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The Uses and Impact of Silphium on Everyday Lives in the Classical World: Mystery Plant, Luxury Spice, Miraculous Cure-All

Henry, Margaret Louise
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Abstract
The rise and fall of the silphium plant tells a complex story of the ancient Mediterraneanworld: its farming practices and trade routes, medical practices and reproductive care, treatmentand freedoms of women. Silphium was a highly-coveted agricultural product used as a flavorfulspice in hundreds of recipes and as a cure for over 50 different medical ailments from skinproblems to respiratory illness, dog bites to epilepsy. Silphium was a miracle plant, unique inclassical antiquity. Its extinction around the second century B.C. has led to so much speculationand mystery among scholars. Most recently, the 2021 discovery of a Turkish professor whobelieves he found silphium in contemporary Turkey, sparks a range of questions that fuel thisthesis: Who had access to silphium and most commonly used it in recipes and remedies? What dowe know and can we learn about the women who used silphium as a contraceptive andabortifacient over two thousand years ago? How and why did silphium go extinct, and what roledid shifts in the Mediterranean climate and farming practices play in its decline and demise?Through researching ancient source material including Apicius’ famed cookbook De ReCoquinaria and Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica, as well as more recent classical historians andtheir hypotheses about silphium, this thesis will try and get a closer look at the everyday lives ofthe Mediterranean people who used silphium. Across three core chapters, this project challengeslong-held scholarly assumptions about medicine, reproductive care, contraception, and familyplanning in the ancient world. It also rewrites food history and the history of women’s controlover their bodies, unearthing a more accurate picture of the lives of the ancients, and women inparticular. Ultimately, it helps us to consider connections between the past and present — and tolearn from the successes and failures of those who came before us.
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Thesis (B.A. in Classical Studies, Minor in Art History, Minor in History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2023.
Date
2023
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Keywords
Silphium (Genus), Effect of human beings on, Food habits
Citation
Henry, Margaret Louise. "The Uses and Impact of Silphium on Everyday Lives in the Classical World: Mystery Plant, Luxury Spice, Miraculous Cure-All". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2023.
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