Of Mice and Men, and Ticks and Snakes (with apologies to Ovid)

Everybody is talking about the new blockbuster film The Odyssey - derived from Homer’s epic poem. Local Boston favorite Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, who after the Trojan War faces a dangerous voyage back to his home in Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.

In the same classical vein, this week’s Tick Tidbit steals from another ancient poet, Ovid. His Metamorphosis tells how, when ancient Rome was decimated by a terrible plague, the Romans rowed over to Greece and appealed to Asclepius, the god of medicine. Asclepius changed into the form of a snake, and they carried him in their long boats back to Rome, where Asclepius immediately lifted the plague. The following snippet of rank doggerel was published in 2017 in the Vineyard Gazette and draws parallels between Ovid’s Asclepius and the research at MIT to create a Lyme-disease-proof mouse and bring it to Martha’s Vineyard.