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Meletius Monachus's De natura hominis 24, on male gender physiology, concludes with twenty-one lines about female differentiation, gender dissonance, eunuchs, and an appeal to the ... as a natural paradigm for the difference between male and female. This paper considers the medical and patristic sources for this passage in light of the treatise as a whole, Meletius's Byzantine identity, and his tentatively ninth-century context. Late antique Christian texts on the phoenix-bird and the eunuch as they related to gender and heresy may inform Meletius's contrast between "natural" ... and castrated eunuchs. This text offers a unique and little-studied witness to the broader dialogue of gender in religion and medicine in the ancient world.
(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
INTRODUCTION
The De natura hominis of "Meletius the Monk" is a long and little-studied text on human physiology, traditionally dated to somewhere between the seventh and thirteenth centuries.1 Despite its uncertain date, its author is very specific about location: he tells us that he is writing from the district (...) of Tiberiopolis,2 in the "Opsikian Theme"3 and the bandon4 of [the fort of] Akrokos,5 that is, in northwest Phrygia about 100 miles southeast of Constantinople. Meletius says he is a "Byzantine," that is a Chalcedonian Christian, and tells us he practiced cautery and bloodletting. He also may-or may not-be the author or compiler of an "Exegesis on the Aphorisms" of Hippocrates, a collection of scholia by Damascius, Stephanus of Athens (6th c.), and Theophilus (ca. 8506).7
After an extended prologue, the De natura hominis begins with a description of the head and progresses, part by part,8 to the feet, ending with a chapter on the soul. For each body part discussed in these thirty chapters,9 the author identifies the relevant physiological components and functions with a focus on etymology, literary allusions, and synonyms. Meletius's work would have achieved what Rufus of Ephesus recommended when he wrote, "it is eminently necessary for those who would learn the art of medicine to be instructed on the name that should be given to each part of the body."10 Meletius's simplistic focus on naming would serve as a convenient teaching tool in monastic communities or in training less literate assistants, and we know the work was popular in late Byzantine...