From ginlindzey@austin.rr.com Thu Feb 28 18:41:08 2002 Received: from mailscan1.cac.washington.edu (mailscan1.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.16]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g212f5nJ119188 for ; Thu, 28 Feb 2002 18:41:05 -0800 Received: FROM mxu2.u.washington.edu BY mailscan1.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Feb 28 18:41:05 2002 -0800 Received: from sm11.texas.rr.com (sm11.texas.rr.com [24.93.35.42]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with ESMTP id g212f4ZB013383 for ; Thu, 28 Feb 2002 18:41:04 -0800 Received: from Ginnyhome (cs6625160-42.austin.rr.com [66.25.160.42]) by sm11.texas.rr.com (8.12.1/8.12.0) with ESMTP id g212bsKX009976 for ; Thu, 28 Feb 2002 20:37:57 -0600 From: "Ginny Lindzey" To: Subject: RE: ancient feminine hygiene Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 20:41:21 -0600 Message-ID: <001a01c1c0ca$92538b40$6601a8c0@Ginnyhome> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.3416 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 In-Reply-To: > For the dearth of information on this subject, see Lesley Ann > Dean-Jones, "Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Science" > (Oxford Univ. Press, 1994), pp. 226ff ("In spite of this > importance of menstrual blood in the scientific definition of > women there is a dearth of menstrual allusion in the Greek > classical canon, even in those texts which centre upon the > difference between men and women....Even the genres of Greek > literature that deal quite openly with the most intimate > areas of human experience are silent on the subject of > menstruation. Defecation, urination, copulation: the > anatomical parts and physiological secretions involved in > these processes: Aristophanes makes fun of them all. He > makes, however, not a single reference to menstruation or > menstrual blood." I should have thought of Prof Dean-Jones; she's here in town. Thanks. You know, you have to be prepared for anything when you surf. One of the web pages I found was apparently advice for the prostitute on using sea sponges so that the "John" wouldn't know she was having her period. The page then goes into details of what position works best and possible problems, etc. Personally I'm beginning to think those mystery religions weren't about having secret orgiastic rites but rather women passing along the "secrets" of female hygiene (and perhaps what position works best with a sponge?). Didn't the ancients use among other things vinegar on a sponge as birth control, or am I imagining that? And while I'm obsessing about sponges (never anything really practical for me, eh?), do you think that sponges were readily found all over the Mediterranean? Greece I know is still a chief exporter of sponges. But could you have found them anywhere off the coast of Italy?? What can I say, it's an absorbing topic! (AHAHAHAHAHAHA) Ahem. ginnyL, leaving the realm of relatively adult conversation to go read Captain Underpants to her boys.... ======================== Ginny Lindzey, Editor Texas Classical Association Porter Middle School 2206 Prather Lane Austin 78704 TCA: www.txclassics.org NCLG: www.promotelatin.org Lindsey Davis: www.lindseydavis.co.uk .