Agnodice
In
the 4th century BC it was illegal for women to practice
medicine in Greece. This made things very difficult for
women whom were uncomfortable going to male doctors. The
1st-century-AD author Hyginus wrote of one Greek woman,
Agnodice, who disguised herself as a man, studied medicine,
and set up a bustling very successful practice in Athens.
Once Agnodice convinced her patients that she was truly
a woman, she quickly won over their trust. Scholars debate
whether Hyginus's tale is true. According to Hyginus, Agnodice
was so successful that other doctors got jealous and accused
her of "corrupting" aristocratic women. So, Agnodice
revealed that she was a woman herself--and was promptly
arrested and sentenced to death.
Her
devoted patients came to her rescue and protested. They
argued that men were becoming enemies by not allowing a
woman to practice women’s medicine. Many noblewomen threatened
to kill themselves if she was executed. It worked, and thereafter,
all free women could become doctors--as long as they treated
women only.
Artemisia
Named
after the Goddess Artemis, sister of Apollo, is the only
woman Herodotus attributes with the virtue of courage, or
andreia, an almost impossible quality for a woman to possess
since it literally meant 'manliness'.
She
married the king of Halicarnassus in 500 BC, just prior
to the Ionian Revolt that helped trigger the war between
Greece and Persia. Her husband, whose name has been lost
to history, probably died only a few years later. Taking
to the throne herself, she made her name not as an ally
of Greece, but as a loyal subject of Persia.
Her
major claim to fame occurred during the battle of Salamis,
which King Xerxes of Persia watched from his golden throne
on the shore. Finding herself trapped between the deadly
Greek triremes and the utterly bewildered Persian fleet,
she determined to break out. Pursued by a trireme she calmly
and expertly rammed a friendly ship blocking her exit, and
made her escape. Believing her to be an ally, the trireme
dropped its pursuit, while Xerxes, believing her to have
sunk an enemy and exasperated at his own side's general
incompetence, declared 'My men have become women, and women
men'.
Needless
to say the Athenians were not well pleased; they had offered
an especially high reward for her capture because they could
not believe a woman would join a war against the.
