The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
(from whom surely and _safely_ you may buy your pleasure for a small
coin), admits of an easy explanation, if we consider that these common
women are contrasted here not with the hetaerae but with the free women
of the city, illicit intercourse with whom was always dangerous for
the voluptuary, being punished as rape or adultery. The most telling
proof is afforded by the passage of _Diogenes Laertius_, bk. VI. ch.
4., where he says: “When _Antisthenes_ saw a man accused of adultery,
he said to him, Unhappy man, what serious risk you might have avoided
for an obol! (ὦ δυστυχὴς, πηλίκον κίνδυνον ὀβολοῦ διαφυγεῖν εδύνασο).
Also the passage of _Xenarchus_, (Athenaeus, bk. XIII. p. 569.), is
pertinent, where it is said, καὶ τῶν δ’ ἑκάστην ἐστὶν ἀδεῶς, εὐτελῶς,
(and of the women each can be enjoyed without fear, cheaply). Hence too
the verses of _Menander_ (Lucian, Amor. 33.) should read,
καὶ φαρμακεῖαι, καὶ νόσων χαλεπωτάτη
φθόνος, μεθ’ οὗ ζῇ πάντα τὸν βίον γυνὴ
(and medicines, and hardest of diseases—envy, wherewith a woman dwells
all her life long) and not, as the received text has it,
καὶ φαρμακεῖα, καὶ νόσοι· χαλεπώτατος
φθόνος.
(and medicine, and disease; hardest is envy).
[140] Comp. above p. 70. note 2. _Harpocration_, Lexicon X.
rhetor.—_Eustathius_, Comment. on Homer’s Iliad XIX. 282., p. 1185.,
Quod auro gaudeat Venus, de qua est in fabula, ille quoque manifestum
facit, qui tradit: Solonem Veneris vulgaris templum dedicasse e
mulierum quaestu, quas coemtas prostituerat in cellis, in adolescentum
gratiam, (That Venus, of whom is question in the tale, rejoices in
gold, is manifest from the historian who relates, how Solon dedicated a
temple of the Common (Pandemian) Venus from the gains of the women that
he had bought and established in chambers as prostitutes, to gratify
the young men). Comp. _Boeckh_, Corp. Inscript. I. p. 470.
[141] How clean and neat they were can be gathered from the fact that a
certain Phanostrata got the _sobriquet_ of Phtheiropyle (doorlouser),
ἐπειδήπερ ἐπὶ τῆς θύρας ἑστῶσα ἐφθειρίζετο, (because she used to stand
at the door and pick the lice off her).
[142] _Athenaeus_, Deipnos. bk. XIII. ch. 37. Comp. _Palmerius_,
Exercitat. p. 523.
[143] _Athenaeus_, Deipnos. bk. XIII. ch. 27.—_Suidas_, s. v.
χαμαιτύπη· ἡ πόρνη, ἀπὸ τοῦ χαμαὶ κειμένη ὀχεύεσθαι, (under the word
χαμαιτύπη: harlot, from her copulating lying on the ground).
[144] Here they reckoned “Money for house-room”, ἐνοίκιον for
στεγανόμιον (Pollux, Onomast. I. 75.), the same in fact as the _pretium
mansionis_ (price of house-room) of the Romans in their inns. Comp.
_Casaubon_, on Athenaeus I. ch. 14.
[145] _Bergler_, on Alciphron VI. p. 25.
[146] _Zell_, “Ferienschriften,” (Holiday Papers), First Series.
Freiburg 1826. No. 1., “Die Wirthshäuser der Alten,” (Inns of the
Ancients), pp. 3-53.
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