Observation féminine et idéologie masculine : le corps de la femme d'après les médecins grecs

Résumé En

The women of Greece whose learning is related in the Cnidian treatises that form part of the Hippocratic Collection had observed the principal symptoms of infections of the female genital tracts Fear of these infections and of sterility seem to have been stronger than the desire for contraception They examined themselves looked for symptoms and had some effective means of treatment They supposed that in orgasm they emitted sperm which played vital part in procreation Aristotle disagreed denying both the necessity of female orgasm and the role of the sperm in conception Soranos in 1st century AD Rome adapted this knowledge of the female body to the requirements of an aristocratic Malthusian society which the Augustan laws constrained to marriage and procreation Progress in gynaecology better maternal and neo-natal care were the fruit of these legal and social conditions In world in which the question of the superiority of virginity was held to be of vital importance medicine offered form of sexual hygiene Galen in the 2nd century AD drew attention to the relation between troubles affecting single women and the absence of sexual relations thereby acknowledging the strength of female desire