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
Besides the passages quoted, there are several others to be found in
_Martial_, that must be taken as referring to the _fellator_; but
since the maladies that occur are equally prevalent in the case of the
_Cunnilingue_, it will be more convenient to adduce them under that
head. Further, we only require to mention the fact that _pale lips_
seem to have been regarded as a mark of the _fellator_[55].
The Cunnilingue.
§ 23.
But the vice of the _fellator_ is far surpassed in baseness by that
of the _Cunnilingue_ (_qui opus peragit linguam arrigendo in cunnum,
eumque lambit_,—one who works by putting his tongue up into the female
organ, and licking it). The Greeks called this practice σκύλαξ (a
puppy), because it is a habit of dogs[56], and Hesychius explains it
by σχῆμα ἀφροδισιακὸν, ὡς τὸ τῶν φοινικιζόντων (a method of love,
resembling that of those who phoenicize). We have already, in the
passage of _Lucian_ quoted a little above, found φοινικίζειν and
λεσβιάζειν put side by side; _Galen_ moreover[57] does the same in
the following passage, a noteworthy one for our purpose on several
accounts: “The drinking of sweat, urine and the menstrual blood of
women is vicious and shameful, and not less so when a person, as
Xenocrates proposes to do, smears the regions of the mouth and throat
with excrement, and swallows it down. He speaks also of taking the
wax of the ears. For my part I could never bring myself to take this,
even though by that means I were never to be ill again. But excrement
I consider yet more disgusting, and it is for a man of any decency far
more shameful to be called an Excrement-Eater[58] than an αἰσχρουργὸς
(worker of obscenities) or a _cinaedus_. But of αἰσχρουργοὶ[59]
(workers of obscenities), we abominate Phoenicians more than the
Lesbians, and it seems to me the man does something of the same sort
as the former who drinks menstrual blood (μᾶλλον βδελλυττόμεθα τοὺς
_φοινικίζοντας_ τῶν λεσβιαζόντων ᾧ[60] φαίνεταί μοι παραπλήσιόν τι
πάσχειν ὁ καὶ καταμηνίου πίνων.) _A sensible man will neither seek
to collect experiences on the point, nor yet on a practice, which it
is true involves less_, but still is sufficiently shameful, that of
smearing a part of the body with excrement, because he has some hurt at
that spot,—or with human seed. Xenocrates calls this latter commonly
γόνος (seed, semen), and distinguishes with minute care between cases
where simple seed rubbed in by itself is of benefit, and cases where
the female has the same effect after combination with the male, as it
is discharged from the woman’s womb.”
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