But surely the complaint, since it is above all others of divine origin, must attack not solely the noblest and richest Scythians, but all equally,—or even to a greater extent those who possess little, and therefore fail to make offerings; if that is to say the gods take pleasure in (active) veneration on the part of men and see that they win a due return for it398. For naturally the rich offer much to thegods, bring correspondingly great contributions from their goods as marks of their veneration; but the poor less, because they possess nothing. Then are these discontented, because they have given them no wealth; so that those who possess little suffer more of the punishments for such faults than the rich. But as a matter of fact, as I have said before, these things come from the deity to just the same degree as the others; for everything happens in accordance with nature, and so does this affection arise among the Scythians from the original cause I have pointed out. Now it is precisely the same among the rest of mankind; where riding is practised most and most continuously, there very many suffer from κέδματα (varicose dilatations), hip and footaffections, and accomplish coition very badly (are only slightly disposed to coition). And this is the case with the Scythians, and they are of all men most like eunuchs, for the following reasons: Because they always wear trousers, and besides that pass the greatest part of their time on horseback, so that they cannot touch the genitals with the hand, through cold and lassitude forget the desire for coition and coition itself, and (in their senseless infatuation) think of nothing else but how to resign their manly privilege399. This is an account of how it is with the stock of the Scythians.”
Now if we separate the facts which are brought forward in this passage of Hippocrates from his attempted explanations, there can be no doubt that the same thing is in question here as that whichHerodotus describes. There are men amongst the Scythians who behave as women, speak as women, perform women’s work and keep with the women, and their condition the Scythians consider as something sent by the deity, and for this reason honour and fear these men. All the rest is part of the attempted explanations of the author, who brings together every possible consideration in order to discover a natural cause of the phenomenon, leaving utterly and entirely unrecognized all the time the most natural cause of all. This of course was due to no other reason except that it wasunknownto him, and that he was acquainted with the circumstances not from his own observation, but only from hearsay. This is a conjecture whichHeyne(loco citato) had already made in his time, but which has met with many opponents, yet without the argument having ever been properly brought to the test of the evidence. In favour of Heyne’s view a passage from the book περὶ ἄρθρων (On Joints)400might be cited, in whichthe limping of the men of the Amazons in consequence of the dislocation of the limbs is clearly declared to be an unauthenticated myth; for which reasonGruner401denied Hippocrates’ authorship of this work in opposition to the general witness of Antiquity.
But really and truly we are as well without the passage; for if what he relates were the result of his own observation, how could the author write in connexion with his remark that the Scythians bled themselves behind the ears, ταύτας τοίνυνμοι δοκέουσιτὰς φλέβας ἐπιτάμνειν (now these are the veins,as it seems to me, that they cut)? Is the actual fact possibly, that all these attempted explanations flowed from the pen of some later, or of several later, writers? At any rate for ourselves, we have never yet been able to get rid of a suspicion to that effect. But be this as it may, so much at least is certain, as was stated above; viz. that the Author was unacquainted with the actual cause of attempts to explain it, probably from misunderstandingthe effemination of the Scythians, and that all of the words ἀνανδρίες and εὐνουχίαι (unmanly, eunuch-like), aim at referring the loss of the generative power, i.e. ἀνανδρία in its strict sense, to some natural reason, while the effemination is looked upon merely as a secondary circumstance.
That Hippocrates was not, any more than the later Physicians of antiquity, fully and exactly acquainted with the consequences of the vice of the Pathic as affecting the body, we see from the following passage, appearing in an exceedingly corrupt form in the text of Foesius402: εὐνοῦχος ἐκ κυνηγεσίης καὶ διαδρομῆς ὑδραγωγὸς γίνεται· ὁ παρὰ τὴν Ἐλεαλκέος κρήνην· ὁ περὶ τὰ ἓξ ἄτεαἱππουρίντε καὶ βουβῶνα καὶἴξινκαὶ κέδματα· ὁ τὸνκενεῶναφθινήσας ἑβδομαῖος ἀπέθανεν,προπιούντων ἄπεπτον, ἁλμυρὰ μετὰ μέλιτος·πορνείη ἄχρωμοςδυσεντερίης ἄκος. (a eunuch by hunting or running becomes dropsical; he that is beside the fountain of Elealces; he that about six years [suffered from] “horse-tail” [a disease of the groin due to too much riding], swelling of the groin,varicoceleand dilatations; he that was sick in theflankdied the seventh day, when they were about to administer a raw drink, salt liquid with honey; inordinate fornication is a cure for dysentery.??) All editors of Hippocrates have been especially scandalized by the connection in which πορνείη ἄχρωμος (inordinate fornication) stands in this passage; onlyFoesiusdefended it, referring to other passages inAëtius403andPaul of Aegina404, in which coition is recommended in chronicdiarrhœa as drying up the humours. This he might equally well have established from Hippocrates himself, for the latter says (Epidem. bk. VI. sect. 5. note 29.), λαγνεία τῶν ἀπὸ φλέγματος νούσων ὠφέλιμον (lasciviousness is advantageous in diseases that arise from phlegm) and (note 26.), μίξις τὰ κατὰ τὴν γαστέρα σκληρύνει (sexual intercourse hardens the contents of the belly)]405. However this holds good only of the man who performs coition, inasmuch as the effusion of semen compels the body to supply what is lost, and this can only be done at the cost of other secretions, and so must stop the flow of any morbid secretions as well to a greater or less degree. But the question here is not of the coition the man performs, but of that which he suffers another to perform on him, in fact the vice of the Pathic, as the word (fornication) clearly shows; and that Pathics have habitually a pallid complexion has been already mentioned (p. 144).
To bring some sort of sense into the passage quoted above,Mercurialiswould read πόρνη ὡς ἄχρωμος (like a shameless harlot),Dacierπορνείη ἄχρωμον ἄκος, (fornication is a shameless remedy ...) andRichard Meadπροῤῥοὴ ἄχρωμος (an inordinate effusion). ButTriller406was the first to come to the conclusion that the words were in the wrong order, and emends the sentence thus:ὁ τὸναἰῶναφθινήσας,πορνείῃἄχρωμος, ἑβδομαῖος ἀπέθανεν,προϊόντων ἀπέπτων. Ἁλμυρὰ μετὰ μέλιτος δυσεντερίης ἄκος, (he that destroyed his life and vigour, being inordinate in fornication, died on the seventh day, undigested matters coming from him. Salt drinks with honey are a remedy for dysentery). This certainly makes it more readable, particularly if πορνείη ἄχρωμος is putbeforeὁ τὸν αἰῶνα, inasmuch as the pallid complexion was undoubtedly a forerunner of phthisis. His reasons, which we beg the reader to peruse for himself in the author’s work, are at any rate to us so convincing that we do not hesitate a moment to adopt his emendations. These have unfortunately hitherto gone entirely unnoticed; forGrimm, who appears to have taken no exception to the passage generally, has translated entirely in accordance with the old text, and not added any note at all. The same is the case withLilienhain, who has more recently gone over the same ground again; though both have restored instead of κενεῶνα (belly) αἰῶνα (life) previously conjectured byFoesius.
Granted that by these means the last sentence is made intelligible, and justice done Hippocrates by no longer making him recommend coition as a remedy against dysentery, still the preceding sentence likewise stands in need of correction. For ἴξιν obviously ἰξίαν or ἰξίας (varicosities) must be read, which indeed was done by former translators, and long ago suggested by Foesius; but as to ἱππουρίν, no sufficient account has ever yet been given by any editor. The word appears to us to be corrupt, and to have got into the text owing to the fact that in the Manuscript, instead of προπιούντων,—which indeed no single Codex has, the majority reading ὑποπνοιούντων, there stood in the next line ὑποπορούντων, ὑποῤῥυόντων or ὑπποῤῥεόντων.Cornariusread, περὶ ἓξ ἔτεαἐξ ἱππασίηςβουβῶνα, ἰξίας, κ. τ. λ. (for about six years,in consequence of riding, inguinal swellings, varicosities, etc.), but without assigning his reasons; in all probability however he made this conjecture, whichdoes not commend itself at any rate to us, with the passage about the Scythians in his mind’s eye.
But we can only arrive at a probable emendation on the condition that we correctly estimate the sequence of the sentences as a whole. If we are not greatly mistaken, it is as follows: First of all the question is of a Eunuch who became dropsical; then in connection with this, therestis added applying toanother Eunuch. In the Book περὶ γονῆς (Of the Seed), (Vol. I. p. 273. K.) we read: οἱ δὲ εὐνοῦχοι διὰ ταῦτα οὐ λαγνεύουσιν, ὅτι σφέων ἡ δίοδος ἀμαλδύνεται τῆς γονῆς—αὕτη δὲ ἡ δίοδος ὑπὸ τῆς τομῆςοὐλῆςγενομένης στερεὴ γέγονεν. (Now Eunuchs are not lascivious, because in them the passage of the seed is wasted away,... and this passage has become hardened by the wound where they were cut gettingskinned over but festering within). Now we might well be tempted to read in the text: ὁ περὶ τὰ ἓξ ἔτεα ὑπὸ τῆς τομῆς οὐλῆς καὶ βουβῶνα, that is to say, the man suffered for six years in consequence of the skinning over of the cut from swelling in the groin, etc. However this could hardly be justified, and we think it much better to join ὑπὸ and οὐλῆς and either to read ὕπουλος, ὑπουλῶς or ὑπουλὴν περὶ τὰ βουβῶνα, that is, he had had for six years festering places in the inguinal region,—which idea possibly Calvus may have had in his mind, or else ὑπουλήν τε καὶ βουβῶνας, he had had for six years festering places (fistulas), inguinal swellings, etc., or finally, what might seem the best of all, ὕπουλον βουβῶνα, a festering inguinal region407. In theDe morbis mulierum,(On the Diseases of Women), bk. I., edit Kühn, Vol. II. 680. we read, ὀδύνη ἔχει καὶ τὰς ἰξύας καὶ τοὺς κενεῶνας καὶ τοῦς βουβῶνας (pain holds both the loins and belly and the inguinal regions),—so we might perhaps similarly read here, ὕπουλον (ἔχει) καὶ βουβῶνα καὶ ἰξύα καὶ κενεῶνα καὶ κέδματα, πορνείη ἄχρωμος, φθινήσας κ. τ. λ. (he has in a festering condition both inguinal region and loin and belly and also varicosities, being inordinate in fornication, in pain etc.), which would give κέδματα the meaning ofVarices(varicosities), and the sense of the whole passage would then be as follows: “A Eunuch in consequence of hunting and running became dropsical; another at the fountain of Elealces, who for six years had had festering (fistulous) ulcers in the inguinal region, the loins and in the region of theos sacrum, as well as varicosities, had grown pallid and suffered wasting through indulgence in the vice of the pathic, died, after making involuntary evacuations, to counteract which he had taken salt with honey, a usual remedy against dysentery, on the seventh day.”
Be this as it may, at any rate it is shown very distinctly by the passage that its author was but very slightly acquainted with the consequences resulting from the vice of the Pathic, for he ascribes to itnothing but the pallidness of complexion, whereas the whole series of morbid symptoms might very well have been due to it (Comp. p. 180.). Certainly the Author is to be excused, for as a rule the bodily consequences resulting from the vice of the Pathic were in Greece very slight and of rare occurrence, neither did the vice in that country reach anything like such a height. Again among the pastoral Scythians, whose racial character in other respects was but little marked, the local bodily consequences fell rather into the background, while the assimilation of the whole person to the female type occurred the more readily; but at the same time stood out all the more glaringly conspicuous to the eyes of a foreign observer, as he had noted nothing to correspond at home. Thus it was easy for him to be misled in considering the marvellous phœnomenon into forgetting its real origin, which no doubt was, in seeming, somewhat remote; and was apt to think of any other cause rather than the vice of the pathic, the consequences of which even distinguished Physicians of more modern times failed adequately to appreciate. Is it for us to throw a stone on these grounds at Hippocrates and his contemporaries?
In confirmation of our view as to the νοῦσος θήλεια (feminine disease) we might further cite from more modern times the examples given byReineggsandJ. von Potockiin the case of the Mongolian race of the Nogay, and by the older Historians of America, particularly in connection with Florida and Mexico. Notoriously down to the present day Paederastia is in Asia one of the common vices, while as to America some reporters when speaking of the Men-women and Hermaphrodites of that Continent, expressly state that they indulged in the vice. But as the original Authorities are not accessible to us, we can only refer toHeyne, loco citato, p. 41. andStark, loco citato, pp. 29 and 31., especially as without this the subject has already occupied overmuch space. Still we trust the less blame mayattach to us on this account from the fact that so distinguished a scholar asStark, whose conclusions even professed Philologists have endorsed, may naturally claim of a younger enquirer in the same field who challenges his views, not mere general phrases, but the most complete and satisfactory reasons possible. This much merit we trust he cannot deny us!