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
[436] _Johannes Moschus_, Pratum spirituale (Meadow of the Soul) ch.
14. in Magna Bibliotheca veterum Patrum (Great Library of the Ancient
Fathers) Vol. XIII. Paris 1644. fol., p. 1062. Ὁ Ἀββᾶς Πολυχρόνιος
πάλιν ἡμῖν διηγήσατο, ἡμῖν λέγων, ὅτι ἐν τῷ κοινοβίω τοῦ Πενθουκλὰ,
ἀδελφὸς ἦν πάνυ προσέχων αὑτὸν καὶ ἀσκητής· ἐπολεμήθη δὲ εἰς πορνείαν,
καὶ μὴ εἰσενεγκὼν τὸν πολέμον, ἐξῆλθεν τοῦ μοναστηρίου καὶ ἀπῆλθεν εἰς
Ἰεριχὼ πληρῶσαι τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτοῦ· _καὶ ὡς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ καταγώγιον
τῆς πορνείας, εὐθέως ἐλεπρούθη ὅλως_· καὶ θεασάμενος ἑαυτὸν ἐν τοιούτῳ
σχήματι, εὐθέως ἐπέστρεψεν εἰς τὸ μοναστήριον αὐτοῦ, εὐχαριστῶν τῷ
θεῷ καὶ λέγων, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἐπήγαμέν μοι τὴν τοιαύτην νόσον, ἵνα ἡ ψυχή
μου σωθῇ. (The Abbot Polychronius again related an incident to us,
telling us how in the Monastery of Penthula there was a brother well
self-disciplined and ascetic. But he was sorely tempted to fornication,
and unable to fight the temptation, he went forth from the Monastery
and departed to Jericho to fulfil his desire; and when he _entered into
the common house of fornication, straightway he became leprous all
over_. And when he saw himself in such a case, straightway he returned
to his Monastery, blessing God and saying, “God hath brought down this
disease upon me, that my soul might be saved”).
[437] _Galen_, De locis affect. bk. II. ch. 8. (VIII. pp. 91, 104.).
τοὺς δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν περὶ τὰ ὀστέα προστυπεῖς εὑρήσεις, ὡς αὐτῶν δοκεῖν τῶν
ὀστέων ὄντας· ... ὅτι δ’ οἱ τῶν περικειμένων τοῖς ὀστοῖς ὑμένων πόνοι
βύθιοί τ’ εἰσὶν, τοῦτ’ ἔστι διὰ βάθους τοῦ σώματος ἐπιφέροντες αἴσθησιν,
αὐτῶν τε τῶν ὀστῶν ἐπάγουσιν φαντασίαν ὡς ὀδυνωμένων, οὐδὲν θαυμαστόν·
ὀνομάζουσι γοῦν αὐτοὺς _ὀστοκόπους_ οἱ πλεῖστοι, γίνονται τὰ πολλὰ
μὲν ἐπὶ γυμνασίοις, ἔστιν ὅτι δὲ καὶ διὰ ψύξιν, ἢ πλῆθος. (Now you will
find patients suffering from pains in the parts surrounding the bones
inclined to suppose they are suffering from the bones themselves....
And it is not at all surprising that pains in the membranes that lie
about the bones being deep-seated, that is giving a sensation of
being deep-seated in the body, make patients imagine it is the bones
themselves that suffer. In fact they call them generally bone-racking
pains; and they are set up as a rule after bodily exercises, but also
sometimes as a consequence of cold or heat).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Plague of Lust, Vol. 2 (of 2): Being a History of Venereal Disease in Classical Antiquity — John Shaqi
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