[361] Perhaps it is from this that Bacchus gets his secondary title of Attis. Clement of Alexandria, Ad Gentes, p. 12, says, δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν οὐκ ἀπεικότως τὸν Διόνυσόν τινες Ἄττιν προσαγορεύεσθαι θέλουσιν, αἰδοίων ἐστερημένον. (For which reason some maintain, and not without probability, that Dionysus is called Attis, as being deprived of the genital organs). According to the Scholiast to Lucian, De Dea Syra, ch. 16, Dionysus was roaming about in the search for his mother Semelé, when he came upon Polyymnus, and the latter promised to reveal his mother’s place of abode, if he would practise paederastia with him. This he did, and Polyymnus accompanied him to Lerna, where Semelé would seem to have been, and died there. Mourning the death of his paederast, Dionysus hewed out of fig-tree wood private parts of wood, and carried them about with him constantly in memory of Polyymnus. For this reason Dionysus is worshipped with Phallic emblems). (λυπηθεὶς δὲ ὸ Διόνυσος, ὅτε ὁ ἑραστὴς αὐτοῦ ἔθνησκε, αἰδοῖον ξύλινον ἐκ συκίνου ξύλου πελεκήσας, κατεῖχεν ἀεὶ πρὸς μνήμην τοῦ Πολυύμνου· διὰ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν τοῖς φαλλοῖς τιμῶσιν τὸν Διόνυσον.) The story is related at greater length by Clement of Alexandria, Cohortat. ad Gentes, p. 22; but he calls the lover Prosymnus (as does Arnobius, bk. V. 27. Comp. Tzetzes, in Lycophron., 213), and actually makes Bacchus practise Onania postica (Masturbation by the posterior), for he says: ἀφοσιούμενος τῷ ἐραστῇ ὁ Διόνυσος, ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον ὁρμᾷ, καὶ πασχητιᾷ· κλάδον οὖν συκῆς, ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἐκτεμνὼν ἀνδρείου μορίου σκευάζεται τρόπον· ἐφέζεταί τε τῷ κλάδῳ, τὴν ὑπόχεσιν ἐκτελῶν τῷ νεκρῷ ὑπόμνημα τοῦ πάθους τούτου μυστικὸν· φαλλοὶ κατὰ πόλεις ἀνίστανται Διονύσῳ. (Dionysus by way of performing due service to his lover’s memory, hastens to his tomb, and proceeds to practise passive lust. So cutting down the branch of a fig-tree, he fashions it to a semblance of a man’s member; and then he mounts the branch in a sitting posture, fulfilling his promise to the dead man,—a mystic memorial of his pathic loves. Phalli are set up in Cities in honour of Dionysus). In Arnobius, loco citato, we read that Dionysus: Ficorum ex arbore ramum validissimum praeferens dolat, runcinat, levigat et humani penis fabricatur in speciem: figit super aggerem tumuli, et postica ex parte nudatus, accedit, subdit, insidit. Lascivia deinde luxuriantis assumpta, huc atque illuc clunes torquet et meditatur ab ligno pati, quod iam dudum in veritate promiserat.—(Bringing with him a sturdy branch of a fig-tree, hews, planes and smoothes it, and fashions it into the shape of a man’s penis; then he fixes it upright on the mound of the tomb, and stripping his posteriors, advances, mounts, and sits down on it. Then imitating the lascivious motions of a wanton in the act, writhes his buttocks this way and that, and imagines himself to be receiving from the wooden member the treatment which he had long ago promised in reality). Similarly we read in Petronius, Sat., Profert Enothea scorteum fascinum quod ut oleo et minuto pipere atque urticae trito circumdedit semine, paulatim coepit inserere ano meo. (Enothea produces a man’s member made of leather, which first of all she covered with oil and ground pepper and pounded nettle-seed, and then began by degrees to push it up my anus). Now too we shall be able to explain to our satisfaction what is the meaning of the phrase συκίνη ἐπικουρία ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενῶν (fig-wood succour,—said of weak allies), which is mentioned by Suidas under the word ὄλισβος (artificial member), and for which in the passage quoted above Aristophanes substitutes σκυτίνη ’πικουρία (leathern succour). On this the Scholiast observes: σκυτίνην ἐπικουρίαν καλεῖ τὴν σκυτίνην βοήθειον, εἴτε τὴν δερματίνην βοήθειαν, τὴν πληροῦσαν ἐπιθυμίαν ἀντὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν· τοῦτο δὲ ποιοῦσιν αἱ ἀκόλαστοι γυναῖκες· σκυτίνην δὲ ἐπικουρίαν λέγει, παρὰ τὴν παροιμίαν· Συκίνη ἐπικουρία· ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενῶν βοηθημάτων καὶ ἴσως ἐνταῦθα γραπτέον, συκίνη ἀντὶ τοῦ σκυτίνη. (leathern succour: so Aristophanes calls the leathern help, or help of hide, the instrument that satisfies (women’s) longings in default of men. This is a practice that incontinent women follow. He says leathern (σκυτίνη), succour playing on the proverb, “Fig-wood (συκίνη) succour”, said of weak efforts at assistance. Possibly we should read συκίνη (of fig-wood) for σκυτίνη (of leather) here. Again: σκυτάλαι· στρογγύλα καὶ λεῖα ξύλα.—σκυτάλη· βακτηρία ἀκροπαχής (batons: rounded and polished staves)—(baton: a blunt-pointed staff) in Suidas, and the passage in Aristophanes, τοῦτ’ ἔστ’ ἐκεῖνο τῶν σκυτάλων, ὧν πέρδετο (this is the particular baton that made him break wind), which Suidas, under the word σκυτάλον (baton) has obviously misunderstood, just as much as the Scholiast has. For in all these passages it is the Priapus ficulnus (Priapus of fig-wood), also well-known to the Romans, that we must understand to be intended. Apposite in this connection is Horace’s (Sat I. 8. 1.), Olim truncus eram, inutile lignum (Once the trunk of a fig-tree was I, a useless log,)—on which the commentators have wasted a host of extraordinary interpretations.
[362] Symposion, p. 189., ἀνδρόγυνον γὰρ ἓν τότε μὲν ἦν καὶ εἶδος, καὶ ὄνομα, ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων κοινὸν τοῦ τε ἄῤῥενος καὶ θήλεος. (For then there was a third, a man-woman, sex, in form as well as in name, commingled of both sexes, the male and the female.) Plainer still is this passage from Lucian, Amores 28., πᾶσα δὲ ἡμῶν ἡ γυναικωνῖτις ἔστω Φιλαινὶς, ἀνδρογύνους ἔρωτας ἀσχημονοῦσα. καὶ πόσῳ κρεῖττον εἰς ἄῤῥενα τρυφὴν βιάζεσθαι γυναῖκα ἢ τὸ γενναῖον ἀνδρῶν εἰς γυναῖκα θηλύνεσθαι· (And let all our women’s apartments be Philaenis, foully indulging in male-female loves. And how much better it were that a woman should trespass on male wantonness than that the noble manliness of men should be effeminated and made womanish.) Clement of Alexandria, Paedag., bk. II. ch. 10., ἐντεῦθεν συμφανὲς ἡμῖν ὁμολογουμένως παραιτεῖσθαι δεῖν τὰς ἀῤῥενομιξίας, καὶ τὰς ἀκράτους σπορὰς καὶ κατόπιν εὐνὰς καὶ τὰς ἀσυμφύεις ἀνδρογύνους κοινωνίας. (Hence it is manifest we ought avowedly to deprecate intercourse with males and inordinate embraces and copulation behind and unnatural unions of men-women.) A little further on the same author says, αἱ δολεραὶ γυναῖκες καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν οἱ γυναικώδεις. (deceitful women and the womanish kind of men,) and speaks of θηλυδριώδης ἐπιθυμία (effeminate lustfulness). A résumé of pretty nearly all words of this class is given by Suidas, s. v. Ἄῤῥεν καὶ Ἀῤῥενικῶς. Καὶ ἡμίανδρος καὶ ἡμιγύναιξ καὶ διγενὴς καὶ θηλυδρίας, καὶ ἑρμαφρόδιτος, καὶ ἴθρις, οὗ ἰσχὺς τεθέρισται· καὶ ἀῤῥενωπὸς, ὁ ἀνδρόγυνος· καὶ ὁ ἀνδρεῖος· ὁ στεῤῥὸς· λέγουσι δ’ οὕτω τὰ μὲν ἄλλα γύνιδας, ἔχοντας δέ τι ἀνδρόμορφον. Ἱππῶναξ δὲ, ἡμίανδρον, τὸν οἷον ἡμιγύναικα· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἀπόκοπος, καὶ βάκηλος [βάτταλος] καὶ ἀνδρόγυνος, καὶ Γάλλος, καὶ γύννις, καὶ Ἄττις καὶ εύνουχώδης. (under the words Ἄῤῥεν and ἀῤῥενικῶς (masculine, masculinely): Semi-man, semi-woman, double-sexed, womanish man, hermaphrodite, eunuch—one whose virility has been cut; masculine-looking, the man-woman,—also the manly, the strong, man. By such names are signified effeminate men that yet have some look of men. Hipponax also uses in this sense semi-man, and its synonym semi-woman. Such a one is called also castrated, eunuch (pathic), man-woman, Gallus—eunuch-priest of Cybelé, Attis, eunuch-like.) The same holds good of the word εὐνοῦχος (eunuch), which by no means signifies only actual castrated eunuchs. Thus Clement of Alexandria, Paedagog., bk. III. ch. 4., says, εὐνοῦχος δὲ ἀληθὴς, οὐχ ὁ μὴ δυνάμενος, ἀλλ’ ὁ μὴ βουλόμενος φιληδεῖν· ... εὐνοῦχοι πολλοὶ, καὶ οὗτοι μαστροποὶ τῷ ἀξιοπίστῳ τοῦ μὴ δύνασθαι φιληδεῖν, τοῖς εἰς ἡδονὰς ἐθέλουσι ῥαθυμεῖν ἀνυπόπτως διακονούμενοι. (But the true eunuch is not he that cannot, but he that will not, love.... Many eunuchs, and these serving as pandars, by reason of the certainty that they cannot love, to such as are fain to indulge in secure pleasures without suspicion.)
[363] Oneirocritica., bk. V. ch. 65., Ἔδοξέ τις τὸ αἰδοῖον αὐτοῦ ἄχρις ἄκρας τῆς κορώνης τετριχῶσθαι, καὶ λάσιον εἶναι πυκνῶν πάνυ τριχῶν αἰφνίδιον φυεισῶν· ἀποπεφασμένος κίναιδος ἐγένετο πάσῃ μὲν ἀκολάστῳ χρησάμενος ἡδονῇ, θηλυδρίας ὢν καὶ ἀνδρόγυνος, μόνῳ δὲ τῷ αἰδοίῳ κατὰ νόμον ἀνδρῶν μὴ χρώμενος. Τοιγαροῦν οὕτως ἤδη ἀργὸν ἦν αὐτῷ τὸ μέρος ἐκεῖνο, ὡς διὰ τὸ μὴ τρίβεσθαι πρὸς ἕτερον σῶμα καὶ τρίχας ἐκφύσαι. (for translation see text above).
[364] Ἀνδρόγυνον κωμῳδεῖν ἔδοξέ τις δρᾶμα· ἐνόσησεν αὐτῷ τὸ αἰδοῖον. Γάλλους ὁρᾶν ἔδοξέ τις· ἐνόσησεν αὐτῷ τὸ αἰδοῖον. Τὸ μὲν πρῶτον διὰ τὸ ὄνομα οὕτως ἀπέβη, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον διὰ τὸ συμβεβηκὸς τοῖς ὁρωμένοις. Καί τοι καὶ τὸ κωμῳδεῖν οἰσθα ὃ σημαίνει, καὶ τὸ Γάλλους ὁρᾶν. Μέμνησο δὲ, ὅτι, εἴτε κωμῳδεῖν, εἴτε τραγῳδεῖν ὑπολάβοι τις, καὶ μνημονεύει, κατά τὴν ὑπόθεσιν τοῦ δράματος κρίνεται καὶ τὰ ἀποτελέσματα. (for translation see text above). The signification of κωμῳδεῖν and τραγῳδεῖν (to represent Comedy, Tragedy) is given by Artemidorus, bk. I. ch. 56. As to the Galli comp. bk. II. 69. In bk. II. ch. 12. we read: Ὕαινα δὲ γυναῖκα σημαίνει ἀνδρόγυνον ἢ φαρμακίδα, καὶ ἄνδρα κίναιδον οὐκ εὐγνώμονα. (Hyaena signifies a woman that is male-female or a sorceress, and a man that is a cinaedus without moderation). It was a widespread belief amongst the Ancients that the hyaena was at one time a male and at another a female (comp. Aelian, Hist. anim., I. 25. Horapollo, Hieroglyph., II. 65. Ovid, Metamorph., Bk. XV. Fab. 38. Tertullian, De Pallio, ch. 3.). As early however as the time of Aristotle it had been declared a fable by him, Hist. anim., Bk. VI. ch. 32., and Clement of Alexandria says the same, Paedagog., II. 9. Yet the idea was still cherished at the beginning of the present Century at the Cape of Good Hope, see Corn. de Jong, “Reise nach dem Vorgebirge der Guten Hoffnung,” (Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope). Hamburg 1803. Pt I. Letter 6. Clement of Alexandria, Paedagog., bk. II. ch. 9., tells a still more remarkable tale of the hare, καὶ τὸν μὲν λαγῶν κατ’ ἔτεος πλεονεκτεῖν φασὶ τὴν ἀφόδευσιν, εἰς ἀριθμοὺς οἱς βεβίωκεν ἔτεσιν ἴσχοντα τρυπάς· ταύτῃ ἄρα τὴν κώλυσιν τῆς ἐδωδῆς τοῦ λαγὼ, παιδεραστίας ἐμφαίνειν ἀποτροπὴν. (Moreover it is said that the hare gets every year fresh means of voiding its excrement, having holes corresponding to the number of years it has lived; and that for this reason the prohibition against eating hare appears to be a dissuasion from paederastia). This is confirmed by St. Barnabas, Epist., ch. 10. and by Pliny, Hist. Nat., VIII. 55. To this fable also we must look for an explanation of the proverbial saying δασύπους κρεῶν ἐπιθυμεῖ (puss longs for flesh-meats), and Lepus tute es, et pulmentum quaeris? (Are you a hare, and look for condiments?) in Terence, Eunuch., III. 36. Possibly too the κύων τεῦτλα οὐ τρώγει (dog does not gnaw pot-herbs) of Diogenes has a connection with the same notion,—Diogenes Laertius, VI. 2. 6. So Strato in the distich (Greek Anthology bk. I. tit. 72. No. 6.):
Ἔστι Δράκων τὶς ἔφηβος,
ἄγαν καλὸς· ἀλλὰ δράκων ὢν
Πῶς εἰς τὴν τρώγλην ἄλλον ὄφιν δέχεται;
(A certain youth there is, Draco (serpent) by name, very fair to see; but being a serpent, how comes it he takes another snake into his hole?) Aristophanes, Eccles., 904., κἀπὶ τῆς κλίνης ὄφιν εὕροις, (and on your bed may you find a snake), on which the Scholiast comments ὄφις—λαμβάνεται ἀντὶ τοῦ αἰδοίου οὐ τεταμένου δηλαδὴ, ἀλλ’ ἀνειμένου. (ὄφις—snake: to be taken as meaning the privy member,—not erect that is, but relaxed). So in the Priapeia, LXXXIII. 33., we find: licebit aeger, angue lentior (will be reckoned as sick, slacker than a snake).
[365] Clement of Alexandria, Paedagog., Bk. II. ch. 10., οὐδὲ τῶν κατεαγότων, τούτων δὴ τῶν τὴν κιναιδίαν τὴν ἄφωνον ἐπὶ τὰς σκηνὰς μετιόντων ὀρχηστῶν ἀποῤῥέουσαν εἰς τοσοῦτον ὕβρεως τὴν ἐσθῆτα περιορώντων. (nor yet of the debauchees, those dancers I mean that bring onto the stage cinaedia in pantomime, and suffer their costume to flow loosely to such a degree of indecency).
[366] Naumann (Schmidt’s Jahrbuch 1837. Vol. 13. p. 100.) says: Ἐναρέες, probably a Scythian word, calls to mind the dwarf Anar or Onar in the old Northern Mythology,—a eunuch in a sort, but who was nevertheless reverenced as father-in-law of Odin. (J. Grimm, “Deutsche Mythologie” (German Mythology). Göttingen 1835. p. 424). With this Hippocrates’ statement would agree, according to which these eunuchs were regarded by their countrymen with a reverence almost as if they had been gods.—As to this, first observe that it yet remains to be proved that the Scythian language belongs to the Indo-Germanic family, secondly that with Onar or Anar there is no question at all of a non-man or actual eunuch, for Anar begat a daughter on Notta. This daughter, Jördh, was wife of Odin, making Anar Odin’s father-in-law.