Hmw Ancient Women Healers

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Hatshepsut

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Egyptian queen who reigned from 1503 to 1482 BCE. She encouraged women to become physicians and opened three medical schools as well as botanical gardens.

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Mentuhotep

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Egyptian queen found buried with alabaster ointment jars, vessels for tinctures, dried herbs, and spoons for measurement.

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Polydamna

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Egyptian queen an physician. Gave knowledge of the medicinal properties of opium poppy, which is one of the ingredients in the famous sedative nepenthe. Allegedly trained Helen of Troy (2000 BCE).

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Helen of Troy

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2000 BCE. Allegedly trained by Egyptian queen and physician Polydamna. She is thought to have brought herbal knowledge from Egypt to Greece.

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Leto

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Greek goddess of surgery, suggesting women may have been largely responsible for the development of surgical techniques and therapeutics

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Hygiea

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Hygiea, an important goddess in the Greek pantheon and daughter of Asclepias, the legendary father of medicine (circa 900 BCE), is still a part of medicine today. Her statue is found on the fronts of hospitals and her name is invoked daily in our word hygiene, as is her sister’s—Panacea—often mentioned in medicine. Both sisters were invoked for the restoration of good health—the practice of hygiene now considered central to preventive medicine. Hundreds of shrines dedicated to this family were erected in ancient Greece. Each woman in the family of Asclepias had her own staff, much like Asclepias’, with a snake winding around it—a symbol that has persisted for thousands of years as emblematic of healers, and that is still used today as the symbol of Western medicine.

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Pythias

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Wife to Aristotle. Was known to "assist" Aristotle in his work. Together they wrote a text of their observations of the flora and fauna of one of the Greek islands. She was also involved in the study of anatomy and left detailed illustrations of chick and human embryologic studies.

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Artemesia

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Queen of Caria (350 BCE). Praised by Pliny the Elder and Theophrastus for her healing abilities, and is credited by them for introducing wormwood (Artemisia spp.) as a cure for numerous ailments.

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Agnodice

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Ancient Athenian healer. So distressed by women dying due to doctors refusing to treat them, she dressed as a man to attend the medical school at Alexandria. Women flocked to her when they discovered she was a women. When she was arrested women supposedly threatened to withold sex from their husbands and even commit suicide en masse on the step of the court house. She was released and permitted to practice medicine to treat the diseases of women and children, along with any woman who was not a slave.

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Aspasia

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Physician. Her writings were the standard textbook on gynecology until Trotula. Aspasia employed treatments for problems as diverse as difficult labor, retained placenta, uterine tumors, and peritonitis, for which she performed successful surgeries. A fresco at the University of Athens depicts her with Socrates, Plato, and Sophocles.

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Cleopatra

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Physician practicing at the time of Galen (second century CE). Wrote an extrensive gynecology textbook distributed through Greece and Rome. Doctors and midwives studied her work well into the sixteenth century.

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Metrodora

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Wrote the oldest known medical textbook. The original manuscript still survives in Italy.

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Leoporda

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Successful medical practioner in Rome.

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Victoria

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Successful medical practitioner in Rome. Recognized as a knowledgeable and experienced physician in the preface of the book Rerum medicarum.

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Olympias and Octavia

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Wrote books on prescriptions.

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Origenia

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Calebrated woman physician in Rome.

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Margareta

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An army surgeon in Rome.

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Fabiola

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Opened a hospital for the poor in Rome—the first civil hospital ever founded and thought to be one of the best in Europe at the time. It is said that when she died, thousands attended her funeral procession.

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Empress Eudoxia

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420 CE. Founded two medical schools in Syria and Jerusalem.

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Radegonde

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Princess of Burgandy. Studied medicine and opened a hospital for lepers.

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Hilda of Whitley

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An Anglo-Saxon princess who became a physician and in 657 CE built an abbey where she practiced medicine and taught many classical academic subjects.

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Jacoba Felicie

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Tried for practicing medicine without a license in 1322 by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris. A literate woman from an affluent family with unspecified medical training. Successfully treates several patients. Their testimonies were used against her.

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Trotula of Solerno

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Legendary female healer of the middle ages. The most distinguished teacher at the medical college in Solerno, Italy. She wanted to help women with gynecological problems who were too embaressed to se a male doctor. Early advocate of healthy diet, regular exercise, hygiene, reduced stress. The Trotula is the compendium of texts associated with het teachings and was authoritative for centuries. Doesn't pathologize normale female processes and says some conditions should only be evaluated and treated by other women. Aware of the need for antiseptic in surgery. Sensitive to the medico-legal needs of women such as helping a woman appear virgin when she was not.

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Hildagard of Bingen

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Lived between 1098 and 1179 in Germany. Received visions starting at 3 and began a religious education at 8. Developed a unique language to be used in her convent. Prolific author, including Cause et Curae, a comprehensive medical work. Describes diagnosis based on four humoral types. Extensive discourse on gynecology. Used plants, gemstones, incantations, and hydrotherapy. Also wrote Physica, which included 9 books on plants, trees, minerals, animals, including medicinal and "energetic" qualities. Drew upon Greek medical traditions.

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Mrs. Hutton

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Sold the herbal foxglove-based cure of the "uncurable" dropsy to a doctor. She was known for making cures after the more regular practitioners failed. Digitalis is still the drug used for congestive heart failure, base off Mrs. Hutton's original recipe.