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King, Helen
(2013).
URL: http://eugesta.recherche.univ-lille3.fr/revue/pdf/...
Abstract
The paper investigates the implications, for a ‘one-sex’ model of the body, of the Hippocratic case history in which a woman ceases to menstruate and then grows a beard after her husband leaves. This story challenges a model of sexual difference based solely on the gonads, drawing attention to other visible or audible markers, and to the hierarchical relationships between them. The long history of reception of this story, telling it in a variety of contexts ranging from ‘sex change’ stories to lovesickness to accounts of prolapse, and setting it beside other stories from outside the ancient medical tradition, shows both its flexibility and the importance of having a Hippocratic seal of authority. Two gendered Greek terms in the story, oikouros and epitokos, emphasise Phaethousa’s femininity and demonstrate that, far from being intermediate between two sexes, she remains female throughout her illness.
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About
- Item ORO ID
- 39172
- Item Type
- Journal Item
- ISSN
- 2156-2253
- Project Funding Details
-
Funded Project Name Project ID Funding Body Following Agnodike and Phaethousa: gender and transformation in the reception of ancient medicine AH/I001506/1 AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) - Academic Unit or School
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Arts and Humanities > Classical Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) > Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) - Copyright Holders
- © 2013 Helen King
- Depositing User
- Helen King