On Diseases of Virgins is a brief medical treatise from the Hippocratic Corpus, the collection of ancient Greek medical works associated with the name of Hippocrates. Composed in Ionic Greek during the classical period, it addresses health conditions specific to unmarried adolescent women who have reached menarche. The text advances a theory grounded in humoral physiology, positing that the absence of sexual intercourse following a girl's first menstruation leads to an accumulation of blood within the body. This excess blood was believed to rise toward the heart and diaphragm, generating a cluster of severe symptoms. These could include visual disturbances, terrifying hallucinations, a sensation of suffocation or a heavy weight pressing on the chest, and in extreme cases, suicidal impulses. The treatise explicitly prescribes marriage and sexual intercourse as the necessary therapeutic intervention to provide a physiological outlet for the retained blood and thus resolve the condition. Modern scholarship regards the work as a significant artifact of ancient thought, demonstrating the profound integration of contemporary social norms regarding female sexuality into medical etiology and practice. The treatise survives only in a fragmentary state, known from two passages preserved not as an independent text but embedded within a larger compilation in a single medieval manuscript. Despite its incomplete transmission, its conceptualization of a pathological state linked to virginity exemplifies the enduring influence of classical humoral theory on historical understandings of the female body.
| Ἀρχή μοι τῆς ξυνθέσιος τῶν αἰειγενέων ἰητρικῆς· οὐ γὰρ δυνατὸν τῶν νουσημάτων τὴν φύσιν γνῶναι, ὅ πέρ ἐστι τῆς τέχνης ἐξευρεῖν, ἢν μὴ γνῷ τὴν ἐν τῷ ἀμερεῖ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν, ἐξ ἧς διεκρίθη. | |
| 1 | Πρῶτον περὶ τῆς ἱερῆς νούσου καλεομένης, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀποπλήκτων, καὶ περὶ τῶν δειμάτων, ὁκόσα φοβεῦνται οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἰσχυρῶς, ὥστε παραφρονέειν καὶ ὁρῇν δοκέειν δαίμονάς τινας ἐφ’ ἑωυτῶν δυσμενέας, ὁκότε μὲν νυκτὸς, ὁκότε δὲ ἡμέρης, ὁκότε δὲ ἀμφοτέρῃσι τῇσιν ὥρῃσιν· ἔπειτα ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης ὄψιος πολλοὶ ἤδη ἀπηγχονίσθησαν, πλέονες δὲ γυναῖκες ἢ ἄνδρες· ἀθυμοτέρη γὰρ καὶ ὀλιγωτέρη ἡ φύσις ἡ γυναικείη. Αἱ δὲ παρθένοι, ὁκόσῃσιν ὥρη γάμου, παρανδρούμεναι, τοῦτο μᾶλλον πάσχουσιν ἅμα τῇ καθόδῳ τῶν ἐπιμηνίων, πρότερον οὐ μάλα ταῦτα κακοπαθέουσαι· ὕστερον γὰρ τὸ αἷμα ξυλλείβεται ἐς τὰς μήτρας, ὡς ἀποῤῥευσόμενον· ὁκόταν οὖν τὸ στόμα τῆς ἐξόδου μὴ ᾖ ἀνεστομωμένον, τὸ δὲ αἷμα πλέον ἐπιῤῥέῃ διά τε τὰ σιτία καὶ τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος, τηνικαῦτα οὐκ ἔχον τὸ αἷμα ἔκρουν ἀναΐσσει ὑπὸ πλήθεος ἐς τὴν καρδίην καὶ ἐς τὴν διάφραξιν· ὁκόταν οὖν ταῦτα πληρωθέωσιν, ἐμωρώθη ἡ καρδίη· εἶτα ἐκ τῆς μωρώσιος νάρκη· εἶτ’ ἐκ τῆς νάρκης παράνοια ἔλαβεν. Ὥσπερ ὁκόταν καθημένου πουλὺν χρόνον τὸ ἐκ τῶν ἰσχίων καὶ μηρῶν αἷμα ἀποπιεχθὲν ἐς τὰς κνήμας καὶ τοὺς πόδας νάρκην παράσχῃ· ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς νάρκης ἀκρατέες οἱ πόδες ἐς ὁδοιπορίην γίνονται, ἔστ’ ἂν ἀναχωρήσῃ τὸ αἷμα ἐς ἑωυτό· ἀναχωρέει δὲ τάχιστα, ὁκόταν ἀναστὰς ἐν ὕδατι ψυχρῷ τέγγῃ τὸ ἄνω τῶν σφυρῶν. Αὕτη μὲν οὖν ἡ νάρκη εὐήνιος, ταχὺ γὰρ παλιῤῥοεῖ διὰ τὴν ἰθύτητα τῶν φλεβῶν, καὶ ὁ τόπος τοῦ σώματος οὐκ ἐπίκαιρος· ἐκ δὲ τῆς καρδίης καὶ τῶν φρενῶν βραδέως παλιῤῥοεῖ· ἐπικάρσιαι γὰρ αἱ φλέβες καὶ ὁ τόπος ἐπίκαιρος ἔς τε παραφροσύνην καὶ μανίην ἕτοιμος. Ὁκόταν δὲ πληρωθέωσι ταῦτα τὰ μέρεα, καὶ φρίκη ξὺν πυρετῷ ἀναΐσσει· πλανήτας τοὺς πυρετοὺς καλέουσιν. Ἐχόντων δὲ τουτέων ὧδε, ὑπὸ μὲν τῆς ὀξυφλεγμασίης μαίνεται, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς σηπεδόνος φονᾷ, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ ζοφεροῦ φοβέεται καὶ δέδοικεν, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς περὶ τὴν καρδίην πιέξιος ἀγχόνας κραίνουσιν, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς κακίης τοῦ αἵματος ἀλύων καὶ ἀδημονέων ὁ θυμὸς κακὸν ἐφέλκεται· ἕτερον δὲ καὶ φοβερὰ ὀνομάζει· καὶ κελεύουσιν ἅλλεσθαι καὶ καταπίπτειν ἐς τὰ φρέατα καὶ ἄγχεσθαι, ἅτε ἀμείνονά τε ἐόντα καὶ χρείην ἔχοντα παντοίην· ὁκότε δὲ ἄνευ φαντασμάτων, ἡδονή τις, ἀφ’ ἧς ἐρᾷ τοῦ θανάτου ὥσπέρ τινος ἀγαθοῦ. Φρονησάσης δὲ τῆς ἀνθρώπου, τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι αἱ γυναῖκες ἄλλα τε πολλὰ, ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ τὰ πουλυτελέστατα τῶν ἱματίων καθιεροῦσι τῶν γυναικείων, κελευόντων τῶν μάντεων, ἐξαπατεώμεναι. Ἡ δὲ τῆσδε ἀπαλλαγὴ, ὁκόταν τι μὴ ἐμποδίζῃ τοῦ αἵματος τὴν ἀπόῤῥυσιν. Κελεύω δ’ ἔγωγε τὰς παρθένους, ὁκόταν τὸ τοιοῦτον πάσχωσιν, ὡς τάχιστα ξυνοικῆσαι ἀνδράσιν· ἢν γὰρ κυήσωσιν, ὑγιέες γίνονται· εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἢ αὐτίκα ἅμα τῇ ἥβῃ ἢ ὀλίγον ὕστερον ἁλώσεται, εἴπερ μὴ ἑτέρῃ νούσῳ· τῶν δὲ ἠνδρωμένων γυναικῶν αἱ στεῖραι μᾶλλον ταῦτα πάσχουσιν. |