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
But to test the correctness of these explanations and conclusions,
it will be necessary first of all to quote the gloss itself in full:
_στρυμάργου._ οἶδε καὶ ταύτην τὴν γραφὴν ὁ Διοσκουρίδης, οὐ μόνον τὴν
_στομάργου_, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο οὐχ ὡς κύριον ὄνομα ἐξηγεῖται, ἀλλὰ τὸν
μανικῶς ἐπτοημένον περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια δηλοῦσθαί φησιν· εἰρῆσθαι γὰρ παρὰ
τῷ Ἱπποκράτει καὶ ἀλλὰ πολλὰ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἐπίθετα, καθάπερ
_μυοχάνη, σαράπους, γρυπαλώπηξ_· ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ’ Ἐρασιστράτῳ φησὶν ὁ
_ῥινοκολοῦρος_, that is to say:—στρυμάργου: Dioscorides knows this
form also, not merely that of στομάργου, but this too he regards not
as a proper name, but says that it signifies one who is madly set upon
love-indulgences; for that in Hippocrates as well many other epithets
of the same sort (which refer to the same sort of vice) are mentioned,
e. g. μυοχάνη, σαράπους, γρυπαλώπηξ; also he says that in Erasistratus
(the expression) ῥινοκολοῦρος is found.
The reader sees in the first place that it is not merely expressions
peculiar to Dioscorides that are here cited, as we might be led to
suppose by Naumann’s statement, but that they are every one of them
found, as we shall presently prove more particularly, in _Hippocrates_,
the ῥινοκολοῦρος of Erasistratus of course excepted. _Dioscorides_
mentions them only in his commentary on the Second Book of the
“Epidemia”, when laying down the passages to be cited immediately, and
declares them not to be proper names, but adjectives which all refer
to insane indulgence in the pleasures of love; accordingly there can
be no question here of _bodily disorders_, let the words in themselves
signify what they will. Now if we examine into this more closely, we
shall find first of all that we must obviously read στυμάργου in place
of στρυμάργου, for not only is this form given by the author of the
gloss (under στομάργου[9]), quoted on the preceding page, but the text
also of Hippocrates[10] offers it in both passages; whereas στρυμάργου
gives no sort of sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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