On the origins of European gynaecology: the archaeological and literary sources to the development of gynaecology in Greece before 500 BC.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to prove that at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC at the latest an independent gynaecological tradition was formed within the Greek art of healing, from which the later Classical Graeco-Roman medicine drew inspiration. In this paper, the archaeological (especially the terracotta figurines and models and scenes painted on vases) and literary (the economic records and poetry excerpts) sources for the development of gynaecology from the advanced phases of the 2nd millennium until 500 BC are presented. The preserved sources clearly indicate that the Greek medicine reached some positive achievements already before 500 BC. Already in that period it put emphasis on the gynaecological issues. The described sources well illustrate also the development of the religious and mythological ideas related to the gynaecological, or the gynaecological-obstetrical aspect of healing, represented by Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, which was worshiped in the Greek world already since the Bronze Age. The Ancient Greek medicine has got the important place in the history of the European and world medical science. In the frame of medicine of the period in question, it is possible to trace back to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC the specific healing-gynaecological tradition, with an emphasis on the obstetrics. In this tradition, a combination of rational, empirical and religious aspects was used. The terracotta models from the 9th-8th centuries BC point on the widely used practice of midwifery, too. Unfortunately, it is not possible to clearly discern if the midwifes existed already before 500 BC as a specific and independent medical occupation.