Long before the king was around to wrongly kill his wives, medieval people had their own views on sexual determination. A medical and reproductive theory during the medieval times was that of the seven-celled uterus. This theory was believed by almost everyone of the time. It was believed that the uterus of the human female was divided into two different cavities, and further into seven parts. There were three cold parts for the breeding of males, three warm ones for the breeding of females and one more part in the middle which was capable of producing a hermaphrodite. This simple diagram of the realistically complex uterus was used by the medical profession of the time to explain how multiple births and the different sexes occurred.
The basic theory and belief in the seven celled uterus was based on the mysticism of the number "7", the impact of warmth of cold on each and every generation and the spatial importance of left and right. Seven celled uterus believers increased rather than decreased their following during the middle of medieval times when medical dissection was becoming a big study.
An early reference to the seven celled uterus and its theory can be found in Plato's Symposium. Aristophanes alludes to the three sexes of early humanity. Here again it is stated that there were such things as males, females and hermaphrodites which shared characteristics of each. "The reason for the existence of three sexes and for their being of such a nature is that originally the male sprang from the sun and the female from the earth, while the sex which was both male and female came from the moon, which partakes of the nature of both sun and earth"(Speech of Aristophanes, Plato: Symposium).
Return to Health
and Healing