By Barbara McAllister
What is TARANTISM?
Is it…
A. An Eastern philosophy
B. A disease caused by a spider bite
C. A true statement
ANSWER: B, which is also the answer to the question, “What do spiders, dancing and Italy have in common?”
It begins with the town of Taranto in southeastern Italy. Tarantism is the disease named for the epidemic that took place in the vicinity in the 16th and 17th centuries. The illness was characterized by hysteria and a reported mania for feverish movement. The whirling Italian dance we know today as a “tarantella” was said to be a either a symptom or, or cure for, the disease. Tarantism was mistakenly thought to be caused by a spider bite. The large hairy spiders reputed to cause the illness were called “tarantulas” because they were found nearby. Later studies indicated they were most likely wolf spiders but by then tarantism, the disease tarantella, the dance and tarantulas, the spiders, all owe their names to the town of Taranto.
What really caused the disease? Tarantism is not listed in the Merck Medical Manual. It skips from “Tailor’s Bottom,” a type of bursitis common to the profession, to “Tarui’s,” a genetic metabolic disorder. Online sources disagree as to whether tarantism was a psychological disorder of mass hysteria or physical illness. All agree that it was not caused by a spider bite nor probably cured by dance and it remains a mystery.
Today, Taranto’s tourism stresses its scenic beaches and historic cathedrals and architecture. Little is said of the global fame that gave its name to a large, hairy spider and a manic dance.
