Καὶ νῦν ὅτι Κλεισθένη εἶδον, ὁρᾷς, διὰ τοῦτ’ ἐγένοντο γυναῖκες. (_Strepsiades._—Now tell me, how comes it that, if these are really and truly clouds, they resemble women? Common clouds are not like that.... _Socrates._—They can easily make themselves anything they please. And so, if they but catch sight of one of those long-haired, ruffianly, shaggy fellows, such a man as Xenophantus’ son for example, straightway in derision of their folly they change into Centaurs. And now when they beheld Cleisthenes, see you? they became women!) _Cleisthenes_ was a notorious cinaedus at Athens, whom Aristophanes had made a special butt for his wit; for example, he makes Mnesilochus, mentioned just above, after his transformation into a woman, say,—he looks just like Cleisthenes now. The evidence adduced will, we think, be sufficient to show that the Scythians had good reason for saying, that with persons in this case (cinaedi) it was easy to _recognise by looking at them_ what stamp of men they were: and that _Juvenal_[341] was right when he wrote: Verius ergo Et magis ingenue Peribomius: _hunc ego fatis Imputo, qui vultu morbum incessuque fatetur_. (More truly then and more candidly Peribomius says: the man I consider a victim of fate, who in face and gait betrays the disease he suffers from.)—a passage that strongly confirms what has been advanced. Peribomius is quite candid, he confesses to being a pathic, for in any case his appearance would betray the fact. He finds the less reason to deny it, as he regards the vice which has mastered him as an infliction of providence (_fatis imputo_). Here is proof that the opinion of the Greeks as to the pathic’s being one who had incurred the anger of the gods, was still commonly held in Juvenal’s time, though perhaps less as a matter of conviction than in order to provide an excuse for indulgence. So we must further read _hoc_ for _hunc_ in the passage (_hoc ego fatis imputo_,— _this_ I regard as an infliction of fate); unless indeed we construe thus, _ego, qui morbum vultu incessuque fatetur, hunc (sc. morbum) fatis imputo_. “I in truth,—as for the man who confesses by look and gait his disease, _this disease_ I regard as an infliction of fate.” The words are obviously Peribomius’ own expression of opinion; and directly afterwards the poet goes on: Horum simplicitas miserabilis, his furor ipse Dat veniam: sed peiores, qui talia verbis Herculis invadunt et de virtute locuti Clunem agitant. (These men’s simplicity moves our pity; their very infatuation craves pardon. But worse are they who enter such courses with Hercules’ words on their lips, and prating of manly virtue, heave the wanton buttocks.) § 17.