Eski Yunan ve Roma Dünyasında Yargılanan Bitki Uzmanı Kadınlar: Φαρμακίς / Venefica

Eski Çağ’da kadınların, farmakolojik bilgiye ve ilaç hazırlama becerisine sahip olduklarını gösteren kanıtlar mevcuttur. Bu kadınların bilgilerini nereden ve nasıl edindikleri tam olarak bilinmemekle birlikte, Eski Çağ’ın birçok meslek alanında olduğu gibi bu alanda da aile içi eğitimin ön planda olduğu muhtemeldir. Zira şifacılık alanında kadınların aile üyelerinden mesleki bilgiyi edindiklerini ve bu bilgilerini hastaları iyileştirmek için kullandıklarını gösteren pek çok edebi ve epigrafik kanıt mevcuttur. Buna rağmen tragedya ve komedilerde bitki uzmanı kadınlar, aşk iksiri ve zehir hazırlarken yani genellikle farmakolojik bilgilerini kötü amaçlar için kullanırken, erkekler ise şifalı ilaçlar hazırlarken betimlenmektedir. Bu yargının bir sonucu olarak Eski Çağ’da bitki uzmanı kadınlardan bazıları yargılanmış ve ağır bedeller ödemek zorunda kalmıştır. Nitekim bu durum, bir takım soru işaretlerini ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Acaba kadınların farmakolojik bilgilerine yönelik yaratılan negatif algı, onların bitki ve ilaçlar konusundaki bilgi birikimlerini kontrol altında tutma çabasının eril bir sonucu mudur? Bitki uzmanı kadın yargılamalarına değinen eski edebi kaynaklarda kadınların, pharmakis ve venefica yani cadı olarak tanımlanması bir ön kabul olarak, yargılanmalarına neden olmuş mudur? Eski Çağ’da bitki uzmanı kadınlar, hangi şartlarda yargılanmış hatta özelde bu kadınların yargılanmalarına yönelik doğrudan hukuki bir düzenleme yapılmış mıdır? Bu çalışmada eski edebi, epigrafik ve modern kaynaklar irdelenerek mümkün olduğu ölçüde bu ve benzeri soruların cevapları aranmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Eski Yunan, Roma, Pharmakis, Venefica, Bitki Uzmanı, Cadı, Yargılama

Herbalist Women Who Put on Trial in Ancient Greek and Roman World: Φαρμακίς / Venefica

There is evidence to support women in Antiquity to posses pharmacological knowledge and the skills to prepare medicine. Although how these women acquired these knowledge is not exactly known, it is possible that domestic training was, like for many professions of Antiquity, the primary way, as there is a lot of literary and epigraphic evidence showing that women in the field of healing acquire professional knowledge from their family members and use this knowledge to heal the sick. Despite that, there are descriptions in tragedia and comedies of herbalist women, preparing love potions and poisons and using their pharmacological knwoledge for bad intentions, while men are depicted as preparing curative medicine. As a result of this prejudice, some of these herbalist women were tried in Antiquity and forced to pay a heavy price. Indeed, this situation brought up some questions as well. Is the negative perception of women’s pharmacological knowledge a masculine result of their efforts to keep their knowledge of herbs and medicine under control? Did the description of women as pharmakis and venefica, that is, witches, in the ancient literary sources mentioning herbalist women’s trials, as a presupposition, cause them to be judged? Under what conditions were herbalist women tried in Antiquity, and was there even a direct legal regulations for their trial? In this study, the answers to these and similar questions are sought to the possible extent by examining ancient literary, epigraphic and modern sources.

Keywords:

Ancient Greece, Rome, Pharmakis, Venefica, Herbalist, Witch, Trial,

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