“But now Herod’s distemper greatly increased upon him, after a severe manner; and this by God’s judgment

upon
him for his sins. For a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it
augmented his pains inwardly. For it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to
supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also exulcerated; and the chief violence of his pain lay in his
colon. An aqueous and transparent liquor also had settled itself about his feet: and a like matter afflicted him at
the bottom of his belly. Nay farther, his privy member was putrified, and produced worms. And when he sat
upright, he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathsome on account of the stench of his breath, and the
quickness of its returns. He had also convulsions in all parts of his body: which increased his strength to an
insufferable degree” (Josephus,”Antiquities of the Jews”,Book XVII,Chapter 6)

“By this mode of life he aggravated a disease which was insignificant in its beginnings, and for a long time he knew
not that his bowels were ulcerated. This disease corrupted his whole flesh also, and converted it into worms, so
that although many were employed day and night in removing them, what they took away was as nothing
compared with the increase upon him, but all his clothing, baths, hand-basins, and food, were infected with that
flux of corruption, so violent was its discharge. [3] Therefore he immersed himself many times a-day in water to
cleanse and scour his person. But it was of no use; for the change gained upon him rapidly, and the swarm of
vermin defied all purification.” (Plutarch,”Plutarch’s Lives”,Chapter 36)

“21On the appointed day, Herod donned his royal robes, sat on his throne, and addressed the people. 22And they
began to shout, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!”23Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an
angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (“The Holy Bible”,KJV,Acts,Ch12:21-23)

“The Lord the God of Israel ... struck him with an incurable and an invisible plague ... a dreadful pain in his bowels
came upon him, and bitter torments of the inner parts. ... Worms swarmed out of the body of this man, and whilst
he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell off, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome ... no man could endure to
carry [him], for the intolerable stench. Being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains increasing every
moment. He himself could not now abide his own stench. ... Then this wicked man prayed to the Lord ... to obtain
mercy. ... Yea also, that he would become a Jew himself, and would go through every place of the earth, and
declare the power of God. But his pains not ceasing (for the just judgment of God was come upon him) .... Thus the
murderer and blasphemer, being grievously struck ... died a miserable death.” ( 2 Machabees 9:5-28)

“The wrath of God smote hims so cruelly

That through his body loathsome maggots crept;
And therewithal he stank so horribly
That none of those that round his person kept,
Whether he lay awake or whether slept,
Could,for the very stench of him endure.
In this foul state he wailed and howled and wept;
That God was Lord of all he then was sure.” (“Canterburry Tales”,”Monk’s Tale”,Godfrey Chaucer)

We are told that in very ancient times, Acastus the son of Pelias was thus eaten of worms and died, and in later
times, Alcman the lyric poet, Pherecydes the theologian, Callisthenes of Olynthus, who was kept closely
imprisoned, as also Mucius the jurist; and if mention is to be made of men who had no excellence to commend
them, but were notorious for other reasons, it is said that the runaway slave who headed the servile war in
Sicily,2 Eunus by name, was taken to Rome after his capture, and died there of this disease. (Plutarch,”Plutarch’s
Lives”,Chapter 36)
Herod’s Evil
One of the medical mysteries that history left us is the unknown disease that afflicted king
Herod the Great.Although he is the most famous historical person known to have suffered from
this abominable disease,he’s most definitely not the only one.The quotes from various
historical writings listed above are the proof of its occurrence throughout the ancient
times.Although the illness was subject to all sorts of variations(Sulla’s face was transfigured by
some kind of eczema-a feature not found in the other cases),the main symptoms were the
same:a dreadfull pain in the bowels,followed by gangrene and worms coming out of the
rotten,decaying flesh of the most unlucky victim.It has been called”the most horrible of
diseases”,and so to say,not without a reason.

The cause of this affliction is unknown,as there are no known cases in the recent history,and all
we can do today is speculate.During their times,it was seen as a curse,a punishment from
God,but it doesn’t come as a surprise,as most diseases were perceived this way:lepers were
thought to be great sinners for instance,suffering greatly on Earth,in order to be cleansed for
the Heaven and the same goes for some plague victims or even lunatics.Herod was punished
for the children genocide of Bethlehem,Antiochus Epifanes for the profanation of the Temple of
Jerusalem and Sulla is famous for his cruelty.Very few mourned after them,but all agreed that
their suffering was more than anyone could deserve.

One of the possible answers to our dilemma is phthiriasis.Easily mistaken for Pediculosis Pubis
or pubic lice,phtiriasis is a far worse diagnosis.The annals of phthiriasis stretch far back into
time.One of the earliest descriptions of the disease was given by Aristotle in his History of
Animals: lice were produced from the flesh of the human body, and gathered in small eruptions
on the skin. When these eruptions were opened,a mass of lice emerged, but no purulent fluid.
About 100 years later, in 240 BC, the geographer and historian Antigonos Carystius described a
similar disease: lice were formed in the flesh, and when the insect-filled nodules under the skin
were opened, they swarmed out.Another curious account of phthiriasis is given by the historian
Diodorus Siculus about 50 BC. A North African tribe of locust eaters very often died of
phthiriasis, breeding in their bodies a peculiar type of savage, winged lice. Itching skin eruptions
first appeared on the breast and stomach but soon spread all over the body. When such an
eruption was scratched, a multitude of these insects burst forth. The tissues of the sufferer
were slowly eaten away, the insects coming out from numerous small holes in the skin.
Diodorus speculated whether the people's strange diet or the hot climate might be the cause of
this endemic disease. Hippocrates never mentioned the lousy disease, but it is discussed several
times in the works of Galen. Lice were formed deep within the skin, and could form rather large
boils; like Aristotle, he considered the disease to be caused by too much warm moisture in the
body. The elder Pliny also discussed phthiriasis in his Natural History: insects were formed in
the blood of the patient and ate up his flesh. As a treatment, he recommended rubbing the
whole body with juice of the Taminian grape, or with hellebore juice and oil.
Until the beginning of the 19th century,many more stories about the horrible fates of the
victims of phthiriasis emerged,but most doctors and scientists did not believe in its
existence,mainly because the stories tended to be distorted by the public opinion and any
public figure that was not on the liking of the people and suffered a more enigmatic and sudden
death was said to have died of phthiriasis.A bishop even,unsatisfied with the way too peaceful
death of Judah the Iscariot which was said to have died after hanging himself full of remorse
because of what he’s done,said he died of phthiriasis,with all his body swollen,rotten and
smelling in such a manner that even today the place were he died has its stench imbedded into
it.From 1730,until 1802,there’s a complete lack of phthiriasis cases(or at least,there’s a lack of
written proof).Afterwards some medical cases come in the attention of the Medical Society of
London(especially the case of a 13 year old Jewish boy).In 1824,Dr Henri Cristian Alt develops a
new theory,which states that the disease was caused by a previously unknown species of
louse(which he named Pediculus Tabescentium)and that it was developed by spontaneous
generation.A friend of his,Dr Stegmann,even said that sexually immoral people were prone to
it,a theory promptly disproved by another Dr Kurtz which came forward with the case of a
pauper,virgin woman afflicted with the disease.
In 1856 the first serious attack on the disease was launched by professor Husemann,who had
never seen a case,but thoroughly studied the literature.Professor Hebra was fascinated by the
idea of phthiriasis,but after 15 years of practice and 11000 cases of ordinary lousiness,without
even one to fit the symptoms,he wrote an article in 1865 in which he ridiculed the disease and
asked for it to be erased from the dermatology textbooks.Dr Gaulke and Landois took great
exception to Hebra’s views and could even present a few cases,some of them even cured(with
petrol baths),but in the end Hebra won.
But did Phthiriasis really exist?In 1940,Professor A C Oudemans published a thorough study of
the diseases.His studies of a species of mites called Harpyrynchus made him inclined to believe
that the lousy disease actually existed and was caused by a subspecies called H
tabescentium.He was able to identify some similar cases in birds,were the disease develops
with the growth of mite-tumours and hyperkeratosis that may even kill their victims.From the
literature,by analizing the description of the cases,there has been made a list with 42 genuine
cases of phthiriasis from 1540 to 1870.But why no more cases afterwards?The mites might
have gone extinct.Hygiene may have played its part,but the real reason behind it is unknown to
this day.
Phthiriasis is just one of the many diagnosis that have been given to Herod the Great during
history,and there are still doctors with a peculiar interest in medical enigmas that keep looking
for an answer.Some say it could have been some complicated form of syphilis,but the theory
has been dismissed from the beginning as syphilis is thought to have originated somewhere in
the 15th century.Others say it might have been atherosclerosis mixed with a kidney failure(the
toxins would have dispersed into the body,leading to itchiness,edema,abdominal pain,bowel
ulcerations and even a distended scrotum and gangrene).Most of the specialists attribute it to
some sort of kidney problem and probably a form of gangrene called Fourier’s gangrene or
maybe necrotizing fasciitis. The mistery of a horrible disease which fell upon the body of a cruel
king still fascinates some of us and gives rise to speculations,but truth be told:we’ll never know
for sure.
Bibliography:

Simon Sebag Montefiore,Jerusalem

Thomas Africa,Worms and the Death of Kings:Cautionary Note on Disease and History

Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,Volume 91,June 1998

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25010757?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/antiochus.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24595081?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12806725

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98107&page=1

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1382769/Herod-killed-by-kidney-
disease-and-gangrene.html

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/how-evil-was-herod-the-great/

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/196/what-loathsome-disease-did-king-herod-die-of/

http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.ro/2012/12/have-doctors-discovered-what-killed.html

Holy Bible,KJV

Plutach,”Plutarch’s Lives”

Josephus,”Antiquities of the Jews”

Godfrey Chaucer,”Canterburry Tales”