Nursing Mothers in Greek and Roman Medicine

Bibliographic Data

ID4542845
AuthorsJulie Laskaris (corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume112
Issue3
Pages459-464
Publication date2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.3764/aja.112.3.459
OpenAlexW2334397673
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited4

Greek and Roman pharmacopias included a heavily symbolic and highly effective substance: human milk. In early Greek sources, human milk, sometimes specifically from "a woman who has borne a male child," is recommended almost exclusively in treating women. The Greek use was adapted from an Egyptian ritual calling for the "milk of one who has borne a male child" to be poured from an anthropomorphic vase of Isis nursing Horus; the Egyptian application was not, however, gender specific. Similar vases were found in Greece in Geometric/Orientalizing contexts. These factors, together with evidence for Isis worship in Greece, suggest Greek knowledge of Egyptian ritual. Human milk therapies also appear in medical works arising in the Roman context, where they are not gender specific. Owing to Etruscan influence, Roman society was less polarized sexually than Greek, and it was more accepting of the female body. The Etruscans' and Romans' rich tradition of depicting nursing mothers sharply contrasts with Greek charines about the female breast. Thus, we see that medical ideas and practices, as they were transmitted cross-culturally, were affected variously by each culture's concepts of sexual gender

Ancient Greece · Ancient Greek · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology) · Political science · Traditional medicine · Worship · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · Families in Therapy and Culture · History · Law · Medicine

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