DSB 9.337–340, G.J. Toomer; B. Goldstein and A.C. Bowen, “Meton of Athens and Astronomy in the
Late Fifth Century B.C.,” in Leichty et al. (1988) 40–81; R. Hannah, “Euctemon’s Parape ̄gma,” in
C.J. Tuplin and T.E. Rihll, Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture (2002) 76–132.
Henry Mendell
Me ̄trodo ̄ra (50 – 400 CE?)
Preserved in a single MS (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Pluteus 75.3, 4V– 19 R). Dating is
difficult, since Me ̄trodo ̄ra mentions no names, apart from a cosmetic used by “Berenike ̄
called Kleopatra” (a confused reference, possibly an interpolation). Use of the vaginal
speculum argues for a date beginning ca 1st c. CE, and the text cites neither S nor
encyclopedias, and displays no Galenism, which places it probably before the fifth.
The title, From the Works of Me ̄trodo ̄ra, indicates a selection from a corpus of at least two
books. The preserved text, entitled “Concerning the Feminine Diseases of the Womb,”
contains 63 chapters in seven well-organized sections. 1: Introduction; 2–19: General con-
ditions of the womb (inflammation, suppuration, hardness, cancer, discharges, hemor-
rhages, prolapses, coldness, and inflation); 20–25: Diseases caused by excessive moisture
(dropsy, cleansing of ulcers, recipes to restore the appearance of virginity); 26–28: Con-
ception and contraception (fertility, female and male children, cures for sterility, three
recipes for contraception); 29–32: Childbirth; 33–39: Sexual recipes (tests for virginity,
aphrodisiacs), 40–55: Diseases of the breasts; 56–63: Cosmetics and general preparations.
(Four sets of mainly pharmaceutical extracts following in the MS are probably not Me ̄tro-
do ̄ra’s). The earlier chapters are fuller and the text may have been abbreviated at some
point. There is no mention of obstetrics; the work was not confined to midwifery, but
focuses on pathology.
Me ̄trodo ̄ra is an interesting figure in the history of medicine for reasons independent of
gender. More than an anthologist like O or an encyclopedist like A
A, she does not depend on the growing secondary literature of the handbooks but
reaches directly back to H, quoting, paraphrasing, synthesizing, and gathering
symptoms missed by others.
Me ̄trodo ̄ra takes sides in several medical controversies over symptomatology and etiology
(e.g., inflammation of the womb). She formulates an individual classification of various
vaginal discharges, a hotly debated topic. She makes several seemingly original contribu-
tions to theory and etiology (e.g., linking certain vaginal discharges to irritation of the
adjoining rectum produced by intestinal worms). Some of her compounds became part of
the ancient medical common stock, but the vast majority appear only in her work. In
clinical practice Me ̄trodo ̄ra employs both digital examination and the vaginal speculum,
providing a unique and detailed description of pathology based on its use. These are indica-
tions of individual scholarship of a high level, backed by experience.
A Latin translation was made in late antiquity ( probably 5th/6th c.), and portions of
the material circulated under the names of K, T P, and in
other early medieval sources, notably the Liber de causis feminarum (ed. Egert 1936). Through
these the material passed to Caspar Wolf’s Harmonia Gynaeciorum (1566), the first Renaissance
encyclopedia of gynecology.
Ed.: A.P. Kousis [Kuzes], “Metrodora’s work ‘On the feminine diseases of the womb’ according to the
Greek codex 75, 3 of the Laurentian Library,” Praktika te ̄s Akademias Atheno ̄n (1945 [1949]) 20, 46–68:
editio princeps and unreliable; G. Del Guerra, Il Libro di Metrodora (1953), repr. with Italian trans.:
ME ̄TRODO ̄RA