Homer, Hippocrates, and modern military warfare: The helmet dilemma continues

Throughout the history of warfare, craniomaxillofacial (CMF) wounds have played a large role. Homer addressed wounds of the face, head, and neck in his epic poem, The Iliad. His work reveals the extensive knowledge the ancient Greeks possessed regarding head and neck anatomy, and knew where to strike an effective fatal blow. Several centuries later the Hippocratic Corpus addressed Wounds in the Head and formed a basis for the practice of neurosurgery. Military use of the helmet to protect the head and neck has evolved throughout the millennia. In twenty-first-century warfare, the head and neck are still extremely vulnerable regions during combat. Helmets have become more sophisticated as have the weapons, and CMF injuries to the warfighter still play an outsized role with serious physical, social and economic consequences. Unfortunately, because of the continued ramifications of war, the evolution of military headgear in the near and intermediate future will need to continue. Here we address a historical comparison between CMF injuries in The Iliad and those of modern warfare through the words of Homer, Hippocrates, and modern medical scholars, demonstrating the continued vulnerability of the warfighter.