Why did Greek society foster social conditions, especially early
marriage with its attendant early childbearing, that were known to
be dangerous for both mother and child? What were the actual causes
of death among women described as dying of childbirth in the
Hippocratic Epidemics? Why did families choose to portray labor
scenes on tombstones when the Greek commemorative tradition
otherwise avoided reference to suffering and illness? In Birth,
Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece, Nancy Demand offers the
first comprehensive exploration of the social and cultural
construction of childbirth in ancient Greece.
Reading the ancient evidence in light of feminist theory, the
Foucauldian notion of discursively constituted objects, medical
anthropology, and anthropological studies of the modern Greek
village, Demand discusses topics that include midwifery, abortion,
attitudes of doctors toward women patients, and the treatment of
women generally. For evidence, she relies primarily on the case
histories in the Epidemics concerning women with complications in
pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth. She also draws relevant
details from cure records and dedications from healing sanctuaries,
labor scenes depicted on tombstones, Aristophanic comedy,
andPlatonic philosophy.
"This book is an important contribution to the scholarship on
the lives of ancient Greek women, ancient medicine, and the social
construction of gender among the Athenians. Nancy Demand has
constructed a richer, more nuanced, and very likely far more
accurate picture of childbirth and its attendant dangers than we
have had to date. Her collection of translations of the Hippocratic
texts on childbirth and related issueswill be of great value for
future investigators." -- Valerie French, American University.
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