This topic looks at how ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt understood disability, shaped strongly by philosophy, religion and social status. In Greece and Rome, there was no single idea of disability, only specific impairments like blindness or deafness were recognized by name. Epilepsy was feared as the sacred disease, believed to be contagious and caused by the gods. In Egypt, however, people with dwarfism and other impairments sometimes held respected roles in the royal court and in religious life, showing that attitudes could vary greatly even within the same time period.