DON’T BLAME MOTHER

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Galen seldom discusses his upbringing, yet when he does, he is apt to celebrate his father. The story is different with his mother: Galen’s contemptuous descriptions of her stand in stark contrast to his reverence for his father. She is portrayed as impatient and violent—characteristics Galen deplores—and he compares her to Socrates’s famously ill-tempered wife:

“My mother was irascible, so that she would sometimes bite her maidservants and she constantly screamed at my father and fought with him, like Xanthippe with Socrates. When I compared the good actions of my father with the disgraceful passions of my mother it occurred to me to embrace and love the former, and avoid and hate the latter.”

Xanthippe emptying a chamberpot over Socrates. Engraving. From Otto van Veen, Q. Horati Flacci Emblemata (Antwerp: Hieronymi Verdussen, 1607), 153. Photo: archive.org. Public domain.

Historians wisely caution against speculating on how such a mother might have influenced Galen’s views on women more generally, if only because he was likely primarily raised by nanny-like domestic servants rather than his biological mother. She certainly comes up less frequently in his writing than his idolized father, but this textual gender imbalance is in keeping with other autobiographies from the era, making further extrapolation impossible.

Most representations of specific women in Galen’s writings are neutral—especially those of his patients. There are accounts of women he intellectually admires, such as Arria, an accomplished Platonist philosopher. Yet there are also a few sexist passages beyond the negative portrayal of his mother. He occasionally depicts women as vain, as in a passage where he complains about the posh lifestyle of pampered, well-to-do women; nevertheless, Galen catered to their needs and mixed cosmetic recipes for the people of the court including the emperor and his female relatives.

Canister with moisturizing face cream (closed, left; open, right). Roman, 150 CE. Container: tin alloy; Cream: animal fat, starch, and tin oxide. Temple complex, Tabard Square, Southwark, London. H. 5.3 cm; Diam. 5.8 cm. Museum of London: LLS02[12855]<3014>. Photo: © Museum of London.

In a different text, he blamed the indulgences of pregnant women as the cause for their children’s issues. However, critiques of women—infrequent, but present in his writings—are mild in comparison to his diatribes against his usual male targets (medical rivals, Methodist physicians, sophists, etc.).