Science, Plague, and Pericles: Reconstructing the Face of Myrtis

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In 430 BCE, a plague swept through ancient Athens, killing thousands. It eventually claimed even the great Pericles. But what was it? In 1994, a group of historians and scientists banded together to find out, starting with the skull of one little girl.

Podcaster: Kirsti

Further Reading

Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. (available online at http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html or http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7142)

Allison McCook. "Q&A: Facing the past: Manolis Papagrigorakis." Scientific American Nature 471, no. 35 (03 March 2011): 35.

Charles Alexander Robinson. Athens in the Age of Pericles. University of Oklahoma Press, 1959.

​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)