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 tarantula). (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.

It has been suggested that the whole business was a deceit to evade proscriptions against dancing.^{[citation needed]} John Compton proposed that ancient Bacchanalian rites that had been suppressed by the Roman Senate in 186 BC went underground, reappearing under the guise of emergency therapy for bite victims.^[1]

The phenomenon of tarantism is consistent with mass psychogenic illness.

Although the popular belief persists that tarantism results from a spider bite, it remains scientifically unsubstantiated. Donaldson, Cavanagh, and Rankin (1997)^[2] 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.

See also

• Dancing mania
• Ergot

References