An Evolving Profession: Obstetrics in Greek-Roman Antiquity

Abstract

  This paper, starting from a comparison between the passage of Plato’s Theaetetus (149c-d) – in which Socrates describes the characteristics of the midwife’s job – and Soranus’ Gynecology, analyzes the evolution of this professional profile in Soranus’s treatise, in relation to her medical competences and to the power assigned to the speech.