Mae

And Ovid's writing in MFF (cosmetics for the female face) vaguely cautions against using the pregnant mare's urine: "Trust not to herbs, nor to philtres compounded of divers juices, and essay not the flux of the mare on heat." Taylor certainly overstates the link between MFF and Scythians, 😴🌙

Taylor argues that since Ovid was near the Black Sea when in exile he could be aware of the Scythian use of pregnant mare's urine but the Scythians hadn't ruled that region for two centuries and Romans often mistakenly called foreigners "Scythians" because of their own familiarity with Greek history

But Herodotus never says that the Enarei used pregnant mare's urine like HRT that comes from Taylor's unique reading of Ovid (Roman, 1st Century CE) when Ovid was exiled (by Augustus) to the Black Sea where two centuries prior the Scythians ruled and Ovid made a cosmetics guide

Herodotus continues that the Scythians attacked a temple in Ascalon in Persian Palestine 🇵🇸 and were cursed with a "female sickness" that struct the Enarai long after, he attributes this to Aphrodite but used Greek names for all Scythian gods, he also details Scythian preparation of mare's milk

🧵 Herodotus (5th century BCE), Ancient Greek Historian, made a famous journey to Scythia but he also famously exaggerates unlike fellow Greek Historian Thucydides, he observed the Enarai as androgynous prophets, he claimed that adult men became effeminate Enarai after being afflicted w a 'sickness'

I posted the AskHistorians link but I could go on personally

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this www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori... covers it pretty well, I haven't read Taylor's work only seen him cited and it appears his terminology in The Prehistory of Sex (1997) is pretty outdated

looks like Timothy Taylor first hypothesized that ancient Scythian 'Enareis' could have used pregnant mare's urine like HRT but it's difficult to confirm, though not implausible considering the familiarity the nomadic Scythians had with horses and mare's milk
Taylor sources are weak, idk science so

💜