Né ἰατρίνη né μαῖα: i saperi «speciali» della iatromaea/ἰατρόμαια

Abstract

Abstract Neither ἰατρίνη nor μαῖα: the «special» knowledge of the iatromaea/ἰατρόμαια Especially in the last thirty years both the ἰατρίναι/medicae and the μαῖαι/obstetrices have received particular attention from scholars both for a more precise framing of these female «professions» within activities that are not exclusively manual but also intellectual, and in order to reconstruct the legal status, the possibilities of social affirmation and the opportunities of economic income of these two specific professional profiles. The subject of analysis here is a figure in its own right, that of the iatromaea/ἰατρόμαια, a term attested by very rare epigraphic mentions in Latin and Greek, absent from the databases of papyrus texts and a veritable hapax in literary testimonies. After reviewing the inscriptions that certify the existence of this word and the hypotheses formulated by moderns regarding its possible meaning, the paper attempts to trace the professional profile of this specialist, identifying, through a comparison with the sources, similarities and differences with the other types of therapists and making an interpretative proposal in conclusion regarding the specific knowledge and skills of the iatromaea/ἰατρόμαια.