Chapter 17

42Aretaeus, De causis et signis acutorum morborum, (Of the causes and symptoms of Acute Diseases). Comp. De Curatione acut. morb., (Of the treatment of Acute Diseases), Bk. I. ch. 9.43Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 56.,Non secat et tollit stillantem Fannius uvam.(Fannius does not use the knife, yet removes the dripping uvula).44Martial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 42. Bk. XI. Epigr. 14.: Urbis deliciae salesque Nili. (Darling of the City, savour of the Nile).45The fact that, according toProsper AlpinDe Medicina Aegypt.—(Of Egyptian Medicine, Bk. I. ch. 14.), gangrenous sore-throat prevails all the year round among children in Egypt, need not prejudice our conclusion; in fact it rather helps to explain how the sore-throat brought on byfellationwas able so readily and quickly to assume the malignant type described.46Aëtius, Tetrab. I. Serm. IV. ch. 21. Perhaps the “Cancer oris” (cancer of the mouth) in boys, of whichCelsus, VI. 15., makes mention, belongs to the same category.47Herodotus, Bk. II. ch. 60.48Plutarch, De superstitione II. 170 D., Τὴν δὲ Συρίαν θεὸν οἱ δεισιδαίμονες νομίζουσιν ἂν μαινίδας τὶς ἢ ἀφύας φάγῃ τὰ ἀντικνήμια διεσθίειν, ἕλκεσι τὸ σῶμα πιμπλάναι, συντήκειν τὸ ἧπαρ. (for translation see text above). We may add that μαινίδας is themaena(sprat) of the Romans, for whichHesychiushas σαραπίους, whilePlautususesdeglupta maena(skinned sprat) as a contemptuous name for a vicious debauchee (above p. 238. Note 1.). By the Dea Syra some have understood the goddess Derceto, who was worshipped at Ascalon under the image of a maiden, whose lower half ended in a fish. To her the fishes were sacred, and for this reason the Syrians were forbidden to eat fish. Comp.Lucian, De Dea Syra p. 672.Diodorus Siculus, II. 4.49Porphyrius, De Abstinentia bk. IV. ch. 15.,παράδειγμα τοὺς Σύρους λαβέ·Ὅταν φάγωσιν ἰχθὺν ἐκεῖνοι διά τιναΑὑτῶν ἀκρασίαν, τοὺς πόδας καὶ γαστέραΟιδοῦσιν· εἶτα σακκίον ἔλαβον· εἰς δ’ ὁδὸνἘκάθισαν αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ κόπρου καὶ τὴν θεὸνἘξιλάσαντο τῷ ταπεινῶσαι σφόδρα.(As an example take the Syrians: These people, when they have eaten fish, in consequence of some unwholesome quality in themselves, swell in feet and belly. Then they take quickly a wallet; and down they sit by the road-side on dung, and so appease the goddess by their exceeding humbleness). At Athens ἕλκη ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς ἀντικνημίοις (to have sores on the shin-bones) would seem to have been a usual thing, according toTheophrastus, Charact. XIX.50Athenaeus, Deipnosoph. bk. VIII. p. 346. d. Indeed it would seem that the StoicAntipaterof Tarsus related how a Syrian Queen Gatis was excessively fond of eating fish, and accordingly forbad anyone ἄτερ Γάτιδος (except Gatis) in the whole country to indulge in it, and from this circumstance came the name of Atergatis—the Syrian Venus!51Martial, Bk. I. Epigr. 79. Possibly also the passage inHippocrates, Epidem. bk. VII., Vol. III. 691 of Kühn’s ed., ὁ τὸ καρκίνωμα τὸ ἐν τῇ φάρυγγι καυθεὶς ὑγιὴς ἐγένετο ὑφ’ἡμέων, (The patient who was cauterized for cancer of the throat recovered under our treatment), which Jöhrens in a quotation to be given presently (below § 25.) refers to Venereal disease, as is also done by him in the case of the throat-ulcers mentioned in the Tract ofHippocrates, De Dentitione (On Teething), Vol. I. p. 484. of Kühn’s ed.52A striking analogy to this suicide is to be found in the well-known passage ofPliny(Epist. bk. VI. epist. 24.), one of much importance in connection with affections of the genitals, which may therefore very well be quoted here by anticipation:C. Plinius Macro Suo S.Quam multum interest, quid a quo fiat! Eadem enim facta claritate vel obscuritate facientium aut tolluntur altissime, aut humillime deprimuntur. Navigabam per Larium nostrum, quum senior amicus ostendit mihi villam, atque etiam cubiculum, quod in lacum prominet. Ex hoc, inquit, aliquando municeps nostra cum marito se praecipitavit. Causam requisivi.Maritus ex diutino morbo circa velanda corporis ulceribus putrescebat: uxor, ut inspiceret, exegit: neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturam, possetne sanari. Vidit, desperavit: hortata est, ut moreretur, comesque ipsa mortis, dux immo et exemplum et necessitas fuit.Quod factum ne mihi quidem, qui municeps, nisi proxime auditum est; non quia minus illa clarissimo Arriae facto, sed quia minor est ipsa. Vale. (Caius Pliny to his friend Macer, Greeting.—What a vast difference it makes, by whom a particular thing is done! For the very same actions in virtue of the fame or obscurity of the doers are raised to the topmost pinnacle or brought down to the lowest depth. I was sailing along our Lake of Larius, when my companion and elder pointed out a certain country house to me, nay, a particular bed-room, which projects into the Lake. From this chamber, he said, some time ago a fellow-countrywoman of ours threw herself, along with her husband. I asked the reason.The husband, it seemed, in consequence of a disease of long standing was rotting with ulcers on the private parts of the body. The wife demanded a right to look; for she thought no one else likely to give a more conscientious opinion than herself as to whether he could be cured. She saw, and despaired of recovery; so she urged him to die, and herself was companion of his death, giving in fact at once incitement, example and compulsion to the deed.This achievement I had never, though a man of the country, heard of till that moment; not because it was a whit less glorious than Arria’s renowned exploit, but solely because the doer was less famous. Farewell).53Catullus, Carm. 57:Pulchre convenit improbis cinaedisMamurrae pathicoque, Caesarique.(An excellent understanding exists between the vilecinaedi, the pathic Mamurra and Caesar).54Suetonius, Vita Jul. Caesaris chs. 49, 51, 52., where Curio, the Elder, calls him (Caesar) “omnium mulierum virum, et omnium virorum mulierem” (husband of all women, and wife of all men). The same indeed was said also ofAlcibiades. InAthenaeus, Deipnos. bk. XII. p. 535., we read in a fragment of the Comic PoetPherecrates:Οὐκ ὢν ἀνὴρ γὰρ Ἀλκιβιάδης, ὡς δοκεῖ,ἀνὴρ ἁπασῶν τῶν γυναικῶν ἐστι νῦν.(For not being a man at all, Alcibiades, it seems, is now husband of all our women).55Catullus, Carm. 80.:Quid dicam, Gelli,quare rosea ista labellaHiberna fiant candidiora nive,Mane domo cum exis, et cum te octava quieteE molli longo suscitat hora die.Nescio quid certe est. An vere fama susurrat,Grandia te medii tenta vorare viri?Sic certe clamant Virronis rupta miselliIlia, etemulso labra notata sero.(Would you have me tell, Gellius, why those rosy lips grow whiter than the winter’s snow, when you sally out from home in the morning, and when the eighth hour of the long summer day wakes you from gentle sleep? Nay! I know not what it is for sure. Does report say true, that whispersyou mouth the swollen member of a man’s middle? So at any rate declare the deboshed vigour of poor feeble Virro, andyour own lips marked by the humour you draw out).Martial, Bk. VII. Epigr. 94.:Bruma est, et riget horridus December,Audes tu tamen osculo nivaliOmnis obvios hinc et hinc tenere,Et totam, Line, basiare Romam.Quid possis graviusque saeviusquePercussus facere atque verberatus?Hoc me frigore basiet nec uxor.Blandis filia nec rudis labellis.Sed tu dulcior, elegantiorque,Cuius livida naribus caninis,Dependet glacies, rigetque barba,Qualem forficibus metit supinisTonsor Cinyphio Cilix marito.Centum occurrere malocunnilingis,Et Gallum timeo minus recentem.Quare si tibi sensus est pudorque,Hibernas, Line, basiationes,In mensem, rogo, differas Aprilem.(’Tis winter time, and the shuddering chill of December is upon us. None the less, Linus, you dare to greet with your frosty salute all men you meet here and there, and to kiss all Rome. What more disagreeable or more cruel could you do, if you had been struck or thrashed? With an embrace so chilling may no wife kiss me, or unripe maid with wheedling lips. But you,—you think yourself more attractive and more pleasing, you from whose dog-like nose a blue icicle hangs, whose beard is frozen stiff, such a beard as the Cilician shearer crops with his upward-pointing clippers from the chin of a Cinyphian he-goat. I had rather meet a hundredcunnilingues; I am less afraid of a Gaul new come to town. Wherefore, if you possess any sense or any shame, I do beseech you, Linus, defer your wintry salutes till April is come). NowLinusis designated byMartial, bk. VII. Epigr. 9, as afellator, and bk. XI. Epigr. 26., as acunnilingue.56Whence also the proverbial saying inSuidas: κύνα δέρειν δεδαρμένην· τὸ τοῦ Φερεκράτους· σχῆμα δέ ἐστι ἀκόλαστον εἰς τὸ αἰδοῖον· εἴρηται δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ, ἄλλο πασχόντων αὖθις ἐφ’οἷς πεπόνθασιν ἡ παροιμία. (to skin the skinned bitch; expression of Pherecrates; is an abominable practice in connection with the private parts; the proverb is spoken of such as suffer something a second time over, after having suffered it once already). SimilarlyPlautus, Trinum. II. 4. 27., Edepolmutuummecum facit (By my faith, he plays give and take with me). Again κυνάμυια (shameless fly) is found inSuidas, which he explains by ἀναιδεστάτη· παρεσχημάτικε τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ τοῦ κυνὸς καὶ τῆς μυίας· ὁ μὲν γὰρ κύων ἀναιδής, ἡ δὲ μυῖα θρασεῖα, (a most shameless woman: name borrowed figuratively from the dog and the fly; for the dog is shameless, and the fly audacious)—probably with a reference toHomer, II. XXI. 394., where κυνόμυια is found, and the Scholiast observes: ἀναιδής ὡς μυῖα, ἐκ δύο ἀναιδῶν τελείων, τοῦ τε κυνός καὶ τὴς μυίας, διὰ τὸ ὑπερβάλλον τῆς ἀναιδείας. (shameless as a fly; from two completely shameless creatures, the dog and the fly; on account of the excessive degree of their shamelessness). Further there is in this connection the word κυναλώπηξ (fox-dog), which was a nick-name ofPhilostratus, as we see fromAristophanes, Knights 1078., on which passage the Scholiast observes: λέγει δὲ αὐτὸν καὶ πορνοβοσκὸν καὶ καλλωπιστὴν (now he calls him both brothel-keeper and dandy). If we derive the word from τὸν κύνα (frenulum praeputii,—ligament of the prepuce,—Paulus Aegineta, VI. 54.) ἀλωπίζειν, it would designate thefellator, as ἀλωπὸς, ἀλωπίζειν, ἀλωπηκίζω is formed from α privative (negative) and λῶπος, λώπη (the covering, skin, wool); and ἀλωπηκία is to be explained in the same way,—but not from the scab or mange of the fox, nor yet as the Etymologicum Magnum would have it, because the places where the fox discharges his urine die, the grass e.g. dries up and withers. Hence ἀλώπηξ might be taken asbald-headed, and then the further meaning of licentious dissoluteness given to it, for in Antiquity baldness was very usually looked upon as a consequence of sexual excesses, and as every one knows, Caesar was called by his soldiersmoechus calvus(the bald-headed adulterer). But old men, who in particular are bald-headed, especially practised, owing to their lack of the power of erecting the penis, the vice ofirrumationand of thecunnilingue, which makesMartialsay (IV. 50.)Nemo est, Thai, senex ad irrumandum(No one, Thais, is too old a man for irrumation). κυναλώπηξ would then be abald-headed cunnilingue. Possibly however this idea was also partly due to a reminiscence of the fox’s habit, when desirous of following up a scent, of sticking his head to the ground (Aelian, Hist. Anim. VI. ch. 24.),—a manœuvre he also adopts, as is generally known, when dying. In evidence of this view may be quoted whatCicero, Orat. pro Domo ch. 18., says to Sextus Clodius:ligurris(you are a licker), and ch. 31. Quaere hoc ex Sexto Clodio, iube adesse, latitat omnino; sed si requiri iusseris, invenient hominem apud sororem tuam (Publii Clodii)occultantem se capite demisso(Require this of Sextus Clodius, bid him appear; he lurks entirely out of sight. But if once you order him to be sought out, they will find the man at your sister’s house (Publius Clodius’s)hiding himself with head held down.) Comp.Catullus, 87. InMartial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 53.,canisis used in same sense as κύων in Greek,—apparently? Perhaps the women of Antiquity made use of dogs as well to serve ascunnilingues. According toBrockhusiuson Tibullus I. 7. 32., II. 4. 32. they were usual companions of “ladies of pleasure” at Rome, whence toosuburanae canes(bitches of the Subura) inHorace, Epod. V. 58. andSubura vigilax(the watchful Subura) inPropertius, IV. 7. 15. During the Middle Ages at any rate such an employment of dogs was nothing unusual. This is stated byPanormita, Hermaph. Epigr. XXX., Epitaphium Nichinae Flandrensis, Scorti egregii:—Pelvis erat cellae in medio, qua saepe lavabar,Lambebat madidum blanda catella femur.(Epitaph on Nichette the Fleming, a famous Harlot:—There stood a basin in middle of the chamber, in which I would many a time wash myself, the while my fawning bitch-pup licked her mistress’s dripping thigh).and Epigr. XXXVII.,Te viset Jannecta, sua comitante catella,Blanda canis dominae est, est hera blanda viris.(Jeannette shall visit you, her bitch-pup accompanying her; complacent is the hound to its mistress, the lady complacent to men).57Galen, De simplic. medicament. temperamentis ac facultat. Bk. X. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 249.58κοπροφάγος (Excrement-Eater). To thisMartial, bk. III. Epigr. 77., seems to allude, when he says:Nescio quod stomachi vitium secretius esseSuspicor, ut quid enim, Baetice,saprofagis?(I suspect there exists some secret vitiation of the stomach; else why, Baeticus, do youeat putrid meat?)59It is evident from this that Meier in his above mentioned Article on Paederastia is wrong in citing the expression αἰσχρουργὸς (worker of obscenities) as being used for the direct equivalent ofcinaedus. Incidentally we would take this opportunity of further observing that the word παιδοκόραξ (boy-raven, i.e. a person ravenous after boys), which is also mentioned in the same Article as synonymous withcinaedus, is wrongly referred to paederastia, for it really, like the Latincorvus(raven), signifies afellator. Its true explanation is given inPliny, Hist. Nat. bk. X. ch. 15., Corvi pariunt cum plurimum quinos.Ore eos parere aut coire vulgus arbitratur.(Ravens produce at most a brood of five each pair.The vulgar believe these birds produce or copulate with the mouth).—Aristoteles (De gen anim. Bk. III. ch. 6.) negat,—sed illam exosculationem, quae saepe cernitur, qualem in columbis, esse. (Aristotle denies this,—but adds that there is the same billing, which is often noticed, as with doves). Hence alsoMartial, bk. XIV. Epigr. 74.,Corve salutator, quare fellator haberis?In caput intravit mentula nulla tuum.(You raven that salute your mate, why are you thought to be afellator? No member ever penetrated into your head). Greek Anthology, bk. II. Tit. 9. 13., λευκὸν ἰδεῖν κόρακα (a white crow to all appearance).60Instead of ᾧ φαίνεταιRosthas proposed to read ὧν φαίνεται. (Forbiger, on the Hermaphrod. of Panormita, p. 281. Note b.)61Brunck, Analecta Vol. III. p. 334.,Δημώναξ, μὴ πάντα κάτω βλέπε, μηδὲ χαρίζουτῇ γλώσση· δεινὴν χοῖρος ἄκανθαν ἔχει.Καὶ συζῇς ἡμῖν.ἐν Φοινίκῃ δὲ καθευδεις,κοὐκ ὢν ἐκ Σεμέλης μηροτραφὴς γεγόνας.(Demonax, be not for ever looking downwards, and be not complacent with your tongue; that organ—thepudenda muliebria—has a sharp thorn. And indeed you live with us,but you sleep in Phoenicia, and though no child of Semelé, are thigh-bred).62In particular it is the following Epigram inBrunck’sAnalecta that has given occasion to this explanation:Ἀλφειοῦ στόμα φεῦγε· φιλεῖ κόλπους Ἀρεθούσης.πρηνὴς ἐμπίπτων ἁλμυρὸν ἐς πέλαγος.(Fly the Alpheus’mouth; he loves the bosom of Arethusa,falling headlong into the salt sea). Forbiger might have further cited the following passage fromAristophanes, Knights 1086, 87.,ΑΛ. Καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς γε θαλάσσηςχὤτι γ’ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις δικάσεις,λείχωνἐπίπαστα.(Verily for me you shall be judge over earth and the Red Sea to boot and all the realm of Ecbatana,licking upcomfit-cakes,—? pickles). Here ἐπίπαστα is, as probably also in v. 103., the Salgama (pickles in brine) ofAusonius, Epigr. 125.; which moreover affords at any rate a partial explanation of the passage inPollux, Onomast. bk. VI. ch. 9. p. 61., bk. X. ch. 24. p. 96. Still, even if according to thisPhoeniciawere used in the sense of the genital organs of women at time of menstruation, it by no means follows that φοινικίζειν meantonlyto have dealings with women in menstruation, any more than it does that it is identical with καταμηνίου πίνων (drinking of menstrual blood), as it has been shown just above not to be. In factGalensays explicitly: φαίνεταί μοι παραπλήσιον, (it appears to me to be somethingsimilar!)63Seneca, De beneficiis bk. IV. ch. 31.64Seneca, Epist. 87.65Galen, Works, edit. Kühn, Vol. XIX. p. 153.66Naumann, Handb. der Klinik (Text-book of Clinical Medicine), Vol. 7. p. 88.67The author at any rate is more cautious thanSprengel, who (Th. Batemann), Prakt. Darstellung der Hautkrankheiten (Practical Exposition of Diseases of the Skin), Halle 1815., p. 427. Note, writes: “Hippocrates appears to mention it (Elephantiasis) under the name φοινικίη νόσος (Phoenician disease), whichGalen(Explan. voc. Hipp.)distinctly and definitelyexplains as Elephantiasis.”68Hippocrates, edit. Kühn Vol. I. pp. 223, 233., Λειχῆνες δὲ καὶ λέπραι καὶ λεῦκαι, οἷσι μὲν νέοισιν ἢ παισὶν ἐοῦσιν ἐγένετό τι τούτων, ἢ κατὰ μικρὸν φανὲν αὔξεται ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ, τούτοισι μὲν οὐ χρὴ ἀπόστασιν νομίζειν τὸ ἐξάνθημα, ἀλλὰ νόσημα· οἷσι δὲ ἐγένετο τούτων τι πολύ τε καὶ ἐξαπίνης, τοῦτο ἂν εἴη ἀπόστησις· γίνονται δὲ λεῦκαι μὲν ἐκ τῶνθανατωδεστάτωννοσημάτων, οἷον καὶ ἡνοῦσος ἡ φθινικὴκαλεομένη. αἱ δὲ λέπραι καὶ οἱ λειχῆνες ἐκ τῶν μελαγχολικῶν. ἰῆσθαι δὲ τουτέων εὐπετέστερά ἐστιν ὅσα νεωτάτοισί τε γίνεται καὶ νεώτατά ἐστι, καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἐν τοῖσι μαλθακωτάτοισι καὶ σαρκωδεστάτοισι φύεται. (for translation see text above).69J. W. Wedel, Progr. de Morbo phoeniceo Hippocratis, (Graduation Exercise on the Phœnician disease of Hippocrates), Jena 1702. 4to., reprinted inE. G. Baldinger, Selecta doctorum virorum opuscula in quibus Hippocrates explicatur, denuo edita, (Select Tracts of Learned Men dealing with the Interpretation of Hippocrates,—Second ed.), Göttingen 1782., pp. 215-222. The Author does not seem to be really self-consistent; he wavers between Elephantiasis and Purpura.70Rayer, Maladies de la peau.Bruxelles 1836. p. 385. Et quoique les termes de la description du λεύκη se rapportent assez bien à la leucopathie partielle, la plupart des interprètes et des critiques, se fondant sur une passage d’Hippocrate (Prorrhet. lib. II.) ont pensé, que sous ce nom les anciens avoient indiqué une maladie grave, l’éléphantiasis anesthétique ou la lèpre des juifs. (Rayer, Diseases of the Skin. Brussels 1836., p. 385., And although the terms in which this λεύκη is described are pretty well consistent with the symptoms of partial leucopathy, still the majority of interpreters and critics, taking their stand on a passage of Hippocrates (Prorrhet. bk. II.) have held that under this name the Ancients indicated a serious disease, viz. anaesthetic elephantiasis or the leprosy of Jews).71Celsus, Bk. V. ch. 27. 19., λεύκη habet quiddam simile alpho, sed magis albida est et altius descendit: in eaque albi pili sunt, et lanugini similes. (λεύκη has some resemblance to alphus, but is more white in colour, and penetrates deeper; also in it there are white hairs of a woolly appearance). In these last words the interpreters have supposed themselves to find the ἁλὸς ἄχνη (sea-foam) ofPollux, Onom. IV. 193., expressed!72Galen, Isag., edit. Kühn Vol. XIV. p. 758.,—De symptomat. differ. Vol. VII. p. 63.—De symptomat. caus. bk. II. ibid. pp. 225 sqq., where the λεύκη is described as a consequence ofnutritio depravata(morbid nutrition), whereby τὴν σάρκα γίνεσθαι φλεγματικωτέραν (the flesh becomes over phlegmatic). Comp.Aetius, Tetrab. IV. I. ch. 133.Paulus Aegineta, bk. IV. ch. 5.Actuarius, Meth. med. II. 11. VI. 8.Oribasius, De morb. curat. III. 58.Scip. Gentilis, Comment. in Apuleii apologiam, note 524.—Suidass. v.λεύκη· παρὰ Ἡροδότῳ πάθος τι περὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα, (under word λεύκη: in Herodotus, a complaint affecting the whole surface of the body). InAlexander, Aphrodis. Problem. I. 146, λεῦκαι signify the white flecks on the finger-nails.73Pollux, Onomast IV. ch. 25. p. 187., mentions among forms of wasting-diseases φθίνης νόσος, for which some editors, and quite rightly, prefer to read φθίνας νόσος (wasting disease).Suidasalso says φθίνας ἡ νόσος, but without giving any further explanation; on the contrary inHesychiuswe find: s. v. φθινὰ[ς] ἡ ἐρυσίβη, καὶ εἶδος ἐλαίας (under word φθινὰ; the red blight, also a species of olive). But by ἐρυσίβη is signifiedmildew,blight,smut on grain, the same thing therefore as the Romans calledrubigoorrobigo, on whichServius, on Virg. Georg. I. 151., has the following observation: Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a rusticanis calamitas dicitur. Hoc autem genus vitii ex nebula nasci solet, cumnigrescunt et consumunturfrumenta. Inde Robigus deus et sacra eius septimo Kalendas Maias Robigalia appellantur. Sedhaec abusiverobigo dicitur; namproprie robigo est, ut Varro dicit,vitium obscoenae libidinis quod ulcus vocatur: id autem abundantia et superfluitate humorissolet nasci, quae Graece σατυρίασις dicitur. (Robigois a sort of blight, that kills the corn-stalks, which is spoken of as adisasterby the peasants. Now this kind of blight commonly springs from a mist or exhalation, the crops blackening and being burnt up. Hence the god Robigus, and his feast-day on the seventh day before the Kalends of May (April 24.), known as the Robigalia. But this is calledrobigoonly by a misnomer; for properly speakingrobigois, as Varro says, a vitiation due to abominable licentiousness and is called an ulcer, and it commonly springs from that abundance and over-copiousness of the humour, which in Greek is called Satyriasis). These words are for our purpose pose of the highest importance, teaching us as they do, thata distinctive form of ulceration, that the patient had brought on himself by sexual excesses, was not only familiar among the Romansbut actually bore thespecialname ofrobigo. It must have displayed a distinctive redness, and have consumed the parts affected similarly to the smut or rust of grain, or the rust of iron. It is surely a sufficient indication to call the chancre-ulcer a blight, a burning: Comp. anthrax, carbo (malignant pustule, carbuncle). To this day in Germany it is vulgarly said of any one attacked by the primary forms of Venereal disease, “the man has burned himself”.Festus, (edit. Dacier p. 451.) says:Robumrubro colore et quae rufo significare, at bovem quoque rustici appellant, manifestum est, unde etmateria quae plurimas venas eius coloris habetdicta est rubor, (Robusclearly indicates things of a red or reddish colour,—now countrymen even speak of an ox asrobus; henceany substance having manifold veins of this colouris calledrubor). Now such is habitually the case with the penis attacked by phimosis or paraphimosis and under the morbid condition of constant erection (Satyriasis) superinduced by these. Again this shows us the reason why Priapus is so frequently called “ruberhortorum custos” (theredkeeper of gardens),—PriapeiaPraef. 5.; and why he is said, “Rubersedere cumrubentefascino,” (to sit,redwith hisruddyverge),—Horace, Odes 84. Sat. I. 8. 5. Now as the blight in grain was regarded specially as a consequence of the dew (mildew), andros(dew) again is used in the sense of the male semen, as well as for the moisture secreted in the female vagina during coition, we might draw yet another analogy from this, and at the same time a proof of theverecundia loquentium(shamefacedness in speech),—p. 43., of theoldRomans. Thus it would seem the Greeks too indicated by their φθινὰς the same thing as the Romans byrobigo. That it was a human disease, is clearly enough shown by the passage from Pollux, and besides we can see it was so from another inPlutarchin his Life of Galba (ch. 21.), where he says: Τιγελλῖνον μὲν οὐ πολὺν ἔτι βιώσεσθαι φάσκοντος· χρόνον, ὑπὸφθινάδος νόσουδαπανώμενον, (For he said that Tigellinus would not live much longer, being exhausted by a wasting disease),—a quotation proving at the same time the deadliness of the malady. Once more,Hesychiushas for φθινὰ also φοινία, saying,φοινία.ἐρυσίβη (φοινία: red blight, and as the adjective corresponding would necessarily be φοινικίος or φοινίκινος, it follows that φοινικίη νόσος and φθινικὴ νόσος,—φθινικὴ being the adjective from φθινὴ or φθινὰς, (which however would more strictly speaking be φθινακή), would mean exactly the same thing, viz. an “Ulcus rubrum et rodens ex coitu cum foeda muliere natum” (red eating ulcer, coming from coition with an unclean woman), the fatal event of which affection was a matter of common observation among the Ancients. Now if this interpretation is the right one in the passage of Hippocrates, it is clear that λεῦκαι were the consequences of this malady, and accordingly we should have a proof that in Antiquity, no less than in modern times, primary ulcers not only preceded secondary affections of the skin, but were actuallyrecognized as such. However as the proofs for thisaperçuare still too fragmentary on the side of the ancient Physicians, we must suspend our immediate judgement on the point, and content ourselves for the present with saying, that φοινικίη νοῦσος stood originally in the text in the sense ofcunnilingere(to be acunnilingue), whereas a later inquirer put φθινικὴ into its place, inasmuch as in his time their meanings had become identical as that of a bodily ailment, and sothe consequenceof the vice instead of the vice itself found its way even into the text. For granted φθινὰς has the meaning ofrobigo(blight), there is no doubt this only came to be the case as late as in the time of the Alexandrine critics. Besides this, φοινικιστὴς is also found in theEtymologicum MagnumforCunnilingus; we read: γλωττοκομεῖον, ἐν ᾧ οἱ αὐληταὶ ἀπετίθεσαν τὰς γλώττας· εἴρηται δὲ καὶ τὸγυναικεῖον αἰδοῖονὑπὸ Εὐβούλουφοινικιστὴνσκώπτοντος· (γλωττοκομεῖον, tongue-hole, place in which fluteplayers insert their tongues);the female privatesalso called so by Eubulus, making a scoff at the φοινικιστὴς,—cunnilingue). TheEtymologicum Magnumfurther has as synonyms forcunnilingere:γλωττοστροφεῖν, περιλαλεῖν καὶ στωμύλλεσθαι·γλωττοδεψεῖν, αἰσχρουργεῖν (to ply the tongue: to talk excessively, to babble;to work or soften with the tongue: to do obscenely), and forcunnilingus,γλώσσαργον, στόμαργον (tongue-busy: mouth-busy).]74Hippocrates, περὶ παθῶν, edit. Kühn Vol. II. p. 409. It is true this Work is reckoned among the spurious ones, andGalen(Vol. XI. p. 63.) ascribes it toPolybius.75Aristophanes, Acharnians 271.Πολλῷ γὰρ ἐσθ’ἥδιον, ὦ Φαλῆς Φαλῆςκλέπτουσαν εὑρόνθ’ὡρικὴν ὑληφόρον,τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως,μέσην λαβόντ’ἄραντα, καταβαλόντα καταγιγαρτίσαι·(For ’tis much pleasanter, Phales, Phales! when you have found a blooming woodcutter girl filching wood, say Strymodorus’Thracian maid from Phelleus, to take her round the middle and lift her up and throw her down and take the kernel right away),—where perhaps we should read Στυμοδώρου for Στρυμοδώρου. Knights 1284.,Τὴν γὰρ αὐτοῦ γλῶτταν αἰρχραῖς ἡδοναῖς λυμαίνεται,ἐν κασαυρίοισιλείχωντὸν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,καὶ μολύνων τὴν ὑπήνην, καὶ κυκῶν τὰς ἐσχάρας.(For he pollutes his own tongue with foul delights, in the stews licking up the abominable dew, defiling the hair on the upper lip, and tumbling the girls’nymphae). Peace 885.,Τὸνζῶμοναὐτῆς προσπεσὼν ἐκλάψεται.(Falling upon her he will suck upher broth).76Juvenal, Satir. VI. 455.:Nec curanda viris Opicae castigat amicaeVerba Soloecismum liceat fecisse marito.(And rebukes the expressions of her clownish (Opican) friend, things not worth men’s notice. Surely a husband should be allowed to make a solecism).77Martial, bk. I. Epigr. 78.,Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.(Charinus is in excellent health, and yet he is pale. Charinus drinks moderately, and yet he is pale. Charinus digests well, yet he is pale. Charinus takes the sun, yet he is pale. Charinus dyes his skin, yet he is pale.Charinus licks a woman’s organ, yet he is pale).78Martial, bk. XI. Epigr. 86. As to this Zoilus seeMartial, bk. XI. Epigr. 61.79Martial, Bk. III. Epigr. 61.80Greek Anthologybk. II. Tit. 13. Note 19.,Τὴν φωνὴν ἐνοπήν σε λέγειν ἐδίδαξεν Ὅμηρος,Τὴν γλῶσσαν δ’ἐνὀπῇτίς σ’ἐδίδαξεν ἔχειν.(Homer taught you to utter your voice and speak whole words, but, pray! who taught you to have your tongue in a hole?) Here ὀπὴ (hole) obviously stands for the female organ,—a meaning omitted in the Lexicons.81So too in the following Epigram ofAusonius(127.),Eune, quod uxoris gravidaeputria inguinalambis,Festinas glossas non natis tradere natis.(Eunus, you lick the flabby organs of your pregnant wife; is it you are in a hurry to give learned explanations to your babes unborn?) we should explain theputria inguinanot so much asrotten,ulcerous, but rather aslaxataorlaxa(relaxed, flabby). SimilarlyHorace, Epod. VIII. 7., speaks ofmammae putres(the flabby dugs) of an old woman.82Martial, IX. 63.,Ad coenam invitant omnes te, Phoebe, cinaedi:Mentula quem pascit, non, puto, purus homo est.(All thecinaedi, Phoebus, invite you to dinner: a man the penis feeds is not, I think, acleanman).Petronius, Sat., Non taces, nocturne percussor, qui ne tum quidem, quum fortiter faceres, cumpura mulierepugnasti. (Silence, stabber by night, who not even when you were at your best, ever faceda clean woman).83Martial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 43.84Persius, Satir. V. 186-188.85Wendelinus Hock de Brackenauentitled his Treatise on the Venereal Disease:Mentagra, sive Tractatus de causis, praeseruatis, regimine et cura Morbi Gallici, vulgo Mala Francosz., etc., (Mentagra, or a Treatise on the Causes, Preventives, Treatment and Cure of the so called French Disease, etc.). Strasburg 1514. 4to.SartoriusFrid. praes.Conrad. Johrenio, Diss. de mentagra ad loc. Plinii Secundi hist. nat. lib. XXVI. cap. 1. (Dissertation on mentagra in connexion with the passage of Pliny Secundus’ Hist. Naturalis bk. XXVI. ch. 1.). Frankfurt-on-Oder N. D. 49 pp. 4to. Gives a sort of exegesis of the passage, speaks in first place of new diseases in general, passes on to the Venereal Disease, the antiquity of which the author upholds, and finally discusses Mentagra, which he holds to be a leprous-syphilitic affection. The work is still quite worth reading, more especially as the author quotes some passages from the Chronicle ofAnhalt von Beckmann, at that time still unprinted, and which we find mentioned hardly anywhere else.86Hensler, “Vom abendländischen Aussatze im Mittelalter”, (On Occidental Leprosy in the Middle Ages). Hamburg 1790. pp. 67, 206, 307.87Pliny, Hist. Nat. Bk. XXVI. chs. 1, 2, 3.88Galen, De comp. med. secundum locos, edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 841. προσχαριζόμενον τῇ ἐξωτάτῳ γραμμῇ τοῦ λειχῆνος μικρόν τι τῶν ἀπαθῶν σωμάτων. (giving up to the external mark of the scab yet another small part of the bodies hitherto unaffected).

42Aretaeus, De causis et signis acutorum morborum, (Of the causes and symptoms of Acute Diseases). Comp. De Curatione acut. morb., (Of the treatment of Acute Diseases), Bk. I. ch. 9.

43Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 56.,Non secat et tollit stillantem Fannius uvam.(Fannius does not use the knife, yet removes the dripping uvula).

43Martial, bk. X. Epigr. 56.,

Non secat et tollit stillantem Fannius uvam.

(Fannius does not use the knife, yet removes the dripping uvula).

44Martial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 42. Bk. XI. Epigr. 14.: Urbis deliciae salesque Nili. (Darling of the City, savour of the Nile).

45The fact that, according toProsper AlpinDe Medicina Aegypt.—(Of Egyptian Medicine, Bk. I. ch. 14.), gangrenous sore-throat prevails all the year round among children in Egypt, need not prejudice our conclusion; in fact it rather helps to explain how the sore-throat brought on byfellationwas able so readily and quickly to assume the malignant type described.

46Aëtius, Tetrab. I. Serm. IV. ch. 21. Perhaps the “Cancer oris” (cancer of the mouth) in boys, of whichCelsus, VI. 15., makes mention, belongs to the same category.

47Herodotus, Bk. II. ch. 60.

48Plutarch, De superstitione II. 170 D., Τὴν δὲ Συρίαν θεὸν οἱ δεισιδαίμονες νομίζουσιν ἂν μαινίδας τὶς ἢ ἀφύας φάγῃ τὰ ἀντικνήμια διεσθίειν, ἕλκεσι τὸ σῶμα πιμπλάναι, συντήκειν τὸ ἧπαρ. (for translation see text above). We may add that μαινίδας is themaena(sprat) of the Romans, for whichHesychiushas σαραπίους, whilePlautususesdeglupta maena(skinned sprat) as a contemptuous name for a vicious debauchee (above p. 238. Note 1.). By the Dea Syra some have understood the goddess Derceto, who was worshipped at Ascalon under the image of a maiden, whose lower half ended in a fish. To her the fishes were sacred, and for this reason the Syrians were forbidden to eat fish. Comp.Lucian, De Dea Syra p. 672.Diodorus Siculus, II. 4.

49Porphyrius, De Abstinentia bk. IV. ch. 15.,παράδειγμα τοὺς Σύρους λαβέ·Ὅταν φάγωσιν ἰχθὺν ἐκεῖνοι διά τιναΑὑτῶν ἀκρασίαν, τοὺς πόδας καὶ γαστέραΟιδοῦσιν· εἶτα σακκίον ἔλαβον· εἰς δ’ ὁδὸνἘκάθισαν αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ κόπρου καὶ τὴν θεὸνἘξιλάσαντο τῷ ταπεινῶσαι σφόδρα.(As an example take the Syrians: These people, when they have eaten fish, in consequence of some unwholesome quality in themselves, swell in feet and belly. Then they take quickly a wallet; and down they sit by the road-side on dung, and so appease the goddess by their exceeding humbleness). At Athens ἕλκη ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς ἀντικνημίοις (to have sores on the shin-bones) would seem to have been a usual thing, according toTheophrastus, Charact. XIX.

49Porphyrius, De Abstinentia bk. IV. ch. 15.,

παράδειγμα τοὺς Σύρους λαβέ·Ὅταν φάγωσιν ἰχθὺν ἐκεῖνοι διά τιναΑὑτῶν ἀκρασίαν, τοὺς πόδας καὶ γαστέραΟιδοῦσιν· εἶτα σακκίον ἔλαβον· εἰς δ’ ὁδὸνἘκάθισαν αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ κόπρου καὶ τὴν θεὸνἘξιλάσαντο τῷ ταπεινῶσαι σφόδρα.

παράδειγμα τοὺς Σύρους λαβέ·

Ὅταν φάγωσιν ἰχθὺν ἐκεῖνοι διά τινα

Αὑτῶν ἀκρασίαν, τοὺς πόδας καὶ γαστέρα

Οιδοῦσιν· εἶτα σακκίον ἔλαβον· εἰς δ’ ὁδὸν

Ἐκάθισαν αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ κόπρου καὶ τὴν θεὸν

Ἐξιλάσαντο τῷ ταπεινῶσαι σφόδρα.

(As an example take the Syrians: These people, when they have eaten fish, in consequence of some unwholesome quality in themselves, swell in feet and belly. Then they take quickly a wallet; and down they sit by the road-side on dung, and so appease the goddess by their exceeding humbleness). At Athens ἕλκη ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς ἀντικνημίοις (to have sores on the shin-bones) would seem to have been a usual thing, according toTheophrastus, Charact. XIX.

50Athenaeus, Deipnosoph. bk. VIII. p. 346. d. Indeed it would seem that the StoicAntipaterof Tarsus related how a Syrian Queen Gatis was excessively fond of eating fish, and accordingly forbad anyone ἄτερ Γάτιδος (except Gatis) in the whole country to indulge in it, and from this circumstance came the name of Atergatis—the Syrian Venus!

51Martial, Bk. I. Epigr. 79. Possibly also the passage inHippocrates, Epidem. bk. VII., Vol. III. 691 of Kühn’s ed., ὁ τὸ καρκίνωμα τὸ ἐν τῇ φάρυγγι καυθεὶς ὑγιὴς ἐγένετο ὑφ’ἡμέων, (The patient who was cauterized for cancer of the throat recovered under our treatment), which Jöhrens in a quotation to be given presently (below § 25.) refers to Venereal disease, as is also done by him in the case of the throat-ulcers mentioned in the Tract ofHippocrates, De Dentitione (On Teething), Vol. I. p. 484. of Kühn’s ed.

52A striking analogy to this suicide is to be found in the well-known passage ofPliny(Epist. bk. VI. epist. 24.), one of much importance in connection with affections of the genitals, which may therefore very well be quoted here by anticipation:C. Plinius Macro Suo S.Quam multum interest, quid a quo fiat! Eadem enim facta claritate vel obscuritate facientium aut tolluntur altissime, aut humillime deprimuntur. Navigabam per Larium nostrum, quum senior amicus ostendit mihi villam, atque etiam cubiculum, quod in lacum prominet. Ex hoc, inquit, aliquando municeps nostra cum marito se praecipitavit. Causam requisivi.Maritus ex diutino morbo circa velanda corporis ulceribus putrescebat: uxor, ut inspiceret, exegit: neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturam, possetne sanari. Vidit, desperavit: hortata est, ut moreretur, comesque ipsa mortis, dux immo et exemplum et necessitas fuit.Quod factum ne mihi quidem, qui municeps, nisi proxime auditum est; non quia minus illa clarissimo Arriae facto, sed quia minor est ipsa. Vale. (Caius Pliny to his friend Macer, Greeting.—What a vast difference it makes, by whom a particular thing is done! For the very same actions in virtue of the fame or obscurity of the doers are raised to the topmost pinnacle or brought down to the lowest depth. I was sailing along our Lake of Larius, when my companion and elder pointed out a certain country house to me, nay, a particular bed-room, which projects into the Lake. From this chamber, he said, some time ago a fellow-countrywoman of ours threw herself, along with her husband. I asked the reason.The husband, it seemed, in consequence of a disease of long standing was rotting with ulcers on the private parts of the body. The wife demanded a right to look; for she thought no one else likely to give a more conscientious opinion than herself as to whether he could be cured. She saw, and despaired of recovery; so she urged him to die, and herself was companion of his death, giving in fact at once incitement, example and compulsion to the deed.This achievement I had never, though a man of the country, heard of till that moment; not because it was a whit less glorious than Arria’s renowned exploit, but solely because the doer was less famous. Farewell).

C. Plinius Macro Suo S.Quam multum interest, quid a quo fiat! Eadem enim facta claritate vel obscuritate facientium aut tolluntur altissime, aut humillime deprimuntur. Navigabam per Larium nostrum, quum senior amicus ostendit mihi villam, atque etiam cubiculum, quod in lacum prominet. Ex hoc, inquit, aliquando municeps nostra cum marito se praecipitavit. Causam requisivi.Maritus ex diutino morbo circa velanda corporis ulceribus putrescebat: uxor, ut inspiceret, exegit: neque enim quemquam fidelius indicaturam, possetne sanari. Vidit, desperavit: hortata est, ut moreretur, comesque ipsa mortis, dux immo et exemplum et necessitas fuit.Quod factum ne mihi quidem, qui municeps, nisi proxime auditum est; non quia minus illa clarissimo Arriae facto, sed quia minor est ipsa. Vale. (Caius Pliny to his friend Macer, Greeting.—What a vast difference it makes, by whom a particular thing is done! For the very same actions in virtue of the fame or obscurity of the doers are raised to the topmost pinnacle or brought down to the lowest depth. I was sailing along our Lake of Larius, when my companion and elder pointed out a certain country house to me, nay, a particular bed-room, which projects into the Lake. From this chamber, he said, some time ago a fellow-countrywoman of ours threw herself, along with her husband. I asked the reason.The husband, it seemed, in consequence of a disease of long standing was rotting with ulcers on the private parts of the body. The wife demanded a right to look; for she thought no one else likely to give a more conscientious opinion than herself as to whether he could be cured. She saw, and despaired of recovery; so she urged him to die, and herself was companion of his death, giving in fact at once incitement, example and compulsion to the deed.This achievement I had never, though a man of the country, heard of till that moment; not because it was a whit less glorious than Arria’s renowned exploit, but solely because the doer was less famous. Farewell).

53Catullus, Carm. 57:Pulchre convenit improbis cinaedisMamurrae pathicoque, Caesarique.(An excellent understanding exists between the vilecinaedi, the pathic Mamurra and Caesar).

53Catullus, Carm. 57:

Pulchre convenit improbis cinaedisMamurrae pathicoque, Caesarique.

Pulchre convenit improbis cinaedis

Mamurrae pathicoque, Caesarique.

(An excellent understanding exists between the vilecinaedi, the pathic Mamurra and Caesar).

54Suetonius, Vita Jul. Caesaris chs. 49, 51, 52., where Curio, the Elder, calls him (Caesar) “omnium mulierum virum, et omnium virorum mulierem” (husband of all women, and wife of all men). The same indeed was said also ofAlcibiades. InAthenaeus, Deipnos. bk. XII. p. 535., we read in a fragment of the Comic PoetPherecrates:Οὐκ ὢν ἀνὴρ γὰρ Ἀλκιβιάδης, ὡς δοκεῖ,ἀνὴρ ἁπασῶν τῶν γυναικῶν ἐστι νῦν.(For not being a man at all, Alcibiades, it seems, is now husband of all our women).

Οὐκ ὢν ἀνὴρ γὰρ Ἀλκιβιάδης, ὡς δοκεῖ,ἀνὴρ ἁπασῶν τῶν γυναικῶν ἐστι νῦν.

Οὐκ ὢν ἀνὴρ γὰρ Ἀλκιβιάδης, ὡς δοκεῖ,

ἀνὴρ ἁπασῶν τῶν γυναικῶν ἐστι νῦν.

(For not being a man at all, Alcibiades, it seems, is now husband of all our women).

55Catullus, Carm. 80.:Quid dicam, Gelli,quare rosea ista labellaHiberna fiant candidiora nive,Mane domo cum exis, et cum te octava quieteE molli longo suscitat hora die.Nescio quid certe est. An vere fama susurrat,Grandia te medii tenta vorare viri?Sic certe clamant Virronis rupta miselliIlia, etemulso labra notata sero.(Would you have me tell, Gellius, why those rosy lips grow whiter than the winter’s snow, when you sally out from home in the morning, and when the eighth hour of the long summer day wakes you from gentle sleep? Nay! I know not what it is for sure. Does report say true, that whispersyou mouth the swollen member of a man’s middle? So at any rate declare the deboshed vigour of poor feeble Virro, andyour own lips marked by the humour you draw out).Martial, Bk. VII. Epigr. 94.:Bruma est, et riget horridus December,Audes tu tamen osculo nivaliOmnis obvios hinc et hinc tenere,Et totam, Line, basiare Romam.Quid possis graviusque saeviusquePercussus facere atque verberatus?Hoc me frigore basiet nec uxor.Blandis filia nec rudis labellis.Sed tu dulcior, elegantiorque,Cuius livida naribus caninis,Dependet glacies, rigetque barba,Qualem forficibus metit supinisTonsor Cinyphio Cilix marito.Centum occurrere malocunnilingis,Et Gallum timeo minus recentem.Quare si tibi sensus est pudorque,Hibernas, Line, basiationes,In mensem, rogo, differas Aprilem.(’Tis winter time, and the shuddering chill of December is upon us. None the less, Linus, you dare to greet with your frosty salute all men you meet here and there, and to kiss all Rome. What more disagreeable or more cruel could you do, if you had been struck or thrashed? With an embrace so chilling may no wife kiss me, or unripe maid with wheedling lips. But you,—you think yourself more attractive and more pleasing, you from whose dog-like nose a blue icicle hangs, whose beard is frozen stiff, such a beard as the Cilician shearer crops with his upward-pointing clippers from the chin of a Cinyphian he-goat. I had rather meet a hundredcunnilingues; I am less afraid of a Gaul new come to town. Wherefore, if you possess any sense or any shame, I do beseech you, Linus, defer your wintry salutes till April is come). NowLinusis designated byMartial, bk. VII. Epigr. 9, as afellator, and bk. XI. Epigr. 26., as acunnilingue.

55Catullus, Carm. 80.:

Quid dicam, Gelli,quare rosea ista labellaHiberna fiant candidiora nive,Mane domo cum exis, et cum te octava quieteE molli longo suscitat hora die.Nescio quid certe est. An vere fama susurrat,Grandia te medii tenta vorare viri?Sic certe clamant Virronis rupta miselliIlia, etemulso labra notata sero.

Quid dicam, Gelli,quare rosea ista labella

Hiberna fiant candidiora nive,

Mane domo cum exis, et cum te octava quiete

E molli longo suscitat hora die.

Nescio quid certe est. An vere fama susurrat,

Grandia te medii tenta vorare viri?

Sic certe clamant Virronis rupta miselli

Ilia, etemulso labra notata sero.

(Would you have me tell, Gellius, why those rosy lips grow whiter than the winter’s snow, when you sally out from home in the morning, and when the eighth hour of the long summer day wakes you from gentle sleep? Nay! I know not what it is for sure. Does report say true, that whispersyou mouth the swollen member of a man’s middle? So at any rate declare the deboshed vigour of poor feeble Virro, andyour own lips marked by the humour you draw out).Martial, Bk. VII. Epigr. 94.:

Bruma est, et riget horridus December,Audes tu tamen osculo nivaliOmnis obvios hinc et hinc tenere,Et totam, Line, basiare Romam.Quid possis graviusque saeviusquePercussus facere atque verberatus?Hoc me frigore basiet nec uxor.Blandis filia nec rudis labellis.Sed tu dulcior, elegantiorque,Cuius livida naribus caninis,Dependet glacies, rigetque barba,Qualem forficibus metit supinisTonsor Cinyphio Cilix marito.Centum occurrere malocunnilingis,Et Gallum timeo minus recentem.Quare si tibi sensus est pudorque,Hibernas, Line, basiationes,In mensem, rogo, differas Aprilem.

Bruma est, et riget horridus December,

Audes tu tamen osculo nivali

Omnis obvios hinc et hinc tenere,

Et totam, Line, basiare Romam.

Quid possis graviusque saeviusque

Percussus facere atque verberatus?

Hoc me frigore basiet nec uxor.

Blandis filia nec rudis labellis.

Sed tu dulcior, elegantiorque,

Cuius livida naribus caninis,

Dependet glacies, rigetque barba,

Qualem forficibus metit supinis

Tonsor Cinyphio Cilix marito.

Centum occurrere malocunnilingis,

Et Gallum timeo minus recentem.

Quare si tibi sensus est pudorque,

Hibernas, Line, basiationes,

In mensem, rogo, differas Aprilem.

(’Tis winter time, and the shuddering chill of December is upon us. None the less, Linus, you dare to greet with your frosty salute all men you meet here and there, and to kiss all Rome. What more disagreeable or more cruel could you do, if you had been struck or thrashed? With an embrace so chilling may no wife kiss me, or unripe maid with wheedling lips. But you,—you think yourself more attractive and more pleasing, you from whose dog-like nose a blue icicle hangs, whose beard is frozen stiff, such a beard as the Cilician shearer crops with his upward-pointing clippers from the chin of a Cinyphian he-goat. I had rather meet a hundredcunnilingues; I am less afraid of a Gaul new come to town. Wherefore, if you possess any sense or any shame, I do beseech you, Linus, defer your wintry salutes till April is come). NowLinusis designated byMartial, bk. VII. Epigr. 9, as afellator, and bk. XI. Epigr. 26., as acunnilingue.

56Whence also the proverbial saying inSuidas: κύνα δέρειν δεδαρμένην· τὸ τοῦ Φερεκράτους· σχῆμα δέ ἐστι ἀκόλαστον εἰς τὸ αἰδοῖον· εἴρηται δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ, ἄλλο πασχόντων αὖθις ἐφ’οἷς πεπόνθασιν ἡ παροιμία. (to skin the skinned bitch; expression of Pherecrates; is an abominable practice in connection with the private parts; the proverb is spoken of such as suffer something a second time over, after having suffered it once already). SimilarlyPlautus, Trinum. II. 4. 27., Edepolmutuummecum facit (By my faith, he plays give and take with me). Again κυνάμυια (shameless fly) is found inSuidas, which he explains by ἀναιδεστάτη· παρεσχημάτικε τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ τοῦ κυνὸς καὶ τῆς μυίας· ὁ μὲν γὰρ κύων ἀναιδής, ἡ δὲ μυῖα θρασεῖα, (a most shameless woman: name borrowed figuratively from the dog and the fly; for the dog is shameless, and the fly audacious)—probably with a reference toHomer, II. XXI. 394., where κυνόμυια is found, and the Scholiast observes: ἀναιδής ὡς μυῖα, ἐκ δύο ἀναιδῶν τελείων, τοῦ τε κυνός καὶ τὴς μυίας, διὰ τὸ ὑπερβάλλον τῆς ἀναιδείας. (shameless as a fly; from two completely shameless creatures, the dog and the fly; on account of the excessive degree of their shamelessness). Further there is in this connection the word κυναλώπηξ (fox-dog), which was a nick-name ofPhilostratus, as we see fromAristophanes, Knights 1078., on which passage the Scholiast observes: λέγει δὲ αὐτὸν καὶ πορνοβοσκὸν καὶ καλλωπιστὴν (now he calls him both brothel-keeper and dandy). If we derive the word from τὸν κύνα (frenulum praeputii,—ligament of the prepuce,—Paulus Aegineta, VI. 54.) ἀλωπίζειν, it would designate thefellator, as ἀλωπὸς, ἀλωπίζειν, ἀλωπηκίζω is formed from α privative (negative) and λῶπος, λώπη (the covering, skin, wool); and ἀλωπηκία is to be explained in the same way,—but not from the scab or mange of the fox, nor yet as the Etymologicum Magnum would have it, because the places where the fox discharges his urine die, the grass e.g. dries up and withers. Hence ἀλώπηξ might be taken asbald-headed, and then the further meaning of licentious dissoluteness given to it, for in Antiquity baldness was very usually looked upon as a consequence of sexual excesses, and as every one knows, Caesar was called by his soldiersmoechus calvus(the bald-headed adulterer). But old men, who in particular are bald-headed, especially practised, owing to their lack of the power of erecting the penis, the vice ofirrumationand of thecunnilingue, which makesMartialsay (IV. 50.)Nemo est, Thai, senex ad irrumandum(No one, Thais, is too old a man for irrumation). κυναλώπηξ would then be abald-headed cunnilingue. Possibly however this idea was also partly due to a reminiscence of the fox’s habit, when desirous of following up a scent, of sticking his head to the ground (Aelian, Hist. Anim. VI. ch. 24.),—a manœuvre he also adopts, as is generally known, when dying. In evidence of this view may be quoted whatCicero, Orat. pro Domo ch. 18., says to Sextus Clodius:ligurris(you are a licker), and ch. 31. Quaere hoc ex Sexto Clodio, iube adesse, latitat omnino; sed si requiri iusseris, invenient hominem apud sororem tuam (Publii Clodii)occultantem se capite demisso(Require this of Sextus Clodius, bid him appear; he lurks entirely out of sight. But if once you order him to be sought out, they will find the man at your sister’s house (Publius Clodius’s)hiding himself with head held down.) Comp.Catullus, 87. InMartial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 53.,canisis used in same sense as κύων in Greek,—apparently? Perhaps the women of Antiquity made use of dogs as well to serve ascunnilingues. According toBrockhusiuson Tibullus I. 7. 32., II. 4. 32. they were usual companions of “ladies of pleasure” at Rome, whence toosuburanae canes(bitches of the Subura) inHorace, Epod. V. 58. andSubura vigilax(the watchful Subura) inPropertius, IV. 7. 15. During the Middle Ages at any rate such an employment of dogs was nothing unusual. This is stated byPanormita, Hermaph. Epigr. XXX., Epitaphium Nichinae Flandrensis, Scorti egregii:—Pelvis erat cellae in medio, qua saepe lavabar,Lambebat madidum blanda catella femur.(Epitaph on Nichette the Fleming, a famous Harlot:—There stood a basin in middle of the chamber, in which I would many a time wash myself, the while my fawning bitch-pup licked her mistress’s dripping thigh).and Epigr. XXXVII.,Te viset Jannecta, sua comitante catella,Blanda canis dominae est, est hera blanda viris.(Jeannette shall visit you, her bitch-pup accompanying her; complacent is the hound to its mistress, the lady complacent to men).

Pelvis erat cellae in medio, qua saepe lavabar,Lambebat madidum blanda catella femur.

Pelvis erat cellae in medio, qua saepe lavabar,

Lambebat madidum blanda catella femur.

(Epitaph on Nichette the Fleming, a famous Harlot:—There stood a basin in middle of the chamber, in which I would many a time wash myself, the while my fawning bitch-pup licked her mistress’s dripping thigh).

and Epigr. XXXVII.,

Te viset Jannecta, sua comitante catella,Blanda canis dominae est, est hera blanda viris.

Te viset Jannecta, sua comitante catella,

Blanda canis dominae est, est hera blanda viris.

(Jeannette shall visit you, her bitch-pup accompanying her; complacent is the hound to its mistress, the lady complacent to men).

57Galen, De simplic. medicament. temperamentis ac facultat. Bk. X. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 249.

58κοπροφάγος (Excrement-Eater). To thisMartial, bk. III. Epigr. 77., seems to allude, when he says:Nescio quod stomachi vitium secretius esseSuspicor, ut quid enim, Baetice,saprofagis?(I suspect there exists some secret vitiation of the stomach; else why, Baeticus, do youeat putrid meat?)

58κοπροφάγος (Excrement-Eater). To thisMartial, bk. III. Epigr. 77., seems to allude, when he says:

Nescio quod stomachi vitium secretius esseSuspicor, ut quid enim, Baetice,saprofagis?

Nescio quod stomachi vitium secretius esse

Suspicor, ut quid enim, Baetice,saprofagis?

(I suspect there exists some secret vitiation of the stomach; else why, Baeticus, do youeat putrid meat?)

59It is evident from this that Meier in his above mentioned Article on Paederastia is wrong in citing the expression αἰσχρουργὸς (worker of obscenities) as being used for the direct equivalent ofcinaedus. Incidentally we would take this opportunity of further observing that the word παιδοκόραξ (boy-raven, i.e. a person ravenous after boys), which is also mentioned in the same Article as synonymous withcinaedus, is wrongly referred to paederastia, for it really, like the Latincorvus(raven), signifies afellator. Its true explanation is given inPliny, Hist. Nat. bk. X. ch. 15., Corvi pariunt cum plurimum quinos.Ore eos parere aut coire vulgus arbitratur.(Ravens produce at most a brood of five each pair.The vulgar believe these birds produce or copulate with the mouth).—Aristoteles (De gen anim. Bk. III. ch. 6.) negat,—sed illam exosculationem, quae saepe cernitur, qualem in columbis, esse. (Aristotle denies this,—but adds that there is the same billing, which is often noticed, as with doves). Hence alsoMartial, bk. XIV. Epigr. 74.,Corve salutator, quare fellator haberis?In caput intravit mentula nulla tuum.(You raven that salute your mate, why are you thought to be afellator? No member ever penetrated into your head). Greek Anthology, bk. II. Tit. 9. 13., λευκὸν ἰδεῖν κόρακα (a white crow to all appearance).

Corve salutator, quare fellator haberis?In caput intravit mentula nulla tuum.

Corve salutator, quare fellator haberis?

In caput intravit mentula nulla tuum.

(You raven that salute your mate, why are you thought to be afellator? No member ever penetrated into your head). Greek Anthology, bk. II. Tit. 9. 13., λευκὸν ἰδεῖν κόρακα (a white crow to all appearance).

60Instead of ᾧ φαίνεταιRosthas proposed to read ὧν φαίνεται. (Forbiger, on the Hermaphrod. of Panormita, p. 281. Note b.)

61Brunck, Analecta Vol. III. p. 334.,Δημώναξ, μὴ πάντα κάτω βλέπε, μηδὲ χαρίζουτῇ γλώσση· δεινὴν χοῖρος ἄκανθαν ἔχει.Καὶ συζῇς ἡμῖν.ἐν Φοινίκῃ δὲ καθευδεις,κοὐκ ὢν ἐκ Σεμέλης μηροτραφὴς γεγόνας.(Demonax, be not for ever looking downwards, and be not complacent with your tongue; that organ—thepudenda muliebria—has a sharp thorn. And indeed you live with us,but you sleep in Phoenicia, and though no child of Semelé, are thigh-bred).

61Brunck, Analecta Vol. III. p. 334.,

Δημώναξ, μὴ πάντα κάτω βλέπε, μηδὲ χαρίζουτῇ γλώσση· δεινὴν χοῖρος ἄκανθαν ἔχει.Καὶ συζῇς ἡμῖν.ἐν Φοινίκῃ δὲ καθευδεις,κοὐκ ὢν ἐκ Σεμέλης μηροτραφὴς γεγόνας.

Δημώναξ, μὴ πάντα κάτω βλέπε, μηδὲ χαρίζου

τῇ γλώσση· δεινὴν χοῖρος ἄκανθαν ἔχει.

Καὶ συζῇς ἡμῖν.ἐν Φοινίκῃ δὲ καθευδεις,

κοὐκ ὢν ἐκ Σεμέλης μηροτραφὴς γεγόνας.

(Demonax, be not for ever looking downwards, and be not complacent with your tongue; that organ—thepudenda muliebria—has a sharp thorn. And indeed you live with us,but you sleep in Phoenicia, and though no child of Semelé, are thigh-bred).

62In particular it is the following Epigram inBrunck’sAnalecta that has given occasion to this explanation:Ἀλφειοῦ στόμα φεῦγε· φιλεῖ κόλπους Ἀρεθούσης.πρηνὴς ἐμπίπτων ἁλμυρὸν ἐς πέλαγος.(Fly the Alpheus’mouth; he loves the bosom of Arethusa,falling headlong into the salt sea). Forbiger might have further cited the following passage fromAristophanes, Knights 1086, 87.,ΑΛ. Καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς γε θαλάσσηςχὤτι γ’ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις δικάσεις,λείχωνἐπίπαστα.(Verily for me you shall be judge over earth and the Red Sea to boot and all the realm of Ecbatana,licking upcomfit-cakes,—? pickles). Here ἐπίπαστα is, as probably also in v. 103., the Salgama (pickles in brine) ofAusonius, Epigr. 125.; which moreover affords at any rate a partial explanation of the passage inPollux, Onomast. bk. VI. ch. 9. p. 61., bk. X. ch. 24. p. 96. Still, even if according to thisPhoeniciawere used in the sense of the genital organs of women at time of menstruation, it by no means follows that φοινικίζειν meantonlyto have dealings with women in menstruation, any more than it does that it is identical with καταμηνίου πίνων (drinking of menstrual blood), as it has been shown just above not to be. In factGalensays explicitly: φαίνεταί μοι παραπλήσιον, (it appears to me to be somethingsimilar!)

62In particular it is the following Epigram inBrunck’sAnalecta that has given occasion to this explanation:

Ἀλφειοῦ στόμα φεῦγε· φιλεῖ κόλπους Ἀρεθούσης.πρηνὴς ἐμπίπτων ἁλμυρὸν ἐς πέλαγος.

Ἀλφειοῦ στόμα φεῦγε· φιλεῖ κόλπους Ἀρεθούσης.

πρηνὴς ἐμπίπτων ἁλμυρὸν ἐς πέλαγος.

(Fly the Alpheus’mouth; he loves the bosom of Arethusa,falling headlong into the salt sea). Forbiger might have further cited the following passage fromAristophanes, Knights 1086, 87.,

ΑΛ. Καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς γε θαλάσσηςχὤτι γ’ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις δικάσεις,λείχωνἐπίπαστα.

ΑΛ. Καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς γε θαλάσσης

χὤτι γ’ἐν Ἐκβατάνοις δικάσεις,λείχωνἐπίπαστα.

(Verily for me you shall be judge over earth and the Red Sea to boot and all the realm of Ecbatana,licking upcomfit-cakes,—? pickles). Here ἐπίπαστα is, as probably also in v. 103., the Salgama (pickles in brine) ofAusonius, Epigr. 125.; which moreover affords at any rate a partial explanation of the passage inPollux, Onomast. bk. VI. ch. 9. p. 61., bk. X. ch. 24. p. 96. Still, even if according to thisPhoeniciawere used in the sense of the genital organs of women at time of menstruation, it by no means follows that φοινικίζειν meantonlyto have dealings with women in menstruation, any more than it does that it is identical with καταμηνίου πίνων (drinking of menstrual blood), as it has been shown just above not to be. In factGalensays explicitly: φαίνεταί μοι παραπλήσιον, (it appears to me to be somethingsimilar!)

63Seneca, De beneficiis bk. IV. ch. 31.

64Seneca, Epist. 87.

65Galen, Works, edit. Kühn, Vol. XIX. p. 153.

66Naumann, Handb. der Klinik (Text-book of Clinical Medicine), Vol. 7. p. 88.

67The author at any rate is more cautious thanSprengel, who (Th. Batemann), Prakt. Darstellung der Hautkrankheiten (Practical Exposition of Diseases of the Skin), Halle 1815., p. 427. Note, writes: “Hippocrates appears to mention it (Elephantiasis) under the name φοινικίη νόσος (Phoenician disease), whichGalen(Explan. voc. Hipp.)distinctly and definitelyexplains as Elephantiasis.”

68Hippocrates, edit. Kühn Vol. I. pp. 223, 233., Λειχῆνες δὲ καὶ λέπραι καὶ λεῦκαι, οἷσι μὲν νέοισιν ἢ παισὶν ἐοῦσιν ἐγένετό τι τούτων, ἢ κατὰ μικρὸν φανὲν αὔξεται ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ, τούτοισι μὲν οὐ χρὴ ἀπόστασιν νομίζειν τὸ ἐξάνθημα, ἀλλὰ νόσημα· οἷσι δὲ ἐγένετο τούτων τι πολύ τε καὶ ἐξαπίνης, τοῦτο ἂν εἴη ἀπόστησις· γίνονται δὲ λεῦκαι μὲν ἐκ τῶνθανατωδεστάτωννοσημάτων, οἷον καὶ ἡνοῦσος ἡ φθινικὴκαλεομένη. αἱ δὲ λέπραι καὶ οἱ λειχῆνες ἐκ τῶν μελαγχολικῶν. ἰῆσθαι δὲ τουτέων εὐπετέστερά ἐστιν ὅσα νεωτάτοισί τε γίνεται καὶ νεώτατά ἐστι, καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἐν τοῖσι μαλθακωτάτοισι καὶ σαρκωδεστάτοισι φύεται. (for translation see text above).

69J. W. Wedel, Progr. de Morbo phoeniceo Hippocratis, (Graduation Exercise on the Phœnician disease of Hippocrates), Jena 1702. 4to., reprinted inE. G. Baldinger, Selecta doctorum virorum opuscula in quibus Hippocrates explicatur, denuo edita, (Select Tracts of Learned Men dealing with the Interpretation of Hippocrates,—Second ed.), Göttingen 1782., pp. 215-222. The Author does not seem to be really self-consistent; he wavers between Elephantiasis and Purpura.

70Rayer, Maladies de la peau.Bruxelles 1836. p. 385. Et quoique les termes de la description du λεύκη se rapportent assez bien à la leucopathie partielle, la plupart des interprètes et des critiques, se fondant sur une passage d’Hippocrate (Prorrhet. lib. II.) ont pensé, que sous ce nom les anciens avoient indiqué une maladie grave, l’éléphantiasis anesthétique ou la lèpre des juifs. (Rayer, Diseases of the Skin. Brussels 1836., p. 385., And although the terms in which this λεύκη is described are pretty well consistent with the symptoms of partial leucopathy, still the majority of interpreters and critics, taking their stand on a passage of Hippocrates (Prorrhet. bk. II.) have held that under this name the Ancients indicated a serious disease, viz. anaesthetic elephantiasis or the leprosy of Jews).

71Celsus, Bk. V. ch. 27. 19., λεύκη habet quiddam simile alpho, sed magis albida est et altius descendit: in eaque albi pili sunt, et lanugini similes. (λεύκη has some resemblance to alphus, but is more white in colour, and penetrates deeper; also in it there are white hairs of a woolly appearance). In these last words the interpreters have supposed themselves to find the ἁλὸς ἄχνη (sea-foam) ofPollux, Onom. IV. 193., expressed!

72Galen, Isag., edit. Kühn Vol. XIV. p. 758.,—De symptomat. differ. Vol. VII. p. 63.—De symptomat. caus. bk. II. ibid. pp. 225 sqq., where the λεύκη is described as a consequence ofnutritio depravata(morbid nutrition), whereby τὴν σάρκα γίνεσθαι φλεγματικωτέραν (the flesh becomes over phlegmatic). Comp.Aetius, Tetrab. IV. I. ch. 133.Paulus Aegineta, bk. IV. ch. 5.Actuarius, Meth. med. II. 11. VI. 8.Oribasius, De morb. curat. III. 58.Scip. Gentilis, Comment. in Apuleii apologiam, note 524.—Suidass. v.λεύκη· παρὰ Ἡροδότῳ πάθος τι περὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα, (under word λεύκη: in Herodotus, a complaint affecting the whole surface of the body). InAlexander, Aphrodis. Problem. I. 146, λεῦκαι signify the white flecks on the finger-nails.

73Pollux, Onomast IV. ch. 25. p. 187., mentions among forms of wasting-diseases φθίνης νόσος, for which some editors, and quite rightly, prefer to read φθίνας νόσος (wasting disease).Suidasalso says φθίνας ἡ νόσος, but without giving any further explanation; on the contrary inHesychiuswe find: s. v. φθινὰ[ς] ἡ ἐρυσίβη, καὶ εἶδος ἐλαίας (under word φθινὰ; the red blight, also a species of olive). But by ἐρυσίβη is signifiedmildew,blight,smut on grain, the same thing therefore as the Romans calledrubigoorrobigo, on whichServius, on Virg. Georg. I. 151., has the following observation: Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a rusticanis calamitas dicitur. Hoc autem genus vitii ex nebula nasci solet, cumnigrescunt et consumunturfrumenta. Inde Robigus deus et sacra eius septimo Kalendas Maias Robigalia appellantur. Sedhaec abusiverobigo dicitur; namproprie robigo est, ut Varro dicit,vitium obscoenae libidinis quod ulcus vocatur: id autem abundantia et superfluitate humorissolet nasci, quae Graece σατυρίασις dicitur. (Robigois a sort of blight, that kills the corn-stalks, which is spoken of as adisasterby the peasants. Now this kind of blight commonly springs from a mist or exhalation, the crops blackening and being burnt up. Hence the god Robigus, and his feast-day on the seventh day before the Kalends of May (April 24.), known as the Robigalia. But this is calledrobigoonly by a misnomer; for properly speakingrobigois, as Varro says, a vitiation due to abominable licentiousness and is called an ulcer, and it commonly springs from that abundance and over-copiousness of the humour, which in Greek is called Satyriasis). These words are for our purpose pose of the highest importance, teaching us as they do, thata distinctive form of ulceration, that the patient had brought on himself by sexual excesses, was not only familiar among the Romansbut actually bore thespecialname ofrobigo. It must have displayed a distinctive redness, and have consumed the parts affected similarly to the smut or rust of grain, or the rust of iron. It is surely a sufficient indication to call the chancre-ulcer a blight, a burning: Comp. anthrax, carbo (malignant pustule, carbuncle). To this day in Germany it is vulgarly said of any one attacked by the primary forms of Venereal disease, “the man has burned himself”.Festus, (edit. Dacier p. 451.) says:Robumrubro colore et quae rufo significare, at bovem quoque rustici appellant, manifestum est, unde etmateria quae plurimas venas eius coloris habetdicta est rubor, (Robusclearly indicates things of a red or reddish colour,—now countrymen even speak of an ox asrobus; henceany substance having manifold veins of this colouris calledrubor). Now such is habitually the case with the penis attacked by phimosis or paraphimosis and under the morbid condition of constant erection (Satyriasis) superinduced by these. Again this shows us the reason why Priapus is so frequently called “ruberhortorum custos” (theredkeeper of gardens),—PriapeiaPraef. 5.; and why he is said, “Rubersedere cumrubentefascino,” (to sit,redwith hisruddyverge),—Horace, Odes 84. Sat. I. 8. 5. Now as the blight in grain was regarded specially as a consequence of the dew (mildew), andros(dew) again is used in the sense of the male semen, as well as for the moisture secreted in the female vagina during coition, we might draw yet another analogy from this, and at the same time a proof of theverecundia loquentium(shamefacedness in speech),—p. 43., of theoldRomans. Thus it would seem the Greeks too indicated by their φθινὰς the same thing as the Romans byrobigo. That it was a human disease, is clearly enough shown by the passage from Pollux, and besides we can see it was so from another inPlutarchin his Life of Galba (ch. 21.), where he says: Τιγελλῖνον μὲν οὐ πολὺν ἔτι βιώσεσθαι φάσκοντος· χρόνον, ὑπὸφθινάδος νόσουδαπανώμενον, (For he said that Tigellinus would not live much longer, being exhausted by a wasting disease),—a quotation proving at the same time the deadliness of the malady. Once more,Hesychiushas for φθινὰ also φοινία, saying,φοινία.ἐρυσίβη (φοινία: red blight, and as the adjective corresponding would necessarily be φοινικίος or φοινίκινος, it follows that φοινικίη νόσος and φθινικὴ νόσος,—φθινικὴ being the adjective from φθινὴ or φθινὰς, (which however would more strictly speaking be φθινακή), would mean exactly the same thing, viz. an “Ulcus rubrum et rodens ex coitu cum foeda muliere natum” (red eating ulcer, coming from coition with an unclean woman), the fatal event of which affection was a matter of common observation among the Ancients. Now if this interpretation is the right one in the passage of Hippocrates, it is clear that λεῦκαι were the consequences of this malady, and accordingly we should have a proof that in Antiquity, no less than in modern times, primary ulcers not only preceded secondary affections of the skin, but were actuallyrecognized as such. However as the proofs for thisaperçuare still too fragmentary on the side of the ancient Physicians, we must suspend our immediate judgement on the point, and content ourselves for the present with saying, that φοινικίη νοῦσος stood originally in the text in the sense ofcunnilingere(to be acunnilingue), whereas a later inquirer put φθινικὴ into its place, inasmuch as in his time their meanings had become identical as that of a bodily ailment, and sothe consequenceof the vice instead of the vice itself found its way even into the text. For granted φθινὰς has the meaning ofrobigo(blight), there is no doubt this only came to be the case as late as in the time of the Alexandrine critics. Besides this, φοινικιστὴς is also found in theEtymologicum MagnumforCunnilingus; we read: γλωττοκομεῖον, ἐν ᾧ οἱ αὐληταὶ ἀπετίθεσαν τὰς γλώττας· εἴρηται δὲ καὶ τὸγυναικεῖον αἰδοῖονὑπὸ Εὐβούλουφοινικιστὴνσκώπτοντος· (γλωττοκομεῖον, tongue-hole, place in which fluteplayers insert their tongues);the female privatesalso called so by Eubulus, making a scoff at the φοινικιστὴς,—cunnilingue). TheEtymologicum Magnumfurther has as synonyms forcunnilingere:γλωττοστροφεῖν, περιλαλεῖν καὶ στωμύλλεσθαι·γλωττοδεψεῖν, αἰσχρουργεῖν (to ply the tongue: to talk excessively, to babble;to work or soften with the tongue: to do obscenely), and forcunnilingus,γλώσσαργον, στόμαργον (tongue-busy: mouth-busy).]

74Hippocrates, περὶ παθῶν, edit. Kühn Vol. II. p. 409. It is true this Work is reckoned among the spurious ones, andGalen(Vol. XI. p. 63.) ascribes it toPolybius.

75Aristophanes, Acharnians 271.Πολλῷ γὰρ ἐσθ’ἥδιον, ὦ Φαλῆς Φαλῆςκλέπτουσαν εὑρόνθ’ὡρικὴν ὑληφόρον,τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως,μέσην λαβόντ’ἄραντα, καταβαλόντα καταγιγαρτίσαι·(For ’tis much pleasanter, Phales, Phales! when you have found a blooming woodcutter girl filching wood, say Strymodorus’Thracian maid from Phelleus, to take her round the middle and lift her up and throw her down and take the kernel right away),—where perhaps we should read Στυμοδώρου for Στρυμοδώρου. Knights 1284.,Τὴν γὰρ αὐτοῦ γλῶτταν αἰρχραῖς ἡδοναῖς λυμαίνεται,ἐν κασαυρίοισιλείχωντὸν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,καὶ μολύνων τὴν ὑπήνην, καὶ κυκῶν τὰς ἐσχάρας.(For he pollutes his own tongue with foul delights, in the stews licking up the abominable dew, defiling the hair on the upper lip, and tumbling the girls’nymphae). Peace 885.,Τὸνζῶμοναὐτῆς προσπεσὼν ἐκλάψεται.(Falling upon her he will suck upher broth).

75Aristophanes, Acharnians 271.

Πολλῷ γὰρ ἐσθ’ἥδιον, ὦ Φαλῆς Φαλῆςκλέπτουσαν εὑρόνθ’ὡρικὴν ὑληφόρον,τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως,μέσην λαβόντ’ἄραντα, καταβαλόντα καταγιγαρτίσαι·

Πολλῷ γὰρ ἐσθ’ἥδιον, ὦ Φαλῆς Φαλῆς

κλέπτουσαν εὑρόνθ’ὡρικὴν ὑληφόρον,

τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως,

μέσην λαβόντ’ἄραντα, καταβαλόντα καταγιγαρτίσαι·

(For ’tis much pleasanter, Phales, Phales! when you have found a blooming woodcutter girl filching wood, say Strymodorus’Thracian maid from Phelleus, to take her round the middle and lift her up and throw her down and take the kernel right away),—where perhaps we should read Στυμοδώρου for Στρυμοδώρου. Knights 1284.,

Τὴν γὰρ αὐτοῦ γλῶτταν αἰρχραῖς ἡδοναῖς λυμαίνεται,ἐν κασαυρίοισιλείχωντὸν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,καὶ μολύνων τὴν ὑπήνην, καὶ κυκῶν τὰς ἐσχάρας.

Τὴν γὰρ αὐτοῦ γλῶτταν αἰρχραῖς ἡδοναῖς λυμαίνεται,

ἐν κασαυρίοισιλείχωντὸν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,

καὶ μολύνων τὴν ὑπήνην, καὶ κυκῶν τὰς ἐσχάρας.

(For he pollutes his own tongue with foul delights, in the stews licking up the abominable dew, defiling the hair on the upper lip, and tumbling the girls’nymphae). Peace 885.,

Τὸνζῶμοναὐτῆς προσπεσὼν ἐκλάψεται.

(Falling upon her he will suck upher broth).

76Juvenal, Satir. VI. 455.:Nec curanda viris Opicae castigat amicaeVerba Soloecismum liceat fecisse marito.(And rebukes the expressions of her clownish (Opican) friend, things not worth men’s notice. Surely a husband should be allowed to make a solecism).

76Juvenal, Satir. VI. 455.:

Nec curanda viris Opicae castigat amicaeVerba Soloecismum liceat fecisse marito.

Nec curanda viris Opicae castigat amicae

Verba Soloecismum liceat fecisse marito.

(And rebukes the expressions of her clownish (Opican) friend, things not worth men’s notice. Surely a husband should be allowed to make a solecism).

77Martial, bk. I. Epigr. 78.,Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.(Charinus is in excellent health, and yet he is pale. Charinus drinks moderately, and yet he is pale. Charinus digests well, yet he is pale. Charinus takes the sun, yet he is pale. Charinus dyes his skin, yet he is pale.Charinus licks a woman’s organ, yet he is pale).

77Martial, bk. I. Epigr. 78.,

Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.

Pulchre valet Charinus, et tamen pallet.

Parce bibit Charinus, et tamen pallet.

Bene concoquit Charinus, et tamen pallet.

Sole utitur Charinus, et tamen pallet.

Tingit cutem Charinus, et tamen pallet.

Cunnum Charinus lingit, et tamen pallet.

(Charinus is in excellent health, and yet he is pale. Charinus drinks moderately, and yet he is pale. Charinus digests well, yet he is pale. Charinus takes the sun, yet he is pale. Charinus dyes his skin, yet he is pale.Charinus licks a woman’s organ, yet he is pale).

78Martial, bk. XI. Epigr. 86. As to this Zoilus seeMartial, bk. XI. Epigr. 61.

79Martial, Bk. III. Epigr. 61.

80Greek Anthologybk. II. Tit. 13. Note 19.,Τὴν φωνὴν ἐνοπήν σε λέγειν ἐδίδαξεν Ὅμηρος,Τὴν γλῶσσαν δ’ἐνὀπῇτίς σ’ἐδίδαξεν ἔχειν.(Homer taught you to utter your voice and speak whole words, but, pray! who taught you to have your tongue in a hole?) Here ὀπὴ (hole) obviously stands for the female organ,—a meaning omitted in the Lexicons.

80Greek Anthologybk. II. Tit. 13. Note 19.,

Τὴν φωνὴν ἐνοπήν σε λέγειν ἐδίδαξεν Ὅμηρος,Τὴν γλῶσσαν δ’ἐνὀπῇτίς σ’ἐδίδαξεν ἔχειν.

Τὴν φωνὴν ἐνοπήν σε λέγειν ἐδίδαξεν Ὅμηρος,

Τὴν γλῶσσαν δ’ἐνὀπῇτίς σ’ἐδίδαξεν ἔχειν.

(Homer taught you to utter your voice and speak whole words, but, pray! who taught you to have your tongue in a hole?) Here ὀπὴ (hole) obviously stands for the female organ,—a meaning omitted in the Lexicons.

81So too in the following Epigram ofAusonius(127.),Eune, quod uxoris gravidaeputria inguinalambis,Festinas glossas non natis tradere natis.(Eunus, you lick the flabby organs of your pregnant wife; is it you are in a hurry to give learned explanations to your babes unborn?) we should explain theputria inguinanot so much asrotten,ulcerous, but rather aslaxataorlaxa(relaxed, flabby). SimilarlyHorace, Epod. VIII. 7., speaks ofmammae putres(the flabby dugs) of an old woman.

81So too in the following Epigram ofAusonius(127.),

Eune, quod uxoris gravidaeputria inguinalambis,Festinas glossas non natis tradere natis.

Eune, quod uxoris gravidaeputria inguinalambis,

Festinas glossas non natis tradere natis.

(Eunus, you lick the flabby organs of your pregnant wife; is it you are in a hurry to give learned explanations to your babes unborn?) we should explain theputria inguinanot so much asrotten,ulcerous, but rather aslaxataorlaxa(relaxed, flabby). SimilarlyHorace, Epod. VIII. 7., speaks ofmammae putres(the flabby dugs) of an old woman.

82Martial, IX. 63.,Ad coenam invitant omnes te, Phoebe, cinaedi:Mentula quem pascit, non, puto, purus homo est.(All thecinaedi, Phoebus, invite you to dinner: a man the penis feeds is not, I think, acleanman).Petronius, Sat., Non taces, nocturne percussor, qui ne tum quidem, quum fortiter faceres, cumpura mulierepugnasti. (Silence, stabber by night, who not even when you were at your best, ever faceda clean woman).

82Martial, IX. 63.,

Ad coenam invitant omnes te, Phoebe, cinaedi:Mentula quem pascit, non, puto, purus homo est.

Ad coenam invitant omnes te, Phoebe, cinaedi:

Mentula quem pascit, non, puto, purus homo est.

(All thecinaedi, Phoebus, invite you to dinner: a man the penis feeds is not, I think, acleanman).

Petronius, Sat., Non taces, nocturne percussor, qui ne tum quidem, quum fortiter faceres, cumpura mulierepugnasti. (Silence, stabber by night, who not even when you were at your best, ever faceda clean woman).

83Martial, Bk. IV. Epigr. 43.

84Persius, Satir. V. 186-188.

85Wendelinus Hock de Brackenauentitled his Treatise on the Venereal Disease:Mentagra, sive Tractatus de causis, praeseruatis, regimine et cura Morbi Gallici, vulgo Mala Francosz., etc., (Mentagra, or a Treatise on the Causes, Preventives, Treatment and Cure of the so called French Disease, etc.). Strasburg 1514. 4to.SartoriusFrid. praes.Conrad. Johrenio, Diss. de mentagra ad loc. Plinii Secundi hist. nat. lib. XXVI. cap. 1. (Dissertation on mentagra in connexion with the passage of Pliny Secundus’ Hist. Naturalis bk. XXVI. ch. 1.). Frankfurt-on-Oder N. D. 49 pp. 4to. Gives a sort of exegesis of the passage, speaks in first place of new diseases in general, passes on to the Venereal Disease, the antiquity of which the author upholds, and finally discusses Mentagra, which he holds to be a leprous-syphilitic affection. The work is still quite worth reading, more especially as the author quotes some passages from the Chronicle ofAnhalt von Beckmann, at that time still unprinted, and which we find mentioned hardly anywhere else.

86Hensler, “Vom abendländischen Aussatze im Mittelalter”, (On Occidental Leprosy in the Middle Ages). Hamburg 1790. pp. 67, 206, 307.

87Pliny, Hist. Nat. Bk. XXVI. chs. 1, 2, 3.

88Galen, De comp. med. secundum locos, edit. Kühn Vol. XII. p. 841. προσχαριζόμενον τῇ ἐξωτάτῳ γραμμῇ τοῦ λειχῆνος μικρόν τι τῶν ἀπαθῶν σωμάτων. (giving up to the external mark of the scab yet another small part of the bodies hitherto unaffected).

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