History of Toxicology and Environmental HealthToxicology in Antiquity II
2015, Pages 60–67
Chapter 6 – Drugs, Suppositories, and Cult Worship in Antiquity
Ancient
priestesses used suppositories and medicated dildos to affect
physiological and mental changes in order to manipulate human sexual
experience during the practice of cult ritual. Mystery religions of
Greco-Roman antiquity employed magical practices that used botanical and
animal-derived drugs in both medical and cult contexts. The practices
of these sorceress priestesses were captured in literary traditions and
preserved by authors like Virgil and Petronius. The Hippocratic corpus
preserves the West’s earliest gynecological drugs against the background
of the female healer-priestess. The use of vaginal suppositories and
anal penetration by means of medicated dildos were both common practices
in ritual that combined medicine, religion, and magic.
Keywords
- Suppository;
- magic;
- drug;
- venom;
- sorceress;
- priestess;
- dildo;
- medicated
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