In Greek mythology, Medea, princess of Colchis, was regarded as a sorceress, an accomplished “pharmakeía” and is often depicted as a high-priestess of the goddess, Hecate. When Medea was abandoned by her husband Jason in favour of Glauke, princess of Corinth, she took revenge on her rival by sending her a dress and a crown […]
Where the motive of the 17th-century Spana Prosecution poisoners was to rid themselves of their abusive husbands, there exists another class of poisoners – those who use poison for political advancement. Long before the Renaissance trio of Thofiania d’Adamo, Giullia Tofana and Gironima Spana concocted the arsenic-based Aqua Tofana, Rome’s most famous poisoner was Locusta, […]
Ironically the word ‘arsenic’ originates from Greek folk etymology as ‘arsenikon’, a neuter form of the Greek adjective ‘arsenikos’ meaning “male”, or “virile” and over centuries it was arsenic that women have been using to eliminate the males in their lives. In the mid 1600’s a trio of Renaissance Italian woman with a keen sense […]