Note 391 — FIRST SECTION. (continued 3)

We expressed an opinion above (p. 175.) that no grounds of excuse could be found for the Pathic; but we must here modify this so far as to admit that Aristotle imagines himself to have discovered such. In the Problemata, IV. 26., he examines the question: διὰ τί ἔνιοι ἀφροδισιαζόμενοι χαίρουσι, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἅμα δρῶντες, οἱ δ’ οὔ; (Why some men take pleasure in being loved, and of these some in performing the act also, but others not?), i.e. why some find a pleasure in suffering paederastia to be practised with them (the word ἀφροδισιάζεσθαι is found in this meaning possibly also in Hippocrates, edit. Kühn, Vol. III. pp. 680 and 574., where exactly such symptoms of a complaint are described as might serve for an explanation of the ῥέγχειν—snorting (mentioned above), while either they exercise coition as men concurrently, or do not. As answer we read, to follow the translation given by Th. Gaza: An quod excrementis singulis locus determinatus a natura est, in quem instituto secerni naturali debeat, sollicitaque natura spiritus excurrens tumorem admovet, excrementumque una extrudere solet.... His autem proxime genituram quoque in testes et penem deferri constitutum est. Quibus itaque meatus habitu suo naturali privantur, vel quia occoecati sunt qui ad penem tendant, quod spadonibus hisque similibus evenit (οἷς δὲ οἱ πόροι μὴ κατὰ φύσιν ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἢ διὰ τὸ ἀποτυφλωθῆναι τοὺς εἰς τὸ αἰδοῖον, οἷον συμβαίνει τοῖς εὐνουχίαις), vel etiam aliis de causis, his talis humor in sedem confluit (εἰς τὴν ἕδραν συῤῥεῖ ἡ τοιαύτη ἰκμας), quippe qui hac transmeare soleat, quod eius loci contractio in coeundo et partium sedi oppositarum consumptio incidant. Qui si admodum semine genitali abundant, excrementum illud large in eum locum se colligit; itaque cum excitata cupiditas est, attritum pars ea desiderat, in quam confluit excrementum. Cupiditas autem excitari tum a cibo tum imaginatione potest. Cum enim alterutra de causa libido commota est, spiritus eodem concurrit, et genus id excrementi confluit, quo secedere natum est.... Quorum vera natura mollis et feminea est (οἱ δὲ φύσει θηλυδρίαι) ita ii constant ut genitura vel nulla vel minima conveniat, quo illorum secernitur qui praediti natura integra sunt, sed se in partem sedis divertat; quod propterea evenit quia praeter naturae normam constiterunt. Cum enim mares crearentur, ita degenerarunt ut partem virilem mancam atque oblaesam habere cogerentur, ... ita enim mulieres non viri crearentur. Ergo perverti citarique aliorsum, quam secernendum natura voluit, necesse est. Unde fit ut insatiabiles etiam sint modo mulierum (διὸ καὶ ἄπληστοι, ὥσπερ αἱ γυναῖκες). Humor enim sollicitans ille exiguus est, nec quicquam se promere conatur, refrigeraturque celeriter. Quibus itaque sedem humor ex toto adiit, ii pati tantummodo avent, quibus autem in utramque partem sese dispertit, ii et agere et pati concupiunt (καὶ ὅσοις μὲν ἐπὶ τὴν ἕδραν, οὗτοι πάσχειν ἐπιθυμοῦσιν· ὅσοις δὲ ἐπ’ ἀμφότερα, οὗτοι καὶ δρᾶν καὶ πάσχειν), idque eo amplius quo tandem plenius fluxerit. Sed sunt quibus vel ex consuetudine affectus hic accidet (ἐνίοις δὲ γίνεται καὶ ἐξ ἔθους τὸ πάθος τοῦτο). Fit enim ut tam gestiant quam cum agunt, usque genituram nihilo minus ita emittere valeant. Ergo agere cupiunt, quibus haec ipsa usu evenerunt et consuetudo magis veluti in naturam iccirco illis evadit, quibus non ante pubem sed in ea vitium patiendi invaluit (ἐθισθῶσιν ἀφροδισιάζεσθαι), quoniam his recordatio rei, cum desiderant, oritur; una autem cum recordatione gestiens exsultat voluptas. Desiderant autem perinde ac nati ad patiendum (ὥσπερ πεφυκότες, ἐπιθυμοῦσι πάσχειν) magna igitur parte vel ob consuetudinem rex exsistit sed si accidat ut idem et salax et mollis sit (λάγνος ὢν καὶ μαλακὸς) longe expeditius haec omnia evenire posse putandum est. (Is it because for each evacuation a particular locality has been fixed by nature, to which it must be secreted by the law of its being, and when effort occurs the spirit issuing out causes a swelling, and then pours out the evacuation along with it.—And similarly to these other secretions, the semen is naturally secreted to the testicles and private parts. And accordingly in the case of those in whom the passages are not in a natural state, either through those that lead to the private part being blocked as is the case with eunuchs and those similarly affected to eunuchs, or through some other circumstance, this sort of humour flows to the seat; for it passes that way, as is proved by the contraction of this part in the act of coition, and the wasting of the regions about the seat. Therefore whenever men have an excess of lewdness, in their case it collects in this quarter, and so when desire is excited, that part where it accumulates desires friction. And desire may be excited either by food or mentally; for whenever it is stirred by any circumstance, the spirit runs to that spot, and the particular secretion flows to the particular quarter natural to it.—But such as are womanish by nature are so constituted that no secretion or only a little occurs in the quarter where the secretion takes place with such as are naturally constituted, but to this spot (the seat) instead. And the reason is they are not naturally constituted, for being males they are yet so framed that of necessity the manly part in them is maimed. Now maiming either destroys an organ completely, or produces perversion and deterioration; but here it cannot be the former; otherwise the patient would be a woman outright. Wherefore it follows that it is perverted and deteriorated, and the secretion of semen elsewhere directed. And for this cause they are insatiable, like women; for the humour is small in quantity, is not constrained to find an issue, and quickly cools. And those in whom the secretion is to the seat, these desire passive pleasure only, but those in whom it is both to the seat and to the private parts, these desire both active and passive love; and to whichever part the secretion is greater, the more do they desire the corresponding kind of pleasure. Besides in some cases this occurs through habituation. Whichever act they do, a pleasurable feeling results, and so they emit semen correspondingly. Then they desire to do the act in which this most occurs, and thus this becomes in preference their custom, and a sort of second nature. Wherefore such as have been habituated to passive love not before puberty but about the time of puberty, because when they desire pleasure memory suggests what they must do, and on memory follows pleasure, acquire through habituation the desire for passive gratification just as if they were born to it. And if a man happen to be lewd and effeminate to begin with, all this results all the sooner).—In the Pathic then, according to Aristotle’s view, the semen-vessels carry the semen not to the penis, but to the fundament, and set up there the feeling of desire and sensual craving. These are the born Pathics (πεφυκότες), from whom he distinguishes the seduced Pathics, who indulge in the vice as the result of habituation (ἐξ ἔθους). This is the very same view that we have already (p. 172. Note 3.) gathered from his Ethics, and which supports in the strongest way what we there made good as against Stark.