Of the Teeth

HE troubles man has with his teeth receive universal attention, all the way from folk remedies to quiet fretful teething infants to the deposition of cast teeth in the grave with their possibly long-toothless owner. References to the lore of the teeth are scattered but vast in number, covering the range from decay and treatment to loss and disposal of teeth. Anyone familiar with the long, white roots of teeth will not be surprised to learn that from ancient times tooth decay has been ascribed to a in the tooth. This is reflected in a Babylonian cure for toothache in which the priest performs the role of Ra (the sun-god), reciting a part of a creation myth while the worm causing the toothache is brought into contact with the priest, who then curses the worm.' Similarly, John Abercromby in Pre-and Proto-Historic Finns relates how the dental decay was formed from spittle spat upon the water by Syjojatar (a toad). For seven summers the waves rocked the spittle and the sun baked it, and at last the so formed, washed upon the shore where it was seen by three daughters of Nature, who queried, What would become of this if the Creator created life, put eyes into its head by spells? Overhearing this, one Husi gave life to it . . . then into a snake it turned, it transformed to a dusky worm, which took it upon itself to go about causing toothache.2 There was, apparently, no corner on the idea that a lay at the base of the aching tooth, for a Latin poem of the eleventh century in the Regimen Sanitatis Salenitanum says

Art · Mythology · Teething · Toothache · Ancient Near East History · Classics · Dentistry · History · Medicine