Salpe

{{distinguish|Salpe (surname)}} '''Salpe''' was an ancient Greek midwife cited by Pliny the Elder, and a writer of a work called the ''Paignia'' mentioned in Athenaeus' ''Deipnosophistae''. It is uncertain whether Athenaeus and Pliny discuss the same person, or whether they were two distinct people.

==Pliny== Pliny cites Salpe six times in his ''Natural History''.{{sfn|Davidson|1995|p=591}} She is described by him as an ''obstetrix'',{{sfn|Davidson|1995|p=590}} though he ascribes general remedies to her, not simply those concerned with women's health.{{sfn|Flemming|2007|p=271}} Her remedies only survive in Pliny's references to them, not in her own words.{{sfn|Plant|2004|p=115}} She uses both herbal and magical remedies to cure a variety of ailments including sunburn, stiff or numbed limbs, and dog bites.{{sfn|Plant|2004|p=115}}

==Athenaeus== In the ''Deipnosophistae'', Athenaeus mentions a Salpe as the writer of ''Paignia''.{{sfn|Davidson|1995|p=590}} He cites Nymphodorus of Syracuse, probably writing in the third century BC, as claiming that Salpe, the writer of the ''Paignia'', was not a nickname for a Mnaseas, but was a woman from Lesbos.{{sfn|Davidson|1995|p=590}}

The ''Paignia'' is generally considered to have been a work of pornographic or erotic literature.{{sfn|Davidson|1995|pp=590–1}} Athenaeus associates the work with Botrys of Messana, a fifth-century author described as a "shameful writer" by Timaeus.{{sfn|Flemming|2007|p=273}} Botrys' work was apparently similar to the pornographic sex-manual attributed to Philaenis.{{sfn|Plant|2004|p=115}} The work was probably written in prose, as Botrys' earlier ''paignia'' had been.{{sfn|Bain|1998|p=265}}

James Davidson argues that the Salpe mentioned by Athenaeus and the one cited by Pliny are likely to have been the same person.{{sfn|Davidson|1995|p=592}} David Bain has argued against Davidson's suggestion,{{sfn|Bain|1998}} and I. M. Plant distinguishes between the two in his anthology of ancient women writers.{{sfn|Plant|2004|p=115}} More recently, Rebecca Flemming writes that "despite Bain's objections it remains tempting" to link Pliny's and Athenaeus' Salpe; she suggests that the original ''Paignia'' referred to by Athenaeus was the original source of Pliny's recipes, though he would have read them second-hand (or "more probably third- or fourth-hand").{{sfn|Flemming|2007|p=274}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==Works cited== * {{cite journal|last=Bain|first=David|title=Salpe's ΠΑΙΓΝΙΑ: Athenaeus 332A and Plin. H. N. 28.38|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=48|issue=1|year=1998|doi=10.1093/cq/48.1.262}} * {{cite journal|last=Davidson|first=James N.|title=Don't Try This at Home: Pliny's Salpe, Salpe's Paignia and Magic|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=45|issue=2|year=1995|pages=590–592|doi=10.1017/S000983880004372X|s2cid=170720854 }} * {{cite journal|last=Flemming|first=Rebecca|title=Women, Writing and Medicine in the Classical World|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=57|issue=1|year=2007|pages=257–279|doi=10.1017/S0009838807000225|s2cid=171045159|doi-access=free}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Plant|editor-first=I. M.|title=Woman Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology|year=2004|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman}}

Category:Ancient gynaecologists Category:Ancient Greek women writers Category:Ancient Greek women medical doctors Category:Greek erotica writers Category:People from ancient Lesbos Category:Women erotica writers