Sex and vegetables in the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises

Totelin, Laurence Marie Victoria ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9576-1643 2007. Sex and vegetables in the Hippocratic gynaecological treatises. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38 (3) , pp. 531-540. 10.1016/j.shpsc.2007.06.001

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Hippocratic Corpus; Gynaecology; Sexuality; Vegetables
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	1369-8486
Funders:	Wellcome Trust
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2022 08:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/28596

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