In the ancient world, women held authority in prophecy, healing, and the mysteries of life. Their role was not marginal or symbolic. It was public, active, and central to the survival of their societies. Over time, as empires grew, these women were displaced. Their knowledge was first regulated, then discredited, and eventually persecuted.
Sibyls were among the earliest and most visible of these women. Operating across the Mediterranean — in Greece, Rome, Libya, and Anatolia — Sibyls were independent prophets. They spoke without needing approval from a priesthood or a state. In Rome, the Sibylline Books, a collection of prophecies believed to originate from a Sibyl, were eventually bought and sealed away. Access to these prophecies was tightly controlled by male priests. What had once been a free female voice was institutionalised. Interpretation of the divine was no longer direct; it was mediated through state power.
A similar pattern unfolded with oracles and healers. The Pythia at Delphi, who spoke for Apollo, was once a respected figure sought by kings and generals. Across rural communities, women practiced healing through herbal knowledge, birth assistance, and community care. As imperial systems consolidated power, these practices were reframed as superstition or primitive magic. Healing was taken out of communal hands and placed under the authority of sanctioned temples, physicians, and religious hierarchies. Practices that once belonged to everyone — especially to women — became tightly controlled professions dominated by men.
Midwives were among the last to hold onto independent authority. For centuries, they were responsible for life itself — guiding births, caring for women’s health, and passing down embodied knowledge through generations. As medical knowledge became formalised under male-led institutions, midwives were increasingly marginalised. By the early modern period, midwives were often accused of witchcraft if childbirth ended in tragedy or if their methods conflicted with emerging religious dogma. In the witch hunts that swept Europe, midwives were frequent targets. Their understanding of birth and death, once seen as sacred, was now treated as suspicious and dangerous.
The erasure of Sibyls, Oracles, and Midwives followed a clear pattern. First came regulation, as the state sought to control prophetic and healing knowledge. Then came discrediting, as women’s practices were labelled heretical or superstitious. Finally came persecution, as women were actively punished for continuing to hold this knowledge outside official structures.
This history is not distant. Its legacy persists today. Medical bias against women, the devaluation of alternative and traditional healing methods, and the suspicion cast on women’s spiritual leadership are not accidents. They are the long consequences of a system that systematically stripped women of their authority over life, health, and meaning.
Understanding what happened to Sibyls, Oracles, and Midwives is not about nostalgia. It is about recognising how structures of power are built — and who was pushed out to make way for them.
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