The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical AntiquityRosenbaum, Julius
History
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity
Rosenbaum, Julius
Sexually transmitted diseases -- History
Though the explanation of ῥινοκολοῦρος given just now might very well
at a pinch be regarded as satisfactory, still we think it hardly
answers sufficiently well to the κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον (after the same
fashion), while the variant ῥινοκλοῦρος seems to point to ῥιναύλουρος
or ῥιναύλουρις as the true reading. In _Tatian_ (Orat. ad Graecos p.
83.) in fact we read: _ῥιναυλοῦσι_ τὰ αἰσχρά, κινοῦνται δὲ κινήσεις ἃς
οὐκ ἐχρῆν, καὶ τοὺς ὄπως δεῖ μοιχεύειν ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς σοφιστεύοντας αἱ
θυγατέρες ὑμῶν καὶ οἱ παῖδες θεωροῦσι. (They flute their obscenities
through the nose, and make movements that in decency they should not
make, while actors who teach on the stage the whole art of how to
debauch a woman are the spectacle your daughters and your boys gaze
at.) The Scholiast observes on this ῥινοκτυποῦσιν, οἱονεὶ τὸ πνεῦμα
τοῖς ῥώδωσι, συνέλκοντες ποιὸν ἦχον ἐπὶ καταγέλωτι ἀποτελοῦσι, (they
make a noise with the nose, a sort of breathing with the nostrils; by
drawing in these they produce a certain sound by way of mockery), and
in _Lucian_, Lexiphanes ch. 19., we find ἔοικα δὲ καὶ ῥιναυστῆσειν,
(and I am like to go nose-playing), of which the Scholiast gives the
following explanation: ἀντὶ τοῦ ταῖς ῥισὶ καταυλῆσαι, ἐποίουν γὰρ τοῦτο
_ῥιναυλοῦντες_, ἤτοι διὰ τῶν ῥινῶν ψοφοῦντες ἐπὶ διασυρμῷ τινῶν καὶ
χλεύῃ. (put instead of _fluting with the nostrils_; for they used to do
this when they nose-fluted, or in other words, made a noise with the
nostrils by way of mocking people and joking). Now if we take ῥιναυλεῖν
(to nose-flute) in these passages,—and all this confirms what has been
previously said (above p. 144.) on the word ῥέγχειν (to snort) in the
Speech of Dio Chrysostom,—for _fistulam canere per nares_, _to play the
flute with the nose_, and at the same time remember that _Eustathius_
(as was noted above, p. 236. Note 2.) derived ἀπομύζουρις and μύζουρις
from μυζᾶν-οὐράν (οὐρά,—the tail, the penis), the Greeks would seem
to have said ῥιναυλεῖν-οὐράν, _penem pro fistula canere_, (to play on
the penis instead of a flute), and we should have the adjective or
substantive ῥιναύλουρις, _qui penem pro fistula canit per nares_, (one
who plays on the penis instead of a flute with the nostrils), which
admirably expresses not only the action of the _fellator_, but also the
music he makes to accompany it, as he is compelled to snort, drawing
his breath heavily through the nose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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