SEXUAL LIFE IN ANCIENT AGES – PART 3

Ancient people had a lot of medical remedies for a different necessities which worked as prescribed and some of those which did not work. Some of them are found amusing, one of such was funny remedy for birth control "wild dancing after intercourse, to put the sperm out."

Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is dated to 1800 BC and its the oldest known medical text. Each of thirty-four section of the text is dealing with a specific topic. Some topics talks about: contraception, pregnancy testing, how to predict baby's sex and dealing with health problems of productive organs. There are instructions on giving a birth and other.

In several contraceptive recipes written in Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus is used acacia. Acacia have been found in modern-days research to be spermicidal.

Aristotle said "if the reproduction is given totally free way, it will be the cause of people's poverty." Appropriate age to get married, according Plato, was 20 - 30 years old for a woman and 30 - 55 years old for a man. Having all that in mind, Greeks had a lot of contraception remedies, but what worked the best was abortion. General opinion those days was that embryo was not a human being (it was just a part of a mother) so it was alright to perform abortion. Abortion agents were design to produce uterus contractions and to wash off already dead embryo or to peel off the egg and produce bleeding. 

Among numerous contraception guidelines, the most known in Greek and Roman cultures is uterus lubrication with cedar or olive oil. In 1921, Marie Stopes rediscovered contraceptive properties of olive oil.

Woman wearing a strophium during sex (Casa del Centenario, Pompeii)

Romans the same as Greeks tried to limit the size of their families. Unlike in Greece, age for girls to get married in Rome was 12 and the age for boys was 14. Some girls were pregnant and gave birth when they were 14 years old. Soranos of Ephesus well known Greek physician who lived in Rome said: "If it is much more comfortable not to get pregnant than to kill embryo, a man has to avoid sexual intercourse during the periods of time suitable for conception." The most of his known recipes for abortion and contraception were proven this days to work. Even those remedies with saturn are considered to be useful, even though harmful for health.

Jewish rabbi in the 5 century AD writes about putting a sponge in uterus. This kind of contraception is used again today.

Putting a vinegar on phallus was believed to be useful contraception. Today we know that vinegar is spermicidal.

Kama Sutra Illustration

Recipes from India talk about mixtures of  honey and ghee or rock salt blended with oil.

Ibn Sina's (980 – 1037) collection of recipes from Ancient Greece, India and Rome together with commentaries on contraceptive efficiency in his Avicenna was the best work on this topic until 20th century. 

"The Navajos, who called the Ragleaf bahia herb twisted medicine, drank a tea of the roots boiled in water for thirty minutes for contraception purposes.
Hopi women drank a tea of the whole Indian paintbrush to "Dry up the menstrual flow.

Generally used by many tribes, a tea from the boiled roots of dogbane was drunk once a week.

Milkweed.Navajo women drank a tea prepared of the whole plant after childbirth.
Indians of Mendocino County drank a tea of the mistletoe leaves to induce abortion or to prevent conception.

To prevent conception, Navajo women drank one cup of a decoction of boiled antelope sage root during menstruation.

Shoshoni women of Nevada reportedly drank a cold water infusion of stoneseed roots everyday for six months to ensure permanent sterility."

Early Chinese texts contain recipe of oil and quicksilver mixture to be taken on empty stomach. The herbal soup, or "liangyao," of which musk was an ingredient caused eventual sterility. Other birth control potions containing mercury, strychnine, and arsenic that certain ladies of the night took were far more dangerous. After sex with concubines or court ladies with whom emperor had no desire to procreate, eunuch would clean out their vaginas with saffron herbal soup. Chinese women used and sponge as contraceptive.

Condom (and manual) from 1813

The oldest claimed representation of condom use is a painting (12,000–15,000 years old) in the French cave Grotte des Combarelles. 

Chinese Condoms made of sheep intestines, fish lungs, silk and cotton are mentioned in the ancient volume Classics of Mountains and Seas.

"1500s: Italian physician and anatomist Gabrielle Fallopius writes about the horrors of the then-frequently fatal STD syphilis in De Morbo Gallico. He recommended the use of a protective linen sheath, soaked in chemicals and dried, which would help prevent the acquirement of the disease. Fallopius conducted an experiment using 1,100 participants to determine the early condoms effectiveness; none became infected with syphilis. Condoms to the rescue.

1605: Catholic theologian Leonardus Lessius claimed in De iustitia et iure that condoms are immoral. Side note: strange how we're still facing that argument today?"

Around the world contraception was woman's job. Every civilization and tribe had their woman's "cult" where women took care of each other. I can say that even today men would not care much if there were not so many diseases around. Today, as in ancient times, some societies were taking care of each other and they developed ways to have less "side effects" coming out of their urges. While some societies do not care much of today nor how their children will live tomorrow.

Women entertainers perform at a celebration in Ancient Egypt; the dancers are naked and the musician wears a typical pleated garment as well as the cone of perfumed fat on top of her wig that melts slowly to emit its precious odors; both groups wear extensive jewelry, wigs, and cosmetics; neither wear shoes - Thebes tomb c. 1400 B.C.

We have learned a lot from our ancients, but still, we make again and again the same mistakes. Going through the history I wonder sometimes: "Do people have capability of evolving?" We can learn math, science, literature, but can we evolve ourselves to be better people? Not to be the same as human nation was 5000 years ago, but better. We can invent machines, see "god's" particle, but... can we evolve?

Sources:

Birth control in Antiquity

"People in classical old ages, regardless of any moral or even legal prescription , limited the size of their own families using contraception or other forms of birth-control."
Wiki - History of birth control

"The history of birth control, also known as contraception and fertility control, refers to the methods or devices that have been historically used to prevent pregnancy. Planning and provision of birth control is called family planning. In some times and cultures,abortion had none of the stigma which it has today, making birth control less important; abortion was in practice a means of birth control."
Native American Herbal Remedies
Encyclopedia of Birth Control
The Condom Timeline