ABSTRACT
Christianity brought new ideas about the meaning of life, and about sexuality and the human body. The Graeco-Roman culture of late antiquity was permeated by dualism: Male was opposed to female, and spirit was opposed to matter. According to ancient Greek, human generation was no different from the rest of nature. Father's seed only produced the offspring, and the mother was simply a passive receptacle. It was the man's semen that brought life. These ideas were developed by Aristotle, whose theory of human procreation was subsequently included in the theological reflections of Christianity. According to him it was the soul which directed the process in which the foetus acquired its human form. He says that female was an undeveloped male. A daughter was a failed son due to unfortunate circumstances during pregnancy. It was the mother's fault. Mundal here argues that anyone in the household, husband, wife, or slave, could be the one who actually had to perform the infanticide.
