Note 383 — FIRST SECTION. (continued 3)

Pyrrh. Hypotyp., bk. III. ch. 199., Νενόμισται τὸ τῆς ἀῤῥενομιξίας παρὰ Γερμανοῖς ὥς φασιν οὐκ αἰσχρὸν ἀλλ’ ὡς ἕν τι τῶν συνηθῶν (But the practice of intercourse with males is not among the Germans, so they say, reckoned a shameful thing, but as one of the customary acts)—Aristotle, Polit. II. 6. 6., Strabo, Geogr., IV. 199. Diodorus, Bibl. V. 32. Athenaeus, Deipn., p. 603 a., relate the same thing of the Celts. Quintilian who lived about 42 after Christ, directly denies the fact, it is true: Declam. 3, Nihil tale novere Germani et sanctius vivitur ad Oceanum. Non sit mihi forsitan quaerendum aversis auribus saeculi huius in tantum vitia regnare, ut obscoenis cupiditatibus natura cesserit, ut pollutis in femineam usque patientiam maribus incurrat iam libido in sexum suum, finem tamen aliquem sibi vitia ipsa exceperunt, ultimumque adhuc huius flagitii crimen fuit corrupisse futurum virum. Hoc vero cuius est dementiae? In concubinatum iuniores leguntur, et in muliebrem patientiam vocatur fortasse iam maritus. (The Germans know no such practice; for life is purer near the Ocean. Would it were possible to shut my ears to the fact that Vice in this age prevails to such a degree that Nature has had to yield to foul lusts, that men corrupted even to the length of suffering themselves to be treated as women are filled with lust towards their own sex; yet vice itself set some limit to its own excesses, and the last extremity of this lewdness was to have ruined one that might have grown into a man. But what a height of insanity is here! Young men are chosen as mistresses, and a man is called upon to endure the treatment proper to a woman.) Who can fail to see that in this passage the words feminea patientia, muliebris patientia, are given as a translation of νοῦσος θήλεια?