Professor Helen King: Ancient Greek gynaecology for beginners: wine, women and pongs.
This was a thoroughly entertaining and informative talk on a subject which has only really been seriously studied in recent years. Unfortunately for women in ancient Greece, many of the beliefs about their reproductive system are rather alarming to us and were positively dangerous for them such as the understanding in Hippocratic medicine of the dangers of lack of monthly bleeding and Plato’s idea of the “wandering womb”. Helen’s delivery was humorous and engaging: she led us through the history of ancient medicine from Hippocrates, via Plato, Aristotle, Herophilus, through to Soranus and Galen, with some unusual and interesting images on the way. Apparently women’s bodies were considered to be wet and spongy and therefore accumulated fluid which needed to be regularly disposed of. As well as teaching for the Open University Helen also teaches the
History of Medicine to medical students at Peninsular University and it was surprising to hear how dissection does not now feature in their training (as doctors need to be able to diagnose without cutting someone up!), just as it didn’t in early medicine: identifying disease through feeling the live body seems to have come full circle although clearly the acceptance of dissention in ancient Alexandria enabled a better understanding of anatomy.
Many thanks to Helen for visiting us and giving such an excellent lecture: the women amongst us were left feeling very grateful that we are living in the 21 st century!