Note 95 — FIRST SECTION.

Jonathan, on Numbers Ch. 25. v. I. Might one draw attention to the old Greek πέος (the penis), which is found in Aristophanes and Antipater,—p. 72. Note 2. loco citato? The adjective πεοίδης (πεώδης) is given in Eustathius according to Schneider, in the sense: with thick, swollen member; and Rodigin, Lect. Antiq. Bk. VIII. ch. 6. p. 377, says: Postremo qui ex intemperanti Veneris usu pereunt, dicuntur Peolae, media producta, quia Peos signet pudendum, sive veretrum, (Lastly those who are undone by excessive indulgence in Love are called Peolae, with the middle vowel long, because Peos means the private, or privy, member. Possibly the old form was πέορ, just as sometimes πόϊρ stands for πάϊς in the Laconian dialect. Moreover Penis might surely more readily be derived from πέος than from what is commonly given as its derivation, pendendo (because it hangs), in as much as the parts of the body are named from the condition of their activity, not of their rest. Thus Baal-Peor would be “Lord of the Penis”! ἄναξ Πρίηπος (King Priapus).