The possibility that leeches were seen positively as well, as sometimes happens in pharmacology, and used medicinally in ancient Babylonia, perhaps as a means of venesection, will be discussed as well. I will argue that Old Babylonian physicians and sorcerers were aware of these parasitic invertebrates, and regarded them as harmful creatures against which magic counteraction is necessary. This paper, of course, is not devoted to medieval sources but to ancient Mesopotamian ones. not predatory) kind of leeches described in modern zoological manuals. ģAs we shall see, the horrid description of this moralistic medieval text is surprisingly accurate, and fits the behavior and feeding activity of the parasitic, blood-sucking (i.e. There is no medicament against cupidity : the more you drink the more you thirst. Desire which is not sated, and incessant avarice. There are three things that are never sated, yea, four things say not It is enough.
Regarding it Solomon said : “The leech hath two daughters, crying, ‘Give, give. The Leech is the Devil because it drinks blood, that is, it attracts itself the souls of sinners. No age, escape or medicine helps against this voluptuousness.
Leech bite mark full#
And when it is full of blood it vomits what it drank on purpose to drink it again. It traps drinkers, moving smoothly to their throats or sticks to another part, drinking blood. Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Der BlutegelġA 13 th-century Latin bestiarium from England reads :Ģ The Leech is a water worm which is called so because it drinks blood. “So bist du vielleicht der Erkenner des Blutegels ? fragte Zarathustra und du gehst dem Blutegel nach bis auf die letzten Gründe, du Gewissenhafter ?” F.
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