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
[243] Thus _Plutarch_, Eroticus, ch. 5., Ἡ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀῤῥένων ἀκόντων,
μετὰ βίας γενομένη καὶ λεηλασίας, ἂν δὲ ἑκουσίως, σὺν μαλακίᾳ καὶ
θηλύτητι _βαίνεσθαι_ κατὰ Πλάτωνα _νόμῳ τετράποδος καὶ παιδοσπορεῖσθαι
παρὰ φύσιν_ ἐνδιδόντων, χάρις ἄχαρις παντάπασι καὶ ἀσχήμων καὶ
_ἀναφρόδιτος_. (But the pleasure that is won from males against their
will by dint of force or robbery, or if voluntarily, then only because
in their wantonness and effeminacy they consent to men _treading
them_, as Plato puts it, _like a four-footed beast_, and emitting seed
with them unnaturally—this pleasure is a _graceless_ one altogether,
and unseemly and _loveless_). The passage of Plato referred to here
is in the Phaedrus, p. 250 E., ὥστε οὐ σέβεται προσορῶν, ἀλλ’ ἡδονῇ
παραδοὺς _τετράποδος νόμον βαίνειν_ ἐπιχειρεῖ καὶ παιδοσπορεῖν, καὶ
ὕβρει προσομιλῶν οὐ δέδοικεν οὐδ’ αἰσχύνεται παρὰ φύσιν ἡδονὴν διώκων.
(And so he feels no reverence when he looks on him, but giving way to
pleasure endeavours to _tread like a four-footed beast_ and to emit his
seed, and using insolent violence in his intercourse, has no fear and
no shame in pursuing pleasure in an unnatural way). As something παρὰ
φύσιν (contrary to nature) we find paederastia further characterized
in _Athenaeus_, Deipnosoph., bk. XIII. p. 605. _Lucian_, Amores, 19.
_Philo_, De legg. spec., II. p. 306. 17. _Libanius_, Orat., XIX. p.
500. ἡ παράνομος Ἀφροδίτη. (Unlawful Love). _Galen_, De diagnos. et
curat. anim. effect. (On the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of
Animals). edit. Kühn. Vol. V. p. 30. τῆς παρὰ φύσιν αἰσχρουργίας (of
unnatural viciousness). In the _Anthologia Graeca_, bk. II. tit. 5. No.
10. is the distich following by an unknown author:
Υἱὸς Πατρικίου μάλα κόσμιος, _ὃς διὰ Κύπριν
Οὐχ ὁσίην_ ἑτάρους πάντας _ἀποστρέφεται_.
(Son of Patricius, a very discreet man, who by _unholy love seduces_
all his comrades). But above all the passage in _Aeschines_,
Orat. in Timarch. edit. Reiske, p. 146., is to the point in this
connection: ὁρίζομαι δ’ εἶναι, τὸ μὲν ἐρᾶν τῶν καλῶν καὶ σωφρόνων,
φιλανθρώπου, πάθος καὶ εὐγνώμονος ψυχῆς· τὸ δὲ ἀσελγαίνειν ἀργυρίου
τινὰ μισθούμενον, ὑβριστοῦ καὶ ἀπαιδεύτου ἀνδρὸς ἔργον εἶναι ἡγοῦμαι·
καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀδιαφθόρως ἐρᾶσθαι, φημὶ καλὸν εἶναι· τὸ δὲ ἐπαρθέντα
μισθῷ πεπορνεῦσθαι, αἰσχρόν. (Now I make this distinction, that to
love honourable and prudent friends is the passion of an amiable and
reasonable soul; whereas to behave licentiously, hiring anyone for
the purpose, I consider the act of a ruffianly and uncultivated man.
Similarly, to be loved purely, I declare to be a noble thing; but,
induced by pay, to allow oneself to be debauched, a foul thing). Anyone
who has read this passage attentively, together with what follows
in the Speech, cannot possibly any longer confound Paedophilia with
Paederastia, or maintain that the latter was approved by the Greeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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