223 Herodotus, Hist. Bk. II. ch. 104. Origen, Bk. V. ch. 41. Works edit. De la Rue, Vol. I. p. 609 D.—Cyril, Contra Julian. Bk. X. edit. Spanhem. p. 354. B.—Diodorus Siculus, Bk. I. ch. 28.—Strabo, Geograph. Bk. XVII. ch. 2. 5. edit. Siebenkess. In Sanchuniathon (Fragments edit. Orelli, p. 36.) Circumcision is actually referred back to Cronos.

224 Ludolf, Histor. Aethiop. Bk. III. ch. 1. pp. 30 sqq. Paulus, “Sammlg. morgenländischer Reisebeschreibg.” (Collection of Descriptions of Eastern Travel), Pt. III. p. 83.

225 Forster’s “Beobachtungen,” (Observations), p. 842.—Cook’s Last Voyage, Vol. I. p. 387., Vol. II. pp. 161, 233.

226 J. Gumilla, “Histoire de l’Oronoque,” (Hist. of Oronoko), Avignon 1708. Vol. I. p. 183. Veigl in Murr’s “Sammlung der Reisen einiger Missionare,” (Collection of Travels of Various Missionaries), p. 67.—de Pauw, “Reflections sur les Américains,” (Reflections on the Natives of America), Vol. II. p. 148. Spizelius, Theoph., Elevatio revelationis Montezinianae de repertis in America tribubus Israeliticis, (Confutation of the Montezinian revelation as to the Finding of the lost Tribes of Israel in America.) Bâle 1661. 8vo. Burdach, Physiology. Vol. III. p. 386.

227 Gospel of St. John, Ch. VII. v. 23., Εἰ περιτομὴν λαμβάνει ἄνθρωπος ἐν σαββάτῳ, ἵνα μὴ λυθῇ ὁ νόμος Μωσέως, ἐμοὶ χολᾶτε ὅτι ὅλον ἄνθρωπον ὑγιῆ ἐποίησα ἐν σαββάτῳ. (for translation see text above).

228 I Samuel, Ch. XVII. v. 14. It is true we find even in Genesis the covenant with Jehovah celebrated by Abraham by means of circumcision; but it was in later times only in each case that this custom was referred back to him as being racial father of the Nation. For the same reason in the case of Joshua the matter is so represented as if the Jews had been already circumcised at their expulsion from Egypt. If this had really and truly been the case, it is impossible to see why circumcision was not carried out on those born on the march to Canaan. They were perfectly able to keep other laws, and they could have observed this too, if it had been given them at the time!

229 Leviticus, Ch. XIX. v. 6.

230 Leviticus, Ch. XII. v. 3.

231 J. G. Hofmann, De causa foecunditatis gentis circumcisae in circumcisione quaerenda, (On the Reason for the Fertility of the Circumcised Race to be sought in the fact of their Circumcision), Leipzig 1739. 4to.—S. B. Wolfsheimer, De causis fecunditatis Hebraeorum nonnullis sacr. cod. praeceptibus nitentibus, (On the Causes of the Fertility of the Jews as dependent upon certain Precepts of the Sacred Volumes), Halle 1742.—Bauer, loco citato Vol. I. p. 63.

232 The Talmud says: Quicunque Israelita liberis operam non dat, est velut homicida. (An Israelite, whoever he be, that fails to give heed to the procreation of children, is a kind of murderer). Selden, Uxor. Hebraic. Bk. I. ch. 9.

233 Stoll, Praelectiones in diversos morbos chronicos, (Lectures on certain Chronic Diseases), Vol. I. p. 96, writes as follows: Antiquissimum cum Henslero pronuntiavi, atque inter Aegyptios, Judaeos, Graecos dein et Romanos perfrequentem ut quasdam harum gentium consuetudines, mores, leges ac statuta forte inde possis repertere.... Sic praeceptum circumcisionis, antiquissima plane consuetudo, idcirco fortassis instituta fuerat, atque tanquam ritus sacer, tanquam praeceptum quoddam, de quo dispensari nemo queat, introducebatur, quod circumcisus videatur difficilius morbum urethrae contrahere, rariusque ablato scilicet praeputio, intra quod virus haeret, rodit, cancros facit, quod et ipsum efficitur pessime in phymosi, paraphymosi. Glans ipsa in homine minus facile virus resorbere videtur, occallescens nempe.... Nota viriginitatis sedulo examinata est in neonuptis puellis; custodia foeminarum per totum orientem; adulterii crimen, maxime foeminarum, morte expiatum videntur docere, scivisse antiquitatem remotissimam, morbum quendam gravem, immundum volgivaga Venere dari et communicari. (With Hensler I pronounce it—Venereal disease—to be of most ancient origin, and to have been of such frequency among the Egyptians, Jews, as well as the Greeks and Romans, that it may well be possible to discover in it the cause of sundry habits, customs, laws and enactments of these Peoples.... For instance the precept of circumcision, evidently an extremely ancient custom, was very possibly first instituted for this reason, and was introduced in the guise of a sacred rite, a ceremonial precept from which there can be no dispensation, because the circumcised man would seem less readily to contract disease of the urethra, and in cases where the prepuce has been removed, inside which the poison remains adherent and corrodes, less frequently suffers from chancres, an effect that follows in its worst form in phymosis and paraphymosis. The glans penis itself in a man thus treated seems to absorb the poison less easily, being in fact grown partially callous.... The fact that the sign of virginity was scrupulously examined in newly married virgins, the careful guard kept over women throughout the East, the penalty of death attached to the crime of adultery, especially in women, all seem to show that the remotest Antiquity was aware of some serious, foul disease being given and communicated by indiscriminate Love.

234 Strabo, Geograph. Bk. XVII. ch. 11. § 5.—Reland, De religione Muhamedan., (On the Mohammedan Religion), p. 75. Niebuhr, Description of Arabia, p. 70.

235 Seezen, in a letter to von Hammer on the Mines of the East. Vol. I. p. 65.

236 Paulus, “Sammlung morgenländ. Reisebeschreibg.,” (Collection of Descriptions of Eastern Travel), Vol. III. p. 83.—Olivier’s “Reise in Aegypten, Syrien, etc.,” (Travels in Egypt, Syria, etc.), p. 413.—Seezen, loco citato p. 65. Perhaps even the ancient Egyptians circumcised maids in their time. Ambrosius, Abraham Bk. II. ch. 11., in Works Vol. I. p. 347., Paris edition of 1686. Galen, De usu partium Bk. XV.

237 Ludolf, History of the Ethiopians Bk. III. ch. 1.

238 Chardin, Voyages en Perse, (Travels in Persia), Vol. X. p. 76., Amsterdam edition.

239 Mungo Park, Travels p. 180.—Voyage au pays de Bambouc, (Journey to the Land of Bambuk), p. 48.

240 Veigl’s “Gründliche Nachrichten von der Landschaft Maynas in Südamerika,” (Trustworthy Account of the Province of Maynas in South America), in Murr’s “Sammlung der Reisen einiger Missionarien von der Gesellschaft Jesu,” (Collection of the Travels of various Missionaries of the Society of Jesus), Nüremberg 1785., p. 67.

241 Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris ch. 94. Hence we commonly find among the Ancients the custom, merely after the evacuation of urine and fæces, of cleansing the parts concerned. Accordingly Josephus, De Bello Judaic. Bk. II. ch. 8., says: καίπερ δὲ φυσικῆς οὔσης τῆς τῶν σωματικῶν λυμάτων ἐκκρίσεως ἀπολούεσθαι μετ’αὐτὴν, καθάπερ μεμιασμένοις, ἔθιζον. (And even though the evacuation of the bodily defilements was in the course of nature, they were accustomed to wash themselves after it, as in the case of men polluted). The Romans used for the purpose a sponge fastened to the end of a stick, as we see from Seneca, Letter 70, where he says: Lignum, quod ad emendanda obscoena adhaerente spongia positum est, totum in gulam sparsit, (The stick that is placed with a sponge fixed to it for cleansing filth, this he shook right in his mouth). Slaves took stones, bulbs, etc. for the purpose. Aristophanes, Plut. IV. 1. After making water it was usual to wash the hands. Petronius, Satyr. 27. Exonerata ille vesica, aquam poposcit ad manus. (After relieving his bladder, he asked for water for his hands). This care for cleanliness roused, as mentioned before, the utmost anger on the part of Saint Athanasius; but it is to this day the custom among the Turks, for it is enjoined by the Koran (Sure IV. 42.), even adding that only one hand ought to be used (Niebuhr, Description of Arabia, p. 78.), namely the left. The same hand was used also by the Romans, as well as perhaps by all ancient Peoples. Hence Martial says, bk. XI. 59., sed lota mentula laeva.... (but my member, when my left hand has been washed....). With the left hand, amica manus (the mistress hand), masturbation was performed, Martial, IX. 42. XI. 74.; it served to cover the genitals, Lucian, Amor. 13., hence according to Ovid, Ars amandi, Bk. II. 613.

(Venus herself, as oft as she lays aside her garments, half withdrawn covers herself with her left hand), and Priapus is represented in Art holding the penis with the left hand, Priapeia 24. 34. If we are not mistaken, this was also the case with Horus among the Egyptians. What has just been said explains at the same time the reason why the left hand has from of old been held in disrepute, an idea still preserved in the expression, to marry, to be married, with the left hand.

242 Friedr. Hoffmann, Diss. med. 3., asserit luem Veneream Constantinopolidos non grassari, quod feminae munditiei apprime studiosae post opus aquam sumant et locos diligenter colluant (asserts that Venereal disease is not prevalent at Constantinople, because the women being extremely careful of cleanliness take water after their work and scrupulously wash the parts), says Astruc, I. p. 108. This is further confirmed by Oppenheim, “Ueber den Zustand der Heilkunde etc. in der Türkei,” (On the Condition of Medical Science etc. in Turkey), Hamburg 1838., p. 81., who writes: “Without the great cleanliness of the Turks, who after any single occasion of coition not only practise washing, but wherever at all possible, go to the bath as well, the disease (Venereal) would undoubtedly be still more widely spread.”

243 Herodotus, Histor. Bk. I. ch. 198., Ὁσάκις δ’ἂν μιχθῇ γυναικὶ τῇ ἑωυτοῦ ἀνὴρ Βαβυλώνιος περὶ θυμίημα καταγιζόμενον ἵζει· ἑτέρωθι δὲ ἡ γυνὴ τὠυτὸ τοῦτο ποιέει· ὄρθρου δὲ γενομένου λοῦνται καὶ ἀμφότεροι· ἄγγεος γὰρ ουδενος ἅψονται πρὶν ἂν λούσωνται· ταὐτὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ Ἀράβοι ποιεῦσι. (for translation see text above).

244 Eusebius, Praeparat. evangel. p. 475. C., Μηδὲ εἰς ἱερὰ εἰσιέναι ἀπὸ γυναικῶν ἀλούτοις ἐνομοθέτησαν. (And they enjoined that men should not enter into temples unwashed after women).

245 Chaeremon in Porphyry, περὶ ἀποχ. bk. IV. §. 7, The expression pollutiones (pollutions) for nocturnal ejaculation of seed shows the Romans also saw a defilement in this. Comp. Heinsius on Ovid’s Art of Love, bk. III. 96.

246 Josephus, Contra Apionem, bk. II. p. 1381., καὶ μετὰ τὴν νομιμὸν συνουσίαν ἄνδρος καὶ γυναικὸς ἀπολούσασθαι κελεύει ὁ νόμος· ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος ἐγγίνεται μολυσμός. (Even after the lawful intercourse of man and wife the Law orders men to wash: a defilement both of soul and body ensues).

247 Philo Judaeus, De special. legg., τοσαύτην δ’ἔχει πρόνοιαν ὁ νόμος τοῦ μηδ’ἐπὶ γάμοις νεωτερίζεσθαι, ὥστε καὶ τοὺς συνιόντας εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἄνδρας καὶ γυναῖκας κατὰ τοὺς ἐπὶ γάμοις θεσμοὺς, ὅταν εὐνῆς ἀπαλλάττωντο, οὐ πρότερον ἐᾷ τινος ψαύειν ἢ λουτροῖς καὶ περιῤῥαντηρίοις χρῆσθαι. (But the Law takes such precautions that nothing strange and unlawful be done in marriage, that it suffers not even such as come together in intercourse, men and women united according to the laws of marriage, when they quit the bed, to touch anything before they have employed baths and sprinklings.) The same Writer, De mercede meretricis non accepienda in sacrar., (Of Harlots’Hire not meet to be Taken in the Holy Place), Works edit. Mangey Vol. II. p. 265., moreover states that in his time the public women made frequent use of warm baths.

248 Europa bathed in Crete after coition with Zeus (Antigonus Carystius, Hist. mirab. 179.), Venus after the first embraces of Vulcan (Athenaeus, Deipnos. XV. p. 681.), Ceres after lying with Neptune (Pausanias, Arcad. p. 256.).

249 In Amor. 42. Lucian says of the women (Hetaerae), νύκτας ἐπὶ τούτοις διηγούμεναι, καὶ τοὺς ἑτερόχρωτας ὕπνους καὶ θηλύττητος εὐνὴν γέμουσαν· ἀφ’ἧς ἀναστὰς ἕκαστος εὐθὺ λουτροῦ χρεῖός ἐστι. (passing their nights in this way, enjoying indiscrimate sleep and a couch teeming with wantonness; from the which each man when he has risen, straightway is in need of bathing). Hesiod, Works and Days 731., writes,

(Nor yet when done with generation, within the house hard by the hearth expose the privates, but retire aside).

250 Persius, Sat. II. 15.,

(That you may make this request free from taint, you plunge your head in Tiber’s flood twice and three times at dawn, and purge away your night in the stream). Gregory the Great, Answers to ten Questions of Augustine, first English Bishop: Vir cum propria uxore dormiens, intrare ecclesiam, non debet, sed neque lotus intrare statim debet.... Et quamvis de hac re diversae hominum nationes diversa sentiant, atque custodire videantur, Romanorum tamen semper atque ab antiquioribus usus fuit, post ad mixtionem propriae coniugis et lavacrii purificationem ab ingressu ecclesiae paullatim reverenter abstinere. (A man sleeping with his own wife, ought not to enter a church, and not even when washed ought he to enter immediately after.... And although on this matter different nations of mankind hold different opinions and appear to keep different customs, yet the Romans’practice always and from the most ancient times has ever been, that subsequently to intercourse with his lawful wife and the purification of the bath a man reverently abstain for a while from entering a church). For the same reason Tibullus says, Carmina bk. II. 1.,

(You too I bid stand afar off, depart ye from the altars, to whom yesternight Venus brought her joys). Comp. Ovid, Amor., bk. III. eleg. 6.

251 Ovid, Amor., bk. III. eleg. 7. 84.

(And that her handmaids might not know her untouched, she dissembled this disgrace by taking water).

Ovid, Ars Amandi, bk. III. 619.,

(Of course your guard will put obstacles in the way to hinder your writing, though time be given you for taking water).

Martial, bk. VII. Epigr. 34.,

(What! do you a matron penetrate into women’s secret haunts? and by stealth are you washed, O female organ, in the water that appertains to you?) Petronius, Sat. 94., Itaque extra cellam processit, tanquam aquam peteret. (And so she came forward outside her chamber, and if she were going for water).—Cicero, Orat. pro Caelio, ch. 14. represents his grandfather Appius Claudius Caecus, who (442 A.U.C.) had constructed the Appian Way, say to his depraved granddaughter: Ideo aquam adduxi ut ea tu inceste uterere? (Was it for this I brought the water to Rome, that you might use it for abominable purposes?) Comp. Casaubon on Cicero, Letters to Atticus, bk. I. Letter 16. For the same reason women and girls who only rarely participated in sexual intercourse were called siccae (dry) (Plautus, Miles Glor. III. 1. 192. Martial, XI. Epigr. 82. Petronius, Sat. 37.), in contrast to the uda puella (wet girl) Juvenal, Sat. X. 321. Martial, XI. 17., who was obliged to wash herself frequently. So too illota or illauta virgo (unwashed maid) stands for intacta virgo (untouched maid), as in Plautus, Poenul. I. sc. 2. 22. Nam quae lavata est, nisi perculta est, meo quidem animo, quasi illauta est. (For she who is washed, unless she is bedecked as well, in my opinion, is as good as unwashed). In fact the whole of this scene is important for our subject.

252 Festus, p. 19. under word Aquarioli: Aquarioli dicebantur mulierum impudicarum sordidi asseclae. (Aquarioli, or water-boys, a name given to the shameless attendants of immodest women).—Tertullian, Apologet. ch. 43. They were also known as baccariones from baccarium, a word which Isidor explains by aquarium (a water vessel). An old Gloss says: baccario πορνοδιάκονος, meritricibus aquam infundens (baccario, a prostitutes’ attendant, one who pours water for whores); another: aquarioli, βαλλάδες, βαλλὰς, from βάλλων ὕδωρ, ab aqua jaciunda (water-boys, or throwers, from throwing water). These aquarioli at the same time carried on the business of procurers; so Juvenal says, Sat. VI. 331., veniet conductus aquarius. (Some water-carrier will come, hired for the purpose). Comp. Lipsius, Antiq. lect. I. 12. Hence also the word aquaculare was used meaning lenocinari (to be a pandar); see Turnebus, Adversar. XIV. 12. XXVIII. 5. Besides this they held themselves, especially in the public baths, at the disposal of lustful women, very often earning in this way the Bath farthing they had to pay. Probably Dasius in Martial, bk. II. Epigr. 52., was such an Aquariolus.

(Dasius knew well how to count the women going to bathe; he asked big-bosomed Spatalé the price for three, and she gave it). Hence the quadrantaria permutatio (farthing barter) in Cicero, Orat pro Caelio ch. 26. Comp. Juvenal, Sat. VI. 428.,

(The artful masseur too pressed his fingers on the clytoris, and made the upper part of his mistress’thigh resound under his hands). From the passage of Martial it follows that Busch, “Handbuch der Erfindungen,” (Manual of Inventions), vol. II. p. 8., is mistaken in saying: Women and persons not yet adult had the bath gratis; in fact in the passage from Juvenal, Sat. II. 152., quoted by him, it is a question of boys only. For the rest, the Aquarioli recall the λουτροφόροι (water-bearers) of the Greeks; these were boys, whose duty it was to fetch the water for the Bride’s bath before marriage. Pollux, Onomast. III. 43. Harpocration, under the word, p. 49. Meursius, Ceramicus ch. 14. p. 40. Böttiger, “Vasen gemälde” (Vase-painting), I. p. 143. Again the παρανύμφοι (groomsmen), who anointed the bride, and as a rule were from 17 to 19 years old, may be mentioned here by way of illustration. Hancarville, Antiquités Vol. I. plate 45. Vol. III. plate 43. Vol. IV. plate 69.

253 Columella, De re rust. bk. XII. ch. 4., His autem omnibus placuit, eum, qui rerum harum officium susceperit, castum esse continentemque oportere, quoniam totum in eo sit, ne contractentur pocula vel cibi, nisi aut ab impubi aut certe abstinentissmo rebus venereis. Quibus si fuerit operatus vel vir vel femina, debere eos flumine aut perenni aqua, priusquam penora contingant, ablui. (But all were agreed upon this, that he who should undertake the performance of these duties ought to be chaste and continent, since all depends on his care that drink and food be not defiled, unless indeed they are prepared by one still immature or at any rate one extremely self-restrained in the matter of love. But if it has been indulged in by man or woman, they ought to be cleansed in the river or in flowing water, before they touch the victuals). From what precedes the words quoted, it may be conjectured that this custom prevailed also among the Carthaginians and Greeks.

254 Propertius, bk. III. eleg. 9., At primum pura somnum tibi discute limpha. (But first shake off your sleep with pure water). Apuleius, Metamorphos. bk. II., Confestim discussa pigra quiete, alacer exsurgo meque purificandi studio, marino lavacro trado. (Soon as ever dull sleep is shaken off, at once I briskly rise, and with the desire of purification, I give myself to the bath of sea water.) Tacitus, Germania ch. 22., Statim e somno, quem plerumque in diem extrahunt, lavantur, saepius calida, ut apud quos plurimum hiems occupat. (Immediately on rising from sleep, which as a rule they prolong into the day-time, they wash, generally in warm water, as one would expect among men whose winter lasts most of the year).

255 Lomeier, De lustrationibus veterum gentium, (Of the Lustrations of Ancient Peoples), ch. XVI. p. 167., Et Priapus iter ad fontem monstrare dicebatur, quod qui quaeve viros experirentur lotione opus haberent; (Moreover Priapus was said to point the way to the fountain, because such men, or women as had intercourse, were in need of washing); in confirmation of which he then alleges the passage quoted in the text.

256 Martial, Bk. II. Epigr. 50. Comp. bk. II. 70., bk. III. 69. 81. Petronius, Sat. 67., Aquam in os non coniiciet. (He will not throw water into his mouth).

257 E. g. the Epigram of Martial (VI. 81.) on Charidemus, who according to VI, 56. was a fellator.

258 Martial, bk. VII. Epigr. 34. 35.,

(A slave girt about the loins with a pouch of black leather stands by you, as oft as you are washed all over with warm water). Claudian, I. 106.,

(He was wont to comb his mistress’hair, and oft when she bathed, naked, he would bring water for his lady in a silver ewer).

259 Dio Cassius, Histor. bk. XLIX. ch. 43., τά τε βαλανεῖα προῖκα δι’ἔτους καὶ ἀνδράσι καὶ γυναιξὶ λούεσθαι παρέσχε. (And he opened the Baths gratuitously throughout the summer both to men and women). Comp. Pliny. Hist. nat. bk. XXVI. ch. 24. 9. Dio Cassios. LIV. 29.

260 Plutarch, Cato Major ch. 39., συλλούσασθαι δὲ μηδέποτε· καὶ τούτου κοινὸν ἔθος ἔοικε Ῥωμαίων εἶναι. καὶ γὰρ πενθεροῖς γάμβροι ἐφυλάττοντο συλλούεσθαι, δυσωπούμενοι τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν καὶ γύμνωσιν· εἶτα μέντοι παρ’Ἑλλήνων, τὸ γυμνοῦσθαι μαθόντες αὐτοὶ πάλιν τοῦ καὶ μετὰ γυναικῶν τοῦτο πράσσειν ἀναπεπλήκασι τοὺς Ἑλλήνας. (And never bathed together; indeed the common habit of doing so appears to be of Roman origin. For at first sons-in-law used to guard against bathing with fathers-in-law, feeling shame at such exposure and stripping naked. Later on however having learned the habit of stripping naked from the Greeks, they again in their turn have taught the Greeks that of doing so along with women). The balnea virilia (men’s baths) are mentioned in Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. X. 3., where he shows that they were also used by women.

261 Catalect. Graecor. Poetarum,

(To men I am Hermes; for women I am looked upon as Cypris; and I bear the tokens of both my parents. Therefore not without good reason have they set me up, the Hermaphrodite, the boy of double nature, before male-female baths).

262 Martial, Bk. VI. 34. bk. III. 51. bk. II. 76. As early as Ovid, Art of Love, bk. III. 639., we read:

(When the doorkeeper at the entrance keeps the girl’s garments, and the discreet baths cover surreptitious amusements); also in Quintilian, Institut. bk. V. ch. 9., nam si est signum adulterae lavari cum viris, etc. (if indeed it is a mark of a lewd woman to bathe with men).

263 Spartian, Life of Hadrian ch. 18., Lavacra pro sexibus separavit. (He assigned separate baths for the two sexes). Dio Cass. LXIX. ch. 8.

264 Julius Capitolinus, Life of Marcus Antoninus ch. 23., Lavacra mixta submovit, mores matronarum composuit diffluentes et iuvenum nobilium. (He abolished the mixed Baths, and restrained the loose habits of the Roman ladies and of the young nobles).

265 Lampridius, Life of Alexander Severus ch. 24., Balnea mixta Romae exhiberi prohibuit, quod quidem iam ante prohibitum Heliogabalus fieri permiserat. (He forbad the opening of mixed Baths at Rome, a practice which, though previously prohibited, Heligabalus had allowed to be followed).

266 Clement of Alexandria, Paedagog. bk. III. ch. 5., says of women: καὶ δὴ τοῖς μὲν ἀνδράσι τοῖς σφῶν οὐκ ἂν ἀποδύσαιντο, προσποίητον αἰσχύνης ἀξιοπιστίαν μνώμεναι· ἔξεστι δὲ τοῖς βουλομένοις τῶν ἄλλων οἴκοι τὰς κατακλείστους, γυμνὰς ἐν τοῖς βαλανείοις θεάσασθαι· ἐνταῦθα γὰρ ἀποδύσασθαι τοῖς θεαταῖς, ὥσπερ καπήλοις σωμάτων, οὐκ αἰσχύνονται ἀλλ’ὁ μὲν Ἡσίοδος

(Oper. et Dies lib. II. 371).

παραινεῖ· κοινὰ δὲ ἀνέωκται ἀνδράσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ γυναιξὶ τὰ βαλανεῖα· κἀντεῦθεν ἐπὶ ἀκρασίαν ἀποδύονται· ἐκ τοῦ γὰρ εἰσορᾶν, γίνεται ἀνθρώποις ἐρᾶν· ὥσπερ ἀποκλυζομένης τῆς αἰδοῦς αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὰ λουτρὰ· αἱ δὲ μὴ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἀπερυθριῶσαι, τοὺς μὲν ὀθνείους ἀποκλείουσιν, ἰδίοις δὲ οἰκέταις συλλούονται, καὶ δούλοις ἀποδύονται γυμναὶ, καὶ ἀνατρίβονται ὑπ’αὐτῶν, ἐξουσίαν δοῦσαι τῷ κατεπτηχότι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, τὸ ἀδεὲς τῆς ψηλαφήσεως· οἱ γὰρ παρεισαγόμενοι παρὰ τὰ λουτρὰ ταῖς δεσποίναις γυμναῖς, μελέτην ἴσχουσιν ἀποδύσασθαι πρὸς τόλμαν ἐπιθυμίας ἔθει πονηρῷ παραγράφοντες τὸν φόβον. (And of a truth they would not strip before their own husbands, feigning a pretended plausibility of mock-modesty; but for other men, whosoever will, may readily see the women that are so close shut up at home, naked at the Baths. For there they are nowise ashamed to strip before the spectators, looking on like dealers in human flesh; whereas Hesiod (Works and Days, bk. II. 371.) advises “But do not, for the earning of a woman’s price, let her wash her skin bright and clean.” Now the Baths are open for men and women alike. And hence their stripping leads to incontinence; for from seeing, men come to desire, as though their modesty were washed away in the Baths. Other women that have not attained such effrontery, shut out strangers indeed, but wash along with their own house-slaves, and are stripped naked before their servants and are rubbed by them, giving opportunity to the man a-tremble with longing, the free right to handle without fear; for the men that are admitted into the Baths with their naked mistresses take care to strip in such a way as to correspond to the daring audacity of their longing, putting down fear to the count of evil habit).—Cyprian, De Virginum habitu: Quid vero, quae promiscuas balneas adeunt, quae oculis ad libidinem curiosis, pudori ac pudicitae dicata corpora prostituunt, quae cum viros ac a viris nudae vident turpiter ac videntur, nonne ipsae illecebram vitiis praestant. (But in truth, those women that frequent indiscrimate Baths, that expose to prying and lustful eyes their bodies that should be dedicate to modest shamefacedness, that along with men see what is disgraceful to see and in nakedness are seen by men, do not such women offer an enticement to sinfulness?) Comp. Mercurialis, De arte Gymnast. bk. I. ch. 10.—It is true we read in Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico bk. VI. ch. 21., of the ancient Germans: Intra annum vero vicessimum feminae notitiam habuisse, in turpissimis habent rebus; cuius rei nulla est occultatio, quod et promiscue in fluminibus perluuntur, (But to have known a woman under the twentieth year is held by them most disgraceful; and there is no concealment of it, as they bathe indiscriminately in the rivers); but here the antecedent clause bars any suspicion of sexual excesses having been invited by the practice.

267 Seneca, Epist. 86. says, speaking of the bath of Scipio: Balneolum angustum, tenebricosum ex consuetudine antiqua; non videbatur maioribus nostris caldum nisi obscurum. (A little narrow bath-chamber, dim and gloomy after the antique fashion; our fathers could not believe a bath warm unless it was dark too).—Next he describes explicitly the luxury of the Roman Baths, and then goes on,—In hoc balneo Scipionis minimae sunt rimae magis quam fenestrae, muro lapideo exsectae, ut sine iniuria munimenti lumen admitterent. At nunc blattaria vocant balnea, si qua non ita aptata sunt, ut totius diei solem fenestris amplissimis recipiant; nisi et lavantur et colorantur; nisi ex solio agros et maria prospiciant.... Imo si scias, non quotidie lavabatur. Nam ut aiunt, qui priscos mores urbis tradiderunt, brachia et crura quotidie abluebant, quae scilicit sordes opere collegerant: ceterum toti nundinis lavabantur. Hoc loco dicet aliquis, liquet mihi immundissimos fuisse. Quid putas illos oluisse? militiam, laborem, virum. Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt. (In this bath of Scipio there are tiny chinks rather than windows, cut through the stone wall, so as to admit light without detriment to the shelter afforded. But nowadays men call them Baths for night-moths, any that are not disposed in such a way as to let the sunlight enter all day long by immense windows; if they are not washed and sun-burned at once; if they cannot look out on fields and sea from the pavement.... If you must know the truth, he did not bathe every day. For we are told by those who have handed down accounts of the primitive manners of the City, our ancestors would wash daily arms and legs, for these had grown soiled with the dust of toil: but they washed all over only on market-days. Hearing this, it will be said, “It appears to me they must have very filthy people.” Well! what think you it was they smelt of? Of fighting, and honest work, and manly vigour. Sweet, clean Baths have been introduced; but the population is only more foul). Comp. Plutarch, Quaest. convival. VIII. 9. Sidonius Apollinaris bk. II. Epist. 11. Pliny, Hist. nat. XXX. 54.

268 Ammianus Marcellinus, XXVIII., Tales, ubi comitantibus singulos quadraginta ministris, tholos introierint balnearum, ubi sunt, minaciter clamantes, si apparuisse subito ignotam compererint meretricem, aut oppidanae quondam prostibulum plebis, vel meritorii corporis veterem lupam, certatim concurrunt, palpantesque ad venam deformitate magna blanditarum ita extollunt, ut Semiramin. (Such men, when with forty servants attending each master they have entered the rotundas of the Baths, where they remain with loud threatening shouts, if they should note an unknown courtesan to have put in an appearance, or some prostitute once popular with the common herd, or some old harlot who has sold her person for years, they strive who shall be first on the spot, and wheedling her to the top of her bent, with mighty exaggeration of flattery, praise her beauty as though she were a Semiramis). Lampridius, Life of Heliogabalus ch. 26., Omnes de circo, de theatro, de stadio, de omnibus locis et balneis, meretrices collegit in aedes publicam. (All the prostitutes from circus, from theatre, from race-course, from all places and from the Baths, he brought together into public establishments). Comp. Suetonius, Caligula ch. 37.

269 Martial, bk. I. Epigr. 24.,

(You invite no man, Cotta, but your bathing companion; the Baths only supply a guest for you. I used to wonder, why you had never asked me; now I know that you did not like the look of me when naked). Comp. Martial, Bk. I. 97. bk. VII. 33. bk. IX. 34. Juvenal, Sat. VI. 373.

270 It must be left to future investigation to decide, whether the great number of phalli found in so many places where Temples formerly existed, is not in part to be explained by supposing these figures to have formed thank-offerings for the happy recovery of the corresponding parts from sickness.

271 Oppenheim, Ueber den Zustand der Heilkunde in der Türkei, (On the Condition of of Medical Knowledge in Turkey), p. 81., “Without the very great cleanliness of the Turks, who after every occasion of sexual intercourse not only wash carefully, but also wherever it is possible go to the bath likewise, the disease would undoubtedly be yet more widely spread than it is.... Yet the Turk will never admit, or rather he simply cannot bring himself to conceive, that he has contracted an infection through unclean cohabitation, but will be found always to give some other cause as occasioning his sickness. In fact the language itself shows this; the Turkish expression for gonorrhœa is “Belzouk”, literally: chill of the back (from bel, back and zouk, cold), and chill or overheating will always be represented as having brought it on.”—Moreover Zeller von Zellenberg, Abh. über die ersten Erscheinungen venerischer Lokal-Krankheitsformen und deren Behandlung, (Dissertation on the earliest Appearances of Forms of Local Venereal Disease, and their Treatment), Vienna 1810., p. 7., is of the opinion, that the reason of the imperfect knowledge possessed by the Ancients of gonorrhœa, chancre and buboes is to be found in this delayed appearance of the symptoms of disease after coition.

272 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.