CEG2 no. 569 Funerary Monument of Phanostrate, Midwife and Doctor

Funerary Monument of Phanostrate, Midwife and Doctor

CEG 2, no. 569 Date: ca. mid-iv BC

At top of stele Φανοσ[τράτη patronymic?] Μελ̣ι̣τ̣έως.

Labelling figures in relief Ἀντιφίλη. Φανοστράτη.

Relief

Under relief panel μαῖα καὶ ἰατρὸς Φανοστράτη ἐνθάδε κεῖται, (5)[ο]ὐθενὶ λυπη⟨ρ⟩ά, πᾶσιν δὲ θανοῦσα ποθεινή.

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Translated text

References:

CEG 2, no. 569 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 6873 (PHI)

SEG 33.214 (PHI)

Conze I no. 340

Peek, GVI, no. 342

Clairmont, CAT 2.890

Samama, Médecins 2

Tsagalis, 208, 211, 249, 268, 292, 298, 321

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Laurence Totelin

Images: Athenian Democracy - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary, Metrical (dactylic hexameter)

Findspot: Attica (Menidi, ancient Acharnai) (NM 993)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The text of the inscription was established by G. Daux, BCH 96, 1972, 550-54 = SEG 33.214. Athenian women are commonly named with reference to a male (or males), often the one legally responsible for them (their kyrios), who was usually their father or husband. Sometimes, as here (ll. 1-2), the relationship is not made explicit (there was apparently no text after the man's demotic, where one might expect the words for "daughter" or "wife") and is therefore difficult to pin down with certainty (for similar lack of specificity on funerary monuments of this period see IG II² 5231, 5272, 5377, 5408 etc.). It may be that, since there is no other indication of her relationship to the man from Melite, we would be justified in assuming that, as would be the case with a male referred to in this way, the man was her father (for this interpretation of such cases see T. Vestergaard et al., AJAH 10, 1985, 178-90, especially 184-85). For citizen women as midwives cf. Socrates' mother, Phainarete, Plato Tht. 149a-150b, and on this and other professions filled by citizen women on Attic funerary monuments, A. Kosmopoulou, ABSA 96 (2001), 281-319 (this stele, 299-300, M1, phot. p. 317), Tsagalis, 208, and more generally on women's professions, E. M. Harris, in U. Bultrighini and E. Dimauro eds., Donne che Contano nella Storia Greca (2014), 183-208; M. I. Stonek, Archimède 5, 2018, 134-44 (SEG 68.1). Kosmopoulou, 299, remarks on Phanostrate's "lady-like pose and attire", but funerary monuments commonly presented the status of the deceased in normative or aspirational terms, and it cannot be entirely ruled out that she was or (perhaps less unlikely) had been a slave of the man from Melite. Slaves are often found performing highly skilled tasks, and are sometimes identified by name followed simply by the name of their owner in the genitive, e.g. see IG I³ 1032 (but no demotics or ethnics are included there). Another interesting aspect of the inscription is the findspot of this tombstone in the large north-Attic deme, Acharnai, a long way from Melite (in the city). Among the several possible explanations is that Phanostrate had married a man from Acharnai, who had since died, and/or that (unusually for a citizen woman) she worked in Acharnai as an independent woman, not cohabiting with any man. It is unclear whether Phanostrate specialised exclusively in gynaecology and obstetrics or whether she practised medicine more generally. [2] Phanostrate is portrayed seated to the right clasping the hand of Antiphile, who stands to the left facing her. Four children are also portrayed, a girl at the left edge of the relief, also facing Phanostrate, a smaller girl to the right of Antiphile touching her lower garments, a baby under Phanostrate’s chair, and a girl behind the chair, with arm outstretched towards Phanostrate (photo: Daux, 553 fig. 8). We do not know the precise relationship between the two women (was Antiphile Phanostrate's assistant?), but the children are clearly an allusion to Phanostrate’s profession. [3] This is a verse epigram. “Caused pain to no-one”: literally “painful (luperos) to no-one”, with both a metaphorical connotation and alluding to Phanostrate’s professional competence, and suggesting that relieving pain was seen as an important aspect of her work. Cf. Tsagalis, 211-12. Totelin notes a possible allusion to the opening words of Hippokrates, On Winds (1): "There are some skills which, while laborious (epiponoi) to acquire, are helpful to those that use them and a common good to people, but painful (luperai) to those that practise them." For a fuller discussion of the epigram in the context of contemporary medical literature see now L. Totelin, Technai 11, 2020, 129-44. For a dedication identified by J. Curbera as probably commemorating the work of Phanostrate see IG II³ 4, 700, cf. Totelin 2020, 139-40.

Added: 15 Sep 2017
Updated: 18 Mar 2025
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