Sex and vegetables in the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2007.06.001Get rights and content

Abstract

The compilers of the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises often recommend sexual intercourse as part of treatments for women’s diseases. In addition, they often prescribe the use of ingredients that are obvious phallic symbols. This paper argues that the use of sexual therapy in the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises was more extended than previously considered. The Hippocratic sexual therapies involve a series of vegetable ingredients that were sexually connoted in antiquity, but have since lost their sexual connotations. In order to understand the sexual signification of products such as myrtle and barley, one must turn to other ancient texts, and most particularly to Attic comedies. These comedies serve here as a semiotic guide in decoding the Hippocratic gynaecological recipes. However, the sexual connotations attached to animal and vegetable ingredients in these two genres have deeper cultural and religious roots; both genres exploited the cultural material at their disposal.

Introduction

The compilers of the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises, active at the end of the fifth century bc or at the beginning of the fourth century bc,1 considered that too little intercourse could only damage the health of women. In their opinion, women are never healthier than when they are pregnant.2 When women do not have enough sex, they do not get the beneficial moisture that is sperm; their wombs risk drying up and start moving around their bodies, wreaking havoc.3 Diseases caused by a displaced womb mostly affect women who do not have frequent sexual intercourse: virgins, young widows and old women.4 For the Hippocratics, the ‘obvious’ treatment for displacements of the womb and for many other gynaecological ailments is sexual intercourse.5 The gynaecological treatises often order the treated woman to sleep with her husband at the end of her treatment. The phrases used to express this are revealing. On the one hand, they are very euphemistic: ‘let her go to her husband’ (pros ton andra itō;6 para ton andra hēketō7); ‘let her lie/sleep with her husband’ (tōi andri sunkoimasthō;8 suneudetō tōi andri9); ‘let her meet with her husband’ (tōi andri sunitō10; tōi andri sunestō11); ‘let her mix with her husband’ (mignusthō tōi andri12).13 On the other hand, these phrases all make use of the imperative third person singular, indicating that the woman should and must know when the appropriate time for the sexual encounter has come.14 In contrast to most ancient literary genres, which picture women as incapable of repressing their sexuality, we get the impression that Hippocratic women were in control of their desires and of their health.15 Whether women felt pleasure, shame, or a mixture of the two, during these therapeutic sexual encounters, the Hippocratic authors do not tell us.

In addition to the use of ‘real sex’ to cure or prevent diseases, scholars have also noted the presence of ingredients that are obvious phallic symbols in the Hippocratic gynaecological recipes. For instance, Robert Joly writes that the use of a worm (with its tail) in a recipe for conception deserves a ‘Freudian psychoanalysis’.16 This worm, like the cucumbers and horns used in several Hippocratic recipes, do not require much explanation to the modern reader; and they were certainly obvious phallic symbols to the ancients. In their semiotic study of cucurbits in literature, Ralf Norrman and Jon Haarberg, have noted, with humour, the stability of plant and animal symbolism:

Thus although literary symbols may be fairly arbitrary, there are some cases when the symbols are very stable. Plant or animal symbolism … is such a case, and plant and animal symbolism is often very stable. ‘Goose’ as a sign of stupidity is used not only because it is agreed that this should be its role in the code; ultimately it is used because geese really are stupid … ‘Goose’ as a sign of stupidity is not arbitrary … In their symbolic use in literature the various plants and animals are thus often given their semiotic role because of intrinsic suitability for it.17

However, although some vegetable and animal products have retained their (sexual) symbolic value from antiquity to the present, we must always interpret symbols within the context of their own culture and time.

It is my contention that sexual therapy in the Hippocratic gynaecological texts is much more extended than was previously considered. The Hippocratic sexual therapies involve a series of vegetable ingredients that have lost their sexual connotations since antiquity. Since the Hippocratic writers rarely (or almost never) explain the rationale for the use of an ingredient in their recipes, the sexual value of ingredients such as barley and myrtle is not immediately apparent to the modern reader. In order to unravel the signification of these ingredients, one must turn to other ancient texts. Useful information on these products may be found in other ‘scientific’ writings (such as the biological works of Aristotle) and in historical accounts (such as the work of Herodotus); but one literary genre is particularly useful in decoding the Hippocratic recipes—Attic comedy18 makes common use of vegetable metaphors for the sexual organs. Obscene humour has long been something of an embarrassment to students of ancient comedy. Everyone was aware of the fact that comic poets made use of an abundance of obscene words, sexual puns, and double entendres, but this aspect of ancient comedy was often ‘brushed under the carpet’, with sexual allusions left un-translated or rendered from Greek into Latin. Scholars much preferred stressing ‘more noble’ aspects of ancient comedy, such as political humour. It is in 1975 that Jeffrey Henderson wrote the first important and extended study devoted to the theme of obscene language in Attic comedy: The maculate muse.19 This study opened the way to new, improved translations, which were less concerned with propriety. We have now reached a better understanding of what Eva Keuls has termed the ‘genital obsession’ of the ancient Greeks.20

Since the ‘writing down’ of the Hippocratic gynaecological recipes is almost contemporary with Aristophanes, it would not be surprising if the recipes shared some of the genital obsession observable in the comedies. I suggest using the Attic comedies as a semiotic guide in our decoding of the Hippocratic recipes. In doing so, I depart from the general scholarship, which usually conceives of the relations between the Hippocratic Corpus and the Attic comedies in terms of influences from the former onto the latter.21 Studies devoted to the extensive use of technical medical vocabulary in the plays of Aristophanes have generally reached the conclusion that Aristophanes had been influenced by writings of the Hippocratic Collection. For instance, Simon Byl (1990) argued that medical themes were particularly prominent in the two last Aristophanic plays—The assembly women and Ploutos—because in his opinion, by the time of their composition, the Hippocratic Collection was in circulation.22 However, although ‘Hippocratic’ texts were in circulation in the fifth century, it is unlikely that the Hippocratic Collection was assembled until much later, in the Hellenistic Period.23 Although Aristophanes and other playwrights may have read some medical treatises, I believe that too much emphasis has been placed on the idea that the comedians were influenced by medical texts. Not all medical texts from the classical period are preserved; and texts are not the only means by which medical theories and vocabulary were circulated in the classical world.24 In addition, in the case of the sexually connoted products, the overlap between Hippocratic texts and Attic comedies is not strictly medical: as I will argue, these sexual connotations have deep cultural roots—these two genres exploited, in different ways, the cultural material at their disposal. Instead of speaking in terms of influences, I would like to suggest that each of these two genres could be used to further our understanding of the other.

Section snippets

Phallic therapies

Let me run the entire gamut of sexual therapies of the Hippocratic treatises, starting with the most obvious cases. Genital parts of animals are sometimes included in the Hippocratic recipes. For instance, beaver testes appear in several Hippocratic remedies, as in this recipe to promote conception recorded in Sterile women:

After the fumigation, the next day, crush a beaver testis and add white wine. Spread it <sc. the preparation> around a probe, which you wrap in wool; apply for the night. In

Other sexual therapies

Sexual therapy in the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises could also take a less phallic, more feminine form. Thus myrtle (mursinē), sprinkled over fire in the gourd recipe discussed above, most probably plays a sexual function. Murton (myrtle-berry) was a common slang term for the clitoris, and was used as a double entendre in comedies.

Conclusions

The reading of the gynaecological remedies proposed in this paper allows us to understand better the origin of the Hippocratic recipes. In recent years, it has been suggested that the gynaecological recipes offered a glimpse of a tradition of ‘home remedies’ transmitted orally by mothers to daughters for generations before assuming written form in the Hippocratic Corpus. For some scholars, the role of the male doctor was only to ‘write down’ this oral feminine tradition. For instance, John

Acknowldgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Classical Association Conference 2005, University of Reading, at the Early Medicine Seminar, Department of History and Philosopy of Science, University of Cambridge, and at the Craven Seminar 2006, University of Cambridge. I am grateful to the participants, particularly Nicholas Jardine, Helen King, Geoffrey Lloyd, and Helen Morales, for their comments. I am also indebted to Jessica Hughes, Vivian Nutton and Liba Taub. This research would not

References (90)

  • V. Andò

    Terapie ginecologiche, saperi femminili e specificità di genere

  • Andò, V. (Trans.). (2000). Ippocrate. Natura della donna. Milan: Biblioteca Universale...
  • Barras, V. (2004). La naissance et ses recettes en médecine antique. In V. Dasen (Ed.), Naissance et petite enfance...
  • Bethe, E. (Ed.). (1900) Pollucis onomasticon, Vol. 1. Leipzig:...
  • W. Burkert

    Ancient mystery cults

    (1987)
  • S. Byl

    Le vocabulaire hippocratique dans les comédies d’Aristophane et particulièrement dans les deux dernières

    Revue de Philologie

    (1990)
  • Craik, E. M. (Ed. & Trans.). (1998). Hippocrates: Places in man. Oxford: Clarendon...
  • A. Dalby

    Food in the ancient world from A to Z

    (2003)
  • Daremberg, C., & Ruelle, C. É. (Eds. & Trans.). (1963). Oeuvres de Rufus d’Éphèse: Texte collationné sur les...
  • L.A. Dean-Jones

    The politics of pleasure: Female sexual appetite in the Hippocratic Corpus

  • L.A. Dean-Jones

    Women’s bodies in classical Greek science

    (1994)
  • L.A. Dean-Jones

    Autopsia, historia and what women know: The authority of women in Hippocratic gynaecology

  • A. Delatte

    Le cycéon breuvage rituel des mystères d’Éleusis

    (1955)
  • N. Demand

    Birth, death, and motherhood in classical Greece

    (1994)
  • Detienne, M., (1972). Les jardins d’Adonis (J.-P. Vernant, Intro.). Paris:...
  • L. Deubner

    Attische Feste

    (1932)
  • K.J. Dover

    Classical Greek attitudes to sexual behaviour

    Arethusa

    (1973)
  • K.J. Dover

    Greek homosexuality

    (1978)
  • P. DuBois

    Sowing the body: Psychoanalysis and ancient representations of women

    (1988)
  • Ernout, A. (Ed. & Trans.). (1962). Pline l’ancien: Histoire naturelle, Livre XXVIII. Paris: Les Belles...
  • M. Foucault

    Histoire de la sexualité, 2. L’usage des plaisirs

    (1984)
  • D. Gourevitch

    Fumigation et fomentation gynécologiques

  • Hall, F. W., & Geldart, W. M. (Eds.). (1901). Aristophanis comoediae, Tomus II. Lysistratam, Thesmophoriazusas, Ranas,...
  • A.E. Hanson

    Continuity and change: Three case studies in Hippocratic gynecological therapy and theory

  • A.E. Hanson

    Conception, gestation, and the origin of female nature in the Corpus Hippocraticum

    Helios

    (1992)
  • A.E. Hanson

    The logic of the gynecological prescriptions

  • A.E. Hanson

    Talking recipes in the gynaecological texts of the Hippocratic Corpus

  • Hanson, A. E. (1999). A hair on her liver has been lacerated… In I. Garofalo, A. Lami, D. Manetti, & A. Roselli (Eds.),...
  • J. Henderson

    The maculate muse: Obscene language in Attic comedy

    (1991)
  • Hünemörder, C. (1996). Apfel. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (1997). Biber. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (1998a). Feige. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum....
  • Hünemörder, C. (1998b). Gurke. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (1998c). Hase. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (1998d). Kürbis. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (1999). Melone. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • Hünemörder, C. (2000). Myrte. In H. Cancik, & H. Schneider (Eds.), Der neue Pauly Enzyklopädie der Antike. Altertum,...
  • R. Joly

    Le niveau de la science hippocratique: Contribution à la psychologie de l’histoire des sciences

    (1966)
  • Jouanna, J. (1999). Hippocrates (M. D. DeBevoise, Trans.). Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins...
  • J. Jouanna

    Maladies et médecine chez Aristophane

  • Cited by (0)

    View full text