Just as happened in Greece, immodesty spread not a little among the daughters and wives of the Roman citizens also, and already in the reign ofGermanicus,Tacituscould report215:“Eodem anno gravibus senatus decretis libido feminarum coercita, cautumque ne quaestum corpore faceret, cui avus aut pater aut maritus Eques Romanus fuisset.” (This same year severe decrees of the Senate were passed to restrain unchastity on the part of women, and it was forbidden for any to give her person for hire, whose grandfather, father, or husband had been a Roman knight). So it cannot cause any great surprise to findMartial216declaring:
“Quaero diu totam, Sophroni Rufe, per urbem:Si qua puella neget; nulla puella negat.”
(I have long been searching the city through, Sophronius Rufus, if there is e’er a maid to say no; there is not one!) To this result the introduction at Rome of the worship of Isis had contributed not a little217. Under pretence of serving Isis, the matrons found an opportunity of wantoning unhindered in the arms of paramours218, for the husbands dared not enter the temple precincts while their wives offered were performing their ten days’ devotion there. Probably in cases of disease of the genitals Roman women offered their prayers to Isis, as the men did to Priapus, for the temples of the goddess were full of images of parts of the body that had been healed and of maimed organs219, and contained numerous establishments for the care of sick persons of this particular character.
But of more influence than all the rest was the example which the EmperorsTiberius,Nero,Caligulaand the infamousMessalina220gave. Not contented with the possession of aHarem, they set up actual brothels in their palaces,—a practice the aristocracysoon copied, organizing similar establishments on their estates, to be able to wallow indisturbed in the mire of bestial lusts221.
Of vice as practised in the Baths and of male whores in the brothels we shall speak later.
Now how were Brothels and Courtesans affected in connection with the police of the State in Rome? It has been shown already that no penalty whatever attached either to illicit intercourse or to prostitution in general, because the disgrace to individuals involved in the commission of such offences in the eyes of their fellows was thought sufficient to ensure at any rate the daughters of citizens against unchastity. But the case was different with married women who were guilty of a breach of marriage honour. Of the manifold punishments we will mention only one here: the offender was imprisoned and obliged to surrender her person to all comers, whilst each time this took place a notification was given by the ringing of a bell;—a procedure that continued till finally abolished by the Emperor Theodosius222.
They sought indeed to avoid the punishment by declaring themselves engaged in Lenocinium (Procuration) as a calling, or by joining the ranks of the the actresses; but the Lex Papia included provisions to put a stop to this irregularity223.
Lenocinium(Procuration) in fact as well as thelicentia stupri(fornication permit) had to be notified before the Aediles224, whose especial duty it was tosee that no Matron became a prostitute225. With this object they were bound to frequently search all such places as have been specified above (loca aedilem metuentia—places that fear the aedile)226; but dared not themselves indulge in any immorality there227. When that pure-minded princeCaligulabecame Emperor, he introduced the Whore-duty (vectigal ex capturis—tax on prostitution-fees) as a State impost228. This,Alexander Severusretained, it is true, but assigned the revenue from it to the maintenance of the public buildings, that it might not contaminate the State Treasure.229
The information here collected, imperfect as it may be in many respects, is yet sufficient to throw some light on the external relations of brothels and courtesans. It shows convincingly that in the entire absence of police supervision on the sanitary side, such diseases as arose generally in Antiquity consequent upon coition must have had their especial home and chief focus in the brothels and their denizens. But of what nature these diseases were, and what parts of the body they attacked, we shall only then be able to determine, when we come to consider more precisely the actual excesses that led to them, whether within or without the walls of the brothels.
In the preceding investigations we have shown how the natural aim and object of coition, viz. procreation of children, fell more and more into the background, in order to make way for sensual gratification; and we have made acquaintance with the establishments that grew up in course of time for its indulgence. The facility with which the bestial instinct could be satisfied and the titillationof carnal pleasure procured, was bound to rob the customary manner of sexual indulgence of the charm of novelty, and to set the depraved imagination of the voluptuary at work to solve the problem of how to import manifold variations into the simple act of copulation. This stage reached, it inevitably followed that the natural ways of union of the sexes began to appear insufficient, and the methods of so-calledunnaturalLove (Venus illegitima) grew up, wherein at last almost every trace of the specific purpose of the genital organs was lost sight of.
The “figurae Veneris legitimae” (modes of natural Love) are not altogether without interest for the physician230, but their study is less necessary for our particular purpose. The modes of “Venus illegitima” (unnatural Love) are what concern us here. The major part of these have unfortunately never been included by writers on the history of Venereal disease within the range of their enquiries. Hence it has come about that while on the one hand they have given quite false interpretations of various morbid affections, they have on the other mistaken for the names of diseases expressions signifying nothing more than forms of the unnatural sensual indulgence alluded to. The historical enquirer into these subjects must indeed tread very slippery ground. Supposing him to rise superior to the possible reproaches of morality, fortified by the words of St. Paul231, still he canfind absolutely nowhere in his investigations any secure stopping-place, he must make up his mind to dispense with all external help and to be thrown utterly on his own resources. Not only do the best and fullest Dictionaries of the Greek and Latin languages leave him almost completely in the lurch, but above and beyond this he has very often to struggle with positive errors both in the Dictionaries and on the part of the professional Philologists in their annotations to the writings of the Ancients. These mistakes he must first of all discover, and afterwards correct. What such an undertaking involves, what powers it demands, will be obvious to anyone who is in any degree conversant with the systematic study of Antiquity. Nevertheless the task should not remain unattempted, if that is, we wish ever to come to a clear understanding of the relations of words and things in this connection; and on this ground the following researches no less than others find a legitimate place here. These we offer as the best that the limitation of our powers allowed,—at the same time gladly acknowledging the no small assistance we have received from the Treatises of Forberg and Meier232.
Paederastia appears, as is the case with all sexual perversions, to owe its origin to the stimulation of the Asiatic climate, the mother of exuberance and voluptuousness. The primary condition of its genesis may be easily traced, if side by side with the dictum of Forberg (loco citato, p. 235): “Et voluptas quidem paediconis facile intelligitur, cum omnis voluptas mentulae pendeat ex frictione” (And the pleasure indeed of the sodomite is readily intelligible, since all voluptuous pleasure depends on friction of the penis), we take into consideration the fact that the genital organs of Asiatic women,—a fact true also of Italian and Spanish women233—like their whole bodies, exhibit great looseness, and further note that the “Sphincter ani”234muscle far and away surpassesthe “Constrictor cunni” in strength. So it is by no means improbable that the Apostle Paul is accurate when he says235: “Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves;for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness.”
In Asianaturalcopulation formed a part of the Temple service of Venus, and in course of time Paederastia as well was joined with it, as is seen from the following passage of St. Athanasius236:“Sane olim Phoeniciae mulieres in idolorum templis prius prostabant, suique meretricii quaestus primordia diis, qui illic colebantur, consecrabant, suam deam stupris propitiam reddi, benevolamque hoc pacto effici ratae.Viri quoque propriam ementiti naturam, nec amplius mares se esse patientes, in feminas se converterunt, pergratum et honorificum matri deorum se ita facturas arbitrati.Omnes denique una cum perditissimis vivunt, et secum ipsi pugnant ut peiores quotidie evadant, atque ut dixit sanctus Christi minister Paulus:—(Here follows the passage just quoted from the Epistle to the Romans.)—Haec autem et similia agendo, fatentur certe et arguunt deos, quos ipsi colunt, huiusmodi vitam duxisse, scilicet ex Jove puerorum corruptiones atque adulteria, ex Venere meretriciam vitam ... ex aliis alia didicere, quae quidem cum leges puniunt, tum probi homines abhorrent.”
(Indeed the Phoenician women used in former times to prostitute themselves for hire in the temples of their idols and to offer up the gains of their fornication as first-fruits to the deities that were worshipped therein, deeming that in this way they won the favour and goodwill of their goddess. Moreover men, perverting their own proper nature, and no more enduring to be males, turned themselves into the likeness of women, supposing that by so doing they rendered a service most grateful and honourable to the Mother of the Gods. In one word they all consort with the most abandoned of mankind, and strive one with the other how they may grow worse and worse day by day; and as St. Paul the Apostle of Christ says:—(Here follows the passage just quoted from the Epistle to the Romans.)—By such and such-like acts they verily confess and show forth that those gods that themselves worship led lives of a like kind. Thus from Jupiter they learned to seduce boys and to commit adultery, from Venus harlotry, and so on from theother gods other vile practices,—practices which are at once punished by the laws and abominated by every honourable man). The same passage explains also how the Old Testament comes to designate Cinaedi (on pathic Sodomites) by the expression קָדֵשׁ (kadêsh, sanctus,—holy, consecrated). This originally implied nothing more than a person who devoted himself for the glory of a God as a servant in his Temple; and we have good reason for believing we can establish the conjecture that the whole cult of the Priests of Cybelé, etc., who had to practice emasculation and who were known by the name ofGalli, rests originally on a simple misunderstanding of the expressions εὐνοῦχοι and ἀνδρόγυνοι (eunuchs, men-women),—expressions which will be discussed later on,—these words having meant at first nothing more thanCinaedi(sodomites). It was only in later times that Paederastia became a motive for Castration, as by this means the body of the male could be made to preserve for a longer period the youthful boyishness that approximated it to the female form. This is shown in the following passage of Lucian237, a passage of special interest for the history of Paederastia:
“So at first when men still lived the old heroic life and reverenced virtue that brought them nearer the gods, they obeyed the laws that nature had laid down and marrying in due proportion of age became the fathers of noble children. But little by little the age degenerated from that high levelto the pit of sensual indulgence, and struck out new and abnormal modes of gratification. Soon a reckless licentiousness broke the very laws of nature; and for the first time a lover looked on amanas on a woman to lust after him, and worked his wicked will either by superior force or by dint of artful persuasions. So in one bed came together one and the same sex. And each seeing himself in the other, took no shame in anything they did or in anything they suffered to be done. Wasting their seed on barren238rocks, as the saying goes, they bought a brief pleasure at the cost of deepest infamy. Indeed with some to such a height of overmastering force did their reckless passion rise that they actually violated nature with the knife; and only when they had emptied men of their manliness did they attain the summit and acmé of their gratification.
“But the wretched and unhappy creatures, that they may remain longer boys, suffer themselves to be no more men,—an ambiguous riddle midway between the sexes, neither preserving the sex they were born to, nor yet having any other to belongto. The bloom that was kept a while in youth withers in old age and makes them wither with it in premature decay. At one moment they are counted as boys, then lo! they are old men; there is no middle time of manhood between the two. Thus wanton luxury, the foul mother of every evil thing, contriving shameful pleasures one to cap the other, fell into the slough of thatdiseasethat cannot even be named with decency, (μέχρι τῆς οὐ ῥηθῆναι δυναμένης εὐπρεπῶς νόσου) that no province of impurity might remain unexplored.”
In later times indeed castration was resorted to after the attainment of man’s estate, in order that the Eunuchs might be able to appease the titillation of sensual desire in the women without fear of impregnating them239.
In Syria, where this vicious practice of paederastia was especially in vogue, the Jews also appear to have been acquainted with it240. From Asia, whether through the instrumentality of the Phoenicians, or asWelcker241maintains, through that of the Lydians, Paederastia came in the first instance to Crete, and spread from thence over the whole of Greece242.
Just as was the case with the cult of Venus in that country, so the “love of boys” assumed quite a different form in Greece. AsPaedophilia(Affection for boys) it took rank as one of the means ofeducation, being consecrate to the heavenly Eros, while Paederastia (Carnal love of boys) fell to the province of the common Eros. Down to quite modern times Paedophilia has been confounded with Paederastia, and in this way a shameful stigma attached to the Greeknation,—a stigma thatMeier, following the initiative ofJacobsandK. O. Müller(loco citato), was the first to free the Greeks from. Granted, the two things approached very near each other; stillPaederastia was never approved by the Greeks243. At Sparta the violation of boys waspunished by loss of civil rights, exile or death244, and it was the same at Athens, asMeier(loco citato) pp. 167 sqq. has sufficiently proved. The fact that the laws relating to this offence were promulgated at Athens only after the time ofSolonshows that paederastia, as well as brothels, did not come into use there till about that time. True Athens in later times was quite as notorious for the prevalence there of paederastia as Corinth was for its Gay Women245; and Aristophanes’ Comediesshow only too abundantly how much occasion he could find for scourging the “Pathics”, and how the Gymnasia and Palaestrae (Wrestling-grounds) also were responsible for a great deal of the harm done.
For, as Aristophanes246says:
ἐν παιδοτρίβου δὲ καθίζοντας, τὸν μηρὸν ἔδει προβαλέσθαιτοὺς παῖδας, ὅπως τοῖς ἔξωθεν μηδὲν δείξειαν ἀπηνές.εἶτ’ αὖ πάλιν αὖθις ἀνισταμένους ξυμψῆσαι, καὶ προνοῆσαιεἴδωλον τοῖσιν ἐρασταῖσιν τῆς ἥβης μὴ καταλείπειν.
ἐν παιδοτρίβου δὲ καθίζοντας, τὸν μηρὸν ἔδει προβαλέσθαιτοὺς παῖδας, ὅπως τοῖς ἔξωθεν μηδὲν δείξειαν ἀπηνές.εἶτ’ αὖ πάλιν αὖθις ἀνισταμένους ξυμψῆσαι, καὶ προνοῆσαιεἴδωλον τοῖσιν ἐρασταῖσιν τῆς ἥβης μὴ καταλείπειν.
ἐν παιδοτρίβου δὲ καθίζοντας, τὸν μηρὸν ἔδει προβαλέσθαιτοὺς παῖδας, ὅπως τοῖς ἔξωθεν μηδὲν δείξειαν ἀπηνές.εἶτ’ αὖ πάλιν αὖθις ἀνισταμένους ξυμψῆσαι, καὶ προνοῆσαιεἴδωλον τοῖσιν ἐρασταῖσιν τῆς ἥβης μὴ καταλείπειν.
ἐν παιδοτρίβου δὲ καθίζοντας, τὸν μηρὸν ἔδει προβαλέσθαι
τοὺς παῖδας, ὅπως τοῖς ἔξωθεν μηδὲν δείξειαν ἀπηνές.
εἶτ’ αὖ πάλιν αὖθις ἀνισταμένους ξυμψῆσαι, καὶ προνοῆσαι
εἴδωλον τοῖσιν ἐρασταῖσιν τῆς ἥβης μὴ καταλείπειν.
(Of old when boys sat at the trainer’s, they were bound to throw out the thigh, so as not to expose to the spectators’ gaze anything unbecoming; then again when they got up again, they had to scrape out the mark in the sand, and take care not to leave behind a model of their youthful shape,—an incitement to lovers).
Besides the Gymnasia and Palaestrae, the barber’s shops (κουρεῖα)247, perfumers’ shops (μυροπωλεῖα)248, Surgeries (ἰατρεῖα)249, Money-changers’ counters (τράπεζαι)250, bath-houses251, and to a greater or less extent all kinds of workshops (ἐργαστήρια)252, particularly when in situations handy to the Market, served as trysting-places of the paederasts and pathics. Here the former sought victims for their vicious desires, and the latter opportunities to sell their persons; while many of the proprietors of such places may well have acted as Procurers (προαγωγοί, μαστροποί,—Procurers, Pandars) for this purpose. The vice itself was chiefly practised in lonely, obscure parts of the town, and particularly on the Pnyx hill253.
The Eleans and Bœotians are not only reproached with paederastia, but the violation of boys is alleged to have beenallowedamong these peoples254. Megarait is true is charged with ὕβρις (shameful violence), a common designation for paederastia255, but we may certainly doubt whether the temple of Ἀφροδίτη πρᾶξις there, whichPausanias256, mentions, had anything to do with this vice. The author in question says: “After the sanctuary of Dionysus is shown a temple of Venus. The image of Venus is of ivory, and is called AphroditéPraxis. It is the most ancient image in the temple.” No other author however mentions any such cult as existing in Megara, and even though the word πρᾶξις (intercourse), asMeier(loco citato p. 153, note 49) has shown by examples, is used specially of paederastia, yet at the same time the passage ofEuripides, Ion 894.
θεὸς ὀμευνέτας ἆγες ἀναιδείᾳΚύπριδι χάριν πράσσων.
θεὸς ὀμευνέτας ἆγες ἀναιδείᾳΚύπριδι χάριν πράσσων.
θεὸς ὀμευνέτας ἆγες ἀναιδείᾳΚύπριδι χάριν πράσσων.
θεὸς ὀμευνέτας ἆγες ἀναιδείᾳ
Κύπριδι χάριν πράσσων.
(Thou, god, partner of my bed, didst lead me, in shamelessnessdoing favour to Cypris—Love), clearly proves that πράσσειν (to do, to have intercourse) was used of coition generally257.
Moreover in the passage ofPlutarchquoted alittle above paederastia is called χάρις ἄχαρις (a grace that is without grace) and further down Ἔρως, Ἀφροδίτης μὴ παρούσης,—Ἔρως χωρὶς Ἀφροδίτης, (Love—Eros—where Aphrodité is not, Love without Aphrodité); so how can it have been regarded by the Greeks as under thepatronageof Venus? Undoubtedly πρᾶξις is here synonymous with πόρνη (harlot), and the Ἀφροδίτη πρᾶξις at Megara is nothing else than the Ἀφροδίτη πόρνη of other cities.
Chalcishad gained such notoriety for paederastia258, that χαλκιδίζειν (to act the Chalcidian) was said proverbially for παιδεραστεῖν (to practise paederastia). It was the same withChiosandSiphnos, as the expressions χιάζειν and σιφνιάζειν (to play the Chian, the Siphnian) inHesychiusprove. Hesychius says indeedσιφνιάζειν: i.e. to finger behind; for the Siphnians are ill-spoken of as enjoying boy-lovers. To act the Siphnian then means, to poke with the finger. But the first explanation by καταδακτυλίζειν (to finger behind), as well as the gloss ofSuidas259, show clearly that the inhabitants of the island of Siphnos,—one of the Cyclades, practised a species, if we may use the expression, ofOnania postica(back-door, posterior masturbation),—like the cobbler at Vienna, who to allay the Prurigo ani (itching of the anus) pushed his hammer up his posterior, and then alas! could not pull itout again. In the same way the Siphnians used the fingers260.
The inhabitants of Italy were according toSuidas(under the name Θάμυρις—Thamyris) inventors of paederastia; and Etruscans, Samnites and Messapians, as well as the Greeks dwelling in Magna Graecia, lay under the reproach of practising the most vicious forms of love with men and violation of boys261. In all probability the vice spread from here to Rome, where it is found as early as the year 433 A.U.C.262. To such an extent did it increase that in 585 A.U.C. (B.C. 169), asMeierhas demonstrated, theLex Scantiniahad to be passed against it. Yet all this amounted as yet to nothing in comparison with the scenes of horror that were enacted under the EmperorsTiberius,Caligula, etc., of whomMartial263says:
Tanquam parva foret sexus iniuria nostriFoedandos populo prostituisse mares264,Iam cunae leonis erant, ut ab ubere raptusSordida vagitu posceret aera puer,Immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.Non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater:Idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,Ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.Dilexere prius pueri, iuvenesque senesque:At nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar, amant.
Tanquam parva foret sexus iniuria nostriFoedandos populo prostituisse mares264,Iam cunae leonis erant, ut ab ubere raptusSordida vagitu posceret aera puer,Immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.Non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater:Idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,Ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.Dilexere prius pueri, iuvenesque senesque:At nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar, amant.
Tanquam parva foret sexus iniuria nostriFoedandos populo prostituisse mares264,Iam cunae leonis erant, ut ab ubere raptusSordida vagitu posceret aera puer,Immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.Non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater:Idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,Ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.Dilexere prius pueri, iuvenesque senesque:At nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar, amant.
Tanquam parva foret sexus iniuria nostri
Foedandos populo prostituisse mares264,
Iam cunae leonis erant, ut ab ubere raptus
Sordida vagitu posceret aera puer,
Immatura dabant infandas corpora poenas.
Non tulit Ausonius talia monstra pater:
Idem qui teneris nuper succurrit ephebis,
Ne faceret steriles saeva libido viros.
Dilexere prius pueri, iuvenesque senesque:
At nunc infantes te quoque, Caesar, amant.
(As though it were a small wrong done our sex to make males prostitutes264to be debauched by the crowd, cradles now became a part of the brothel-keeper’s stock in trade, that the baby-boy torn fromthe breast might solicit a sordid wage by his wailing, and immature bodies paid horrible penalties. Horrors such as these the great Father of Italy (Domitian) would not suffer: that same good Emperor who of late came to the rescue of tender youths, that raging lust might not make men unfruitful. Heretofore boys loved him,—and young men and old; now the very infants too love thee, Caesar).
Yet this was of little avail; the vice descended from generation to generation, and passed on to the Christian nations, just as the Roman punishments did in their legal codes.
If we consider, first that the contractile power of theSphincter animuscle offered great resistance to the paederast, a resistance only to be overcome by the exertion of considerable force, secondly that the glands of therectumexude a malodorous secretion, which under the influence of climate,—a subject to be dealt with more precisely later on,—assumes a more or less acrid quality, it will not surprise us to find that manifold forms of disease showed themselves in Ancient times both among paederasts and cinaedi (pathics). These were no doubt all the more serious in cases where the one set of organs or the other was already morbidly affected. As to the paederast indeed the direct evidence is scanty, yet it is not entirely wanting, as may be seen from the following Epigram ofMartial265:
In Naevolum.
Mentula cum doleat puero, tibi, Naevole,culus,Non sum divinus, sed scio quid facias.
Mentula cum doleat puero, tibi, Naevole,culus,Non sum divinus, sed scio quid facias.
Mentula cum doleat puero, tibi, Naevole,culus,Non sum divinus, sed scio quid facias.
Mentula cum doleat puero, tibi, Naevole,culus,
Non sum divinus, sed scio quid facias.
(To Naevolus.—When I seepained and sore the boy’s penis and your posterior, Naevolus,—I’m no wizard, but I know what it is you do). Here we see both parts suffering from disease, the paederast in his penis, the pathic in his posterior: andMartialconcludes Naevolus was acinaedus.
But more especially must phimosis and paraphimosis have had a tendency to be set up in the case of the paederast. These at first, because the continuous state of erection of thepeniswhich is a feature of these affections was obviously the most visibly conspicuous symptom, were designated by the name Satyriasis, the usual appellation of the latter condition. This will also give a probable explanation of the mortality from this cause observed byThemisoninCrete266,—a locality notorious, as we have seen, for the dishonouring of boys,—and generally for the frequency of Satyriasis, which often took an almost epidemic character in that island. Paraphimosis it should be noted in passing had already been only too frequently noted as affecting masturbators. Physicians indeed say nothing as to the predisposing causes, and explain the disease as arising from anAcrimonia humorum(Acridness of the humours) or from drinking a Philtre (Love-potion).Naumann267appears to wish to make the Satyriasis that prevailed in Crete some form of leprous affection, but for this view we can find absolutely no ground.
Much more frequent mention is found of affections of therectumamong the pathics as consequences of paederastia. First come fissures, and in their train ulcers of therectum; whence the expressionssectus,percisus(cut), and the like are applied so often in Roman writers to the pathic, and to his vice generally. SoMartial268says:
In Carinum.
Secti podicis usque ad umbilicumNullas reliquias habet Carinus,Et prurit tamen usque ad umbilicum.O quanta scabie miser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.
Secti podicis usque ad umbilicumNullas reliquias habet Carinus,Et prurit tamen usque ad umbilicum.O quanta scabie miser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.
Secti podicis usque ad umbilicumNullas reliquias habet Carinus,Et prurit tamen usque ad umbilicum.O quanta scabie miser laborat!Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.
Secti podicis usque ad umbilicum
Nullas reliquias habet Carinus,
Et prurit tamen usque ad umbilicum.
O quanta scabie miser laborat!
Culum non habet, est tamen cinaedus.
(To Carinus. —Carinus has no relics left ofhis fundament, cut up to the very navel; and yet he itches with desire up to the very navel. Oh! what a vile itch torments the unhappy man! He possesses no posterior, and nevertheless is a cinaedus (pathic).)
In Lesbiam269.
De cathedra quoties surgis, jam saepe notavi,Paedicant miseram, Lesbia,te tunicae.Quas cum conata es dextra, conata sinistraVellere, cum lacrimis eximis et gemitu.Sic constringuntur gemina Symplegade culi,Et Minyas intrant Cyaneasque nates.Emendare cupisvitium deforme? docebo.Lesbia, nec surgas censeo, nec sedeas!
De cathedra quoties surgis, jam saepe notavi,Paedicant miseram, Lesbia,te tunicae.Quas cum conata es dextra, conata sinistraVellere, cum lacrimis eximis et gemitu.Sic constringuntur gemina Symplegade culi,Et Minyas intrant Cyaneasque nates.Emendare cupisvitium deforme? docebo.Lesbia, nec surgas censeo, nec sedeas!
De cathedra quoties surgis, jam saepe notavi,Paedicant miseram, Lesbia,te tunicae.Quas cum conata es dextra, conata sinistraVellere, cum lacrimis eximis et gemitu.Sic constringuntur gemina Symplegade culi,Et Minyas intrant Cyaneasque nates.Emendare cupisvitium deforme? docebo.Lesbia, nec surgas censeo, nec sedeas!
De cathedra quoties surgis, jam saepe notavi,
Paedicant miseram, Lesbia,te tunicae.
Quas cum conata es dextra, conata sinistra
Vellere, cum lacrimis eximis et gemitu.
Sic constringuntur gemina Symplegade culi,
Et Minyas intrant Cyaneasque nates.
Emendare cupisvitium deforme? docebo.
Lesbia, nec surgas censeo, nec sedeas!
(To Lesbia.—As oft as you rise from your chair, Lesbia, I have many a time noticed the fact,your undergarments, poor lady, play the paederast with you. You endeavour to pluck them away first with the right, anon with the left hand; finally you release them with tears and groaning. So drawn together are the twin Symplegades of your fundament, and enter in between Minyan and Cyanean buttocks. Would you faincurethis ungraceful defect? I will tell you how: I think, Lesbia, you’d better not get up, nor yet sit down!)
Usually indeed the Pathic tried to conceal his complaint, and to make it pass under some other name, as does Charisianus:
De Charisiano270.
Multis jam, Lupe, posse se diebusPaedicare negat Charisianus.Caussam cum modo quaererent sodales:Ventrem, dixit,habere se solutum.
Multis jam, Lupe, posse se diebusPaedicare negat Charisianus.Caussam cum modo quaererent sodales:Ventrem, dixit,habere se solutum.
Multis jam, Lupe, posse se diebusPaedicare negat Charisianus.Caussam cum modo quaererent sodales:Ventrem, dixit,habere se solutum.
Multis jam, Lupe, posse se diebus
Paedicare negat Charisianus.
Caussam cum modo quaererent sodales:
Ventrem, dixit,habere se solutum.
(On Charisianus.—Charisianus says, Lupus, that for many days he has been unable to indulge in paederastia. When his comrades asked the reason;his bowels, he said,were relaxed!)
But most frequently of all are the fig-like swellings on the fundament (Ficus, Mariscae,—figs, large figs) mentioned by Ancient authors as a consequence of paederastia.
De se Priapus271.
Non sum de fragili dolatus ulmo;Nec quae stat rigida supina vena,De ligno mihi quolibet columna est,Sed viva generata de cupresso.—Hanc, tu quisquis es, o malus, timeto:Nam si vel minimos manu rapaciHoc de palmite laeseris racemos:Nascetur, licet hoc velis negare,Inserta tibi ficus a cupresso.
Non sum de fragili dolatus ulmo;Nec quae stat rigida supina vena,De ligno mihi quolibet columna est,Sed viva generata de cupresso.—Hanc, tu quisquis es, o malus, timeto:Nam si vel minimos manu rapaciHoc de palmite laeseris racemos:Nascetur, licet hoc velis negare,Inserta tibi ficus a cupresso.
Non sum de fragili dolatus ulmo;Nec quae stat rigida supina vena,De ligno mihi quolibet columna est,Sed viva generata de cupresso.—Hanc, tu quisquis es, o malus, timeto:Nam si vel minimos manu rapaciHoc de palmite laeseris racemos:Nascetur, licet hoc velis negare,Inserta tibi ficus a cupresso.
Non sum de fragili dolatus ulmo;
Nec quae stat rigida supina vena,
De ligno mihi quolibet columna est,
Sed viva generata de cupresso.—
Hanc, tu quisquis es, o malus, timeto:
Nam si vel minimos manu rapaci
Hoc de palmite laeseris racemos:
Nascetur, licet hoc velis negare,
Inserta tibi ficus a cupresso.
(Priapus on Himself.—I am not hewn of fragile elm, nor is my pillar that stands bent back with penis stiffly erect of any chance wood, but born of the living cypress.—Beware this image, thief, whoe’er thou art; for should you damage with plunderinghand the tiniest clusters of this stem,there shall grow a fig, deny it if you will,of cypress-wood inserted up your fundament.)
De Labieno272.
Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos,Nil nisificetumnunc Labienus habet.
Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos,Nil nisificetumnunc Labienus habet.
Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos,Nil nisificetumnunc Labienus habet.
Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos,
Nil nisificetumnunc Labienus habet.
(On Labienus.—To buy boys Labienus sold his gardens; nought but afig-gardendoes Labienus now possess.)
Ad Caecilianum273.
Cum dixificus, rides quasi barbara verba.Et dicificos, Caeciliane, iubes.Dicemusficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,Dicemusficos, Caeciliane,tuos.
Cum dixificus, rides quasi barbara verba.Et dicificos, Caeciliane, iubes.Dicemusficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,Dicemusficos, Caeciliane,tuos.
Cum dixificus, rides quasi barbara verba.Et dicificos, Caeciliane, iubes.Dicemusficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,Dicemusficos, Caeciliane,tuos.
Cum dixificus, rides quasi barbara verba.
Et dicificos, Caeciliane, iubes.
Dicemusficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,
Dicemusficos, Caeciliane,tuos.
(To Caecilianus.—When I have saidficus, you laugh, Caecilianus, as though I had committed a solecism, and declareficosshould be the word. We will sayficus, meaning the figs that we know grow on the tree, but your figs, Caecilianus, we will callficos).
Now too we shall understand themedico ridente(the doctor grinning) in the following passage ofJuvenal(II. 12):
Sed podice laeviCaedunturtumidae, medico ridente,mariscae.
Sed podice laeviCaedunturtumidae, medico ridente,mariscae.
Sed podice laeviCaedunturtumidae, medico ridente,mariscae.
Sed podice laevi
Caedunturtumidae, medico ridente,mariscae.
(But from your smooth posterior are cut, the doctor grinning the while,the bloated swellings).Just as it admits of no doubt that in the passage ofHorace274:
Nam, displosa sonat quantum vesica, pepediDiffissa nateficos.
Nam, displosa sonat quantum vesica, pepediDiffissa nateficos.
Nam, displosa sonat quantum vesica, pepediDiffissa nateficos.
Nam, displosa sonat quantum vesica, pepedi
Diffissa nateficos.
(For as loud as a burst bladder sounds, I farted my swellings (ficos—figs) away, splitting the rump),ficosand not as commonlyficusmust be read.
That these morbid growths were not entirely free from contagious matter seems to be indicated by the following passages. In thePriapeia(Carm. 50) we read:
Quaedam, si placet hoc tibi, Priape,Ficosissima me puella ludit,Et non dat mihi, nec negat daturam;Causasque invenit usque differendi.Quae si contigerit fruenda nobis,Totam cum paribus, Priape, nostrisCingemus tibi mentulam coronis.
Quaedam, si placet hoc tibi, Priape,Ficosissima me puella ludit,Et non dat mihi, nec negat daturam;Causasque invenit usque differendi.Quae si contigerit fruenda nobis,Totam cum paribus, Priape, nostrisCingemus tibi mentulam coronis.
Quaedam, si placet hoc tibi, Priape,Ficosissima me puella ludit,Et non dat mihi, nec negat daturam;Causasque invenit usque differendi.Quae si contigerit fruenda nobis,Totam cum paribus, Priape, nostrisCingemus tibi mentulam coronis.
Quaedam, si placet hoc tibi, Priape,
Ficosissima me puella ludit,
Et non dat mihi, nec negat daturam;
Causasque invenit usque differendi.
Quae si contigerit fruenda nobis,
Totam cum paribus, Priape, nostris
Cingemus tibi mentulam coronis.
(A certain girl, if it please you to listen, Priapus, is playing with me. Most sorely afflicted is she with swellings; and she will not give herself to me, yet does not say she never will, and ever finds excuses for putting off and putting off. Now if ever she shall be mine to enjoy, I and my comrades with me, will wreath all thypenis, Priapus, with garlands). The girl, who was badly affected with these swellings, and that presumably in the secret parts, refuses her lover coition. The latter does not insist, but prays to Priapus, as was habitually done in all cases of affections of the genitals (see p. 74 above) and vows to deck his penis with garlands. It follows that the lover was aware these swellings would be injurious to him, if he should constrain the girl, of whom the poet says,nec negat daturam(yet does not say she willnotgive herself), to lie with him. Still clearer evidence of this may befound in the following Epigram ofMartial, where a whole family is affected with these swellings or tumours:
De familia ficosa.275Ficosa est uxor, ficosus et ipse maritus,Filia ficosa est, et gener atque nepos.Nec dispensator, nec villicus,ulcere turpi,Nec rigidus fossor, sed nec arator eget.Cum sint ficosi pariter iuvenesque senesque,Res mira est, ficus non habet unus ager.
De familia ficosa.275Ficosa est uxor, ficosus et ipse maritus,Filia ficosa est, et gener atque nepos.Nec dispensator, nec villicus,ulcere turpi,Nec rigidus fossor, sed nec arator eget.Cum sint ficosi pariter iuvenesque senesque,Res mira est, ficus non habet unus ager.
De familia ficosa.275Ficosa est uxor, ficosus et ipse maritus,Filia ficosa est, et gener atque nepos.Nec dispensator, nec villicus,ulcere turpi,Nec rigidus fossor, sed nec arator eget.Cum sint ficosi pariter iuvenesque senesque,Res mira est, ficus non habet unus ager.
De familia ficosa.275
Ficosa est uxor, ficosus et ipse maritus,
Filia ficosa est, et gener atque nepos.
Nec dispensator, nec villicus,ulcere turpi,
Nec rigidus fossor, sed nec arator eget.
Cum sint ficosi pariter iuvenesque senesque,
Res mira est, ficus non habet unus ager.
(On a tumourous household.—The goodwife is tumourous, tumourous the goodman her husband, tumourous the daughter of the house, and the son-in-law and the grandson. Neither house-steward nor factor is free of the foul ulcer, nor the rugged ditcher, nor yet the ploughman. Now when all alike, young and old have tumours (ficos, ficus), the strange thing is, not a single field has fig-trees (ficus)). For the rest the wordsulcere turpi(foul ulcer) show thatficus, like σύκος and σύκωσις (fig, fig-like swelling) in Greek, signifies not only a fig-shaped swelling, but also an ulcer with granulous surface, like a fig cut in two. Or possibly it would be better to understand here swellings that have passed into the ulcerated stage276.
Seeing how plainly the passages just quoted from non-medical Writers point to these swellings being a consequence of paederastia, it is surprising that not one of the Ancient physicians, spite ofJuvenal’s medico ridente(the doctor grinning the while), ever so far as we know, alleges this form of licentiousness as cause of affections of the sort. On the other hand we cannot help remarking that the frequency of these swellings in the time ofMartialandJuvenalcan hardly be explained as arising solely from the general prevalence of paederastia. More probably, then as now, theGenius epidemicus(Epidemic influences) bore no unimportant share in bringing about the result, just as was the case (see later) withMentagra(Eruption of the chin).
However not merely primary affections of the posteriors were the punishment of theCinaedus, but also secondary ones of themouthandthroat. First and foremost was hoarseness of the voice, to whichMartial277alludes, when he makes the champion of the baths thecinaedusCharinus speakraucidulo ore(with a weak, hoarse voice). This we find, followingReiske’s278indication, more explicitly dealt with inDio Chrysostom279:—
“But this is surely worth mentioning, and it is a thing no one can deny. I mean the noteworthy fact that a disease has attacked so many in this city,—one which I used to hear of as prevailing much more frequently with others than amongst you. What is it I mean? Even though I could explain myself no more clearly, yet you might easily guess the answer. Do not think I am speaking of secrets, of hidden doings, when the astounding fact itself speaks plainly enough. For there are many in this city that are asleep, even while they walk and stand and speak; though they may appear to most observers to be awake, yet it is not really so.
“Now they give, in my opinion, the clearest proof that they are asleep,—they snore (ῥέγχουσιν). I cannot, by heaven, express myself more clearly with decency. True only a few of the sleepersare suffering from the complaint I mean, and of the others it affects only the drunken, the overfed and such as have lain ill. But I maintain this vicious practice (ἔργον) shames the city and brands it publicly. The grossest ignominy is brought down upon their native city by these sleepers by day, and they ought, I say, to have been expelled your borders, as has been their fate everywhere else. For it is not now and then, nor here and there, they are met with; but at all times and in all places in the city occasion may be found to threaten, scorn or deride them. For the rest the practice has actually penetrated now to boys still young, and adults that yet would fain be reputable, suffer themselves to be led away into regarding the matter as a trifle, and if they refrain from the decisive step, yet it was their wish to take it.
“If there were a city in which wailing were to be heard all day long, and no one could walk about in it, no! not one minute, without listening to the sound of lamentation, tell me, what man would willingly stay here? Now wailing, as all agree, is a sign of unhappiness; but that other sound is the sign of shamelessness and lewdness the most scandalous. Surely one would much rather choose to associate with unhappy men than with paederasts280. I might avoid listening, if a single man were to be blowing the flute everlastingly, but if in a particular place there is an everlasting noise of flutes, singing or guitar-playing,—such as might be where the rocks ever ring with the Syrens’ song,—I could not, having arrived there, endure to remain. And this unmusical and harsh tone of voice281, what man of any virtue can abide it?If a man passes in front of a home in which he catches the sound, he says, “Of a surety there is a brothel there!” Now what shall be said of a city where nothingbutthis tone of voice prevails universally, so that no exception can be made of time or day or place whatever? For in streets and houses, in public places, in the theatre and in the Gymnasium,paederastiais rife282.
“Again I have never yet heard a flute-player of a morning in the city, but this horrible sort of din is raised283from earliest dawn.
“I do not indeed shut my eyes to the fact that it will be said I am talking silly nonsense most likely, in making such allegations, and that there is nothing in it. Nay! but surely you are only carrying pot-herbs in your cart, and behold with indifference profusion of white bread on the road, as well as salt and fresh meat. But just consider the thing (πρᾶγμα i. e. paederastia) in this way too: If any one of these objectors should come into a city, where all men, when they point to a thing, point at it with the middle finger284, when any one givesthe right hand, gives it with this same gesture, and when he stretches out the hand, as the people does in voting or the judges in giving decisions, does so in the same way, what, pray will he think of such a city? What, if further all men walk in this city with skirts up-raised, as if wading in a quagmire? For do you not really and truly know what has given occasion to the defamation you suffer; what it is has offered matter to such as are unfriendly disposed to you for censure on our city? Tell me, what is the reason they nickname you “hawks” (κερκίδες)285?
“Well, but you opine the question is not what others say of you, but what you really do yourselves? Good; but if a single disease of such a sort attacks a people that they all of them acquire women’s voices, and no man, neither stripling nor grey-beard, can utter a word in a man’s voice, is not this a horrible thing, and harder to bear, I should suppose, than any Plague? For it is notshamefulto have a fever, nor even to die.
“Nay! but to speak with women’s voice is after all to speak with human voice, and no one is filled with aversion when he hears a woman. But, tell me, whose is this voice; does it not belong to theAndrogyni(men-women), the Cinaedi? or to such as have had the genitals amputated? True it is not invariably found with all such, but it is characteristic of them and a sign of what they are.
“Well then! suppose a stranger from a distance to judge from your voices, what kind of men you are, and what are your pursuits (πράττειν,—what it is you do). You are not fit, I tell you, to be neatherds or shepherds. I wonder would any one take you for descendants of the Argives, as you profess to be, or indeed for Greeks at all,—you who outdo the Phoenicians in lubricity? At any rate I do think it would behove a man of any morality in such a city to close his ears with wax far more than if he were sailing past the Syrens’ shore. There he would run the risk of death, but here of foulest licence, of violation, of the vilest seduction.
“Once Ionic harmony was in vogue, or Doric, or yet another sort, the Phrygian and Lydian, now it is the music of Aradus and the Phoenician modes that please you; you love this rhythmpar excellence, as others do the Spondaic. Was ever a race of men that were good musicianers—through the nose?!
(p. 409). “But such a rhythm must needs have something to follow. You would seem not to know what; just as with other nations the wrath of the gods overtook some single part, the hands, the feet or the face286, in the same way among you an endemic disease has attacked the nose. Just as the angry Aphrodité they say made the Lemnian women’s armpits abominable, know now that the gods in their anger have played havoc with the noses of most of your fellow citizens, and that is why they have this characteristic voice of their own. Indeed from where else could it have come?
“ButIsay this thing is the mark of most infamous lewdness, of most infamous madness, of contempt for all decency (all morality), and (a proof) of the fact that there is no more any single thing held to be disgraceful. Their speech, their gait, their look, proclaim it.”
From this passage of Dio Chrysostom, who lived at the end of the First and beginning of the Second Century A.D., we see that at that period the vice of paederastia prevailed at Tarsus to an appalling extent; and very possibly it is this circumstance that gave occasion to the declaration of the Apostle St. Paul287, whose native town of course Tarsus was, when he says:
“Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves.... For their women288changed the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due.” This recompense was no doubt the ῥέγχειν (snoring), which according toReiskewas the consequence of an affection of the throat and nose in which the breath was exhaled with a characteristic noise. To corroborate this view he quotes in his edition of Dio Chrysostom the following passage fromAmmianus Marcellinus289, who picturing the habits of the Romans in the middle of the Fourth Century, wrote thus: “Haec nobilium instituta. Ex turba vero imae sortis et pauperrimae, in tabernis aliqui pernoctant vinariis: nonnulli velabris umbraculorum theatralium latent, quae Campanam imitatus lasciviam Catulus in aedilitate sua suspendit omnium primus; aut pugnaciter aleis certant,turpi sono fragosis naribus introrsum reducto spiritu concrepantes.” (Such are the usages of the nobles. But of the masses, those of lowest and poorest lot, certain spend the night in wine-taverns, some lurk under the curtains of the theatre awnings,—which Catulus in his aedileship, imitating Campanian luxury, was the very first to erect; or quarrel and fight at dice,making an ugly rattling sound the while by drawing in the breath through their rough nostrils).
Now we know that paederasts had foul breaths, asMartial290indeed noted, consequently the mucous membrane of the mouth was morbidly affected in its action, and further that they spokeraucidulo ore(with hoarse voice)291, which must have been with many the ordinary consequence of a thickening of the tissues by previous ulceration; and at this fact this Speech of Dio Chrysostom, asReiskeunderstands it, may very well hint. But to take the main gist of his speech, the author of the “Tarsica” signifiesby ῥέγχειν (to snort) something quite different from this, as the whole context shows clearly.
It was in fact a signal or mode of solicitation, by which the pathics sought to allure the paederasts to them and invited them to lewdness, as comes out more plainly in the following passage ofClemens Alexandrinus292: Αἱ δὲἀνδρογύνων συνουσίαιςἥδονται· παρεισῥέουσιν δὲ ἔνδον κιναίδων ὄχλοι, ἀθυρόγλωσσοι· μιαροὶ μὲν τὰ σώματα, μιαροὶ δὲ τὰ φθέγματα, εἰς ὑπουργίας ἀκολάστους ἠνδρωμένοι, μοιχείας διάκονοι, κιχλίζοντες καὶ ψιθυρίζοντες, καὶτὸ πορνικὸν ἀναίδην εἰς ἀσέλγειαν διὰ ῥινῶν ἐπιψοφοῦντες ἐπικιναίδισμα, ἀκολάστοις ῥήμασι καὶ σχήμασι τέρπειν πειρώμενοι, καὶ εἰς γέλωτας ἐκκαλούμενοι, πορνείας παράδρομον· ἔστι δ’ὅτε καὶ ὑπεκκαιόμενοι διὰ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ὄργην, ἤτοι πόρνοι αὐτοὶ ἢ καὶ κιναίδων ὄχλον εἰς ὄλεθρον ἐζηλωκότες,ἐπικροτοῦσι τῇ ῥινὶ, βατράχων δίκην, καθάπερ ἔνοικον τοῖς μυκτῆρσι τὴν χολὴν κεκτημένοι. (But they delight in theassemblies of the Androgyni(men-women); and crowds of pathics hurry along to join them within, everlasting chatterers, abominable in person and abominable in voice; reared up to manhood for unchaste ministrations, servants of adultery; tittering and whispering, andsounding though their nose the debauched cinaedus’ call to shameful licentiousness, striving to please with indecent words and gestures, and challenging to laughter, a race and competition in harlotry. Then again at times kindled by some chance gust of anger, whether debauchees themselves or roused to a fatal emulation with the crowd of pathics, they make a rattling sound with the nose, like frogs, as though they kept their stock of gall up their nostrils).
But possibly the Tarsians were alsoFellatores(ii qui penem alienum in os admittunt, ibique eo sugunt ut voluptas quaedam libidinosa paretur,—those who allow another’s penis to be put in theirmouth, and suck it) (see later), and snorted asfellatoresdid at their task,—for the word ῥέγχειν (to snort) is manifestly used in several different senses. It only remains to mention that apale complexionwas also reckoned one of the signs of aCinaedus, a fact to whichJuvenal’s(II. 50.) words refer:Hippo subit iuvenes et morbo pallet utroque. (Hippo submits to men, and is pale with two-fold disease). Of these marks of theCinaeduswe shall speak in greater detail directly.
The passage ofDio Chrysostomdiscussed in the preceding section brings us, in virtue of a variety of hints it contains, to the much canvassed Νοῦσος Θήλεια (feminine disease) of the Scythians.Starkhas collected with the greatest care everything that has so far been adduced by different authors inexplanation of the subject; and on his Work we must base our own efforts in the investigations that follow.
Herodotus294relates how the Scythians had made themselves masters of all Asia, and how some of them on their homeward march had plundered the very ancient temple ofVenus Uraniaat Ascalon, a town of Syria; and then proceeds as follows:
“On such of the Scythians as plundered the temple at Ascalon, and on their posterity for successive generations, the goddess inflicted the θήλεια νούσος—feminine disease. And the Scythians say themselves it is for this cause they suffer the sickness, and moreover that any who visit the Scythian country may see among them what is the condition of those whom the Scythians call Ἐναρέες”. (a Scythian word, probably having the same meaning as Greek ἀνδρόγυνοι—men-women).
The different views that have been formulated at different times as to the nature of the νοῦσος θήλεια may be readily classified as follows. It was regarded as:—
1.a Vice, this vice being,
a)Paederastia; manifestly the oldest explanation,—already alluded to byLonginus, but specially championed byBouhier295, also entertained by the interpreters ofLonginus,TollandPearce, as well as byCasaubon(Epistolae) andCostar296;
b). Onanism (Self Masturbation),—a viewSprengel297is inclined to decide in favour of.
2.a bodily Disease,—to wit,
a).Haemorrhoids(Piles); an opinion maintained byPaul Thomas de Girac298,Valckenaarin his Notes to Herodotus,Bayer299, and the authors of the “General History of the World”300;
b).actual Menstruation, for whichle FèvreandDacierwould seem to have declared;
c).Gonorrhoea(Clap), whichPatin301,Hensler302andDegen303understood to be meant;
d).actual loss of the Testicles, true Eunuchs, Mercurialis304considered must have been implied; and with this viewStark’sconclusion in part coincides, who understood a disease involving complete loss of virile power, both corporeal and mental, and producing an actual metamorphosis of the male type into the female.
(3).a mental Disease, in fact a form of Melancholia. This is the view adopted bySauvages305,Heyne,Bose,Koray306andFriedreich.
It would naturally be our task to examine the reasons alleged for and against these separate views. Supposing however we succeed in satisfactorily proving one of them to be the right one, thenipso factoall the rest come to nothing; and so we propose here to essay the advocacy of the oldest of them,—the view that makes the νοῦσος θήλεια to be the vice of paederastia.En passantwe must call attention to the fact that under the name of paederastia must be understood not only the vicious habit of the paederast pure and simple, of the man that is whopracticesthe act, but also of thepathic, who offers opportunities for its commission. This is a point which above all others has been quite left out of sight by the adversaries of the view in question.
The next question we have to answer would seem to be this: Could paederastia be regarded as a consequence of the vengeance of Venus? As it is the Scythians that are in question, the first thing would naturally appear to be to determine what conception the Scythians had of Venus. But inasmuch as the data are lacking for any demonstration of the sort, while the Scythians themselves ascribe the νοῦσος θήλεια to the vengeance of Venus, we may very well refer for a reply to this first question to the general character of the cult of the goddess307and what has been said on the whole subject above; and herein there seems to exist no reason why we should not answer the query asked above in the affirmative. Granted that Venus was regarded as goddess of fruitfulness or as dispenser of the joys of Love, then in either aspect it was but natural she should withdraw themarks of her favour from the culprits (the paederasts). These neither wished for posterity nor enjoyed the delights connected withnaturalcoition, but were equally indifferent towards the one and towards the other308; and the first sign of the vengeance of the goddess consists in the withdrawal of her benefits.
HowStark, following the lead of an anonymous French author quoted byLarcher309, can maintain there is no question of punishment here, as in that case Venus would be acting against her own interest, we fail to understand; andLarcherhimself calls this unknown writerun homme d’esprit, mais peu instruit(witty but superficial). This is proof sufficient in our opinion that only a jest is intended, but one thatStark, p. 7 (notes 19 and 20.), has taken with the utmost seriousness.
However our view isdirectlysupported by another myth, whichDio Chrysostommentions, speaking of the sweating at the armpits with which the Lemnianwomen were afflicted. According to this legend Venus punishes the women of Lemnos310:
“Haec Dea veluti etiam ceteri, sua sacrificia praetermitti non aequo animo ferebat: quae cum Lemniae mulieres Veneris sacrificia sprevissent, Deae maxime iram in se concitasse creditae sunt, quodetiam non impune putantur fecisse.Nam tantum foetorem illis excitasse feminis Dea perhibetur, ut a suis maritis contemnerentur.” (This goddess, no less than other deities, could not bear the neglect of her proper sacrifices with equanimity. Thus the women of Lemnos, having omitted to perform these sacrifices of Venus, are believed to have brought down on themselves the most serious anger of the goddess, and this they are accounted not to have done with impunity.For the goddess, as is related, caused such a foul odour to arise among the women, that they were scorned by their husbands.) If the view mentioned just above as taken by the Apostle Paul and by St. Athanasius is the right one, it would seem that the Lemnian women had suffered themselves to be used by their husbands for purposes of paederastia; then as a consequence there had been set up the evil odour of the mouth and breath, and this had driven the men to desert their wives to live with the captive Thracian slave-women (Apollonius).
But indeed the Ancients generally, or at any rate the Greeks and Romans, seem to have always held the opinion that unnatural coition, as well as all the similar forms of indulgence taking its place, were a consequence of the wrath of Venus, against whom the individuals had offended311. This appearsalso from the play ofPhiloctetes, of whom theScholiasttoThucydides312says: “Moreover Philoctetes, having on account of the death of Paris fallen sick of thefeminine disease, and being unable to bear the shame of it, left his country and founded a city, which in memory of his misfortune he named Malacia—Effeminacy.”Martial313had the same myth in his mind when he wrote: