Old women and sex: fear, fantasy, and a defining life course in Early Modern Europe

Abstract

Using Hans Baldung’s The Ages of Life with Death , this piece explores the tightly interwoven contemporary connection between old women and witches. Concomitantly, it investigates the female life cycle and its fundamental connection to female reproduction and women’s relationship to men, defining women as Maids, Mothers, or Widows. Finally, it demonstrates the early modern fear of sex in old age.