Medical Sources Flashcards
What are the four diff categories of ‘healers’ in Homer?
Seers, Physicians, Women, and Foreigners (esp Egyptians)
Sappho (31) quotes that show medical discussion mirroring
’ a subtle fire has stolen beneath my flesh, I see nothing with my eyes, my ears hum, sweat pours from me, a trembling seizes me all over [..]I am little short of dying.’ (lns9-16)
Who was Empedocles?
Presoc philosoher hailed as a healer, w clairvoyant powers and purifier. Galen hailed him as crucial in Sicilian/Italian School of Docs, whilst others thought of him as a divine figure. Exemplar Greek holy man/sage
What happened to Phaethusa of Abdera? Part of Hipp Corpus?
Stopped having period after having children and turned masculine: grew beard, body hair, and voice deepened. Soon died after efforts to restart period failed. Epidemics
What does Phaethusa’s case suggest abt Hippocratic physicians’ understanding of sex and gender?
sex was fluid, gender was not
the bodily sex of the patient changes irreversibly but the doctor, until the end, refers to her w female pronouns etc and as a woman
What kind of poor health do women suffer from more acc to Hipp.Corp? Why
Mental. They are more fainthearted. (Girls lns 466-7)
What is the physical effect of sex for parthenoi that is crucial in the function of their marriage?
cervix is opened and thus the menstrual blood can flow out when period comes (Girls 467)
What is the main impact of lack of a period for women?
Derangement from blood in heart and diaphragm (Girls 467-8)
Solution to lack of a period given by Hippocrates?
‘cohabit with men as soon as they can: for if they become pregnant, they recover’ (girls 469)
What was the general diagnosis for women’s ill acc to Hipp. Corp?
problems w reproductive system (menstruation, fertility etc.)
What were the fundamental differentiator of fem from male anatomy? Signif?
M porous flesh equivalent to one big gland - this was the balancing measure of the male body that the woman’s emulated fully (DoW (Mul.) 1.1)
Heat, although whether females were hotter or colder is not consistent across Hipp corpus
Wetter (Nat. puer. 15)
flesh itself was understood to be sexed
Why did hippocratic physicians trust female testimony (historia) on the state of their bodies more than male patients? (2 reasons)
Their bodies were so different so doctors can never really empathise and taboos around men seeing women in dom space and vulnerable.
What form of healing did Hipp Corp draw on quite a lot? In what strain of medicine especially?
Female healers’ practices. pharmakopoiía (‘preparing drugs’).
What is DoW 1 and 2 (Mul.) in Hipp Corp about?
Female anatomy, physiology, pathology, and reproductive problems.
What is Nature of Women (Nat. mul.) in Hipp Corp about?
Descrips of female diseases and how to treat them.
What is Superfetation in Hipp Corp about?
Pregnancy, childbirth, and infertility.
What is Excision of the Foetus in Hipp Corp about?
Childbirth and its related problems
What is Seven-Month Infant & Eight-Month Infant in Hipp. Corp. about?
embryology and premature births
What is Generation and Nature of the Child in Hipp. Corp. about?
conception, gestation, and birth
What is (Diseases of) Girls in Hipp. Corp. about?
vague diesease of young girls that occured when pubescent girls didn’t get their periods and subsequently suffered night terrors adn suicidal delusions
cured by having sex
Why did pregnancies help the health of women?
the baby would take up any excess blood in the women’s body for nourishment and will make later periods easier as the passages have been widened (DoW(Mul.) 1.1; Nature of the Child (Nat. puer) .4)
What causes ‘wandering womb’ syndrome? What is the syndrome?
Dryness. The womb is unfixed in the body and, in the interest of finding fluid, moved around the body especially to the brain, heart, liver, and diaphragm. (DoW(Mul.) 1.2)
What does Hipp corpus suggest as the best treatment of ‘wandering womb’ syndrome? Signif?
sexual intercourse.
subordination of women to reproductive purpose of womb
How can ‘wandering womb’ syndrome be cured?
Hanging woman upside down, binding diaphragm, and, most commonly, odour therapy around vagina area. (DoW(Mul.) 2)
What does Plato say happens to the female body after the womb has wandered? How has he thus charcterised the physis of the womb?
body goes into a ‘state of distress’ engendering strong sexual appetite
Independent, disobedient, and lustful.
What was the problem w crucial hippocratic autopsia when treating women?
Taboo with men and women mixing outside of marriage/dom setting
How did hipp physicians make the reliance of female historia/self-examination ok?(2)
caveats in the writings and expressed distrust.
What was a key healing method in the ancient world?
Spending the night in a Temple of Asclepius
What are the ‘iamata’?
Inscriptions on stelai advertising the miracles at the healing sancturies.
What proportion of iamata that we have are about female patients? What are most of these concerned with?
25%. Gynaecology
Despite small number of female cases in iamata, what suggests a contemporary importance?
Their placement in the ordering of the stelai eg. A1 or A2 being around the starts
What was generally blamed(in hipp corpus and iamata) for the infertility of a couple?
Poor health/inability of the women
What were the three themes of the female patients’ cases in the iamata?
Childbirth and fertility, sexual imagery, and allusiveness of female body
What was the role of gender in Hipp corpus?
Male and female bodies treated very differently
Who was Favourinus?
2nd cent CE philospoher
Appears to have been born w female body but IDed as male - no body hair, high voice
Had high status and political standing.
Sexually licentious.
He was popular and discussed but also contreversial.
What did Soranus advise for menstruation and marriage?
the girl should have started her period before marriage and not have sex as a means by which it was made easier later in life
What conditions did Soranus believe could afflict girls who did not under sexual intercourse quick enough?
plethora - caused weight gain and physical problems as a result of unreleased sexual energy
hysteria - physical and psychological; caused by rebellious uterus
misfunctioning uterus - wandering around body causing many problems
What does the aldobrandini Marriage wall painting show? When was it made?
shows a concerned young wife being coxed by ‘Persuasion’ to go to marital bed following wedding; Hymen round the corner waiting for the girl to submit
2nd cent CE
What does Galen say on the nature of women?
they are imperfect men because they are colder - testes are outside for men as they can be out of body as they are warmer
When was Galen writing?
2nd cent CE
When does Hippocratic corpus date to? What is it?
450-100 BCE
c65 treatises
When was Soranus writing? Signif?
1st-2nd cents CE
Wrote a gynaecology
What does Soranus outline as a good wife?
literate
good memory
hard working
bodily able
Name of female doctor in Athens? Signif? Source?
Agnodice, 4th cent
Disguised herself as a man in order to practice as female physicians were outlawed; she became v popular w female patients, likely due to her traditional female practices (of high regard by women in AG), which garnered suspicions from other doctors of her seducing patients (as a man); she was tried but defended by the city’s women and acquitted.
Hyginus, Latin Aug p author. (likely a legend having been handed down through generations)
Where in the Ts of Asclepios would iamata have been displayed?
in the abaton where patients stayed the night - inspired trust and legitimacy of the practice as well as shaped the actual living experience
What differs in the iamata treatment of gynaecological matters vs others?
level of detail is significantly reduced in both descrip of ailment of god’s treatment
What was the main task for roman midwives?
emotionally support the woman during birth
What is the duality seen in the opening of Hippocratic Diseases of Women 1?
some physicians treat female bodies in the same way as male ones
BUT the author expresses dire concern at this and asserts the importance of a distinct female nature
What is the fundamental purpose of many works in Hippocratic corpus? Signif?
inquire into the nature (physis) of the human being and the body
Gender and body were closely related in the views of these physicians and thus they reveal their understandings of the nature of men and women
What did Hipp corpus understood to have happened in a woman’s period?
excess of blood built up - only from point of puberty
vessels widened and allowed more blood to travel
blood removed from uterus
What is the fundamental reason menstruation was so important in Hipp corpus when dealing w female ailments?
it was the all important mechanism of balancing women’s excess of moisture
What did Galen say on the relationship betw female physiology and their lifestyles?
sedentary lifestyles only worsened the naturally occuring excess of moisture
How are women’s body est as different to men’s in EARLY medical texts?
women were subject to their body’s nature
(think wandering womb)
When did systematic dissection first occur in antiquity? Signif?
3rd cent BCE in Alexandria
Offered opportunity for female anatomy esp to be understood better - particularly the WOMB
How does Dean-Jones understand female sexual appetite?
in purely physiological terms
What arises in 4th cent BCE for men that indicates the belief of an inherent lack of bodily control of women compared to men?
self-control exercises known as epimeleia
What is seen as common to the male and female body in medical writings?
humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) as integral to how physiology/health works
What were believed to be the two options for blood’s transformation in the body? Signif?
male body: semen
female body: catamenia (menstrual blood or other fluid that is released at this point) acc to Arist; or milk.
Similarity of the sexes’ bodies in terms of fluid transformations (fluid substratum) but difference in manifestation of this particuar bodily transformation
What does Galen fundamentally understand the female body to be? Example?
inversion of male anatomy as a result of lacking heat on inside of body
ovaries = testes but on the inside of the body
How did Galen explain the excess of moisture in female bodies in teleological terms?
moisture and nutrients that are needed for development of the foetus
What was understood in Hipp corpus to be behind sexing?
female foetus developed as a result of watery blood w insufficient nutrients as opposed to rich blood that led to male foetus
What specifically did Galen understand as impossible for a women to be because of their natural weakness?
ambidextrous
What debate does Soranus present in his Book 3 Gyn? The two sides? Soranus’ pov?
Whether women have affectations (diseases AND physiological phenomena not contrary to nature) peculiar to their nature
For: midwifes exist for this very reason; uterus has unique presence and function.
Against: fundamentally made men and women made up of same material so get affectations by the same means; bodies are regulated by the same faculties.
Soranus: complex - women do have uniquely constituted bodies but there is no disease (affectation contrary to nature) that only makes ill women.
What did Aristotle understand as contributed by each sex to offspring? Signif?
female provides the matter whilst male provides the soul; the male moulds what the femal provides
Accords to societal beliefs of women as passive/weak etc and men as the active, competent party
What could explain Artistotle’s rigid sexual difference beliefs?
adherance to categorization combining both theory and observation
