Daughters of the Inquisition

by Christina Crawford

Greek Queen Artemsia (c. 350 BCE) had healing skills of such repute as to gain the praise of Pliny, Strabo, and Theophrastes used wormwood as a cure for a variety of disorders. Flowers named for her were prescribed to help women’s health, including a delay in menstruation and prevention of miscarriage. The Goddess Artemis has similar attributes, including being the Goddess of Ephesus, the city of the Amazons.

  Pliny (50 CE) details some women who wrote medical books. One named Elephantis was so beautiful that she was required to lecture her students from behind a curtain, but we will never know if that were a true statement of fact or whether women were not allowed to be seen in public teaching the subject of medicine. Another woman named Lais had writings on abortion and gained individual fame by using menstrual blood to cure malaria.

  One of the most well-known Greek doctors was a woman named Agnodice, whose name translates “chaste before justice” (or perhaps “chased,” as you will see). Agnodice wore men’s clothing when she was working and lived sometime between 400 and 300 BCE, when Greek women had already lost most of their rights to be publically practicing the healing arts. Her choice of professional attire could be seen as a means of self-protection, since she had traveled and practiced widely in the city of Athens.

  Agnodice was well trained in the tradition of Herophilus, who taught her to become a full-fledged doctor. Athenian women of higher status were confined to their homes and often refused the services of male physicians. Those Athenian male doctors became jealous of Agnodice because she was taking away their aristocratic female patients, the very ones who were most able to pay their fees. So her competitors reported her to the tribunal, accusing her of breaking the law forbidding women to study medicine. But since a physician of note trained her, those laws must have been either quite flexible or fairly unenforceable, otherwise the story of Agnodice the physician cross-dresser would not have reached us through the long road of Herstory.

  When, as a result, Agnodice was discovered and forced to go to trial, Athenian women, her primary patients, gathered en masse in protest against the tribunal, threatened to “condemn” their own husbands (which meant they were going to boycott sex with them), if their beloved doctor were not released at once. This was extremely unusual behavior for these women, normally cloistered in their houses, not permitted to vote nor speak in public debate. In this case, however, the women of Athens were successful. Agnodice was released by the Tribunal, permitted to continue her practice of medicine and dress however she pleased. Her legend continued: After her release, Agnodice lifted her skirts, exposing her bare body, and showed both followers and detractors she was definitely a woman! The source for her legend is Latin author, Hygenus, writing several hundred years after the life of Agnodice in the first century BCE.

  Seneca (4 BCE to 65 CE) had a skillful female doctor about whom he wrote; Paul the apostle and Pliny both acknowledged the midwives; a female physician named Cleopatra who lived in Galen’s time (c. 130–200 CE) authored a book on gynecology that was used for nearly 1,600 years. However, in about 600 CE this work was falsely credited to a male named Moschion, and it took another 1,000 years for Cleopatra’s rightful name to be restored to her remarkable pioneering work.

  About the first century current era, a Greek practitioner named Metrodora wrote about diseases of uterus, stomach and kidneys. The manuscript is preserved in Florence, Italy. While it is believed to the be oldest medical text written by a woman, it was for years wrongly attributed to a fictitious male named Metrodorus.

  ROME

  Roman culture and civilization differed from the Greek in substantial ways, not the least of which, and for our purposes, the most significant was the relative freedom of women to interact with the society in which they lived although not nearly as free as their sisters across the river in the Etruscan civilization.

  Rome, founded in 753 BCE, had been without physicians for 600 years, or so claimed Pliny who wrote in the first century current era. In part, this was a reflection of the status battle between Greece and Rome snobbery, maintaining that Rome was an “outpost” compared with the more sophisticated and better educated Greeks. But the other, and of course unspoken, part was that since its beginning, Roman women had been practicing the ancient arts of healing and midwifery without interruption. They had inherited their knowledge from generations of women healers and doctors, incorporating the copious medical education available from Crete, the older Minoan Goddess civilization so advanced in art, culture and medicine. Through trade they would have also learned the healing arts of Egypt, Sumer, and Anatolia.

  Valerie French wrote an article titled Midwives and Maternity Care in the Roman World.80 In it, Ms. French explores the role of midwives and physicians in the Greco-Roman world in detail.

  She speculates that five percent of babies born alive would die before reaching one month and 5 of 20,000 women would die in childbirth. Ms. French gathers her information from two primary sources: Pliny the Elder (c. 23 – 79 CE) in his Historica Naturalus reports on the midwife and practices in folk medicine, which means the traditional healing of antiquity, and from Soranus in his Gynecology which details obstetrical care under the Roman medical profession.

  However, since Ms. French says, “We are on firm ground assuming that the maternity care of most women in the Greco-Roman world was conducted along the lines described by Pliny,” who treated them with respect in his writings, (meaning the midwives), we shall begin with him.

  Concentration is first on ways to hasten and ease labor. The following are noted: Burning or fumigating (i.e. smudging) with fat from hyena loins and placing right hyena foot only on the woman; sows mild mixed with honey wine (Healing herbs mixed with mead wine have been noted back thousands of years to the Bee Goddess and the Mellisae priestesses); goose semen mixed with water; root of vervain mixed with water (Called herb of Grace, Junos Tears, it is associated with the Goddesses Isis and Venus, used for love, purification and protection);81 scordites in hyromel (translates as ashes in mead which is mildly alcoholic liquor made from honey and water, a most ancient drink); dittany leaves (labiate plant indigenous to Crete where it grows profusely on the mountain Dikit, of the mint family. In North America it has purple flowers.); snakes slough (skin which had been shed) applied to the woman’s thigh and removed immediately after delivery (snakes = transformation in Goddess cultures); vulture’s feather under a woman’s feet. It is further noted that sneezing relieves labor; drinking hedge mustard (plant ground up) steeped in warm wine on an empty stomach also relieves.

  Here are the suggestions to take away the placenta: earthworms in raisin wine; newborn goat membrane (covering) dried and mixed with wine; linozostis or partenion (unknown modern names); hare rennet (stomach lining) applied with saffron (ancient Minoan remedy for women’s illnesses) and leek juice; dittany (Crete/Minoan) mixed with water; ammociac salt dissolved in water (a salt and gum resin said to have come from the Shrine of Ammon. Ammon is believed to be the Egyptian divinity Amen in Libya, which is one of the ancient homes of the North African Amazons.)

  Maternity care in Pliny’s treatise is personal and attentive to the birth giver. Both female relatives and midwife were in constant attendance. The age-old remedies for care of the new mother described by Pliny are for swelling or intumescence rubbing breasts with sow’s blood or goose grease with rose oil (Roses are the flower of the Goddess) and a spider’s web; a poltice of partridge egg ash, zinc oxide ointment, and wax to keep breasts firm; for inflamed breasts – lay earthworms on the skin to draw out pus; drink earthworms in honey wine (mead) to stimulate milk flow.

  We now turn to Ms. French recounting the work of Greek physician Soranus c. 98 to 138 CE. He writes that midwives will be literate, with her wits about her, possessed of good memory, loving work, respectable and generally not handicapped as regards her senses (sight, hearing, smell), sound of limb, robust and according to some people, endowed with long slender fingers and short nail. (She should be of sympathetic disposition with soft hands.) He goes f
urther: The midwife must be free from superstition so as not to overlook salutary measures (of Greek medicine) on account of a dream, or omen, or some customary rite. (He refers to divination, and ancient healing arts practiced by women for millennium.)

  In the Eastern Mediterranean some women progressed from being midwives (maia) to physicians (iatros gynaikaios). Therefore, some medical texts were written by Greeks who were also women, which means that women were accepted and could earn a living in this profession at time.

  Roman midwives were employed as members of wealthy Roman households. Most were free women or daughters of free women, not slaves from the East or elsewhere, but not women of high birth status either. No matter what their status of birth, they were highly valued, paid well and earned enough as midwives to maintain their freedom. Soranus admonishes midwives not to be greedy for money, but Roman legal provisions suggest that midwives enjoyed pay comparable to that of male doctors. The poor, the slaves who could not pay for midwives services turned to the “sagae,” the wise women trained generation after generation, from mother to daughter, in the knowledge of women’s ways from the Old Religion.

  Soranus gives a detailed account of the midwives’ equipment and materials: olive oil which is to be clean and not previously used in cooking; warm water; warm fomentations, which are ointments to be applied to the mother’s body; soft sea sponges, pieces of wool, bandages to swaddle the baby; a pillow on which to place the infant; “things to smell” – pennyroyal, barley groats, apples, quinces, lemons, melons, cucumber to revive the fainted. She was also to have two beds: one hard for the delivery and one soft for the recovery. There was to be a room of proper size and moderate temperature, and the midwifes’ stool or chair which she owned and carried with her, used only for delivery, not for labor.

  In the seat of the chair was a crescent-shaped (Moon) hole through which the baby is delivered. The sides of the chair had arm rests, in the shape of the letter “pi” for the mother to grasp during delivery. The chair was to have a sturdy back against which the birthgiver was to press her hips and buttocks. The stools did not have backs behind the mother and support her. If the family is not able to have a midwife or a birthing stool, the birthgiving mother must sit on the lap of another (very robust and strong!) woman while delivering the infant.

  Soranus directs the midwife to ease labor pains of the woman lying on the hard bed with gentle massage, with a cloth soaked in warm olive oil with hot water bladders against her sides, her legs drawn up, thighs parted. When the cervix begins to dilate, the midwife’s finger, soaked in olive oil, encourages the opening. When the cervix is dilated to the size of an egg, the woman giving birth is moved from the bed to the birthing chair if she is not too weak.

  For actual delivery, the midwife needs three assistants: one to stand at either side of the chair and one in the back. The woman in the back has to be strong and agile; she must keep the mother from falling and have an olive-oil soaked cloth ready to apply to the anus to prevent hemorrhoids. The midwife, covered with an apron, sits in front of the mother, assuring her that all is going well. The midwife instructs the mother on breathing techniques and pushing to expel the fetus. The side attendants gently push down on the mother’s abdomen. The mother does the work of expelling the baby. The midwife, her hands wrapped in cloth or thin papyrus to keep the infant from slipping, pulls the infant free, cares for the umbilical cord, cutting it and wrapping it with wool thread.

  Soranus details what to expect in difficult births at some length, but there are no statistics or any percentages. He does indicate that the attitude of mother, midwife, and attendants is extremely important and can determine the degree of difficulty during the birth process.

  For the care of the breasts after the birth, Soranus recommends sponging the breasts with mildly contracting (diluted vinegar, tender dates triturated with bread and diluted vinegar) or closely binding. If swelling occurs, use politices of olive oil, hydromel, linseed, wheat or fenugreek and water.

  The newborn baby is washed carefully with salt mixed with honey, olive oil or juice of barley, fenugreek or mallow to be easy on the delicate skin of the new baby. The midwife clears the nose, mouth, anus and ears. She puts a little olive oil in the eyes and wool soaked in oil on the cord. The midwife is to care for the mother and newborn up to several days, it would appear. After delivery, it is the duty of the midwife to inspect the newborn for any abnormalities and to make recommendations based on her examination as to whether the newborn is “healthy and fit to rear.” Then an assessment of the newborn’s chances to live are discussed with the mother. Probably the midwife made a determination about the chances for the infant’s survival and would likely recommend that a newborn with any severe congenital problem be exposed. The term “exposed” means left to die, sometimes outside the house, without any nourishment or protection from the weather. This was a common practice, but a decision arrived at by both mother and midwife in those cases of severe deformity, life-threatening premature birth, or other recognized aspects in the infant which made it unlikely to thrive outside the womb. There were no institutions of care other than family in these days, and if the family were not equipped to care for such an infant, there were no other resources available.

  (Note: During the European Inquisition, this age-old practice would also be cause for the death penalty for midwives who would be accused, tried and then burned at the stake. It would also be the reason given for abolishing the profession of the midwife or causing it to go underground for many generations.)

  Prior to the first century current era, women in Rome were permitted by the secular state to practice whatever professions they chose, but no record of that work has been preserved, partly because most ancient libraries were destroyed through war, conquest, and ignorance.

  Pliny the Elder said that women should be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible in their business of healing, so that after they were dead, no one would know that they had lived. And that is what happened, almost. At least we know that is what was intended to happen. From the beginning, all Mediterranean cultures entrusted women almost exclusively with healing and the medical arts, in concert with the Goddess. Women had birthed, healed, buried and done the spiritual journey for all humans since forever.

  A man regarded as chief scribe of the Roman era in which he lived, named Celsus, described women healers as “busily involved in their work, examining urine, applying leeches, and administering poppy juice for surgery,” all activities at the highest level of professional practice of that time.82

  Rome began to slide into wretchedness because of 1) the swamps surrounding it, which produced constant threat of malaria, 2) the rapid population growth, and 3) lack of sanitation. In the second century, current era, Galen who was last of the “fathers of medicine” faced a declining culture and a diseased city. Therefore, he gathered prescriptions from everywhere he could find them and credited his female colleagues with some of the best work. His five hundred books contain contributions from many of his female contemporaries. He praised Origenia’s prescriptions for diarrhea, Eugerasia’s treatment of nephritis (kidney disease) which included squills – bulbs of sea onions cut into thin slices and dried, used as an expectorant, bryonia (a climbing vine yielding an acid juice used as a purgative or emetic), white pepper, cedar berries, iris root, myrrh and wine, as the liquid vehicle. Margareta is mentioned, who had the unusual appointment as a Roman army surgeon. Her name is neither Roman nor Greek and no more identification of her is available to us. Antioches specialized in disease of the spleen, arthritis, sciatica and the “preservation of beauty,” but we are not given specifics. Galen apparently thought so highly of her that he appropriated her prescriptions for chest pains and gout. Aspasia is commemorated in another voluminous work by a Mesopotamian writer Aetius around 600 CE. His work titled Tetrabiblion meaning four books, describes her work in some detail. She said, to prevent miscarriage, avoid chariot rides, needless worry and violent exercise. She advised simple laxati
ves like rhubarb and lettuce. For unusually narrow birth canals, she said the remedy was hot lotion of olive oil, mallows (a flower), flax seed and the oil from a swallows’ nest applied to the woman’s vulva. For birth control due to health concerns: wool tampons soaked in herbs, pine bark, myrrh, wine.

  On abortion: “On the thirteenth day after a missed period, the patient was to be hauled and pulled and jerked about, was to lift heavy burdens, use high douches of strong herbs, take hot baths, drink a mixture of rue, artemisia, ox gall, electerium and absinthe. (Both rue and absinthe are toxic in large doses.)”83

  For displaced uterus: tampons of tar or bitumen soaked in hot oil. Aspasia had surgical operations for tumor removal, blocked bladders, uterine hemorrhoids, herniated intestines and varicose hernias. Asphasia was an accomplished physician, surgeon and scholar, and thanks to Aetius, knowledge of her work lives on.

  But the question evolves: Why the shift from women-centered healing to male-only-centered healing with laws written to prevent women from participating?

  The answer is both simple and complex. The simple answer is one word: control. These people all lived at a time when the Goddess and a variety of other religions were being practiced by both men and women. And all the new patriarchal societies wanted to be in control. But there is another and the more complex answer: It is a conscious shift from holding women in highest esteem to giving men that place instead. For Greece in particular, it was even more than that.

  Middle East and Biblical scholar, Tikva Frymer-Kensky in her book In the Wake of the Goddesses says that the Greeks had a distinctive complex of ideas and institutions relating to women and sex, paralleled by a social system which, at least in Athens, was very gender-segregated. Greek philosophy portrayed females as inherently and essentially different from men, and fundamentally less valued. The Pythagorean philosophical system divided the world into dualistic category pairs … the Greeks considered females to be inherently so different from males that they spoke of genes gynaikon, a “race of women,” as if a different species.… Women were considered natural and untamed, even animal-like; males represented civilized humanity.84