800 B.C. Asthma was sacred disease

Homer (about 850 B.C.)

It's believed the term comes frm the Greek word Aezean which means to exhale through an open mouth.  Asthma is also believed to come from the Greek work panos, which means to pant. Hence, you have your two terms for the disease.  Eventually panos was phased out, and the term asthma evolved to our modern definition. 

One of the more interesting things I learned in my quest to learn more about asthma was that the Ancient Greeks considered asthma, often referred to as panos, as a sacred disease.  They treated those suffering from it with a great deal of respect because it was considered to be an honor to have it.

Robert L. Shook in his book "Miracle Medicines: Seven Lifesaving Drugs and who created them" the Greeks beleived panos or asthma was a sacred disease "that signified a visit from the gods."

It was actually the Greeks who are believed to be among the first to use the term asthma.  It was first referenced by Homer in the Illiad, book XV, line 10:

"He saw Hector lying on the plain, his companions
sitting round him.  Hector was gagging painfully,                                    10         [10]dazed and vomiting blood."

In this scene Zeus wakes up as the Greeks are trying to push a line of Trojans back, and he finds the Trojan leader Hector breathing painfully and vomiting blood. The above is the English translation, although the word Homer used for "gagging painfully" was asthmati.

Homer later made another reference to asthma in book XV, line 290:

"He was just starting to recover,     
to recognize his comrades round him.  He'd stopped                             290 
gasping and sweating, for aegis-bearing Zeushad revived his mind"

In this scene Homer describes Hector as just starting to catch his breath, although Homer used the word asthma instead of gasping.

The Illiad was written by Homer about 800 B.C.

Homer used the word asthma as in being winded as from fighting in a battle, and perhaps the Greeks thought of "asthma" as the result of heroic actions.  However, I'm merely speculating here.

Asthma was first used as a medical term nearly 400 years later by the writers of the Corpus Hippocraticus. There is no evidence asthma was considered a specific disease by Hippocrates, as most evidence suggests asthma was basically a "symptom" of gasping or panting.

Anything that caused these symptoms were classified under the umbrella term asthma, which was how asthma was used until the 17th century.

Another thing to note about the ancient description of asthma, particularly as defined by Hippocrates, is that it was a paraxysmal disease.  This means that it presented with sudden, violent outburst, followed by short or long periods of time where it showed no symptoms at all.

Asthma was considered more severe than simple dyspnea (short of breath).  Asthma's severity was often compared with an epileptic convulsion or ceizure, and, once again, it was considered a divine visitation.

Click here for more asthma history.