Smile is a special movement of facial muscles. It is sincere only from joy, pleasant emotions. But a person is able to smile and forcibly. So many hide their sincere feelings.
There are many verbal expressions - "Mona Lisa smile", "sardonic smile" and the like. But the meaning of these expressions is different. If everyone has heard about the famous Mona Lisa, not many people know about the sardonic one. And here we will talk about her.
Sardonic smile among the people
When they talk about a smile, the first thing that comes to mind is sincere, with all my heart, with joy. But this is far from true. She also happens to be feigned, caustic, with a smirk, and there is one talking about pain, this can be said about a sardonic smile.
True, some people believe that it is manifested by those who experience anger, mockery, contempt for something. It is possible that such an expression may exist among the people. But when you say the phrase "sardonic smile" to people involved in medicine, the first and only thing that pops up in your head is tetanus.
Origin story
Even in ancient times, humanity wasa herb was discovered, which in Latin is called "coat of arms of sardonicus." The person who ate it soon died in terrible agony. Terrible convulsions tormented his body, and on his face, due to paralysis of mimic muscles, a smile arose, which, in honor of the plant, was called sardonic. Later, the people began to call her "a smile in the face of death."
For the first time it was described in ancient times. In the Roman Empire, it was described by Panfilius after applying the above herb. And in ancient Greece - Hippocrates. He observed this in a disease known today as tetanus.
Tetanus sardonic smile
Also, this pathology can occasionally appear in patients with severe neurological disorders, but tetanus remains the main disease with which it is associated to this day.
The sardonic smile in tetanus is the first and key symptom, after the appearance of which doubts about the diagnosis disappear.
This eerie manifestation occurs due to convulsions of facial muscles. These convulsions are of the tetanic type, that is, the muscles contract for a long time. This is the sardonic smile (photo in the article).
Description of a sardonic smile
The face of a person with a sardonic smile looks like this: frightened eyes, a stretched mouth with lowered corners of the mouth, the presence of pronounced folds of the nasolabial triangle. In people, her appearance is considered a harbinger of death, since after that not a single person survived. It's connectedwith the fact that after the appearance of tetanic contraction of the mimic muscles of the face with tetanus, any treatment loses its meaning. Its further spread to the rest of the body takes a matter of hours and leads to death in 100% of cases.
Legend
There is also a legend about the origin of this expression.
Once upon a time, when there was such a state as Carthage, on the ancient island of Sardinia, one cruel ritual was carried out - the murder of old people. Poor old people were simply sacrificed by young people.
The fact is that in those days life was not easy, you had to work hard, and the elderly were a burden for the inhabitants of this island. And in order to throw off this "mountain from their shoulders", they got rid of such a burden.
There is such an almighty god Chersonese, this is the god of time. And in order to stop time and aging, people sacrificed the weakest and "useless". They killed those people who "knocked" 70 years. And in order to meet death appropriately, to show that there is still strength of mind in the body, there is life, the poor old people smiled. This smile, squeezed out of oneself with all one's strength, is called sardonic.
