[Image of the uterus in Greek-Roman antiquity and its representation]

Abstract

The author describes the common ideas of the human uterus in Etruscan and early Roman Italy known from anatomical ex-votos and gems, most of them found in the regions of Etruria and Latium. In contrast, a medical or scientific concept of the human uterus can be found in various manuscript copies from ancient writers, especially in those derived from the Coan school of medicine, from ancient Greek philosophers and in those derived from Soranus of Ephesus, the best-known teaching authority on obstetrics in Roman medicine. Miscellaneous concepts were characteristic of drawings in later manuscript copies of the early middle ages.