“Do you want to know a secret?” Knowledge is power, but who knew what about women's bodies in the ancient world?
Category: menstruation
Constipation in History
Faeces are big news: every few months another story appears pointing to the potential benefits of faecal transplants in a range of bowel conditions. The internet includes DIY advice along with suggestions of banking our own poo so that we can reboot our digestive system from it if anything goes wrong. Examining the patient’s bodily products,… Continue reading Constipation in History
Beans at bedtime? How to dream well
Why did Pythagoras advise against beans at bedtime? and what do dreams mean?
Diana, Callisto and Philip II
Between 1553 and 1562, Titian painted a number of mythological scenes for Philip II. Among these was a painting of Diana and Callisto. In the story, told most famously by the Roman poet Ovid, Callisto is one of the unmarried girls forming the virgin goddess’s entourage. Jupiter catches sight of her, and disguises himself as… Continue reading Diana, Callisto and Philip II
One-sex and two-sex bodies?
Back in 2013, I published a book about the claim that there was a clear division in the history of Western Europe between two models of the body: ‘one-sex’ and ‘two-sex’. In the first model, men and women were seen as having exactly the same genital bits and pieces, but with men’s on the outside… Continue reading One-sex and two-sex bodies?
Mistaking histories 