← THIS IS HISTORY — A DYNASTY TO DIE FOR
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Hello my happy historical campers. It's Dan here, coming to you with a very special treat. As your bona fide history nerds, I thought I'd give you a preview of Dr. Harini Bhatt's brand new show, Hidden History. If you like to keep things mysterious, then this show is for you. Every Monday, Harini goes where history touches the unknown vanished civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain. She'll give you the historical context, break down the science, and even interrogate the supernatural. And at the end of every episode, she'll tell you exactly what she thinks happened and ask what if it happened? Today we have a preview of an episode for you to listen to now about a deadly epidemic that made people dance to death. If you love it, make sure to follow hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhatt on Apple Podcasts and Spotify video. Episodes are available on YouTube at HiddenHistoryPod. We'll also put a link to the show in this episode.
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Description On July 14, 1518, the sun rose above Strasbourg. The city was a hub of economic, cultural and religious activity, whose cathedral is one of the tallest buildings in the world. And on that summer day, a woman named Frau Troffea step stepped out of her home onto the narrow street and started to dance. At first it was more like a shuffle, but as the minutes ticked by, Frau Troffea started moving faster and faster. Her husband tried to get her to stop, to go back inside and calm down, but Frau Troffea just kept dancing until she was so exhausted she collapsed. Her husband brought her inside, made sure she got some rest and probably figured that was the end of it. But the next morning, she went right back at it, dancing nonstop until the sun went down. Before long, she was surrounded by curious onlookers who wondered what on earth was going on here, and their first theory was that this was an act of revenge. If I was there at that time, thinking with a modern lens, honestly, the first thought I would have is that this person is going through epilepsy or they're having some kind of seizure. But doing it for so many hours on end is where it starts to look a little bit different, and that's why we need to dig a little bit deeper. We don't know much about Frau Troffea other than she was married. We don't even know her first name. Frau is basically the German equivalent of Mrs. But supposedly she and her husband had gotten into some sort of argument right before she started dancing, and he hated dancing. So people wonder if this was just a way to get back at him. But by the end of that second day, Frau Troffea hadn't stopped. Honestly, would anyone go this far just to annoy their husband? Maybe I would. On the dawn of the third day, her dancing continued. And then on the fourth, and then on the fifth. By the sixth day of this, she was in rough shape, her feet were bloody, she was dehydrated, and she had barely eaten. If she went on like this for much longer, she might not survive. It became obvious that Frau Troffia wasn't in control of her actions, and some people wondered if she was possessed by a demon. At the time, women were believed to have weaker morals than men, which supposedly made them more susceptible to sin and therefore easy targets for possession. So was she up to some shady stuff and a demon was making her pay the price? I think it's safe to say the answer is no. And most of the people in Strasbourg didn't think so either, although they still thought there was a spiritual explanation for it. But instead of looking to hell, they looked to heaven. They believed she had been cursed by St. Vitus, the patron saint of actors, dancers and people with the falling sickness, or as we would call it today, epilepsy. People could pray to Saint Vitus to help them with their afflictions or unleash it on their enemies. And it was common enough that this unstoppable frenzy was referred to as Saint Vitus's dance. And honestly, if you think about it, it does make sense for the time to immediately jump to something spiritual or something even demonic, like possession, because that was their science at the time. That is how they viewed the lens. It was through this religious perspective, especially in that area. So you can't fault them for that. That's right. Frau Troffea wasn't the first person to be afflicted with a dancing plague. There had been reports of similar cases in that very region that going back hundreds of years, after six days of constant dancing, it was looking like Frau Troffea was this plague's latest victim. So around July 20, 1518, her jerking body was strapped into a wagon, and she was taken to pray at the shrine of St. Vitus, nestled in the mountains about 30 miles west of Strasbourg. The reports don't say what happened to her after that, though some historians believe that it was a case of no news is good news, since it's more likely that it would have been recorded if she had died. But this was far from the end of the story. Soon enough, the city of Strasbourg would be consumed in a living nightmare, because just as Frau Troffea's dancing frenzy was ending, it was beginning for hundreds of others by July 21, 1518. So just a week after Frau Troffea started her dance, a up to 34 people throughout Strasbourg had been afflicted with the same uncontrollable dancing plague. Initially, they were just curious onlookers, but inevitably, they'd lost control of themselves, too. As the days went by, more and more people fell victim to St. Vitus curse. By July 25, the number had risen to around 50 people. With so many affected, it wouldn't be practical to transport everyone to the shrine. So the city council decided to do something unexpected. Look for a medical explanation. At this point in time, doctors mainly relied on the wisdom of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers for guidance. And the city's physicians believed that the dancing plague was being caused by overheated blood, a concept from the ancient Greek medical philosopher Galen. So during this time, most of medicine really surrounded something called the four humors. You probably have heard it before. And the four humors was first established by the ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates, and then later refined by actually this guy Galen. And it all surrounded what was called, like I said, the four humors. So those are yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. And the whole idea is that if you're sick or you're feeling ill, it's because one of those four humors is out of balance. So the whole idea of overheated blood comes from that four humors concept. Is it reliable medicine in today's lens? No, but it is a good thought process. So let's see where it goes. The theory was that blood was connected to happiness and the love of song and dance. The more people had, the more they enjoyed these things. But if there was a blockage somewhere, blood could pool in the body. When that happened, it could overheat the brain and cause erratic behavior, like uncontrollable dancing. Here's what I think is especially interesting, though. If they were completely following Galen's teachings, the doctors would have prescribed bleeding and a cooling diet that could have reduced the blood's temperature. But instead, their solution was more dancing. In this case, it seems like they were relying more on traditional wisdom. The idea was that they needed to be able to let the disease burn out on its own. That's apparently how previous dancing plagues had come to an end, as well as including one a century earlier in nearby Zurich, Switzerland. Honestly, it sounds like such a bonkers plan to ask them to continue to dance when that is what is afflicting them. However, if you want to look at it through a modern lens, it's kind of akin. This is not a perfect analogy, but it's kind of akin to when you have a fever. Sometimes you do want to let your fever run its course, because that is actually what's going to make you better by killing off all the bacteria. So I can kind of see how maybe that was the line of thinking that they had. Obviously this was before germ theory, but maybe that's what they were thinking, like, just get it all out of your system. But did it work? We'll find out. Thanks for listening to this preview of my new show, Hidden History. If you want to hear what happens next, follow Hidden History on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or subscribe on YouTube.
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Well, thanks for listening to that preview of Hidden History. Follow hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhatti on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or subscribe on YouTube at HiddenHistoryPod for video episodes.