What was pregnancy like in Ancient Greece? What strange theories did
the Greeks have about female bodies? Who attended births, and who got to be the
expert on matters of labour and delivery? Welcome back to Nutty History! Today,
we’re looking way back at weird facts about pregnancy in Ancient Greece.
In the Classical Period of Greek history, the purpose of marriage was considered to be
procreation, particularly the production of male children. In fact, for Athenian wives,
offspring was even considered a right, and it was written into law that a man must consort
with his wife three times a month if she was an heiress. Because male offspring were considered
essential to inheritance, and to the protection of the city-state, fertility was a high priority
for the Greeks. It was believed that infertility could be an issue with either the man or the woman
involved. That being said, most of the medical remedies seemed to be focused on aiding the
fertility of women. These remedies might include various kinds of probes, including lead probes
inserted into the female reproductive organ, or, if your doctor is feeling more compassionate,
bathing or changes to diet. Fertility relied on the cervix being in the right place at the right
time. A closed, hardened, or misaligned cervix could be moistened or realigned with probes. The
woman was told she should also drink a helpful concoction of pine twigs boiled in wine, and
then eat boiled octopus and puppy. After all that, she should certainly be in the mood to try again!
If that doesn’t work, however, the next step might be to expand the womb. This can be done
through inflating it and filling it with, say, the flesh of a cucumber or gourd to moisten the womb.
The woman should then eat lots of garlic and anything that might make her gassy. After that,
she should be in the mood to try again! But trying again comes with requirements of the man,
too. He should be completely sober and also have a cold bath first. Now, sober and shivering, it’s
time for him and his garlicy, gassy, puppy-eating, gourdy lover to let their feelings take over.
While most treatments were focused on women, there were also medical beliefs concerning a man’s role
in conception. For instance, Greeks believed that by tying either of his jewels before conception,
husbands could control the gender of their next child. Also having intercourse during the wife’s
menstruation time helped to procreate a daughter. That is quite ironic because conception was pretty
much inconceivable during that time of the month. There isn’t much to suggest that infertility was
considered to be a divine curse, as might be found in other cultures, and physicians worked earnestly
to find treatments. Because humans didn’t start dissecting bodies until the Hellenistic Period,
the Greeks didn’t have much knowledge about anatomy. Male doctors didn’t attend births,
and had little knowledge about the process of childbirth. Therefore, the writers of Hippocratic
Medical texts relied on the accounts of women and their midwives. The Greeks thought women had
spongy and porous bodies, while male bodies were porous in only the necessary places, like glands,
and were, overall, harder. Aristotle believed that women’s bodies take in moisture and convert it
to blood, and then shed the excess blood through menstruation. When a woman became pregnant, that
blood would then be used to grow and nourish the fetus. Women’s bodies were also thought to be cold
and wet, as well as soft, from spending a lot of their time inactive indoors. Either that,
or the doctors were getting women mixed up with sea sponges again. Men, on the other hand,
were pure, dry heat, and because of this heat, they were able to produce male emission, while
women’s cold bodies were only capable of producing menstrual fluid. According to Aristotle, sperm was
more valuable than menstrual fluid, because it passes the male form to the next generation.
It was because of this that he believed women were inferior to men. The conviction that women were
essentially chilled clams was totally unrelated to their inferiority. Also, in some Greek literature,
it was said that Apollo argued that the mother’s body was merely a vessel which nurtures and grows
the genetic material of the father. He cites the example of Athena, who was born from the head
of her father, which is an example that somehow negates the way every single earthly human that
ever existed came into the world. Pregnancy was considered important for the health of women,
as Ancient Greeks believed that women’s wombs were susceptible to becoming dry, and wandering
around their body to attach themselves to moister organs. They considered the womb to be “an animal
within an animal”, almost having a mind of its own. If the womb began to wander, it could cause
all sorts of medical and psychological problems, like the prevention of respiration
and extreme helplessness. The cure for a wandering womb was to keep the womb moist and happy with
frequent intercourse, preferably resulting in pregnancy. A pregnant womb was a happy womb!
Ancient Greeks were unaware of the fact that the womb is a muscle, and not just an internal flower
pot with a mind of its own, wandering around the body like a botanical roomba. Therefore,
they thought that labour began when the fetus tore the membranes with movement. If labour
was taking too long, or not progressing, it was thought that the cause was either breech birth,
multiple birth, or stillbirth. Their response to this was to prescribe vigorous shaking,
which today would be considered a very strange practice, especially since back then it was also
a method of terminating pregnancy. During labour, women were assisted by midwives,
who made them comfortable by using strong smelling substances and warm cloths applied to the abdomen.
They would coach women on how to breathe in controlled patterns, in a method not much
different from some of the breathing techniques used today. Women would deliver their babies on
a birthing chair or a hard bed. After the baby was born, everyone would cross their fingers and wait
until the midwives signaled the gender of the baby, hoping for the sweet, sweet news of a male
child. The midwives would then assess whether the baby was strong enough to survive by putting the
baby on the ground. After a while, she would decide when to cut the cord, swaddle the baby,
and put it to bed. Women often died in childbirth due to hemorrhage, exhaustion, and
pregnancy-related diseases, making childbirth a very dangerous thing. The average life expectancy
of women in Ancient Greece was only 35 years old, due in large part to maternal mortality.
Religion was tied up in medicine, and you definitely wanted some of the gods on your
side if you were hoping to have children. But how do you inspire benevolence from the divine?
What do you give the god who has everything? A little statuette dedicated in their name,
obviously. You should leave it in a temple or sanctuary. But there were also other ways
to let divine favour into your life. For instance, if a couple was having trouble conceiving,
they could try consulting Apollo’s oracle to seek advice. The oracle’s totally got nothing
better to do. A fertility festival could also help, even though it sounds like a euphemism
for a deviant bacchanal. Technically, either of those things might be helpful. The agricultural
goddess Demeter was a common focus of fertility festivals. Similarly, blessings from Zeus,
Aphrodite, Artemis, and other minor gods were sought for various pregnancy related issues.
This whole system of god-worship might have actually been beneficial to midwives.
After all, if something goes wrong, it’s useful to be able to say it’s the will of the gods and not
the fault of your healthcare provider who’s just doing the best she can with the tech she’s got..
Ancient Greece was a very different world than our own, and even today,
childbirth poses risks. Still, with their often strange understanding of medicine and anatomy,
a trust in women to understand their own bodies, and an offering to the gods,
they found a way. What fact about pregnancy in Ancient Greece surprised you most? Let us know
in the comments. We hope you enjoyed this video, and we’ll see you next time on Nutty History!