MENSTRUATION. THE MYTHS, THE MADNESS AND THE QUEST FOR DIGNITY THE WISE WORDS OF PLINY THE ELDER! Well, if you haven’t heard what Pliny had to say about menstruation, be ready to be astonished at the remarkable insights of this Roman sage (23-79 AD) who confidently declared that: Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with incurable poison So, there we have it. The power of the period. And you won’t be surprised to know that dear old Pliny was only one of many many men who have felt entitled to give their crackpot views about a normal bodily function. Medieval writing shows them to be terrified of menstrual blood, seeing it as a deadly poison, linking it to lepros...