Date of production: c. 2nd century
Types of works
Text
Genres
Literature > Didactic or educational literature > Treatise
Socio-cultural movements
Antiquity > Roman culture > Empire
On women's diseases. Metrodora (selección y traducción de Lourdes Muñoz Montagud)
PDF of the Metrodora text (compilation ff. 4v-33v de Lourdes Muñoz Montagud)
- In the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence is preserved a 12th century manuscript, the Codex Plut. 75. 3, written in Greek, which contains a miscellany of texts on medical subjects, mostly by unknown authors; among them is a Greek text written by Metrodora and entitled On the Diseases of Women (ff. 4v-33v), consisting of 63 chapters.
Charles Daremberg was the first to emphasise the importance of Metrodora's work in ancient gynaecology in 1851, placing it alongside that of Soranus and Moschion. Metrodora's approach is heavily influenced by the work of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic corpus.
Metrodora's work focuses mainly on the uterus, but also contains a section on remedies for stomach upset and other problems such as diseases of the humors and malarial fevers. It also gives much importance to cosmetics, perfumes and aphrodisiacs. Metrodora was - like all the empirical women of the time - an “ornatrix”. They were not only dedicated to and wrote about midwifery and gynecology, but were also interested in other needs of the sexual sphere of women, in addition to their beautification.
Metrodora's work was transcribed for the first time in 1945 by Kousis, who divided it into 145 chapters. Subsequently, Del Guerra consulted the codex and, in 1953, published an edition of the text and, based on the topics and subheadings marked with a capital letter, divided it into 137 chapters, the outline of which would be as follows: 1 - 35: pathology, symptomatology and gynecological prescription; 36 - 51: pathology and aesthetics of the breast; 52 - 58: cosmetics and perfumery; 59 - 69: antidotaries; 70 - 83: miscellaneous prescriptions; 84 - 87: aphrodisiacs; 88 - 93: miscellaneous prescriptions; 94-102: gastric receptacle (poultices); 103-106：recipe for diseases of the humors; 107-125：gastric prescription for diseases of the humors; 126-131：prescription for malarial fevers; 132-137: rosy honeys and miscellaneous prescriptions. For this author, Metrodora is not a simple “empiricist” who accepts a fact that is communicated to her or that she accidentally observes, but who, on the basis of empirical data concerning, for example, the use of a medicine, tests the substance and tests it again, so that she can state in her work “by experience,” that is, having tested it myself or having corrected the formula in a certain sense. This way of proceeding places her at the beginning of the reasoning that will lead to the experimental method.
Marie-Hélène Congourdeau translated it into French from Kouzis' edition in 1993, but divided it into 148 chapters. She considers that only the initial chapters on gynaecology should be attributed to Metrodora. According to Gemma Storti, the Greek text of Metrodora can be divided into three parts. Chapters 1-31 deal with uterine diseases and obstetrics, and are written by an author called (or calling herself) ‘Metrodora’. Although they do not seem to show any close textual relationship to other medical works, nevertheless, due to their homogeneous character, they can be considered as a unitary group of prescriptions. Chapters 32-95 are a miscellany of various other authors and in them Metrodora adopts the principles of faithful reproduction or quotation with variants. Chapters 96-137 are extracts from Alexander of Tralles, and in some of them the recipes are quoted almost verbatim, but in others the recipes have been copied in abridged form.
We have dated the work to the 2nd century, as has the character, but the proposed dates range from the 1st to the 6th century. Deichgräber hypothesises that he was active in late Hellenism; Irene Calà and Giulia Maria Chesi, on the basis of the language and sources cited in their work, date it to the Imperial period and place it in Alexandria, and Kousis and De Guerra postpone it to the 6th century, based on a supposed quotation from Alexander of Tralles, a physician active in the 5th century.
- Prehistoric women foragers discovered and applied the healing properties of plants. In Egypt, women physicians and surgeons existed before 3000 BC, and by 1500 BC the schools of Sais and Heliopolis were open to women such as Sephora and Queen Hatsepshut. In Mesopotamia, female healers were very important, and in Greek cities there were female physicians and surgeons, but their role was gradually restricted to that of midwives. Folk medicine was also prominent and one of the first herbalists was Artemisia II of Caria. In Athens, in the 4th century BC, women were prevented from practising medicine, being accused of performing abortions. It was in this context that the figure of Agnodice appeared. In Rome, there were many prominent women physicians who also wrote treatises, such as Elephantis, Lais, Olympias the Theban, Antiochis and Metrodora. Among the women who wrote on gynaecology and obstetrics, the texts of Cleopatra and Aspasia stand out, which were the most important until the work of Trotula in the 11th century.
Trotula of Salerno, author of De passionibus mulierum curandorum (On the cure of women's ailments), known as Trotula Maior, and De curis mulierum (On the care of women), the Trotula Minor, was the main figure of the Salerno school, but in the group of Mulieres Salernitanae, some, in addition to practising medicine, gave lectures and wrote treatises. Such is the case, in the 14th century, of Rebecca Guarna, who wrote De urinis (On urine), De febrius (On fever) and De embrione (On the embryo); Abella of Castellomata, author of De atrabile (On black bile) and De natura seminis humani (On the nature of seminal fluid) and Mercuriade, author of De febre pestilenti (On pestilent fever), De curatio (On the healing of wounds) and De unguentis (On ointments). Also in the 15th century, highlight Constanza Calenda, an Italian surgeon specialising in eye diseases, whose work has not survived.
In the 12th century, the polymath Hildegard of Bingen wrote her work on medicine entitled Liber subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum (Book on the natural properties of created things).
Going back to the Greco-Latin world, Samithra, Xanite and Favilla, to cite just a few examples, are the authors of pharmacological prescriptions.
The work can be used in:
- CUC, Latin 4 ESO and Latin Baccalaureate, when referring to medicine in Rome or dealing with the situation of women in Antiquity.
- History, when Rome is studied.
- Ethical Values and Mentoring, as one of the many references, throughout history, of scientific work of female authorship, which can break gender stereotypes.
- Biology, for its subject matter: body organs and substances of plant, animal or mineral origin.
- Medicine, for its value as a historical precedent in the description of diseases and treatments.
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