Class Year
2017
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Spring 2017
Department 1
Classics
Abstract
This paper considers the similarities and differences in Greek thought concerning female madness among both traditional views of madness and medical views. It identifies three broad types of female madness – Dionysian madness, most often associated with maenads and maenadism; desire-induced madness, associated with Aphrodite or Eros; and the medical views of madness of the Hippocratic Corpus, Plato, and other writers. Divinely-inspired madness was considered an assault on the individual from the outside, while the physicians considered madness to be an affliction from within. However, while desire-induced madness and medical madness were seen as the results of women avoiding men, Dionysian madness prompted women to leave male society. Finally, all three types of madness could be cured or ended through contact, often but not always sexual, with men.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Connelly, Caitlin T., "Female Madness in Greek Tradition and Medicine" (2017). Student Publications. 532.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/532
Included in
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Women's Health Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
Written for Classics 335 taught by Professor Rachel Lesser.