Tarantism

Tarantism is an alleged, possibly deadly envenomation, popularly believed to result from the bite of a kind of wolf spider called a "tarantula" ("Lycosa tarentula"). (These spiders are different from the broad class of spiders called "Tarantulas".) The condition was common in southern Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened excitability and restlessness that gripped the victims. The stated belief of the time was that victims needed to engage in frenzied dancing to prevent death from tarantism. Supposedly a particular kind of dance, called the Tarantella, evolved from this therapy.

Many people have suggested that the whole business was a deceit to evade religious proscriptions against dancing. The cultural history of tarantism and the tarantella dance is discussed in John Compton's introduction to the world of spiders called "The Life of the Spider", pages 56-57 [cite book
last = Compton
first = John
authorlink = John Compton
title = The life of the Spider
origyear = 1954
publisher = Mentor Books
location =
quote =] . He suggests that ancient Bacchanalian rites that had been suppressed by the government went underground under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims.

Although the popular belief that tarantism results from a spider bite persists, it remains scientifically unsubstantiated. Donaldson, Cavanagh, and Rankin (1997) [cite journal
last = Donaldson
first = LJ
authorlink =
coauthors = J Rankin
title = The Dancing Plague a public health conundrum
journal = Public Health
volume = 111
issue = 4
pages = 201–204
format = PDF [fee required]
publisher =
location =
date = July 1997
url = http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B73H6-484TJNY-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cb3c891d8bf52aa95b1a398340e113be
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-04-26] conclude that the actual cause or causes of tarantism remain unknown.

Many historical and cultural references are associated with this disease and the ensuing "cure" - the Tarantella. It is, for example, a key image in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House".

ee also

*Dancing mania
*Ergot

References