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The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Note 291 — FIRST SECTION. (continued 2)

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Lucian, Philopatr., ch. 20. relates: Ἀνθρωπίσκος δέ τις, τοὔνομα Χαρίκενος, σεσημμένον γερόντιον, ῥέγχον τῇ ῥινὶ, ὑπέβηττε μύχιον, ἐχρέμπτετο ἐπισεσυρμένον· ὁ δὲ πτύελος κυανώτερος θανάτου· εἶτα ἤρξατο ἐπιφθέγγεσθαι κατισχνημένον. (But a little man, whose name was Charicenus, a tiny mouldy old man, snorting through his nose, gave a deep cough and cleared his throat with a long-drawn hawking,—and his spittle was blacker than death. Then he began to speak in a thin voice). The same is said of an Egyptian boy in Lucian’s Navigium, ch. 2. Aulus Gellius, Noct. Attic., Bk. III. ch. 5., gives the following story: Plutarchus refert, Arcesilaum philosophum vehementi verbo usum esse de quodam nimis delicato divite, qui incorruptus tamen et castus et perinteger dicebatur. Num cum vocem eius infractam, capillumque arte compositum et oculos ludibundos atque illecebrae voluptatisque plenos videret: Nihil interest, inquit quibus membris cinaedi sitis, posterioribus an prioribus. (Plutarch reports a biting phrase made use of by the philosopher Arcesilaus of a certain rich and over-dainty man, who yet had the name of being unspoiled and temperate and highly virtuous. Noting his broken voice, and hair artfully arranged, and rolling eyes full of allurement and wantonness, “It makes no odds,” he said, “which members ye play the cinaedus with, whether those behind or those in front.”) Comp. § 16. below.

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