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
The word στυμάργος in fact is derived either from στῦμα[11], the act
of erecting the penis, and and ἔργον (work), so signifying anyone
who performs the work of causing an erection of the penis,—or else
from στύω[12], I erect the penis, and μάργος[13], (mad), i. e.
one who erects, uses, the penis in a madly lascivious fashion, so
an _Irrumator_, and with this _Hesychius’_ interpretation agrees:
λεσβιάζειν,—πρὸς ἀνδρὸς στόμα στύειν, (to lesbianize,—to erect the
penis in a man’s mouth). Στομάργος on the other hand is formed by a
combination of στόμα, the mouth, and ἔργω or ἔργον (I work, work),
a word constantly used to express the employment of the genital
organs[14], in fact indulgence in love generally, and signifies a man
who performs the work (of love) with the mouth, so a _Fellator_[15].
Now since only the most abandoned lust, lust that has really grown
into a form of insanity, is capable of undertaking such obscenities,
the interpretation of _Dioscorides_ μανικῶς ἐπτοημένον περὶ τὰ
ἀφροδίσια (one that is insanely, madly, set on the pleasures of love)
is quite satisfactory, assuming a hesitation on the part of the author
to set forth the actual fact more explicitly, especially as we have
already proved under the head of Paederastia[16] how unnatural sexual
desires were commonly regarded as a _Mania_ or form of insanity. Even
if we were not in a position adequately to explain the rest of the
words, yet the phrase that comes next to them καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ κατὰ τὸν
αὐτὸν τρόπον (and many others of the same fashion) at once shows that
they bear the same signification as στύμαργος and στομάργος, or at any
rate that they must all alike refer to unnatural satisfaction of the
sexual impulse, for τρόπος (fashion) is the very word particularly
appropriated to imply such-like practices, as we see from the
expressions Κρῆτα τρόπον, Ἑλληνικὸν τρόπον[17], (Cretan fashion, Greek
fashion) used to indicate paederastia.
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