A smile is a special movement of the muscles of the face. Sincere she happens 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 - "the smile of Mona Lisa", "sardonic smile" and the like. But the meaning of these expressions is different. If everyone heard about the famous Mona Lisa, then not many know about the sardonic. And here we will be talking specifically 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, from joy. But this is far from the case. She also happens to be pretended, sarcastic, with a smirk, and there is talking about pain, this can be said about the sardonic smile.
True, some people believe that it is shown by those who feel anger, mockery, contempt for something. Perhaps in the people such an expression may exist. 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 history
Even in ancient times, mankind discovered grass, which in Latin is called the "coat of arms of sardonics." The man who ate her soon died in terrible agony. Terrible convulsions tormented his body, and a smile appeared on his face due to paralysis of facial muscles, which was named sardonic in honor of the plant. Later, people began to call her "a smile in the face of death."
It was first described in ancient times. In the Roman Empire it was described by Panfilius after applying the aforementioned grass. And in ancient Greece - Hippocrates. He observed this with a disease that today is known as tetanus.
Sardonic smile with tetanus
Also, this pathology can occasionally appear in patients with severe neurological disorders, but tetanus remains to this day the main disease with which it is associated.
A sardonic smile with tetanus is the first and key symptom, after which there are no doubts about the diagnosis.
This terrible manifestation occurs due to convulsions of facial muscles. These seizures are of the tetanic type, that is, the muscles contract for a long time. This is a sardonic smile (photo in the article).
Description of the sardonic smile
A person’s face with a sardonic smile looks like this: frightened eyes, a distended mouth with lowered corners of the mouth, the presence of pronounced folds of the nasolabial triangle. In humans, its appearance is considered a harbinger of death, since after that not a single person survived. This is due to the fact that after the appearance of a tetanic contraction of the facial muscles of the face during tetanus, any treatment loses its meaning. Further spreading it to the rest of the body takes hours and in 100% of cases leads to death.
Legend
There is also a legend about the origin of this expression.
Once upon a time, even when there was a state like Carthage, one cruel ritual was carried out on the ancient island of Sardinia - the killing of old people. Young people simply sacrificed the poor old people.
The fact is that in those days life was not easy, I had to work hard, and elderly people were a burden for the inhabitants of this island. And to throw this "mountain off their shoulders", they got rid of such a burden.
There is such an omnipotent god Chersonese, this is the god of time. And in order to suspend time and aging, people sacrificed the weakest and “worthless”. Killed those people who "turned" 70 years old. And in order to meet death properly, to show that there is still fortitude in the body, there is life, the poor old men smiled. This smile, squeezed by all forces from itself, is called sardonic.