ἑστίῃ ἐμπελαδὸν παραφαινέμεν, ἀλλ’ἀλέασθαι·]
(Nor yet when done with generation, within the house hard by the hearth expose the privates, but retire aside). St. Augustine, De civit. dei bk. XIV., Omnes gentes adeo tenent in usu pudenda velare, ut quidam barbari illas corporis partes nec in balneis undas habeant. (All nations in fact make it a habit to cover the privates, so much so that some Barbarians do not expose the parts of the body naked even in the Baths). St. Ambrose, Offic. I. 18., Licet plerique se et in lavacro, quantum possunt, tegant, ut vel illic, ubi nudum totum est corpus, huius modi intecta portio sit. (Most men may also cover themselves, as much as they can, even in the Bath, so that even there, where the whole body is naked, a part may so be hidden). Arnobius, bk. V., Propudiosa corporum monstratur obscoenitas, obiectanturque partes illae, quas pudor communis abscondere, quas naturalis verecundiae lex iubet, quas inter aures castas sine venia nefas est ac sine honoribus apellare praefatis. (The foulest abomination of men’s bodies is exhibited, and those parts exposed, which common modesty, the natural law of shamefacedness, bids us conceal, which among ears polite it is forbidden to name without asking pardon and making a preface of apologies).—bk. III., Insignire his partibus, quas enumerare, quas persequi probus audeat nemo, nec sine summae foeditatis horrore mentis imaginatione concipere. (To parade those parts, which no honourable man dare name or describe, nor even without a shudder at such a height of foulness conceive a mental picture of). Comp. p. 42. and Oppenheim, loco citato p. 128., who undoubtedly ranks the importance of the vice of paederastia too high, when he finds in it the main reason for the feeling of shame prevalent among the Turks.
[273] Aristophanes, Wasps 578., παίδων τοίνυν δοκιμαζομένων αἰδοῖα πάρεστι θεᾶσθαι. (Yet when boys are under test, men may see their privates). Comp. Athenaeus, Deipnos. bk. XII. p. 550. Petit, Ad legg. Attic. p. 227. At Rome likewise in cases of marriage disputes the men were obliged to offer their genital organs for examination (Quintilian, Declam. 279.), a Law which was only revoked by Justinian. Comp. Gundlingiana No. 23. pp. 342 sqq. We learn from Plato, Theaetet. 151., ποίαν χρῆ ποίῳ ἀνδρὶ συνοῦσαν ὡς ἀρίστους παῖδας τίκτειν, (what sort of maid must mate with what sort of man to produce as fine children as may be), that the marriageable girls were examined by the midwives,—a procedure that Plato wished to see universally introduced in his ideal State (De legg. bk. XII.). But against this Theodoretus, Contra Graecos bk. IX., declaims vigorously.
[274] In any case it is an error to suppose that by this it is implied that the maidens and young men were absolutely naked. They were merely μονόπεπλοι (single-frocked), clothed in a single short frock, slit up at the hips, for which reason they were also known by the name φαινομηρίδες (showing the thighs) (Pollux, Onomastic. VII. 55.), a costume which was pretty much the general Doric one; thus Moeris says δωριάζειν τὸ παραγυμνοῦσθαί τινα μέρη, (to follow Dorian fashions, to expose certain parts). Comp. Meursius, Laconic. bk. I. end. K. O. Müller, The Dorians, IInd. Part pp. 263, 265. Josephus, De special. legg., Works, Vol. II. p. 328. The meaning of γυμνὸς is nothing more than “lightly clad”, in mere underclothing, without outer cloak. So Eubulus, (Athenaeus bk. XIII. p. 568.) says, speaking of the brothel-girls, γυμνάς—ἐν λεπτονήτοις ὑμέσιν ἑστωτας (standing “naked”—in light-spun garments). Aelian, Var. hist. XIII. 37., ἐν χιτωνίσκῳ γυμνὸς, (“naked” in a tunic). Similarly nudus (naked) in Latin, as Cuper (Observat. bk. I. ch. 7.) long ago pointed out, often has no other meaning, but merely stands for tunicatus (clad in the tunic), in tunic only, without cloak or toga. We see this very clearly in Petronius, Satir. 55., Aequum est induere nuptam ventum textilem,—Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea. (’Tis right a bride should put on woven wind,—that she should stand openly for sale, “naked” in a linen cloud!) In precisely the same way the Jews use their word עָרֹם (arôm), Isaiah Ch. XX. 2., Job Ch. XXIV. 7. 10. I Samuel ch. XIX. 24., and the Arabs مسلوخ (mesluch).
[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!
(Your wife, Charidemus, you know to be entered by the doctor of your own knowledge, and suffer it. You are fain to die without a fever!) Similar instances occurred equally in the time of Hippocrates, as we gather from the oath, in which stands the clause: εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ’ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων, ἐκτὸς ἐὼν πάσης ἀδικίης ἑκουσίης καὶ φθορίης τῆς τε ἄλλης, καὶ ἀφροδισίων ἔργων, ἐπί τε γυναικείων σωμάτων καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐλευθέρων τε καὶ δούλων. (Also into whatsoever houses I enter, I will go in there for the succour of sick persons, devoid of all voluntary offence and all evil-doing, and above all of all amorous practices, whether on the persons of women or free men or slaves). At the same time we learn from this document, that even then paederastia was wide-spread enough already, and that physicians were actually not ashamed to abuse their patients in this, as in other vicious ways! Undoubtedly it is from no other reason that the Turk at this very moment will rather expire than allow a clyster to be administered to him.