Note 124 — FIRST SECTION.

Athenaeus, Deipnosoph. bk. XIII. p. 569., καὶ Φιλήμων δ’ ἐν Ἀδελφοῖς προιστορῶν, ὅτι πρῶτος Σόλων, διὰ τὴν τῶν νέων ἀκμὴν, ἔστησεν ἐπὶ οἰκημάτων γύναια πριάμενος· καθὰ καὶ Νίκανδρος ὁ Κολοφώνιος ἱστορεῖ ἐν τρίτῳ Κολοφωνιακῶν, φάσκων αὐτὸν καὶ Πανδήμου Ἀφροδίτης ἱερὸν πρῶτον ἱδρύσασθαι ἀφ’ ὧν ἠργυρίσαντο αἱ προστᾶσαι τῶν οἰκημάτων· ἄλλ’ ὅ γε Φιλήμων οὕτως φησί·

Σὺ δ’ εἰς ἅπαντας εὗρες ἀνθρώπους, Σόλων, σὲ γὰρ λέγουσιν τοῦτ’ ἰδεῖν πρῶτον [βροτῶν]. δημοτικὸν, ὦ Ζεῦ, πρᾶγμα καὶ σωτήριον· μεστὴν ὁρῶντα τὴν πόλιν νεωτέρων, τούτους τ’ ἔχοντας τὴν αναγκαίαν φύσιν, ἁμαρτάνοντας τ’ εἰς ὃ μὴ προσῆκον ἦν, στῆσαι πριάμενον τότε γυναῖκας κατὰ τόπους κοινὰς ἅπασι καὶ κατεσκευασμένας. Ἐστᾶσι γυμναί· μὴ ’ξαπατηθῇς· πάνθ’ ὅρα· — — — — ἡ θύρα ’στ’ ἀνεῳγμένη. εἷς ὀβολός· εἰσπήδησον· οὐκ ἔστ’ οὐδὲ εἷς ἀκκισμὸς, οὐδὲ λῆρος, οὐδ’ ὑφήρπασεν. ἀλλ’ εὐθὺς ὡς βούλει σὺ χὣν βούλει τρόπον. Ἐξῆλθες ; οἰμώζειν λέγ’, ἀλλοτρία ’στί σοι.

(So too Philemon in his play the “Adelphi” relates that it was Solon who first on account of the vigorous desires of the young men bought and established public women in brothels. The same is related by Nicander of Colophon in the Third book of his Colophoniaca, who says that he (Solon) was the first to found a temple of the Pandemian Aphrodité, built from the gains of the women in charge of brothels. Philemon writes as follows “Well hast thou deserved of all men, Solon; for thou they say wert first to invent a thing both popular, by Zeus, and salutary. Seeing the city crowded full of young men, and these possessed of the natural appetites of manhood, and consequently offending in quarters unmeet, bought women and established them in certain places to be common to all and put there for that very purpose. There they are, standing all but naked; don’t be cheated; examine everything.... The door is open. One obol; in you go. There’s not an atom of coyness, no coquetry, no stealing off; but right away as you please and how you please. You have left the house? tell the girl go hang! she’s nothing to you.”)

Alexander ab Alexandro, Genial. Dier., bk. IV. ch. 1. Solon vero ut ab adulteriis cohiberetur inventus, coëmptas meretriculas Athenis prostituit primus, obviasque in venerem esse voluit, ne matronarum contagio polluerentur. (But Solon, in order that young men might be kept from adulterous connexions, was the first to buy women and set them up as harlots at Athens; and wished all to resort to them for the gratification of love, that they might not be polluted by intrigue with matrons). Comp. Meursius, “Solon, sive de eius vita, legibus, dictis atque scriptis,” (Solon—his Life, Laws, Words and Works). Copenhagen 1732. 4to., p. 98.