(Suidas (Lexicon) on the phrase μεγαρικαὶ σφίγγες says: harlots are so called, and perhaps for the same reason debauched men are entitled σφίγκται; or else from a saying current in Megara to this effect:—But we have a certain _Megarian_ trick,—that is a _knavish_ one. For the Megarians were ill spoken of for their knavishness). [235] Epistle to the Romans, ch. I. vv. 24-26, 27. [236] _Athanasius_, Oratio contra Gentes, ch. 26. in “Opera Omnia studio Monachorum Ord. St. Benedicti.” (Complete Works of St. Athanasius, edit. by the Monks of the Order of St. Benedict). Padua 1777. folio.—Vol. I. p. 1. [237] Amores, chs. 20, 21. The hetaera Glycera would seem, according to _Clearchus’_ report, to have said, καὶ οἱ παῖδες εἰσι καλοὶ, ὅσον ἐοίκασι γυναικὶ χρόνον. (And boys are beautiful for so long as they resemble a woman). _Athenaeus_, Deipnos. bk. XIII. p. 605 D. According to _Hellanicus_, as _Donatus_, on _Terence’s_ Eunuch., I. 2. 87. notifies, the custom of emasculating boys would seem to have come from the Babylonians. _Herodotus_, III. 92., says that the Babylonians were bound to deliver every year as tribute to the Persian king 500 castrated boys. [238] As a matter of curiosity a tale of _Phlegon_, De Rebus mirabilibus, ch. 26., may find a place here. According to the report of the physician _Dorotheus_ a Cinaedus (pathic sodomite) at Alexandria in Egypt bore a child, which was preserved at that place. The text reads, Δωρόθεος δέ φησιν ὁ ἰατρὸς ἐν Ὑπομνήμασιν, ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ, τῇ κατ’ Αἴγυπτον, κίναιδον τεκεῖν· τὸ δὲ βρέφος ταριχευθὲν, χάριν τοῦ παραδόξου, φυλάττεσθαι. (Now Dorotheus the Physician says in his Memoirs, that at Alexandria in Egypt a _cinaedus_ brought forth; and that the babe was mummified and kept as a curiosity). The same thing is reported in the following chapter of a slave with the Roman army in Germany under the command of T. Curtilius Mancias. These stories may possibly borrow some probability from modern investigations as to the “foetus” within the “foetus”. The expression “to sow seed on barren rocks” occurs, it may be mentioned, very frequently in connection with paederastia in the Fathers. [239] _Juvenal_, Sat. VI. 366 sqq., Sunt quas eunuchi imbelles ac mollia semper Oscula delectent et desperatio barbae. _Et quod abortivo non est opus_, illa voluptas Summa tamen, quod iam calida matura iuventa Inguina traduntur medicis, iam pectine nigro. Ergo exspectatos ac iussos crescere primum, Testiculos, postquam coeperunt esse bilibres, Tonsoris damno tantum rapit Heliodorus.