Aristotle, the first Peripatetic, had a Son call’d Nichomacus, by his Concubine Herpilis: He lov’d her so well, that he left her in his Will a Talent of Silver, and the Choice of his Country-Houses; that, as he says, the Damsel might have no Reason to complain: He enjoy’d, besides the Eunuch Hermias, others say only his Concubine Pythais, upon whom he writ a Hymn, call’d, The Inside.
Demetrius Phalereus, who had 360 Statues in Athens, kept Lamia for his Concubine, and at the same time was himself enjoy’d by Cleo: He writ a Treatise, call’d, The Lover, and was nick-nam’d by the Courtezans, Charito, Blespharus, i. e. A Charmer of Ladies; and Lampetes, i. e. A great Boaster of his Abilities.
Diogenes, the Cynic, us’d to say, that Women ought to be in common, and that Marriage was nothing but a Man’s getting a Woman in the Mind to be lain with: He often us’d Manual Venery in the public Market-place, with this Saying. Oh! that I could assuage my Hunger thus with rubbing of my Stomach!
But what Wonder if the old Academics, the Cyrenaics, and Peripatetics, were so lewdly wanton, when the very Stoics, who prided themselves in the Conquest of all their other Passions, were forc’d to submit to this?
Zeno, indeed, the Founder of that Sect, was remarkable for his Modesty, because he rarely made Use of Boys, and took but once an ordinary Maid-Servant to Bed, that he might not be thought to hate the Sex; yet, in his Commonwealth, he was for a Community of Women; and writ a Treatise, wherein he regulated the Motions of getting a Maidenhead, and philosophically prov’d Action and Reaction to be equal.
Chrysippus and Apollodorus agree with Zeno in a Community of Women, and say, that a wise Man may be in Love with handsome Boys.
Erillus, a Scholar of Zeno’s, was a notorious Debauchee.
I need not mention the Epicureans who were remarkable for their Obscenity.
Epicurus used to make a Pander of his own Brother; and his Scholar, the Great Metrodorus, visited all the noted Courtezans in Athens, and publicly kept the famous Leontium, his Master’s Quondam Mistress. Yet, if you will believe Laertius, he was every Way a good Man.
But what shall we say of our Favourite Seneca, who, with all his Morals, could never acquire the Reputation of Chastity? He was indeed somewhat Nice in his Amours, like the Famous Flora, who was never enjoy’d by any Thing less than a Dictator or a Consul; for he scorn’d to intrigue with any Thing less than the Empress.