ABSTRACT
Agnodic's story was first printed in the 1535 edition of Hyginus' Fabulae, only a decade after Phaethousa's story became available in the first Latin translation of the full Hippocratic corpus. The story of Agnodice and the case history of Phaethousa each exist in only one ancient source, but the genres in which they appear are very different and in the case of Phaethousa changed as the stories went on being told. In addition to its connections with the genres of the 'first finders' and the ancient novel, commentators on the story of Agnodice have also proposed a connection with another genre: hagiography. While Phaethousa is a patient, Agnodice practises medicine; her story invites us to move beyond theories of how the body works and to reflect on women's actual medical roles in the ancient world and beyond, as it was used to think about the female body and about women's involvement in the history of midwifery, gynaecology and medicine.
