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
[271] _Oppenheim_, Ueber den Zustand der Heilkunde in der Türkei, (On
the Condition of of Medical Knowledge in Turkey), p. 81., “Without the
very great cleanliness of the Turks, who after every occasion of sexual
intercourse not only wash carefully, but also wherever it is possible
go to the bath likewise, the disease would undoubtedly be yet more
widely spread than it is.... Yet the Turk will never admit, or rather
he simply cannot bring himself to conceive, that he has contracted
an infection through unclean cohabitation, but will be found always
to give some other cause as occasioning his sickness. In fact the
language itself shows this; the Turkish expression for gonorrhœa is
“_Belzouk_”, literally: chill of the back (from _bel_, back and _zouk_,
cold), and chill or overheating will always be represented as having
brought it on.”—Moreover _Zeller von Zellenberg_, Abh. über die ersten
Erscheinungen venerischer Lokal-Krankheitsformen und deren Behandlung,
(Dissertation on the earliest Appearances of Forms of Local Venereal
Disease, and their Treatment), Vienna 1810., p. 7., is of the opinion,
that the reason of the imperfect knowledge possessed by the Ancients of
gonorrhœa, chancre and buboes is to be found in this delayed appearance
of the symptoms of disease after coition.
[272] We see this in the clearest possible way from the passage of
_Herodotus_, bk. I. ch. 9, 10., where Candaules wishes to induce Gyges
to see his wife naked, in order to convince him of her beauty, but the
latter objects: ἅμα δὲ κιθῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή·
πάλαι δὲ τὰ καλὰ ἀνθρώποισι ἐξεύρηται, ἐκ τῶν μανθάνειν δεῖ·
(but when she strips off her tunic, a woman strips off therewith
her modesty likewise; now mankind have long ago ascertained what is
honourable, and from this we must learn how to act). Then Herodotus
adds to this further (ch. 10.), παρὰ γὰρ τοῖσι Λυδοῖσι, σχεδὸν δὲ
παρὰ τοῖσι ἄλλοισι βαρβάροισι, καὶ ἄνδρα ὀφθῆναι γυμνὸν, ἐς αἰσχύνην
μεγάλην φέρει· (for among the Lydians, as indeed among pretty nearly
all Barbarians, for a person to be seen naked is counted for the
greatest disgrace). Comp. _Plutarch_, De audiend. rat. p. 37. _Diogenes
Laertius_, VIII. 43. _Plato_, Politics V. 6. p. 457. A., V. 3. p. 452.,
Οὐ πολὺς χρόνος, ἐξ οὗ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐδόκει αἰσχρὰ εἶναι καὶ γέλοια,
ἅπερ νῦν τοῖς πολλοῖς τῶν βαρβάρων, γυμνοὺς ἄνδρας ὁρᾶσθαι. (It is
no long time since it appeared to the Greeks, as it does still to most
of the Barbarian peoples, shameful and ridiculous for men to be seen
naked). In reference to the genital organs _Hesiod_ says (Works and
Days 733.):
μηδ’ αἰδοῖα γονῇ πεπαλαγμένος ἔνδοθι οἴκου
ἑστίῃ ἐμπελαδὸν παραφαινέμεν, ἀλλ’ ἀλέασθαι·
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