Tarantism

Tarantism is, allegedly, a deadly condition resulting from the bite of a Wolf spider called the Tarantula (Lycosa tarantula). The condition was prevalent in southern Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There are strong suggestions that there was no organic cause for the heightened excitability and restlessness that gripped victims of this disease. The stated belief of the time was that victims needed to engage in frenzied dancing to prevent death from tarantism. Supposedly a particular kind of dance, called the Tarantella, evolved from this therapy. Many people have suggested that the whole business was a deceit to evade religious proscriptions against dancing.