Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The Wandering Womb image Ancient Greece (Physicians Opinions :fountain_pen…
The Wandering Womb
Ancient Greece
Treatments &
Cures
Magical &
Religious
Rituals
Purification ritual -
healer smears patient
smeared with blood,
washes blood off,
throws soiled cleansing
cloths into sea or leave
in mountains.
Banging of brass to chase away demons and mean diety.
(Faraone, 2011)
Amulets
Exorcisms
Demon attacks believed to be
cause of
spasmotic diseases.
(Faraone, 2011)
Chants/
Incantations
Fumigation
Used for exorcisms,
treating female
madness and
seizures.
(Faraone, 2011)
Medical
Physical
Hippocrates recomended:
Baths
Uterine Infusion
Malipulation
Abdominal Binding
(Faraone, 2011)
Guide Womb
Back in Place
Lures:
Pleasant odors
Sweet smelling
ointments
(Faraone, 2011)
Repelants:
Fumigations/
Foul Odors:
Burnt Hair
Burnt Wool
Cedar Resin
Charred Deer Horn
Squashed Bed Bugs
(Faraone, 2011)
Other Remedies:
Blow Air into Vagina
Loud Noises
Marriage
Pregnancy
Prevention of
Wandering Womb:
Marry Young
Frequent Intercourse
Bear Many Children to Keep
Womb Heavy and Moist
(Faraone, 2011)
Ailments Caused by
Wandering Womb:
Spasmodic Disease/Seizure
Chattering Teeth
Choking
Dizziness
Fever
Flatulence
Headache
Heart Palpitations
Hysteria
Pain - Various Locations
Respiratory Problems
Sweating
Swollen Limbs
Uterine Prolapse
Voice Loss
Vomiting
(Faraone, 2011)
(Merskey & Merskey, 1992)
Also Known As:
Hysteria
Uterine Suffocation
Hysterical Suffocation
Suffocation of the Mother
Hysterical Convulsion
(Faraone, 2011)
(Merskey & Merskey, 1992)
Folk Beliefs
Womb Moves
Around in
Body
Womb is
Living Animal
Believed by many physicians
See Medical
Treatments
& Cures
Womb is
Demon
Religious Belief
See Religious
Treatments
& Cures
Womb believed to be like a dangerous demon or animal that "bites, stings, or poisons internal organs."
(Faraone, 2011)
Physicians Opinions
:fountain_pen:
Soranus of Ephesus 2nd Century CE
Ligaments held uterus in place but allowed for movement - discoverd via animal dissection.
(Faraone, 2011)
Galen 130-210 CE
Womb shifts closer
to other organs when
it becomes dry but does not move freely as it is tethered by ligaments.
(Faraone, 2011)
Hippocrates 460-370 BCE
Focused on symptoms,
causes, and treaments
for wandering womb.
(Faraone, 2011)
Aretaeus of Cappadocia
c. 1st Century CE
Referred to wandering
womb as an "animal
within an animal."
(Merskey & Merskey, 1992)
Plato 428-347 BCE
Womb is a living animal.
(Faraone, 2011)
Aristotle 384-322 BCE
Follwed Plato's belief.
(Faraone, 2011)
Herophilus of Chalcedon 330-260 BCE
& Erasistratus of Ceos 325-250 BCE
Bebunked wandering womb
myth with rare Greek period of
human cadaver dissections. Belief
continued for many more centuries despite these anatomical discoveries.
[Note - human dissections were socially and religiously taboo in Greece].
(Von Staden,1992)
Classical Period 510-323 BCE
Wandering Womb believed to be caused by:
Anger of Goddesses Artemis or Hera
Mechanical problem - such as retention of mensus
Demonic attack
(Faraone, 2011)
