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
[275] _Plato_, Republic, bk. II. p. 405. The Speech of _Lysias_ Ὑπὲρ
Φανίου contains a passage, preserved for us by _Athenaeus_, bk. XII. p.
552., in which these principles are expressed in Court, to induce the
Judges to condemn the dissolute Cinesias: τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ὑπὸ πλείστων
γινωσκόμενον οἱ θεοὶ οὕτως διέθεσαν, ὥστε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ βούλεσθαι
ζῆν μᾶλλον ἢ τεθνάναι, παράδειγμα τοῖς ἄλλοις, ἵν’ ἴδωσιν ὅτι τοῖς ἄλλοις
ὑβριστικῶς πρὸς τὰ θεῖα διακειμένοις, οὐκ εἰς τοὺς παῖδας ἀποτίθενται
τὰς τιμωρίας, ἀλλ’ αὐτοὺς κακῶς ἀπολύουσι, μείζους καὶ χαλεπωτέρας,
καὶ τὰς νόσους, ἢ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις, προσβάλλοντες· τὸ μὲν γὰρ
ἀποθανεῖν ἢ καμεῖν νομίμως κοινὸν ἅπασιν ὑμῖν ἐστίν· τὸ δ’ οὕτως ἔχοντα
τοσοῦτον χρόνον διατελεῖν, καὶ καθ’ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκοντα μὴ
δύνασθαι τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον, τούτοις μόνοις, προσήκει τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα,
ἅπερ οὗτος, ἐξημαρτηκόσιν. (But this man, who is known to most of you,
the gods have brought to such a pass that his enemies may well wish him
to live rather than die, to be an example to other men, showing them
that where men’s conduct is too violently overbearing towards the gods,
these do not inflict punishments on their children, but pay them out in
person with misfortunes, bringing down on them calamities and diseases
greater and more severe than fall to the lot of others. For death and
sickness are admittedly common to all of you; but to continue so long
in such a condition, and dying every day, yet not be able to have
done with his life, this is the fate only of men who have committed
such evil deeds as he has). Again, the Taxili, an Indian people,
regarded any bodily sickness as disgraceful, and on its appearance gave
themselves to the fire; αἴσχιστον δ’ αὐτοῖς νομίζεσθαι νόσον σωματικήν·
τὸν δ’ ὑπονοήσαντα καθ’ αὑτοῦ τοῦτο ἐξάγειν ἑαυτὸν διὰ πυρὸς νήσαντα
πυράν, (But they hold a bodily disease to be most disgraceful; and the
man who has formed a suspicion of the existence of such in himself,
goes through the fire, after making a funeral pyre) says _Strabo_,
Geograph. bk. XV. p. 716. 65. We should compare with this the suicide
of Festus spoken of above and of the “Municeps” _Pliny_ tells of.
[276] _Aretaeus_, De caus. et sign. chron. morb. (On the Causes and
Symptoms of Chronic Diseases), bk. II. ch. 5., says indeed explicitly
of gonorrhœa: ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια, _ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι
ἀκοῆς_, (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous complaint, but it is
one that is hateful and abominable of repute).
[277] _Martial_, bk. VI. Epigr. 31.,
Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisque
_A medico futui_. Vis sine febre mori!
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