Mario Strada
2 min readAug 22, 2023

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Let's go one by one and see how much better off we are:

1. Doctors Tasted Bodily Fluids For Diagnosis

This practice was still well in use in the Middle Ages and later, as it was popularized by the Roman physician Galen. In fact, Roman and Pre-Roman medicine based in "Miasma" and other nonsense is still popular today in the form of Homeopathy and Chiropractic.

Sure, they don't advertise it, but if one scratches the surface, the basis of these "Alternative Medicines" are based on those beliefs. I should know since I grew up in a Homeopathic home thanks to my new-age mother.

Doctors and science-based medicine as we know them today, are a little older than a century. Prior to the late 1800, all US doctors had to do to practice was attend a bunch of lectures (based on crazy, outdated ancient beliefs and paid a-la-carte) and never had to even see a patient before starting their professional career.

German medicine changed that and US doctors returning from such training are responsible for things like John Hopkins University and other similar institutions.

In fact, that explain the enduring popularity of quack medicine such as Homeopathy because their "cures" being essentially inert, didn't kill the patients.

(Note: Homeopathy has nothing to do with herbal medicine. That's a misconception.)

2. The Older Men of Ancient Greece Would Trade Roosters For Young Boys

Internet pederasty is still going strong. Thankfully, we put them in jail these days.

3. Athletes Would Sell Their Sweat As the “Oils of Champions”

Today they sell their shirts and sneakers on eBay.

4. The Greeks Roasted People Alive in a Life-Sized Bull

I was going to let this one slip by, but then I realized that the electric chair is really not a whole lot different than the ancient bronze bull. There are accounts of condemned literally catching on fire while still alive and others surviving the process with hair and skin singed.

5. Women Were Treated As Second-Class Citizens

They still are, albeit not to the degree they were in ancient Greece or Rome.

There are popular online communities and religious institutions that work hard toward keeping women second class citizens.

Recently I even read articulate (if imbecile) arguments to deprive women of the right to vote, own property and have agency over their own bodies.

Remember the not-so-long-ago claim by Todd Akin that women's bodies would prevent pregnancy from a "Legitimate Rape"? (https://www.insider.com/todd-akin-claimed-victims-legitimate-rape-cant-get-pregnant-dies-2021-10)

Well that comes from Galen as well and it was pretty popular until recently (historically speaking).

Galen believed that in order to get pregnant a woman had to have an orgasm. Without it, her body would refuse the "seed".

Hence if a woman didn't get pregnant, she couldn't prove a rape was committed, but if she became pregnant, ipso facto she had an orgasm and therefore it wasn't rape.

That a XXI century male would bring it up as a serious argument tells me we still have a long way to go.

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Mario Strada

I was born in Italy, but I lived for the past 30+ years in the USA.