Zeus’ Proxy Womb: The Myth of Dionysus and Alternative Medicine in Soranus’ Gynecology

Abstract This article explores how Dionysus’ mythical birth from Zeus’ thigh provides the background behind the workings of an unnamed group of birth workers/practitioners in their handling of an infant’s umbilical cord, mentioned in Soranus’ Gynecology. Soranus recommends bending the cut umbilical cord in on itself, then wrapping it in wool and placing it gently on the infant’s navel, but this outside group, instead, attaches the ligated cord to the infant’s thigh – a practice that I argue is connected to the thigh birth of Dionysus. I demonstrate how the thigh carries cultural beliefs about life, procreation, and identity, and coupled with medical ideas about major vein placement, connects with the placement for Zeus’ proxy womb. Ultimately, I hypothesize that this alternative group of birth workers is working with the understanding of the thigh as a carrier of both identity and blood as the newborn stabilizes its life, a belief sustained by Dionysus’ birth myth.