Lesley Dean-Jones

Bio: Lesley Dean-Jones is an academic researcher from University of Texas at Austin. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ancient Greek & Wandering womb. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 16 publications receiving 350 citations.

Women's bodies in classical Greek science

Abstract: Introduction Female anatomy and physiology Female pathology The female's role in reproduction Conclusion Bibliography Index.

Clinical Gynecology and Aristotle’s Biology: The Composition of HA X

Abstract: Although Aristotle was an avid researcher into the processes of sexual reproduction, many of his statements show that he had limited access to the bodies of women. For example, he failed to note that in women, unlike other female mammals, the urethra and vagina have separate orifices on the exterior of the body, and he believed that menstrual bleeding was akin to estrus and took place at the same time of the month in all women. It might seem that Aristotle simply did not avail himself of the knowledge available from physicians who attended women. However, the gathering of endoxa (professional opinions and empirical observations) before proceeding with his own theorizing on any subject was central to Aristotle’s methodology and it would be inconceivable that he would have failed to do this on the topic of women too. In the present paper, I wish to argue that the Aristotelian corpus, as it has been transmitted to us, contains in the first five chapters of Historia Animalium X (HA X) a treatise, On Failure to Reproduce (OFR), authored by a doctor, whom I shall call Ps-Aristotle, which formed part of Aristotle’s endoxa when developing his reproductive theories. I will argue that the final two chapters have been added as comments on OFR either by Aristotle himself or a later Peripatetic, and that it is the presence of these two chapters that has led to the work being

The Politics of Pleasure: Female Sexual Appetite in the Hippocratic Corpus

Abstract: Foucault was mistaken to view the ancient Greek expectation of female sexual behavior along the lines he developed for their expectation of male sexual behavior. To the Greek mind one of the main dangers to a man's health was too much sexual activity. For women the threat tended to lie in too little intercourse, which could cause her womb to dry out and wander to more moist parts of her anatomy. On the surface this theory looks like a completely male-derived strategy to ensure that women acceded to intercourse even if they felt no desire for it. However, in the context of ancient Greece, where it was acceptable for a married man to have several different sexual outlets, it could also serve to allow a wife to insist on sexual attention from her husband without herself appearing lascivious.

The Cultural Construct of the Female Body in Classical Greek Science

Abstract: Ancient Greek scientists, notably the Hippocratics and Aristotle, were unconsciously influenced in their interpretation of typical male and female characteristics by the ancient Greek cultural paradigm of masculinity and femininity. By "demonstrating" that these paradigms were grounded in nature, science served to propagate rather than to challenge the cultural ideal of male and female. This is true even though the Hippocratics and Aristotle developed very different theories, with the Hippocratics favoring a "two sex" and Aristotle a "one sex" model.

Menstrual Bleeding According to the Hippocratics and Aristotle

Abstract: Ancient Greek theories of menstruation all assumed a heavier, more frequent and thicker flow of blood than we consider the norm today. This is doubly surprising given that modern medicine would expect a lighter and sparser flow in a female population that was undernourished by today's standards. These theories were not simply the result of a lack of interest or observation on the part of ancient scientists. They stemmed from cultural assumptions about the female body which led to the misinterpretation of observations and information gained from women themselves.

A companion to women in the ancient world

Abstract: A Companion to Women in the Ancient World is the first interdisciplinary, methodologically based collection of readings to address the study of women in the ancient world while weaving textual, visual, and archaeological evidence into its approach. Prominent scholars tackle the myriad problems inherent in the interpretation of the evidence, and consider the biases and interpretive categories inherited from centuries of scholarship. Essays and case studies cover an unprecedented breadth of chronological and geographical range, genres, and themes.

Hippocratic Recipes: Oral and Written Transmission of Pharmacological Knowledge in Fifth- And Fourth-Century Greece

Abstract: This thesis examines the earliest extended collections of recipes preserved in Greek, the recipes of the so-called Hippocratic Corpus (late fifth or early century BC). I study the ways and formats in which pharmacological knowledge was transmitted in classical Greece. The compilers of the Hippocratic collections of recipes drew on a variety of sources, written and oral, including small catalogues of recipes comparable to those found on papyri from Hellenistic Egypt. Much pharmacological knowledge may have been transmitted orally from generation to generation before assuming written form in medical treatises. But following the social anthropologist Jack Goody, I distinguish between the medical knowledge the recipes reflect and the written form in which they have been transmitted. I also assess the socio-economic context in which the recipes were produced and used. Some Hippocratic recipes fall into a tradition of home remedies, but many other recipes include exotic and luxury ingredients affordable only to the rich. These luxury ingredients transformed traditional medicine into 'Haute Medecine. The compilers of Hippocratic collections of recipes were biased in their choices of ingredients, and this bias was in line with the orientalizing tendencies discernible in ancient Greek culture. The intended readers of the catalogues of recipes were not pharmacological novices. Knowledge of the ingredients is a prerequisite to the reading of these recipes, quantities are often left to the discretion of the reader, and utensils involved in the preparation of the remedies are rarely mentioned. Finally, I examine the significance of the name 'Hippocrates' for the transmission of the 'Hippocratic' recipes in later antiquity. As 'Hippocratic', they were glossed and quoted in the works of later medical authors. However, their success was not always linked to the name 'Hippocrates' late antique Latin translations of the gynaecological recipes were transmitted anonymously.

The invention of infertility in the classical Greek world: medicine, divinity, and gender.

Abstract: The article examines the understandings of, and responses to, reproductive failure in the classical Greek world. It discusses explanations and treatments for non-procreation in a range of ancient Greek medical texts, focusing on the writings of the Hippocratic Corpus, which devote considerable energy to matters of fertility and generation, and places them alongside the availability of a divine approach to dealing with reproductive disruption, the possibility of asking various deities, including the specialist healing god Asclepius, for assistance in having children. Though the relations between these options are complex, they combine to produce a rich remedial array for those struggling with childlessness, the possibility that any impediment to procreation can be removed. Classical Greece, rather than the nineteenth century, or even 1978, is thus the time when “infertility,” understood as an essentially reversible somatic state, was invented.