people's freedom from slavery.
"So" I asked myself, "Why was the serpent thought to be so powerful? And how did he come to be so reviled, that today, I would be called a "Snake Oil Seller" by someone?
Well, you guys know me. Rather than start an argument, I hit the research books!
It's Asclepius' fault. In Greek mythology, he was the God of Medicine, son of Apollo and Coronis. Zeus was afraid that Asclepius would make humans immortal with his healing skills, so he slew him with a thunderbolt. A cult came into existance that worshipped Asclepius as a hero and a god, and festivals were regularly held in his honour.
Asclepius' arsenal of elixers arrived in Rome, around 293 B.C., through the Sybelline Books, just in time to relieve a bubonic plague. He was always portrayed as carrying a staff, with a serpent coiled around it. The caducceus of Hippocrates perhaps, that today is still the symbol of medicine? Asclepius also had a daughter, Hygieia, from whence comes our modern word "hygiene".
By the fifth centrury, his cult of healing still endured, but St. Augustine, ever vigilent against all things remotely pagan, bitterly opposed it. And thus began the (religiously-) organized vilification of snakes, that were until that time, revered for their magic and healing powers.
But the snake's supposed curative powers endured. Snake poison, snake blood, and even roasted, dried snakemeat continued to all be considered common cure-alls.
In Medieval Europe, skinned snake flesh was mashed, then left to age for a year or more. It was then called THERIAC or TREACLE, and it was the most prized and most expensive of all medicines.
In 1348 and 1349, wars throughout Europe had disrupted the trade and distribution of theriac. Unfortunately, these were the very same years that Bubonic Plague killed FORTY PERCENT of Europe's entire population.
Gentile of Foligno, the pre-emminent physician teaching at the Universities of Bologna and Perugia, wrote that theriac must be at least a year old, before being ingested. Once properly aged, it could safely be taken by adults twice a day, dissolved in a clear wine, or rosewater. But, to use it with children, it was recommended that you merely rub it onto their skin. Poor Gentile, he himself died of the Plague, in June 1348.
In England, Henry of Grosmont, the Duke of Lancaster, in his "Book of the Holy Doctors" also prescribed theriac because A) "Since it is made of poison, it can destroy other poisons" and B) "Since God was inflicting this disease (Plague)on people as a punsihment for sin", theriac was a moral curative that could "make man reject the poisons of sin that had entered his soul". Poor Henry. He survived the 1348 epidemic, but succumbed to the Plague in it's next wave, in 1361.
The typical purveyor of theriac, (or medieval "Snake Oil Seller") was a very busy man in times of Bubonic Plague. Demand often surpassed his supply. Thus some of them would dilute the medicine, in order to give some to more customers, all of whom were desparate. Others would only sell tiny quantities to each individual, agains so that more people would benefit from whatever little stock he had on hand.
And who were these purveyors of theriac? Why, they were usually Jews, many of whom were apothecaries or doctors at that time. Most of them also studied the "Kabbalah" which consisted of hermeneutic secrets of magic, potions and spells. Jews for some reason, unfathomable to this day, were peculiarly spared the ravages of the Plague. Perhaps because they tended to live in walled "Ghettoes". Perhaps because they did not usually earn a living in the trades that brought them in close proximity with flea-infested rats. Perhaps some peculiarity in their genetic makeup protected them from this scourge.
But, in frightened Medieval minds, the thinking was that perhaps they survived because they were hoarding the supply of Theriac for themselves.
In any event, a rumour spread that the Plague was caused by Jews who were poisoning the wells, cisterns and springs of Europe. The Jews of Europe were rounded up, and burnt at the stake, not without a bit of torture and Inquisition first, of course. Those who survived these "Pogroms" were expelled from city after city, all across Europe. Luckily, Duke Casimir II of Poland, offered them refuge. By the early 1600's, 3.5 million Jews lived peacefully and unmolested, in Poland.
So, thus, the theriac seller came to be reviled. He seemed to hoard the cure most miserly in times of greatest need. He seems to keep it for himself or his co-religionists. He seemed to brew black magic with "the skin of the Basilisk" (a mythical serpent or lizard). And he might even be a Jew, poisoning Europe's water supply. To add insult to injury, he DARED to stay healthy, while people were dying everywhere!
The Medeival "Snake Oil Seller" through economics, genetics, superstition and sheer racism, came to be one of the most distrusted of men!
The legacy of this history today?
Any remedy proposed as rare, or miraculous, or that seems to be procured by dificult or clandestine means, earns the epithet of "Snake Oil Treatment".
And anyone, such as myself, who passes around any kind of knowledge of such remedies, earns themselves the vitriputive sobriquet of "Snake Oil Seller".
So, maybe I should get myself a T-Shirt that proclaims that this is what I am, and the person who most recently called me this can rejoice finally, that they were absolutely right!
And I am PROUD OF IT!
All My Love,
Menolly