107 and especially is used as a nickname for Ganymede. _Plautus_, Menaechm. I. 2. 34.—_Festus_: Catamitum pro Ganymede dixerunt, qui fuit Jovis concubinus, (Men said _catamitus_ for Ganymedes, who was Jupiter’s bed-fellow),—which probably led to the ridiculous idea being entertained, e.g. by _Scheller_, that the word was derived from _Ganymedes_ by corruption in the pronunciation! The fact that the word is metrically a “Paeon tertius”, that is to say the _i_ in the third syllable is long, might have led us at once to the conclusion that originally the word was _catamytus_, and derived from the Greek καταμύσσω (to tear), and so has the same meaning as the Latin _percisus_ (cut), or else that it stands for καταμίκτος (mixed), and is connected with καταμίγνυμι (to mix), and so in fact _concubinus_ (sharing the bed), as Festus says! At any rate the passages quoted above from Cicero and Seneca, which might easily be multiplied, prove that Stark’s supposition expressed on p. 22., to the effect that _morbus_ (disease) is used in this sense _only_ in the poets, is unfounded. [343] _Menander_, in _Lucian_, Amores ch. 43., says: νόσων χαλεπωτάτη φθόνος (of _diseases_ the cruellest is envy.) It is used of envy by Aristophanes, Birds 31. νόσον νοσοῦμεν τὴν ἐναντίαν Σάκᾳ. (we are sick of the _disease_ that was Saces’ enemy.) _Euripides_, Medea 525., γλωσσαλγία αἴσχιστος νόσος (garrulousness, a most shocking _disease_.) But in a special way νόσος (disease) was used of Love (_Pollux_) Onomast. Bk. VI. 42., εἰς Ἀφροδίτην νοσῶν. (being sick of Love). _Eubulus_, in Nannio, quoted by _Athenaeus_, Deipnos. Bk. XIII. ch. 24., says: μικροῦ πρίασθαι κέρματος τὴν ἡδονήν καὶ μὴ λαθραίαν Κύπριν (αἰσχίστην _νόσων_ πασῶν) διώκειν, ὕβρεος, οὐ πόθου χάριν. (To buy pleasure for a small coin, and not pursue secret amours,—most base of all diseases,—for overmastering lust’s sake and not for love.) Νόσημα (disease) is used in the same sense in _Lucian_, Amores 3., and πάθος (suffering, passion) in many passages in the same Work. _Plutarch_, Amator. p. 763., καὶ λελάληκε (Μένανδρος) περὶ τοῦ πάθους φιλοσοφώτερον. (And he—Menander—has talked about the passion more like a philosopher). The following passage in _Philo_, De specialibus legibus,—Opera. edit. Mangey, Vol. II. p. 301., is of interest: Ἔχει μὲν οὖν καὶ ἡ κατὰ φύσιν ἡδονὴ πολλάκις μέμψιν, ὅταν ἀμέτρως καὶ ἀκορέστως χρῆταί τις αὐτῇ, καθάπερ οἱ ἄπληστοι περὶ ἐδωδὴν, κἂν εἰ μηδὲν τῶν ἀπηγορευμένων προσφέροιντο· καὶ οἱ φιλογυναίοις συνουσίαις ἐπιμιμηνότες, καὶ λαγνίστερον προσομιλοῦντες γυναιξὶν οὐκ ἀλλοτρίαις, ἀλλὰ ταῖς ἐαυτῶν. _Ἡ δὲ μέμψις σώματός ἐστι μᾶλλον ἢ ψυχῆς κατὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς, πολλὴν μὲν ἔχοντος εἴσω φλόγα, ἣ τὴν παραβληθεῖσαν τροφὴν ἐξαναλίσκουσα ἑτέραν οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν ἐπιζητεῖ πολλὴν ἰκμάδα, ἧς τὸ ῥοῶδες διὰ τῶν γενητικῶν ἀποχετεύετο, κνησμοὺς καὶ ὀδαξισμοὺς ἐμποιοῦν καὶ γαργαλισμοὺς ἀπαύσους_.