The Relationship Between Healing Goddesses and Healing Women in the Ancient Greek and Roman World

Abstract

There are inscriptions in the ancient Greek World that have confirmed the work of female healers since the middle of the 4th century BC. Starting from the 3rd century BC, women’s healers’ mention of their professional identities, especially in the inscriptions, helps us to get more detailed ideas about them. In Rome, the epigraphic traces pointing to the professional identities of female healers have been found since the 1st century BC. The lack of the records of women healers does not mean they do healing since the 4th century BC in the ancient Greek-Roman World, but from the 1st century BC. Metaphors of the healer goddess confirms the existence of women healers and the treatment of various diseases in the earlier Greek and Roman worlds, gain importance. Indeed, people have used idealized human forms to create many anthropomorphic gods and goddesses in line with their needs. In this context, it should be taken into consideration that when people create healer goddesses, they model women healers that were known before. From this point of view, it will be possible to determine the areas in which the women healers were working through the healer goddesses of the early period of the Greek-Roman World.