No less a luminary and distant character than Plato expressed himself in the following words regarding the subject under discussion (quoted from Plato’s _Banquet_, chapters VIII and IX): “There is no Aphrodites without an Eros. But there are two goddesses. The older Aphrodites came into existence without a mother; being the daughter of Zeus and Diana and is called Pandemos. The Eros of the former must, therefore, be Uranos, that of the latter Pandemos. With the love of Eros Pandemos the ordinary human beings love; Eros Uranos did not choose a female, but a male; this is the love for boys. Whoever is inspired with this love turns to the male sex.” Herodotus, the Greek historian, who seemed possessed of omnipresence, because he appeared to have been everywhere and seen everything in the known world of his time, described definite characteristics indicative of homo-sexuality. Thus, writing of the Scythians, he referred to a “peculiar disease,” the symptoms of which were these: That certain of the men became effeminate in character, put on female garments, did the work of women, and even became effeminate in appearance. In attempting an explanation of this abnormality of the Scythians, Herodotus fell back on the myth that the goddess Venus, angered by the plundering of the temple at Ascalon by the Scythians, had made _women_ of these plunderers and their posterity. Herodotus also made the curious remark, with respect to these effeminate Scythians, whom he called _Enarees_ or _Androgyni_, “that they were endowed by Venus with the power of divination,” and were consulted by the King of the Scythians when the latter was ill. Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” having no faith in supernatural causes of disease, ascribed the cause to impotence. He attributed it, however incorrectly, as due to the custom of the Scythians to have themselves bled behind the ears in order to cure an affliction brought about by excessive horse-back riding. It was his theory that these veins were of great importance in the preservation of the sexual powers, and that when they were severed, impotence followed. The Scythians so afflicted, however, believing their impotence due to divine punishment and beyond human aid, donned the garb of females and lived as women among women. It is thought that fear of excess population on the part of the early Greeks was one factor in turning their erotic interests from women to young men. As the so-called Greek states of that period consisted principally of cities with very limited capacity for sustenance, the problem of feeding the population was one of some concern. Aristotle, on this account, advised the men to shun their wives and to indulge in boy-love. Even before him, Socrates had already hailed pederasty as a mark of superior culture.