ABSTRACT
The centrality to sexual reproduction of the head, the brain, and the vessels connecting them with the rest of the body is evident in numerous Greek and Latin texts. Not sufficiently explored has been the special emphasis given to the role of the eyes in the formation of reproductive seed, itself associated or identified with cerebral spinal fluid (myelos), and in female reproduction. This chapter summarises theories of seed formation, arguing that seed was deemed to be generated on demand, and elucidates several obscure passages in Hippocratic gynaecological texts and in Aristotle concerning the eyes and female reproductive physiology. It then demonstrates how the premisses of these texts cohered with beliefs in the Evil Eye and the destructive powers of a menstruating woman’s gaze, the latter evident in Aristotle’s famous ‘bloody mirror’ passage. Such beliefs, it is argued, informed—or shared a conceptual ancestor with—the extramission optical theory, which held that sight occurred as the result of vision rays emanating from the eyes. The chapter concludes that the prominence of the eyes in Greek beliefs and theories concerning seed formation may be based on several factors: the arousal of sexual desire that may occur upon catching sight of an attractive person; the evolution of the human eye, with its uniquely broad white sclera that lend it great expressiveness and may aid in mate selection; and the custom of veiling, which may have made the eyes of women seem more expressive yet. In a conceptual system in which seed was thought produced on demand, relating it to the desire expressed by the eyes, or felt by the body upon sight of someone desirable, was an easy step to take.
