Browsing all posts in "women".

Wanton Whores? Who Says?

Since time immemorial, it seems, women have been viewed as voracious sexual predators. It was taken as a given, since at least the time of Aristotle (who is said to have originated the idea but was probably just writing down the accepted wisdom of the time). Through Aristotle, it became known to the medieval Christian [...]

Is that Queen Victoria on your Medicine Bottle?

The 1880s were a great time to make a fortune in snake oil. The “patent medicine” business really took off at the end of the 19th century. Let’s face it–conventional medicine had not a whole lot to offer. Bleeding, mercurials, radical surgeries… Can you blame folks for checking out the competition? This is the age [...]

The Great Obstetrician of Antiquity

Soranus, the Great Obstetrician of Antiquity, lived and worked in Roman territory in the second century CE. [Yes, his name is terribly unfortunate. Yet, let us remember that he and his contemporaries would have spoken Latin and Greek. So it may have been a very pleasing name. Let us hope so, for his patients' sakes.] [...]

Patria Potestas

Rome viewed women as property. The infamous “Patria potestas” gave Roman men the right of life and death over their wives (and children, and slaves). Women could not enter contracts, own property, or even travel alone. The only exception were the infamous Vestal Virgins, to whom the rules did not apply (they were even, apparently, [...]

Whips and Tomb Paintings

Before we move on to the glory that was Rome, we must take a moment to bewail failed chances and missed opportunities at Rome’s parent civilization. Hundreds of years before Rome, another people ruled the Italic peninsula. They rivaled Greece for control of the Mediterranean. Known throughout the classical world for their engineering skills, they [...]

The Whore of Babylon (NefHxMotherhood)

We now move to two concurrent societies with vastly different views of women, sex, and politics: Babylon (Assyria), and the ancient Hebrews. Babylonian views of women tended to revolve around their myths (again), and their predominant female deity was Ishtar. She is on the Isis/Inana/Astarte spectrum, being a goddess of love, fertility, and war. A [...]