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The Birth of Abortion: Ancient Views, Modern Interpretations, and Enduring Debates

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The Birth of Abortion: Ancient Views, Modern Interpretations, and Enduring Debates The Birth of Abortion: Ancient Views, Modern Interpretations, and Enduring Debates By Cody Kornack Classics, History, Politics Colorado College Bachelor of Arts May 2014 Kornack “Our society may allow women far greater control of their own destiny than the ancient world did, but women are still subject to political, social and personal restrictions, norms and rules that make motherhood not always desirable.” ~Konstantinos Kapparis, Abortion in the Ancient World Kornack Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to thank the professors of the Classics, History, and Politics departments at Colorado College for creating an environment that cultivated my intellect, encouraged my curiosity, and imbued me with the determination to pursue this thesis topic. In particular, I am especially thankful for the guidance and encouragement of Sanjaya Thakur who helped me throughout the research and writing of this thesis. Likewise, I would like to thank Owen Cramer and Marcia Dobson for their enduring support with regards to teaching me Greek, as well as Dan Leon and Carol Neel for their helpful comments and suggestions in my editing process. I am endlessly thankful for the love, guidance, and support of my parents, Julie and Russ, and both of my brothers, Kyle and Jake. Honor Code Upheld Cody Kornack Kornack Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Ancient Abortions Terminology ............................................................................................................ 4 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 5 Demand, Motive, Accessibility, and Judgment ...................................................... 9 Hippocrates Background ........................................................................................................... 13 Works: The Man and the Corpus .......................................................................... 16 The Oath and Abortion ......................................................................................... 18 The Remainder of the Corpus and Abortion ......................................................... 24 Influence ............................................................................................................... 26 Translation of the Hippocratic Oath ..................................................................... 28 Plato Background ........................................................................................................... 29 Works .................................................................................................................... 30 Influence ............................................................................................................... 32 Aristotle Background ........................................................................................................... 34 Works .................................................................................................................... 35 Influence ............................................................................................................... 38 Pythagoreans Background ........................................................................................................... 40 Works .................................................................................................................... 40 Influence ............................................................................................................... 41 Soranus Background ........................................................................................................... 43 Works .................................................................................................................... 43 Influence ............................................................................................................... 44 Popular Culture Oratory .................................................................................................................. 46 Hymn to Demeter .................................................................................................. 47 Plays ...................................................................................................................... 49 Religion ............................................................................................................................. 52 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 53 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 57 Kornack 1 Introduction In this paper, I intend to examine ancient Greek views on abortion, evidenced by critical political, philosophical, and medical figures of the day, shaped by mythology and playwrights, and illustrated through surviving academic texts and popular literature. With reference to the original works of Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among others, and through the synthesis and analysis of modern scholars, such as Konstantinos Kapparis, John Riddle, and Ludwig Edelstein, I aim to present an in-depth examination of the complex framework that shaped ancient Greek views on abortion which continue to resonate so strongly in the contemporary debate. In my search to find a thesis-worthy topic, my highest priority was to be able to write on a topic still relevant and interwoven throughout our own society. While direct and indirect references to abortive remedies abound in Greek texts of various sorts, each offering its own opinion, conflicting opinions in ancient times did not typically lead to the imposition of one person’s will or idea of “right” on another person. One cannot help but contrast this approach to that of contemporary society. Today, many organizations, both religious and political, seek to translate their religious ideology or beliefs about abortion into the law of the land. Even so, the modern debate resembles the discussions of ancient times in other ways in that the objective knowledge needed to determine definitively when life begins and whether abortion should be sanctioned continues to elude us. In analyzing the various elements of the abortion debate, it becomes clear that the opinions and scholarship regarding abortion are significantly shaped by the culture, region, and time period in which they develop. Generally, a child in ancient Greece was protected by law and bestowed with moral rights only after formally being accepted by the father in a naming Kornack 2 ceremony, referred to as Amphidromia.1 In pre-Christian times, abortion, through both chemical and surgical means, was widely accepted as a practical method of controlling family size or simply eliminating an unwanted fetus.2 Exceptions did arise, however. A fourth century BCE speech made by Lysias, an Attic political orator, deliberates on such an exception in which an abortion gave rise to controversy.3 Inconsistencies arise early in the history of abortion with regards to textual evidence. For example, medical writings, beginning with those attributed to the Hippocratic Corpus, refer to abortions and detail prescriptions on how one would be performed or induced. Yet, concurrently, the Hippocratic Oath clearly forbade physicians from prescribing abortive pessaries. In the 300’s BCE, Aristotle endeavored to find biological evidence to determine the point at which a fetus attained a psyche, or life force.4 Echoing the Hippocratic Oath of centuries earlier, Soranus, the second century AD medical writer who left behind that period’s most detailed book on gynecology, advised against pessaries, limiting his concerns to the danger they posed to the mother and remaining silent on the moral implications of aborting a fetus.5 By that time, though, the text of the Hippocratic Oath had already been changed to imply that it forbade not just 1 Mentioned by Aristotle (History of Animals, 588a8): “it was here that the creation of a legal social identity took place.” Liston, Maria & Susan Rotroff: Babies in the Well: Archaeological Evidence for Newborn Disposal in Hellenistic Greece; ed. Grubbs, Judith and Tim Parkin. The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World: 77 2 Riddle, John. "Oral Contraceptives and Early-Term Abortifacients during Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages," Oxford Journals 132 (1991): 4 3 Sopater, in “On Abortion,” quotes Lysias referring to an induced abortion that was tried in court as a homicide. Kapparis, Konstantinos. “Women and Family in Athenian Law,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context” (Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities) edition of March 22, 2003. 4 Patsioti, Joanna. "Aristotelian Perspectives on Social Ethics." The Paideia Archive: Archive of Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy (1998). 5 Salisbury, Joyce E. Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient World. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC- CLIO, 2001. pg. 1 Kornack 3 abortive pessaries but abortions of any kind.6 The practice of abortion, even in ancient times, is burdened with controversy, fueled by beliefs of prominent individuals, societal and cultural values, and the dearth
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