Couvade in the Ancient Greek Literature: Disease or Ritual Performance?

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Couvade, also known as sympathetic pregnancy, is the phenomenon whereby the expectant father experiences somatic symptoms during his wife's pregnancy, delivery, or postpartum period. It can be both a ritualised behavior and an expression of psychosomatic complaints. We, herein, present early descriptions of couvade, provided from ancient Greek authors. Material-Methods The whole ancient Greek literature was digitally searched. All relevant references were analyzed from the original sources. Results There are at least five references to couvade in the ancient Greek literature from the following writers: Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC), Strabo (1st century BC-AD), Plutarch (1st century AD), Zenobius (2nd century AD) and Apollonius Rhodius (3rd century AD).. Discussion-Conclusion All references presented, describe couvade as a ritual practice, the most usual pattern being lying in bed and mimicking physical pain. Couvade as psychosomatic complain has also been described, but, for a number a reasons is often overlooked, especially its mild forms. We conclude that ancient Greek writers were aware of ritual couvade, as reflected from the numerous existing descriptions tracing back to the antiquity, i.e. 1st century BC - 3rd century AD.