{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_5224/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_5224","id":"gutenberg_5224","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5224","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Category: Sexuality & Erotica","Rome -- Fiction","Satire, Latin -- Translations into English"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the\nfile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an\nentire meal of them.  D.W.]\n\n\n\n\n\n                           THE SATYRICON OF\n                           PETRONIUS ARBITER\n\n          Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh,\n          in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena,\n          and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.\n\n\n\n                         SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA.\n\n\n\nTO THE ARMY OF THE RHINE.\n\nThe conquests of the French have resulted, during this war, in a boon to\nknowledge and to letters.  Egypt has furnished us with monuments of its\naboriginal inhabitants, which the ignorance and superstition of the Copts\nand Mussulmans kept concealed from civilized countries.  The libraries of\nthe convents of the various countries have been ransacked by savants and\nprecious manuscripts have been brought to light.\n\nBy no means the least interesting of the acquisitions is a fragment of\nPetronius, which we offer to the public, taken from an ancient manuscript\nwhich our soldiers, in conquering St. Gall, have sent to us for\nexamination.  We have made an important discovery in reading a parchment\nwhich contains the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests, and\nwhich, judging from the form of the letters employed, we should say was\nwritten in the eleventh century.  A most careful examination led us to\nperceive that the work by this saint had been written on pages containing\nwritten letters, which had been almost effaced.  We know that in the dark\nages it was customary to write ecclesiastical works on the manuscripts\ncontaining the best authors of Latinity.\n\nAt a cost of much labor we have been able to decipher a morsel which we\ngive to the public: and of the authenticity of which there can be no\ndoubt.  We render homage to the brave French army to which we owe this\nacquisition.\n\nIt is easy to notice that there is a lacuna in that passage of Petronius\nin which Encolpius is left with Quartilla, looking through a chink in the\ndoor, at the actions of Giton and little Pannychis.  A few lines below,\nit relates, in effect, that he was fatigued by the voluptuous enjoyment\nof Quartilla, and in that which remains to us, there is no mention of the\npreliminaries to this enjoyment.  The style of the Latin so closely\nresembles the original of Petronius that it is impossible to believe that\nthe fragment was forged.\n\nFor the benefit of those who have not read the author, it is well to\nstate that this Quartilla was a priestess of Priapus, at whose house they\ncelebrated the mysteries of that god.  Pannychis is a young girl of seven\nyears who had been handed over to Giton to be deflowered.  This Giton is\nthe \"good friend\" of Encolpius, who is supposed to relate the scene.\nEncolpius, who had drunk an aphrodisiacal beverage, is occupied with\nQuartilla in peeping through the door to see in what manner Giton was\nacquitting himself in his role.  At that moment a soldier enters the\nhouse.\n\nFinally an old woman, about whom there is some question in the fragment,\nis the same as the one who had unexpectedly conducted Encolpius to the\nhouse of the public women and of whom mention is made in the beginning of\nthe work.\n\n               Ipsa Venus magico religatum brachia nodo\n               Perdocuit, multis non sine verberibus.\n                                             Tibullus viii, 5.\n\n\n\nI.\n\n               Vous verrez que vous avez affaire a un homme.\n               You will learn that you have to deal with a man.\n\nFighting men have in all times been distinguished on account of the\nbeauty of their women.  The charming fable of the loves of Venus and\nMars, described by the most ancient of poets, expresses allegorically,\nthis truth.  All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most\nvaliant were always the most passionate and the happiest.  Hercules took\nthe maidenheads of fifty girls, in a single night.  Thesus loved a\nthousand beauties, and slept with them.  Jason abandoned Hypsipyle for\nMedea, and her, for Creusa.  Achilles, the swift of foot, forgot the\ntender Deidamia in the arms of his Briseis.\n\nIt has been remarked that the lovers did not have very scrupulous tastes\nin their methods of attaining satisfaction from the women they loved.\nThe most common method was abduction and the women always submitted to\nthis without a murmur of any sort.  Helen was carried off by Theseus,\nafter having also been abducted by Paris.  The wife of Atreus was\nabducted by Thyestus, and from that arose the implacable hatred between\nthe two families.  Rape was no less common.  Goddesses themselves and the\nfavorites of the Gods were at the risk of falling prey to strong mortals.\nPirithous, aided by Theseus, even attempted to snatch Proserpina from the\nGod of the under-world.  Juno herself was compelled to painful submission\nto the pursuit of Ixion, and Thetis succumbed despite herself, to the\nassaults of Peleus.  The gift of foretelling the future, with which\nApollo endowed Cassandra, did not insure her against the brutal caresses\nof Ajax, son of Oileus.\n\nIn the infancy of society, there was never known any other distinction\nexcept between the weak and the strong: the strong commanded and the weak\nobeyed.  For that reason, women were regarded in the light of beings\ndestined by nature, to serve the pleasures and even the caprices of men.\nNever did her suitors express a tender thought for Penelope, and, instead\nof making love to her, they squandered her property, slept with her\nslaves, and took charge of things in her house.\n\nCirce gave herself to Ulysses who desired to slay her, and Calypso, full\nblown goddess as she was, was obliged to make his advances for him.  The\nfine sentiments that Virgil puts into the mouth of the shade of Creusa,\ncontent with having died while serving against the Greeks, \"she was a\nTrojan, and she wedded the son of Venus\"; the confession with which\nAndromache, confronted by the murderer of her first husband, responds to\nthe question of AEneas; these ideas, I say, and these sentiments,\nappertained to the polished century of Augustus and not to the epoch or,\nscene of the Trojan War.  Virgil, in his AEneid, had never subscribed to\nthe precepts of Horace, and of common sense:\n\n          Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge\n                                             Horace Ars Poet. 119.\n\nFrom this manner of dealing with women arose another reason for the\npossession of beauty by the valiant.  One coveted a woman much as one\nwould covet a fine flock of sheep, and, in the absence of laws, the one\nin possession of either the one or the other of these desirable objects\nwould soon be dispossessed of them if he was not courageous enough to\nguard them against theft.  Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing\nwomen as they were for taking other property, and one should remember\nthat Agamemnon promised to retire from before Troy if the Trojans would\nrestore Helen and his riches to Menelaus; things which Paris had\ndespoiled him of.\n\nAlso, there was never any of that thing we call \"conjugal honor\" among\nthe Greeks; that idea was far too refined; it was a matter too complex\never to have entered the heads of these semi-barbarous people.  This is\nexemplified in the fact that, after the taking of Troy, Helen, who had,\nof her own free will, belonged successively to Paris, and to Deiphobus,\nafterwards returned to Menelaus, who never offered her any reproach.\nThat conduct of Menelaus was so natural that Telemachus, who, in his trip\nto Sparta found Helen again with Menelaus, just as she was before her\nabduction, did not show the least astonishment.\n\nThe books which bear the most remarkable resemblance to each other are\nthe Bible and Homer, because the people they describe and the men about\nwhom they speak are forerunners of civilization in pretty much the same\ndegree.  Sarah was twice snatched from the bosom of Abraham and he was\nnever displeased with his wife and continued to live on good terms with\nher.  David, a newcomer on the throne, hastened to have Michol brought to\nhim although she had already married another man.\n\nThe best proof that, during the time of the Romans the women preferred\nsoldiers to other men is in the claims to successful enterprises by the\nbragging soldier of Plautus.  Pyrgopolinices thought it was only\nnecessary to pose as a great warrior, to have all the women chasing after\nhim; therefore, his parasite and his slave spoke of nothing but the\npassions be inspired in women.  Tradition has it that among the Samnites,\nthe bravest men had the choice of the fairest women, and to this custom\nis attributed one of the reasons these people were so warlike.\n\nIn the times of chivalry the greatest exploits were achieved for the\npleasure of one's Lady-Love, and there were even such valiant knights, as\nDon Quixote, who went about the world proving by force of arms that their\nladies had no peer.  The poverty-stricken troubadours singing\nharmoniously about their beautiful women found them flying away in the\narms of knights who had broken lances at tournaments, or had performed\nthe greatest feats of arms.  In fine, all the peoples of the world have\nsaid with Dryden:\n\n               \"None but the brave deserves the fair.\"\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n          Ses camarades se saisissent de moi et de Quartilla.\n          His comrades seized hold of Quartilla and me.\n\nThe profession of Quartilla corresponded to that which is followed by\nour ladies of the Palace Royal.  This Palace Royal is a sort of Babylon,\nwith this difference; that the former prostitute themselves all the year\nround, and that they are not quite so attractive as the Chaldean\nbeauties.  For the rest, one of the incontestable facts of ancient\nhistory is this prostitution of the women of Babylon in honor of Venus,\nand I cannot understand why Voltaire refused to believe it, since\nreligions have always been responsible for the most abominable actions,\nand because religious wars, the horrors of intolerance, the impostures of\npriests, the despotism of kings, the degradation and stupidity of the\npeople, have been the direct fatal effects of religions; and seeing that\nthe blind fanaticism of martyrs and the brutal cruelty of tyrants is a\nhundred times more deplorable than a sacrifice equally agreeable to the\nvictim and to the one who officiates at the sacrifice; and seeing that\nthe enjoyment and giving of life is no less holy than the maceration and\ncaging of innocent animals.\n\nThe origin of courtesans is lost in the deepest antiquity.  It appears\nthat it was one of the patriarchal customs to enjoy them, for Judah slept\nwith Thamar, widow of his two sons, and who, to seduce him, disguised\nherself as a courtesan.  Another courtesan, Rahab, played a great role in\nthe first wars of the people of the Lord: it was this same Rahab who\nmarried Solomon, father of Boaz, fourth forefather of David, and\nthirty-second forefather of Jesus Christ, our divine Savior.  Yet the\neternal sagacity of man has failed to take notice of this profession and\nto resent the injustice done it by the scorn of men.  The elected kings\nof the people, the man who adopts the word father according to the\nflesh, are descendants of a courtesan.\n\nFor the rest, it must be admitted that many who follow this noble\nprofession are unworthy of it and only too well justify the ignominy\nwhich is levelled against the entire class.  You see these miserable\ncreatures with livid complexions and haggard eyes, with voices of\nStentor, breathing out at the same time the poisons which circulate in\ntheir veins and the liquors with which they are intoxicated; you see on\ntheir blemished and emaciated bodies, the marks of beings more hideous\nthan they (twenty come to satisfy their brutal passions for every one of\nthem); you listen to their vile language, you hear their oaths and\nrevolting expressions: to go to these Megeres is often to encounter\nbrigands and assassins: what a spectacle!  It is the deformity of vice\nin the rags of indigence.\n\nAh!  But these are not courtesans, they are the dregs of cities.  A\ncourtesan worthy of the name is a beautiful woman, gracious and amiable,\nat whose home gather men of letters and men of the world; the first\nmagistrates, the greatest captains: and who keeps men of all professions\nin a happy state of mind because she is pleasing to them, she inspires in\nthem a desire for reciprocal pleasure: such an one was Aspasia who, after\nhaving charmed the cultured people of Athens was for a long time the good\ncompanion of Pericles, and contributed much, perhaps, towards making his\ncentury what it was, the age of taste in arts and letters.  Such an\none also was Phryne, Lais, Glycera, and their names will always be\ncelebrated; such, also, was Ninon d'Enclos, one of the ornaments of\nthe century of Louis XIV, and Clairon, the first who realized all the\ngrandeur of her art; such an one art thou, C-----, French Thalia, who\ncommands attentions, I do not say this by way of apology but to share the\nopinion of Alceste.\n\nA courtesan such as I have in mind may have all the public and private\nvirtues.  One knows the severe probity of Ninon, her generosity, her\ntaste for the arts, her attachment to her friends.  Epicharis, the soul\nof the conspiracy of Piso against the execrable Nero, was a courtesan,\nand the severe Tacitus, who cannot be taxed with a partiality for\ngallantry, has borne witness to the constancy with which she resisted the\nmost seductive promises and endured the most terrible tortures, without\nrevealing any of the details of the conspiracy or any of the names of the\nconspirators.\n\nThese facts should be recognized above that ascetic moral idea which\nconsists of the sovereign virtue of abstinence in defiance of nature's\ncommands and which places weakness in these matters along with the most\nodious crimes.  Can one see without indignation Suetonius' reproach of\nCaesar for his gallantries with Servilia, with Tertia, and other Roman\nladies, as a thing equal to his extortions and his measureless ambitions,\nand praising his warlike ardor against peoples who had never furnished\nroom for complaint to Rome?  The source of these errors was the theory of\nemanations.  The first dreamers, who were called philosophers imagined\nthat matter and light were co-eternal; they supposed that was all one\nunformed and tenebrous mass; and from the former they established the\nprinciple of evil and of all imperfection, while they regarded the latter\nas sovereign perfection.  Creation, or, one might better say\nco-ordination, was only the emanation of light which penetrated chaos,\nbut the mixture of light and matter was the cause of all the inevitable\nimperfections of the universe.  The soul of man was part and parcel of\ndivinity or of increased light; it would never attain happiness until it\nwas re-united to the source of all light; but for it, we would be free\nfrom all things we call gross and material, and we would be taken into\nthe ethereal regions by contemplation and by abstinence from the\npleasures of the flesh.  When these absurdities were adopted for the\nregulation of conduct, they necessarily resulted in a fierce morality,\ninimical to all the pleasures of life, such, in a word, as that of the\nGymnosophists or, in a lesser measure, of the Trappists.\n\nBut despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the\nwonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans.\nIt was about the houses of these that revolved the sands of Pactolus,\ntheir fame exceeded that of the first men of Greece.  The rich offerings\nthat decorated the temples of the Gods were the gifts of these women,\nand it must be remembered that most of them were foreigners, originating,\nfor the most part, in Asia Minor.  It happened that an Athenian\nfinancier, who resembled the rest of his tribe as much as two drops of\nwater, proposed once to levy an impost upon the courtesans.  As he spoke\neloquently of the incalculable advantages which would accrue to the\nGovernment by this tax, a certain person asked him by whom the courtesans\nwere paid.  \"By the Athenians,\" replied our orator, after deliberation.\n\"Then it would be the Athenians who would pay the impost,\" replied the\nquestioner, and the people of Athens, who had a little more sense than\ncertain legislative assemblies, hooted the orator down, and there was\nnever any more question about a tax upon courtesans.\n\nCorinth was famous for the number and beauty of its courtesans, from\nwhich comes the proverb: \"It is not given to every man to go to Corinth\";\nthere they ran the risk of losing their money and ruining their health.\nThe cause of this great vogue of courtesans in Greece was not the\nsupposed ugliness of the sex, as the savant Paw imagined, and\ncontradicted by the unanimous evidence of ancient authors and of modern\ntravellers; but rather, the retired and solitary life which the women of\nthe country led.  They lived in separate apartments and never had any\ncommunication with the streets or with the residences of men \"the inner\npart of the house which was called the women's apartments,\" said\nCornelius Nepos (preface).  Strangers never visited them; they rarely\nvisited their nearest relations.  This was why marriage between brothers\nand sisters was authorized by law and encouraged by usage; the sisters\nwere exposed to the attacks of their brothers because they lived\nseparated from them.\n\nWith the Romans, as with us, the virtuous women corrupted somewhat the\nprofession of the courtesans.  The absolute seclusion of women was never\nthe fashion at Rome and the stories we have on the authority of Valerius\nMaximus on the chastity and modesty of the first Roman matrons merit the\nsame degree of belief as the legend of Romulus and Remus being brought up\nby a wolf, the rape of Lucretia or the tragic death of Virginia.  On the\ncontrary, in Livy, a great admirer of the customs of the early days of\nRome, we find that in those times a great number of Roman women of the\nnoblest families were convicted of having poisoned their husbands and\ncondemned to death for this hideous crime: that, by no means shows a very\nexquisite and tender conjugal sentiment.  During the period of the second\nPunic War with what energy they went about the city seeking the repeal of\nthe law which took out of their hands the custody of jewels and precious\nstones!  A repeal which they obtained despite the opposition of Cato the\nCensor.  It appears that the profession of the courtesan was generally\npractised by the freed-women; their manner necessarily showed the results\nof their education.  But the young sparks of Rome never paid much\nattention to them, they preferred to have love affairs with the wives of\ntheir friends.  For one Sallust who ruined himself with freedwomen, there\nwere five Cupienniuses; \"Cupiennius, that admirer of the pudenda garbed\nin white,\" Hor. Sat. I, ii, 36.  Delia, Lesbia, Ipsythillia, Corinna,\nNemesis, Neeria, Cynthia, Sulpitia, Lycimnia, and almost all the women to\nwhom, under real or assumed names, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid,\nHorace, and others, addressed their erotic compositions, were Roman\nmarried women.  Horace is the only one who celebrated a freedwoman in\nsome of his odes.  This is due, however, to his taste for variety and\nperhaps also, to his birth, for he himself was the son of a freedwoman.\nOvid's Art of Love and the Satires of Juvenal reveal the extent to which\ngallantry was the fashion at Rome and Cato would never have praised the\nconduct of that young man who had recourse to a public house if that had\nbeen an ordinary course of procedure.\n\nIn Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some\nextent in reviving the profession of the courtesans.  Long before, Saint\nPaul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles\nof the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity.  The\ndeaconesses date from the first century of the church.  But the celibacy\nof the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the\neleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII.  During the\npreceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their\nlovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and\ngrandsons, as well.  But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they\nostensibly took the concubines of which, alas!  our housekeepers of today\nare but feeble vestiges.  The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often\nconcerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los\nclerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably\nappeared worthy of envy.  Finally the courtesans appeared in all their\nmagnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and\nindignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome.\nThe princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their\nfeet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age\nof Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and\nbeautiful women.  But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this\ncalm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the\nrevenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful\ncourtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their\npleasures have fled with them.  And can anyone longer believe in the\nperfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human\ninstitutions has so visibly degenerated!\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n     Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m'accabler de ses impurs baisers.\n\n     The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking\n     kisses.\n\nOne of the reasons which caused the learned and paradoxical Hardouin to\nassert that all the works which have been attributed to the ancients,\nwith the exception of the Georgics and the Natural History of Pliny, were\nthe compositions of monks, was doubtless the very frequent repetition of\nscenes of love for boys, which one notices in most of these writings:\nthis savant was a Jesuit.  But this taste is not peculiar to convents; it\nis to be found among all peoples and in all climates; its origin is lost\nin the night of the centuries; it is common in the most polished nations\nand it is common among savage tribes.  Profound philosophers have argued\nin favor of it; poets have sung the objects of this sort of love in their\ntender and passionate compositions, and these compositions have always\nbeen the delight of posterity.  What stupid or unfeeling reader can read\nwithout emotion that beautiful eclogue of Virgil where Corydon sighs his\nhopeless love for the beautiful Alexis?  The most passionate ode of\nHorace is that one in which he complains of the harshness of Ligurinus.\nThe tender Tibullus, deceived by his Marathus, brings tears to all who\nhave hearts.  The delicate Anacreon, praising his Bathylle, and the\nvaliant Alceus giving himself up after his labors in war to sing of the\ndark eyes and black hair of Lycus .  .  .  \"with dark eyes and black hair\nbeautiful.\"  It is not to over-civilized refinements of society which,\naccording to certain misanthropists, degrade nature and corrupt it, that\nthis taste is due; it is found among the south sea islanders, and the\nevidence of the first Spaniards attests that it was common among the\nhordes of American Indians before the discovery of the new world.  Paw\nhad attempted to explain this as resulting from defects in the formation\nof the organs of pleasure among the natives; but a peculiar cause is not\nsufficient explanation for a universal effect.\n\nAt the time of the Patriarchs, Greek love was so general that in the four\ncities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim, it was impossible to find ten\nmen exempt from the contagion; that number would have sufficed, said the\nLord, to withhold the punishment which he inflicted upon those cities.\n\nIt should be noted here that most of the assertions about the morals of\nthe Israelites which are to be found in the Erotica Biblon of Mirabeau\nare either false or pure guesswork.  It is a bizarre method of judging\nthe morals of a people, that of taking their legal code and inferring\nthat the people were accustomed to break all the laws which are forbidden\nby that code.  Nevertheless, that is the method which the author of the\nErotica Biblon adopts for portraying the morals of the Jewish people.\nAgain, he has not even understood this code; he has believed that the law\nagainst giving one's seed to the idol Moloch meant giving the human\nsemen; and he is ignorant of the fact that this seed, as spoken of in the\nBible, means the children and descendants.  Thus it is that the land of\nCanaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, and the perpetuity of the\nreign on Sion to that of David.  Moloch was a Phoenician deity, the same\none to which, in Carthage, they sacrificed children; the Romans believed\nhim to be a reincarnation of their Saturn, but Saturn was an Etruscan\ndivinity who could never have had any connection with the Gods of\nPhoenicia.  He (Mirabeau) has translated \"those who polluted the temple\"\nas meaning those who were guilty of some obscenity in the temple; and he\ndoes not know that the temple was \"polluted\" by a thousand acts, declared\nimpure by law, and which were not obscene.  The entrance of a woman into\na sacred place, less than forty days after her accouchement, or the\nentrance of a man who had touched an impure animal, constituted a\npollution of the House of the Lord.  When one wishes to make a parade of\nerudition he should make some attempt to understand the things which he\npretends to make clear to others.  Or is it that this Mirabeau was merely\ncareless?\n\nThe love of boys was so thoroughly the fashion in Greece that we have\ntoday given it the name \"Greek Love.\"  Orestes was regarded as the \"good\nfriend\" of Pylades and Patroclus as the lover of Achilles.  In this\ntaste, the Gods set the example for mortals, and the abduction of\nGanymede for the service of the master of thunder, was not the least\ncause for annoyance given the chaste but over-prudish Juno.  Lastly,\nHercules was not content with the loves of Omphale and Dejanira, he also\nloved the beautiful Hylas, who was brought up by the nymphs.\n\nThe Greeks boasted, without blushing, of this love, which they considered\nthe only passion worthy of men, and they did blush at loving a woman,\nintimacy with whom, they said, only rendered her adorers soft and\neffeminate.  In the Dialogue of Plato, entitled \"The Banquet,\" which is\nconcerned entirely with discussions of the various forms of love, they\ndismiss love for women as unworthy of occupying the attention of sensible\nmen.  One of the speakers, I believe it was Aristophanes, explaining the\ncause of this fire which we kindle in the bosoms of our loved ones,\naffirms that the first men were doubles which multiplied their force and\ntheir power.  This, they abused and, as punishment, Jupiter struck them\nwith lightning and separated them.  By their love for each other they\ncame together again to regain their primitive state.  But the effeminates\nsought out only the women because they were only half men, half women;\nwhile those whose tastes were masculine and courageous wanted to become\ndouble men again.\n\nPhedre has put into the mouth of AEsop an explanation of that love which\nwould certainly not have been relished by the Greeks.  He says that while\nPrometheus was occupied with modelling his man and woman, he was invited\nto a feast given by Jupiter, to the Gods; he came back intoxicated and,\nby mistake, applied the sexual parts of one to the body of the other.\n\nFor the rest, the Greeks were all in accord in their profound contempt\nfor women.  The theatrical writers, especially, who studied more\nparticularly the general opinions and catered to them in order to obtain\nthe applause of the public, were distinguished by their bitterness\nagainst the sex.  Euripides maintained that Prometheus deserved to be\nchained to Mount Caucasus with the vulture gnawing at his entrails,\nbecause he had fashioned a being so pernicious and hateful as woman.  The\nshade of Agamemnon, in the Odyssey advised Ulysses not to put any faith\nin Penelope and did not stop talking until he had enumerated the entire\nlist of the vices of the sex.  The first Latin authors imitated the\nGreeks in their invectives against women; the comedies of Plautus,\nespecially, teem with virulent attacks upon them.\n\nAt Rome, however, the great freedom permitted to women, soon brought\nabout other opinions in regard to them; they often played an important\nrole in public and private affairs, and the men convinced themselves\nthat, like men, women were capable of the greatest crimes and of the most\nheroic virtues.  The noble stoicism of Arria is not the only example of\ncourageous virtue displayed by the Roman women at a time when crowned\nmonsters governed the empire.  The young Paulina opened her veins with\nher husband, the philosopher, Seneca; Mallonia preferred to die in\ntorments rather than give herself up to the odious he-goat of Capri.\nWho does not admire the noble independence, the conjugal love, and the\nmatronly virtues of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus?\n\nMoreover, men began to avow their love for women, and we have here\noccasion to observe the rapid progress of gallantry among the Romans.\nHowever, the love for boys was no less universally in vogue in Rome, and\nCicero charges, in his letters to Atticus, that the judges who had so\nscandalously white-washed Clodius of the accusation of having profaned\nthe mysteries of the \"Good Goddess,\" had been publicly promised the\nfavors of the most illustrious women and the finest young men of the\nfirst families.  Caesar himself, in his early youth had yielded to the\nembraces of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia; moreover, after his triumph over\nthe Gauls, on the solemn occasion when it was customary to twit the\nvictor with all his faults, the soldiers sang: \"Caesar subdued the Gauls,\nNicomedes subdued Caesar.  But Caesar who subdued the Gauls, triumphed,\nand Nicomedes, who subdued Caesar did not.\"  Cato said of him that he was\nloved by the King, in his youth and that, when he was older, he loved the\nqueen and, one day, in the senate, while he was dwelling on I know not\nwhat request of the daughter of Nicomedes, and recounting the benefits\nwhich Rome owed to that monarch, Cicero silenced him by replying: \"We\nknow very well what he has given, and what thou hast given him!\"  At\nlast, during the time when the first triumvirate divided all the power,\na bad joker remarked to Pompey: \"I salute thee, O King,\" and, addressing\nCaesar, \"I salute thee, O Queen!\"  His enemies maintained that he was the\nhusband of all the women and the wife of all the husbands.  Catullus, who\ndetested him, always called him \"the bald catamite,\" in his epigrams: he\nset forth that his friendship with Mamurra was not at all honorable; he\ncalled this Mamurra \"pathicus,\" a name which they bestowed upon those who\nlooked for favors among mature men or among men who had passed the stage\nof adolescence.\n\nThe masters of the empire never showed any hesitancy in trying and even\nin overdoing the pleasures which all their subjects permitted themselves.\nAlas!  A crown is such a weighty burden!  The road of domination is\nstrewn with so many briars that one would never be able to pass down it\nif he did not take care that they were pressed down under the roses.  The\nRoman emperors adopted that plan; they longed for pleasures and they took\nthe pleasures which offered themselves without delay and in a spirit of\ncompetition.  Caligula was so little accustomed to waiting that, while\noccupied in offering a sacrifice to the Gods, and the figure of a priest\nhaving pleased him, he did not take time to finish the sacred ceremonies\nbefore taking his pleasure of him.\n\nA remarkable thing is that among almost all peoples, the baths are the\nplaces where the prostitution of men by their own sex is the most common.\nWe see in Catullus that the \"cinaedi\" (catamites), a noun which my chaste\npen refuses to translate into French, haunted the baths incessantly to\ncarry out their practices.  Among the Orientals, of all modern peoples\nwho have retained this taste most generally, this same fact holds good.\nIt was at the bath that Tiberius, impotent through old age and\ndebauchery, was made young again by the touch little children applied to\nhis breasts; these children he called \"'little fishes,\" they sucked his\nwithered breasts, his infected mouth, his livid lips, and finally his\nvirile parts.  Hideous spectacle of a tyrant disgraced by nature and\nstruggling against her maledictions!  But in vain did he invent new\npleasures, in vain did he take part in these scenes in which groups of\nyoung men by threes and fours assumed all sorts of lascivious postures,\nand were at the same time active and passive; the sight of these\nindulgences of the \"sprintriae\" (for that is the name which was given\nthere) did not enable him to resuscitate his vigor any more than the\nglamor of the throne or the servile submission of the senate served to\nmitigate his remorse.\n\nBut of all the emperors, the ones who carried their taste for young boys\nto the greatest lengths were, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian.  The first\npublicly wedded the young eunuch Sporus, whom he had had operated upon so\nthat he might serve him like a young woman.  He paid court to the boy as\nhe would to a woman and another of his favorites dressed himself up in a\nveil and imitated the lamentations which women were accustomed to utter\non nuptial nights.  The second consecrated the month of September to his\nfavorite and the third loved Antinous passionately and caused him to be\ndeified after death.\n\nThe most ample proof of the universality of the taste for young boys\namong the Romans is found in the Epithalamium of Manilius and Julia, by\nCatullus, and it might be cause for surprise that this has escaped all\nthe philologists, were it not a constant thing that men frequently\nreading about these centuries fail to perceive the most palpable facts\nin their authors, just as they pass over the most striking phenomena of\nnature without observing them.  It appears, from this epithalamium, that\nyoung men, before their marriage, had a favorite selected from among\ntheir slaves and that this favorite was charged with the distribution of\nnuts among his comrades, on the day, they in turn, treated him with\ncontempt and hooted him.  Here follows an exact translation of this\ncurious bit.  The favorite could not refuse the nuts to the slaves when\nby giving them it appeared that he owned that his master had put away his\nlove for hire.\n\n              \"Lest longer mute tongue stays that\n                 In festal jest, from Fescennine,\n               Nor yet deny their nuts to boys,\n                 He-Concubine! who learns in fine\n                   His lordling's love is fled.\n\n               Throw nuts to boys thou idle all\n                 He-Concubine! wast fain full long\n               With nuts to play: now pleased as thrall\n                 Be thou to swell Talasios' throng\n                   He-Concubine throw nuts.\n\n               Wont thou as peasant-girls to jape\n                 He-whore! Thy Lord's delight the while:\n               Now shall hair-curling chattel scrape\n                 Thy cheeks: poor wretch, ah' poor and vile:--\n                   He-Concubine, throw nuts.\"\n\nand further on, addressing the husband:\n\n             \"'Tis said from smooth-faced ingle train\n               (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain\n               Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain!\n                 O Hymen Hymenaeus io,\n                   O Hymen Hymenaeus!\n\n               We know that naught save licit rites\n               Be known to thee, but wedded wights\n               No more deem lawful such delights.\n                 O Hymen Hymenaeus io,\n                   O Hymen Hymenaeus.\"\n                                        (LXI.  Burton, tr.)\n\nThe Christian religion strongly prohibits this love; the theologians put\nit among the sins which directly offend against the Holy Ghost.  I have\nnot the honor of knowing just why this thing arouses his anger so much\nmore than anything else; doubtless there are reasons.  But the wrath of\nthis honest person has not prevented the Christians from having their\n\"pathici,\" just as they have in countries where they are authorized by\nthe reigning deities.  We have even noticed that they are the priests of\nthe Lord and especially the monks who practice this profession most\ngenerally amongst us.  The children of Loyola have acquired well-merited\nrenown in this matter: when they painted \"Pleasure\" they never failed to\nrepresent him wearing trousers.  Those disciples of Joseph Calasanz who\ntook their places in the education of children, followed their footsteps\nwith zeal and fervor.  Lastly, the cardinals, who have a close\nacquaintance with the Holy Ghost, are so prejudiced in favor of Greek\nlove that they have made it the fashion in the Holy City of Rome; this\nleads me to wonder whether the Holy Ghost has changed His mind in regard\nto this matter and is no longer shocked by it; or whether the theologians\nwere not mistaken in assuming an aversion against sodomy which He never\nhad.  The cardinals who are on such familiar terms with him would know\nbetter than to give all their days over to this pleasure if He really\nobjected to it.\n\nI shall terminate this over-long note with an extract from a violent\ndiatribe against this love which Lucian puts into the mouth of Charicles.\nHe is addressing Callicratidas, a passionate lover of young boys, with\nwhom he had gone to visit the temple of Venus at Cnidus.\n\n\"O Venus, my queen!  to thee I call; lend me your aid while I plead your\ncause.  For everything over which you deign to shed, be it ever so\nlittle, the persuasion of your charms, reaches absolute perfection, above\nall, erotic discourses need your presence, for you are their lawful\nmother.  In your womanhood, defend the cause of woman, and grant to men\nto remain men as they have been born.  At the beginning of my discourse,\nI call as witness to the truth of my arguments the first mother of all\ncreated things, the source of all generation, the holy Nature of this\nuniverse, who, gathering into one and uniting the elements of the\nworld--earth, air, fire and water--and mingling them together, gave life\nto everything that breathes.  Knowing that we are a compound of\nperishable matter, and that the span of life assigned to each of us was\nshort, she contrived that the death of one should be the birth of\nanother, and meted out to the dying, by way of compensation, the coming\ninto being of others, that by mutual succession we might live forever.\nBut, as it was impossible for anything to be born from a single thing\nalone, she created two different sexes, and bestowed upon the male the\npower of emitting semen, making the female the receptacle of generation.\nHaving inspired both with mutual desires, she joined them together,\nordaining, as a sacred law of necessity, that each sex should remain\nfaithful to its own nature--that the female should not play the male\nunnaturally, nor the male degrade himself by usurping the functions of\nthe female.  Thus intercourse of men with women has preserved the human\nrace by never-ending succession: no man can boast of having been created\nby man alone; two venerable names are held in equal honor, and men\nrevere their mother equally with their father.  At first, when men were\nfilled with heroic thoughts, they reverenced those virtues which bring\nus nearer to the Gods, obeyed the laws of Nature, and, united to women\nof suitable age, became the sires of noble offspring.  But, by degrees,\nhuman life, degenerating from that nobility of sentiment, sank to the\nlowest depths of pleasure, and began to carve out strange and corrupt\nways in the search after enjoyment.  Then sensuality, daring all,\nviolated the laws of Nature herself.  Who was it who first looked upon\nthe male as female, violating him by force or villainous persuasion?\nOne sex entered one bed, and men had the shamelessness to look at one\nanother without a blush for what they did or for what they submitted to,\nand, sowing seed, as it were, upon barren rocks, they enjoyed a\nshort-lived pleasure at the cost of undying shame.\n\n\"Some pushed their cruelty so far as to outrage Nature with the\nsacrilegious knife, and, after depriving men of their virility, found in\nthem the height of pleasure.  These miserable and unhappy creatures, that\nthey may the longer serve the purposes of boys, are stunted in their\nmanhood, and remain a doubtful riddle of a double sex, neither preserving\nthat boyhood in which they were born, nor possessing that manhood which\nshould be theirs.  The bloom of their youth withers away in a premature\nold age: while yet boys they suddenly become old, without any interval of\nmanhood.  For impure sensuality, the mistress of every vice, devising one\nshameless pleasure after another, insensibly plunges into unmentionable\ndebauchery, experienced in every form of brutal lust.  \"Whereas, if each\nwould abide by the laws prescribed by Providence, we should be satisfied\nwith intercourse with women, and our lives would be undefiled by shameful\npractices.  Consider the animals, which cannot corrupt by innate\nviciousness, how they observe the law of Nature in all its purity.\nHe-lions do not lust after he-lions, but, in due season, passion excites\nthem towards the females of their species: the bull that rules the herd\nmounts cows, and the ram fills the whole flock of ewes with the seed of\ngeneration.  Again, boars mate with sows, he-wolves with shewolves,\nneither the birds that fly through the air, nor the fish that inhabit the\ndeep, or any living creatures upon earth desire male intercourse, but\namongst them the laws of Nature remain unbroken.  But you men, who boast\nidly of your wisdom, but are in reality worthless brutes, what strange\ndisease provokes you to outrage one another unnaturally?  What blind\nfolly fills your minds, that you commit the two-fold error of avoiding\nwhat you should pursue, and pursuing what you should avoid?  If each and\nall were to pursue such evil courses, the race of human beings would\nbecome extinct on earth.  And here comes in that wonderful Socratic\nargument, whereby the minds of boys, as yet unable to reason clearly, are\ndeceived, for a ripe intellect could not be misled.  These followers of\nSocrates pretend to love the soul alone, and, being ashamed to profess\nlove for the person, call themselves lovers of virtue, whereat I have\noften been moved to laughter.  How comes it, O grave philosophers, that\nyou hold in such slight regard a man who, during a long life, has given\nproofs of merit, and of that virtue which old age and white hairs become?\nHow is it that the affections of the philosophers are all in a flutter\nafter the young; who cannot yet make up their minds which path of life to\ntake?  Is there a law, then, that all ugliness is to be condemned as\nvice, and that everything that is beautiful is to be extolled without\nfurther examination?  But, according to Homer, the great interpreter of\ntruth--'One man is meaner than another in looks, but God crowns his words\nwith beauty, and his hearers gaze upon him with delight, while he speaks\nunfalteringly with winning modesty, and is conspicuous amongst the\nassembled folk, who look upon him as a God when he walks through the\ncity.'  And again he says: 'Your beauteous form is destitute of\nintelligence; the wise Ulysses is praised more highly than the handsome\nNireus.'  How then comes it that the love of wisdom, justice, and the\nother virtues, which are the heritage of the full-grown man, possess no\nattraction for you, while the beauty of boys excites the most vehement\npassion!  What! should one love Phoedrus, remembering Lysias, whom he\nbetrayed?  Could one love the beauty of Alcibiades, who mutilated the\nstatues of the Gods, and, in the midst of a debauch, betrayed the\nmysteries of the rites of Eleusis?  Who would venture to declare himself\nhis admirer, after Athens was abandoned, and Decelea fortified by the\nenemy--the admirer of one whose sole aim in life was tyranny?  But, as\nthe divine Plato says, as long as his chin was beardless, he was beloved\nby all; but, when he passed from boyhood to manhood, when his imperfect\nintelligence had reached its maturity, he was hated by all.  Why, then,\ngiving modest names to immodest sentiments, do men call personal beauty\nvirtue, being in reality lovers of youth rather than lovers of wisdom?\nHowever, it is not my intention to speak evil of distinguished men.  But,\nto descend from graver topics to the mere question of enjoyment, I will\nprove that connection with women is far more enjoyable than connection\nwith boys.  In the first place, the longer enjoyment lasts, the more\ndelight it affords; too rapid pleasure passes quickly away, and it is\nover before it is thoroughly appreciated; but, if it lasts, it is thereby\nenhanced.  Would to heaven that grudging Destiny had allotted us a longer\nlease of life, and that we could enjoy perpetual health without any\nsorrow to spoil our pleasure; then would our life be one continual feast.\nBut, since jealous Fortune has grudged us greater blessings, those\nenjoyments that last the longest are the sweetest.  Again, a woman, from\npuberty to middle age, until the last wrinkles furrow her face, is worth\nembracing and fit for intercourse; and, even though the prime of her\nbeauty be past, her experience can speak more eloquently than the love of\nboys.\n\n\"I should consider anyone who attempted to have intercourse with a youth\nof twenty years to be the slave of unnatural lust.  The limbs of such,\nlike those of a man, are hard and coarse; their chins, formerly so\nsmooth, are rough and bristly, and their well-grown thighs are disfigured\nwith hairs.  As for their other parts, I leave those of you who have\nexperience to decide.  On the other hand, a woman's charms are always\nenhanced by an attractive complexion, flowing locks, dark as hyacinths,\nstream down her back and adorn her shoulders, or fall over her ears and\ntemples, more luxuriant than the parsley in the fields.  The rest of her\nperson, without a hair upon it, shines more brilliantly than amber or\nSidonian crystal.  Why should we not pursue those pleasures which are\nmutual, which cause equal enjoyment to those who receive and to those who\nafford them?  For we are not, like animals, fond of solitary lives, but,\nunited in social relations, we consider these pleasures sweeter, and\nthose pains easier to bear, which we share with others.  Hence, a common\ntable was instituted, the mediator of friendship.  When we minister to\nthe wants of the belly, we do not drink Thasian wine, or consume costly\nfood by ourselves alone, but in company: for our pleasures and enjoyments\nare increased when shared with others.  In like manner, the intercourse\nof men with women causes enjoyment to each in turn, and both are alike\ndelighted; unless we accept the judgment of Tiresias, who declared that\nthe woman's pleasure was twice as great as the man's.  I think that those\nwho are not selfish should not consider how they may best secure the\nwhole enjoyment for themselves, but should share what they have with\nothers.  Now, in the case of boys, no one would be mad enough to assert\nthat this is the case; for, while he who enjoys their person reaches the\nheight of pleasure--at least, according to his way of thinking--the\nobject of his passion at first feels pain, even to tears, but when, by\nrepetition, the pain becomes less keen, while he no longer hurts him, he\nwill feel no pleasure himself.  To mention something still more curious\n--as is fitting within the precincts of Venus--you may make the same use\nof a woman as of a boy, and thereby open a double avenue to enjoyment;\nbut the male can never afford the same enjoyment as the female.\n\n\"Therefore, if you are convinced by my arguments, let us, men and women,\nkeep ourselves apart, as if a wall divided us; but, if it is becoming for\nmen to have intercourse with men, for the future let women have\nintercourse with women.  Come, O new generation, inventor of strange\npleasures!  As you have devised new methods to satisfy male lust, grant\nthe same privilege to women; let them have intercourse with one another\nlike men, girding themselves with the infamous instruments of lust, an\nunholy imitation of a fruitless union; in a word, let our wanton Tribads\nreign unchecked, and let our women's chambers be disgraced by\nhermaphrodites.  Far better that a woman, in the madness of her lust,\nshould usurp the nature of a man, than that man's noble nature should be\nso degraded as to play the woman!\"\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n          Embasicetas fut bientot au comble de ses voeux.\n          The Catamite soon reached the height of his passion.\n\nThe theologians class this species of lascivious feeling with pollution\nwhich is complete when it produces a result.  The Holy Scripture tells us\nof Onan, son of Judas, grandson of Jacob, and husband of Thamar, who was\nslain by the Lord because he spilled his semen, \"he poured his semen upon\nthe ground.\"  We may be reproached, perhaps, for citing the Holy Bible\ntoo frequently, but that book contains the knowledge of salvation, and\nthose who wish to be saved should not fail to study it with assiduity.\nThat this study has occupied a good part of our life, we admit, and we\nhave always found that study profitable.  To vigorous minds that\nadmission may seem ridiculous, but we are writing only for pious souls,\nand they will willingly applaud this courageous profession of our piety.\n\nThe theologians have also classified onanism and pollution among the sins\nagainst the Holy Ghost, and this being the case, there is no being in the\nworld who has been sinned against so often.  A medium indulgence in this\nsin furnished the pleasure of a queen, the severity of one Lucretia does\nnot repel a thousand Tarquins.  Men with vivid imaginations create for\nthemselves a paradise peopled with the most beautiful houris, more\nseductive than those of Mahomet; Lycoris had a beautiful body but it was\nunfeeling; the imagination of her lover pictured her as falling before\nhis caresses, he led her by the hand over pressed flowers, through a\nthick grove and along limpid streams; in that sweet reverie his life\nslipped by.\n\n     Here icy cold fountains, here flower covered meadows, Lycoris;\n     Here shady groves; life itself here would I dream out with thee.\n\n                                        Virgil Bucol.  Ecl.  X, 41.\n\nIn the minds of the theologians pollution is synonymous with all\npleasures with persons of the opposite or the same sex, which result in a\nwaste of the elixir of life.  In this sense, love between woman and woman\nis pollution and Sappho is a sinner against the Holy Ghost.\n\n(Notwithstanding), however (these caprices of the third person of the\ntrinity) I cannot see why pleasure should be regulated, or why a woman\nwho has surveyed all the charms of a young girl of eighteen years should\ngive herself up to the rude embraces of a man.  What comparisons can be\nmade between those red lips, that mouth which breathes pleasure for the\nfirst time, those snowy and purplous cheeks whose velvet smoothness is\nlike the Venus flower, half in bloom, that new-born flesh which\npalpitates softly with desire and voluptuousness, that hand which you\npress so delicately, those round thighs, those plastic buttocks, that\nvoice sweet and touching,--what comparison can be made between all this\nand pronounced features, rough beard, hard breast, hairy body, and the\nstrong disagreeable voice of man?  Juvenal has wonderfully expended all\nhis bile in depicting, as hideous scenes, these mysteries of the Bona\nDea, where the young and beautiful Roman women, far from the eyes of men,\ngive themselves up to mutual caresses.  Juvenal has painted the eyes of\nthe Graces with colors which are proper to the Furies; his tableau,\nmoreover, revolts one instead of doing good.\n\nThe only work of Sappho's which remains to us is an ode written to one of\nher loved ones and from it we may judge whether the poetess merited her\nreputation.  It has been translated into all languages; Catullus put it\ninto Latin and Boileau into French.  Here follows an imitation of that of\nCatullus:\n\n               Peer of a God meseemeth he,\n               Nay passing Gods (and that can be!)\n               Who all the while sits facing thee\n               Sees thee and hears\n               Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze\n               Mine every sense, and as I gaze\n               Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays\n\n               My tongue is dulled, limbs adown\n               Flows subtle flame; with sound its own\n               Rings either ear, and o'er are strown\n               Mine eyes with night.\n\n                                        (LI.  Burton, tr.)\n\nAfter that we should never again exhort the ministers and moralists to\ninveigh against love of women for women; never was the interest of men\nfound to be so fully in accord with the precepts of divine law.\n\nHere I should like to speak of the brides of the Lord; but I remember\n\"The Nun\" of Diderot, and my pen falls from my hand.  Oh, who would dare\nto touch a subject handled by Diderot?\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n     Giton venait de la deflorer, et de remporter une victoire sanglante.\n     Giton the victor had won a not bloodless victory.\n\nAll people have regarded virginity as something sacred, and God has so\nhonored it that he willed that his son be born of a virgin, fecundated,\nhowever, by the Holy Ghost.  Still, it appears problematical whether the\nVirgin Mary, complete virgin that she was, did not have the same pleasure\nas those who are not virgins, when she received the divine annunciation.\nFather Sanchez has discussed the question very fully \"whether the Virgin\nMary 'spent' in copulation with the Holy-Ghost,\" unhappily, he decided in\nthe negative, and I have too much veneration for Father Sanchez not to\nsubmit to his decision; but because of it, I am vexed with the Virgin\nMary and the Holy Ghost.\n\nNotwithstanding this, the daughters of the people of the Lord were not\ncontent to remain virgins; a state of being which, at bottom has not much\nto recommend it.  The daughter of Jephtha before being immolated for the\nsake of the Lord, demanded of her father a reprieve of two months in\nwhich to weep for her virginity upon the mountains of Gelboe; it seems it\nshould not have taken so long had she had nothing to regret.  Ruth had\nrecourse to the quickest method when she wished to cease being a virgin;\nshe simply went and lay down upon the bed with Boaz.  The spirit of God\nhas deemed it worth while to transmit this story to us, for the\ninstruction of virgins from century to century.\n\nThe pagan Gods thought highly of maidenheads, they often took them and\nalways, they set aside the virgins for themselves.  The Phtyian, from\nwhose organ Apollo was foreordained to come, proved to be only a virgin;\nthe spirit of God did not communicate itself to anyone who had ever been\nsullied by contact with a mortal.  It was to virgins that the sacred\nfires of Vesta were entrusted, and the violation of their virginity was a\ncapital crime which all Rome regarded as a scourge from wrathful heaven.\n\nThe Sybils lived and died virgins; in addressing the Cumaean Sybil,\nAEneas never failed to bestow that title upon her.\n\nMost of the immortals have preserved their virginity, Diana, Minerva, et\ncet.  But what is the most astonishing is that the companions of Venus\nand Amor, the most lovable of all divinities, the Graces, were also\nvirgins.  Juno became a virgin again every year, by bathing in the waters\nof a magic fountain; that must have rendered Jupiter's duties rather\nonerous.\n\nThere are some reasons for this passion of mankind for maidenheads.  It\nis so wonderful to give the first lessons of voluptuousness to a pure and\ninnocent heart, to feel under one's hand the first palpitations of the\nvirginal breasts which arouses unknown delights, to dry the first tears\nof tenderness, to inspire that first mixture of fear and hope, of vague\ndesires and expectant inquietude; whoever has never had that satisfaction\nhas missed the most pleasurable of all the delights of love.  But taken\nin that sense, virginity is rather a moral inclination, as Buffon says,\nthan a physical matter, and nothing can justify the barbarous precautions\nagainst amorous theft which were taken by unnatural fathers and jealous\nhusbands.\n\nIn those unhappy countries which are bent under oppression, in those\ncountries where heaven shows its heat in the beauty of the sex, and\nwhere beauty is only an object of speculation for avid parents; in such\ncountries, I say, they resort to the most odious methods for preserving\nthe virginity of the young and beautiful daughters who are destined to be\nsold like common cattle.  They put a lock over the organ of pleasure and\nnever permit it to be opened except when it is strictly necessary for\ncarrying out those animal functions for which nature destined them.\n\nThe locks of chastity were long known in Europe; the Italians are accused\nwith this terrible invention.  Nevertheless, it is certain that they were\nused upon men, at least, in the time of the first Roman emperors.\nJuvenal, in his satire against women, VI, says: \"If the singers please\nthem there is no need for locks of chastity for those who have sold their\nvoices to the praetors, who keep them.\"\n\n               Si gaudet cantu, nullius fibula durat\n               Vocem vendentis praetoribus.\n                                        Sat.  VI, 379.\n\n     If pleased by the song of the singer employed by the praetor\n     No fibula long will hold out, free, the actor will greet her.\n\nChristianity, most spiritual, most mystical of ancient religions,\nattempts to make out a great case for celibacy.  Its founder never\nmarried, although the Pharisees reproached him for frequenting gay women,\nand had, perhaps, some reason for so doing.  Jesus showed a particular\naffection for Mary Magdalen, to the point of exciting the jealousy of\nMartha, who complained that her sister passed her time in conversation\nwith Jesus and left her with all the housework to do.  \"Mary has chosen\nthe better part,\" said the Savior.  A good Christian must not doubt that\nthe colloquies were always spiritual.\n\nSt. Paul counseled virginity and most of the apostolic fathers practiced\nit.  Among others, St. Jerome lived his whole life among women and never\nlost his purity.  He answered his enemies who reproached him with his\nvery great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof\nof his chastity was that he stank.  That stinking of St. Jerome, which is\nnot a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of\npious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it.\n\nWhen the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be\nsubmitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its\ninterests and those of the common people as far as possible it must\ntighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens.  Also the Pope\nwho was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused\nit most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and\nenunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain\ntheir celibacy.  However, although neither priests nor monks were\npermitted to marry, the epithet \"virgins\" cannot be justly applied to all\npriests and all monks without exception.  Nor shall I repeat here the\nnaughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others,\nagainst the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more\n\"satyrical\" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have\nnothing to say.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n                    Alors une vielle. . . .\n                    Finally an old woman . . .\n\nThe question here has to do with a procurers or go-between.  That\nprofession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what\nfatality, which befalls the most worthy things.  Cervantes the only\nphilosophic author Spain has produced, wanted that calling to be\nvenerated in cities above all others.  And truly, when one thinks how\nmuch finesse is necessary to pursue that profession with success, when\none considers that those who practice that truly liberal art are the\nrepositories of the most important as well as the most sacred secrets,\none would never fail to have the greatest respect for them.  The\ntranquillity of homes, the civil state of persons they hold at their\ndiscretion, and still, though they drink in insults, though they endure\nabuse, very rarely do these beings, true stoics, compromise those who\nhave confided in them.\n\nIn their Mercury, the ancients realized their beau ideal or archetype\nof go-between which they called; in vulgar language \"pimp\".  That God,\nas go-between for Jupiter, was often involved in the most hazardous\nenterprises, such as abducting Io, who was guarded by Argus of the\nhundred eyes; Mercury I say, was the God of concord, or eloquence,\nand of mystery.  Except to inspire them with friendly feeling and kind\naffections, Mercury never went among mortals.  Touched by his wand,\nvenomous serpents closely embraced him.  Listening to him, Achilles\nforgot his pride, extended hospitality to Priam and permitted him to take\naway the body of Hector.  The ferocious Carthaginians were softened\nthrough the influence of this God of peace, and received the Trojans in\nfriendship.  Mercury it was who gathered men into society and substituted\nsocial customs for barbarism.  He invented the lyre and was the master of\nAmphion, who opened the walls of Thebes by the charm of his singing.\nMercury or Hermes gave the first man knowledge; but it was enveloped in a\nmysterious veil which it was never permitted the profane to penetrate,\nwhich signifies that all that he learned from God, concerning amorous\nadventures, should be wrapped in profound silence.  How beautiful all\nthese allegories are!  And how true!  How insipid life would be without\nthese mysterious liaisons, by which Nature carries out her designs,\neluding the social ties, without breaking them!  Disciples of Mercury, I\nsalute you, whatever be your sex; to your discretion, to your persuasive\narts are confided our dearest interests, the peace of mind of husbands,\nthe happiness of lovers, the reputation of women, the legitimacy of\nchildren.  Without you, this desolated earth would prove to be, in\nreality, a vale of tears; the young and beautiful wife united to decrepit\nhusband, would languish and grow weak, like the lonely flower which the\nsun's rays never touch.  Thus did Mexence bind in thine indissoluble\nbands the living and the dead.\n\nFate, however, has often avenged the go-betweens on account of the\nmisunderstandings from which they suffer at the hands of the vulgar.\nOtho opened the way to the empire of the world by his services as a\ngo-between for Nero.  And the go-betweens of princes, and even of\nprincesses, are always found in the finest situations.  Even Otho did not\nlose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, \"because\nhe was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea.\"  \"Uxoris moechus\ncoeperate esse suae\" (Suet.  Otho, chap.  111), said malicious gossip at\nRome.\n\n\n\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nTo the scholar contemplating an exhaustive study  of Petronius, the\nmasterly bibliography compiled by  Gaselee is indispensable, and those\nof my readers who  desire to pursue the subject are referred to it.\nThe  following is a list of editions, translations, criticisms  and\nmiscellaneous publications and authors from which I have derived benefit\nin the long and pleasant hours  devoted to Petronius.\n\n\nEDITIONS, Opera Omnia.\n\nFrellon             Lyons          1615.\nHadrianides         Amsterdam      1669.\nBourdelot           Paris          1677.\nBoschius            Amsterdam      1677.\nBurmann             Utrecht        1709.\nAnton               Leipzig        1781.\nBuecheler           Berlin         1862.\nHerxus (Buecheler)  Berlin         1911.\n\n\n\nTRAU FRAGMENT.\n                    Amsterdam      1670.\n                    Containing Frambotti's\n                    corrections.\n\nGaselee             Cambridge      1915.\n\n\n\n\nETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:\n\nCardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love\nFierce morality, inimical to all the pleasures of life\nHardouin on homosexuality in priests\nReligions responsible for the most abominable actions\nRemarkable resemblance to each other are the Bible and Homer\nStinking of St. Jerome\nWars were as much enterprises for ravishing women","title":"The Satyricon \u2014 Volume 07: Marchena Notes","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":10852}