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
—sed habet _tristis_ quoque _turba_ cinaedos,
Difficile est, vero nubere, Galla, viro.
(... but the dismal throng contains cinaedi as well; ’tis a difficult
matter, Galla, to marry a real man). Comp. Bk. IX. Epigr. 48.; and
_Juvenal_, Satir. II. 8-13.,
Quis enim non vicus abundat
_Tristibus_ obscoenis? castigas turpia, cum sis
Inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinaedos:
Hispida membra quidem et durae per brachia setae
Promittunt atrocem animum? sed podice laevi
Caeduntur tumidae, medico ridente, mariscae.
(For what street has not its crowd of _dismal_ debauchees? you inveigh
against vice, when you are the most notorious pit of abomination of all
the host of Socratic cinaedi. Shaggy limbs indeed and sturdy bristles
on your arms promise a rugged virtue; but your fundament is smooth, and
the great bursting swellings on it are cut, the doctor grinning the
while.) _Seneca_, Epist. 114., Ille et crura, hic nec alas vellit. (One
man plucks bare his very legs, another not even the armpits.)
[337] _Aeschines_, Orat. in Timarch. p. 179., expresses it excellently,
οὕτω τοὺς _πεπορνευμένους_, κᾂν μὴ παρῶμεν τοῖς αὐτῶν ἔργοις, ἐκ τῆς
ἀναιδείας καὶ τοῦ θράσους καὶ τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων γινώσκομεν. (So with
regard to debauchees, even though we are not present at their actual
doings, we recognize them by their bold, shameless bearing and their
general habits.)
[338] This was the special adornment of the woman, and was sacred to
Venus; we read in _Ausonius_,
Barba Iovi, crines Veneri decor; ergo necesse est,
Ut nolint demi, quo sibi uterque placet.
(The beard is Jove’s pride, her locks Venus’s: they must needs then
object to the removal of that wherein each takes special delight).
Hence _Ambrosius_ too, Hexamer. bk. VI., writes, Haud inscitum extat
adagium: nullus comatus qui non idem cinaedus. (There is a familiar
proverb that says: never a long-haired man but is a cinaedus.) In
_Martial_, III. 58., they are called _capillati_ (long-haired.)
[339] _Diogenes Laertius_, Vita Diogenis Bk. VI. 54.
[340] Clouds, 340 sqq. See also (German) Translation of Aristophanes by
_Fr. A. Wolf_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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