Note 272 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

We see this in the clearest possible way from the passage of Herodotus, bk. I. ch. 9, 10., where Candaules wishes to induce Gyges to see his wife naked, in order to convince him of her beauty, but the latter objects: ἅμα δὲ κιθῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή· πάλαι δὲ τὰ καλὰ ἀνθρώποισι ἐξεύρηται, ἐκ τῶν μανθάνειν δεῖ· (but when she strips off her tunic, a woman strips off therewith her modesty likewise; now mankind have long ago ascertained what is honourable, and from this we must learn how to act). Then Herodotus adds to this further (ch. 10.), παρὰ γὰρ τοῖσι Λυδοῖσι, σχεδὸν δὲ παρὰ τοῖσι ἄλλοισι βαρβάροισι, καὶ ἄνδρα ὀφθῆναι γυμνὸν, ἐς αἰσχύνην μεγάλην φέρει· (for among the Lydians, as indeed among pretty nearly all Barbarians, for a person to be seen naked is counted for the greatest disgrace). Comp. Plutarch, De audiend. rat. p. 37. Diogenes Laertius, VIII. 43. Plato, Politics V. 6. p. 457. A., V. 3. p. 452., Οὐ πολὺς χρόνος, ἐξ οὗ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐδόκει αἰσχρὰ εἶναι καὶ γέλοια, ἅπερ νῦν τοῖς πολλοῖς τῶν βαρβάρων, γυμνοὺς ἄνδρας ὁρᾶσθαι. (It is no long time since it appeared to the Greeks, as it does still to most of the Barbarian peoples, shameful and ridiculous for men to be seen naked). In reference to the genital organs Hesiod says (Works and Days 733.):

(Nor yet when done with generation, within the house hard by the hearth expose the privates, but retire aside). St. Augustine, De civit. dei bk. XIV., Omnes gentes adeo tenent in usu pudenda velare, ut quidam barbari illas corporis partes nec in balneis undas habeant. (All nations in fact make it a habit to cover the privates, so much so that some Barbarians do not expose the parts of the body naked even in the Baths). St. Ambrose, Offic. I. 18., Licet plerique se et in lavacro, quantum possunt, tegant, ut vel illic, ubi nudum totum est corpus, huius modi intecta portio sit. (Most men may also cover themselves, as much as they can, even in the Bath, so that even there, where the whole body is naked, a part may so be hidden). Arnobius, bk. V., Propudiosa corporum monstratur obscoenitas, obiectanturque partes illae, quas pudor communis abscondere, quas naturalis verecundiae lex iubet, quas inter aures castas sine venia nefas est ac sine honoribus apellare praefatis. (The foulest abomination of men’s bodies is exhibited, and those parts exposed, which common modesty, the natural law of shamefacedness, bids us conceal, which among ears polite it is forbidden to name without asking pardon and making a preface of apologies).—bk. III., Insignire his partibus, quas enumerare, quas persequi probus audeat nemo, nec sine summae foeditatis horrore mentis imaginatione concipere. (To parade those parts, which no honourable man dare name or describe, nor even without a shudder at such a height of foulness conceive a mental picture of). Comp. p. 42. and Oppenheim, loco citato p. 128., who undoubtedly ranks the importance of the vice of paederastia too high, when he finds in it the main reason for the feeling of shame prevalent among the Turks.