Minnen, Peter van (Advisor)
Arehart, Brent (Author)
Minnen, Peter van
Cincinnati, University of
Physical Details: 253
Language: English
This dissertation investigates the relationship between sexual intercourse and medicine during the Roman imperial period (c. I-IV CE). Whereas previous scholarship has tended to view that relationship through the lenses of historical progress and/or ethics, I adopt the concept of sexual medicine as an organizational scheme in order to better analyze what ancient medical texts say about the body's sexual functions (such as desire, arousal, and the ability to experience pleasure). Rather than affirming an influential narrative in which imperial medical thinkers developed austere attitudes towards sex, I demonstrate that ethicizing interpretations misportray the relevance of intercourse to medicine during the Roman Empire and unduly narrow the available evidence to dietetic discussions. I argue that the ability to engage in sex was deemed worthy of preservation and therapeutic intervention whenever compromised because sex was considered an integral component of health in Greco-Roman medicine. Moreover, I show that imperial authors devoted considerable attention to sexual diseases, infertility, genital dysfunction, and the use of materia medica to enhance sexual performance. These underexplored topics are dealt with at length in their respective chapters.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La dermatologia e la venereologia nell'età classica
(/isis/citation/CBB716625014/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La dermatologia e la venereologia nel Medioevo
(/isis/citation/CBB558309619/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La sifilide: una storia intrigante
(/isis/citation/CBB036079552/)
Chapter
Roberto Davalli;
Giovanni Lo Scocco;
(2015)
Girolamo Fracastoro
(/isis/citation/CBB516328756/)
Book
Jessieca Leo;
(2011)
Sex in the Yellow Emperor's Basic Questions
(/isis/citation/CBB693561550/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La dermatologia e la venereologia del secolo XVIII
(/isis/citation/CBB177441456/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La dermatologia e la venereologia dal Rinascimento al XVIII secolo
(/isis/citation/CBB383272190/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
La dermatologia e la venereologia dal XIX al XX secolo
(/isis/citation/CBB922945850/)
Chapter
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
Il Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia
(/isis/citation/CBB251878874/)
Book
Carlo Gelmetti;
(2015)
Storia della dermatologia e della venereologia in Italia
(/isis/citation/CBB368948533/)
Article
DeRogatis, Amy;
(2009)
“Born Again Is a Sexual Term”: Demons, STDs, and God's Healing Sperm
(/isis/citation/CBB001030736/)
Article
Tsampiras, Carla;
(2014)
Two Tales about Illness, Ideologies, and Intimate Identities: Sexuality Politics and AIDS in South Africa, 1980--95
(/isis/citation/CBB001422142/)
Chapter
Lorenzo Marri-Malacrida;
Emiliano Panconesi;
(2015)
Vincenzio Chiarugi. Il primo cattedratico di dermatologia
(/isis/citation/CBB666415502/)
Chapter
Sauerteig, Lutz D. H.;
(2001)
“The fatherland is in danger, save the fatherland!”: Venereal disease, sexuality and gender in Imperial and Weimar Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB000102667/)
Book
Marie-Hélène Marganne;
Antonio Ricciardetto;
(2017)
En marge du Serment hippocratique. Contrats et serments dans le monde gréco-romain.
(/isis/citation/CBB468049054/)
Thesis
Shulamit Shinnar;
(2019)
“The Best of Doctors Go to Hell”: Rabbinic Medical Culture in Late Antiquity (200-600 CE)
(/isis/citation/CBB814954528/)
Article
Carton, Benedict;
(2006)
“We Are Made Quiet by This Annihilation”: Historicizing Concepts of Bodily Pollution and Dangerous Sexuality in South Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB001031167/)
Book
Christian Laes;
(2018)
Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World: A Social and Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB374372359/)
Book
Liba Taub;
(2020)
The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Science
(/isis/citation/CBB804529002/)
Chapter
Luca Muscardin;
(2015)
Il primo ospedale dermatologico del mondo: l’Ospedale San Gallicano dall’origine (1725) fino all’inizio del XXI secolo
(/isis/citation/CBB634953076/)
Be the first to comment!