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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5224-h.zip b/5224-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d71de47 --- /dev/null +++ b/5224-h.zip diff --git a/5224-h/5224-h.htm b/5224-h/5224-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..854a7c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/5224-h/5224-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1813 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE SATYRICON, Volume 7</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote { margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + +<h2>THE SATYRICON of Petronius, Vol. 7</h2> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena Notes) +by Petronius Arbiter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena Notes) + +Author: Petronius Arbiter + +Release Date: May 28, 2004 [EBook #5224] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, VOLUME 7 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<br><hr> +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + + +<h1> + <a name="PREFACE">THE SATYRICON OF</a> +<br> PETRONIUS ARBITER +</h1> + + +<br> +<br> + <h3>Volume 7.</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<center> +<a name="bookspine"></a><img alt="bookspine.jpg (92K)" src="images/bookspine.jpg" height="1182" width="650"> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<blockquote> +<i>Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh, +in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena, +and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.</i> +</blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center> +<a name="pfront"></a><img alt="pfront.jpg (108K)" src="images/pfront.jpg" height="829" width="599"> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS:</h2> + +<br> +<h3><a href="#SIX_NOTES_BY_MARCHENA">SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA</a></h3> + + +<h5><a href="#ARMY_OF_THE_RHINE">Army of the Rhine</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#I.">I. Soldiers in love</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#II.">II. Courtesans</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#III.">III. Greek love</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#IV.">IV. Pollution</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#V.">V. Virginity</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#VI.">VI. Pandars</a></h5> + + + +<h4><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS:</h2> + +<center><a href="#pfront">The Witches [Frontpiece]</a></center> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<br><br><br><br> + + <h1><a name="THE SATYRICON"></a>THE SATYRICON OF</h1> + <h1>PETRONIUS ARBITER</h1> + + +<br> +<br> + <h3>Volume 7.</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<blockquote> + + +<br><h3>BRACKET CODE</h3> +<i>(Forgeries of Nodot)</i> +<br><i>[Forgeries of Marchena]</i> +<br><i>{Additions of De Salas}</i> +<br><i> DW</i> +</blockquote> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + <h1>THE SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS ARBITER</h1> + <h2><a name="SIX_NOTES_BY_MARCHENA"></a>SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA.</h2> + + +<br><br> +<h2><a name="ARMY_OF_THE_RHINE"></a>TO THE ARMY OF THE RHINE. +</h2><br> +<p>The conquests of the French have resulted, during this war, in a boon to +knowledge and to letters. Egypt has furnished us with monuments of its +aboriginal inhabitants, which the ignorance and superstition of the Copts +and Mussulmans kept concealed from civilized countries. The libraries of +the convents of the various countries have been ransacked by savants and +precious manuscripts have been brought to light. + +<p>By no means the least interesting of the acquisitions is a fragment of +Petronius, which we offer to the public, taken from an ancient manuscript +which our soldiers, in conquering St. Gall, have sent to us for +examination. We have made an important discovery in reading a parchment +which contains the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests, and +which, judging from the form of the letters employed, we should say was +written in the eleventh century. A most careful examination led us to +perceive that the work by this saint had been written on pages containing +written letters, which had been almost effaced. We know that in the dark +ages it was customary to write ecclesiastical works on the manuscripts +containing the best authors of Latinity. + +<p>At a cost of much labor we have been able to decipher a morsel which we +give to the public: and of the authenticity of which there can be no +doubt. We render homage to the brave French army to which we owe this +acquisition. + +<p>It is easy to notice that there is a lacuna in that passage of Petronius +in which Encolpius is left with Quartilla, looking through a chink in the +door, at the actions of Giton and little Pannychis. A few lines below, +it relates, in effect, that he was fatigued by the voluptuous enjoyment +of Quartilla, and in that which remains to us, there is no mention of the +preliminaries to this enjoyment. The style of the Latin so closely +resembles the original of Petronius that it is impossible to believe that +the fragment was forged. + +<p>For the benefit of those who have not read the author, it is well to +state that this Quartilla was a priestess of Priapus, at whose house they +celebrated the mysteries of that god. Pannychis is a young girl of seven +years who had been handed over to Giton to be deflowered. This Giton is +the "good friend" of Encolpius, who is supposed to relate the scene. +Encolpius, who had drunk an aphrodisiacal beverage, is occupied with +Quartilla in peeping through the door to see in what manner Giton was +acquitting himself in his role. At that moment a soldier enters the +house. + +<p>Finally an old woman, about whom there is some question in the fragment, +is the same as the one who had unexpectedly conducted Encolpius to the +house of the public women and of whom mention is made in the beginning of +the work. + +<blockquote> + +<br> Ipsa Venus magico religatum brachia nodo +<br> Perdocuit, multis non sine verberibus. +<br> Tibullus viii, 5. + +</blockquote> +<p> +<br><br><br><br> +<p><a name="I."></a>I. + +<blockquote> + +<br> Vous verrez que vous avez affaire a un homme. +<br> You will learn that you have to deal with a man. + +</blockquote> + +<p>Fighting men have in all times been distinguished on account of the +beauty of their women. The charming fable of the loves of Venus and +Mars, described by the most ancient of poets, expresses allegorically, +this truth. All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most +valiant were always the most passionate and the happiest. Hercules took +the maidenheads of fifty girls, in a single night. Thesus loved a +thousand beauties, and slept with them. Jason abandoned Hypsipyle for +Medea, and her, for Creusa. Achilles, the swift of foot, forgot the +tender Deidamia in the arms of his Briseis. + +<p>It has been remarked that the lovers did not have very scrupulous tastes +in their methods of attaining satisfaction from the women they loved. +The most common method was abduction and the women always submitted to +this without a murmur of any sort. Helen was carried off by Theseus, +after having also been abducted by Paris. The wife of Atreus was +abducted by Thyestus, and from that arose the implacable hatred between +the two families. Rape was no less common. Goddesses themselves and the +favorites of the Gods were at the risk of falling prey to strong mortals. +Pirithous, aided by Theseus, even attempted to snatch Proserpina from the +God of the under-world. Juno herself was compelled to painful submission +to the pursuit of Ixion, and Thetis succumbed despite herself, to the +assaults of Peleus. The gift of foretelling the future, with which +Apollo endowed Cassandra, did not insure her against the brutal caresses +of Ajax, son of Oileus. + +<p>In the infancy of society, there was never known any other distinction +except between the weak and the strong: the strong commanded and the weak +obeyed. For that reason, women were regarded in the light of beings +destined by nature, to serve the pleasures and even the caprices of men. +Never did her suitors express a tender thought for Penelope, and, instead +of making love to her, they squandered her property, slept with her +slaves, and took charge of things in her house. + +<p>Circe gave herself to Ulysses who desired to slay her, and Calypso, full +blown goddess as she was, was obliged to make his advances for him. The +fine sentiments that Virgil puts into the mouth of the shade of Creusa, +content with having died while serving against the Greeks, "she was a +Trojan, and she wedded the son of Venus"; the confession with which +Andromache, confronted by the murderer of her first husband, responds to +the question of AEneas; these ideas, I say, and these sentiments, +appertained to the polished century of Augustus and not to the epoch or, +scene of the Trojan War. Virgil, in his AEneid, had never subscribed to +the precepts of Horace, and of common sense: + +<center> +<p> Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge +<p> Horace Ars Poet. 119. +</center> + +<p>From this manner of dealing with women arose another reason for the +possession of beauty by the valiant. One coveted a woman much as one +would covet a fine flock of sheep, and, in the absence of laws, the one +in possession of either the one or the other of these desirable objects +would soon be dispossessed of them if he was not courageous enough to +guard them against theft. Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing +women as they were for taking other property, and one should remember +that Agamemnon promised to retire from before Troy if the Trojans would +restore Helen and his riches to Menelaus; things which Paris had +despoiled him of. + +<p>Also, there was never any of that thing we call "conjugal honor" among +the Greeks; that idea was far too refined; it was a matter too complex +ever to have entered the heads of these semi-barbarous people. This is +exemplified in the fact that, after the taking of Troy, Helen, who had, +of her own free will, belonged successively to Paris, and to Deiphobus, +afterwards returned to Menelaus, who never offered her any reproach. +That conduct of Menelaus was so natural that Telemachus, who, in his trip +to Sparta found Helen again with Menelaus, just as she was before her +abduction, did not show the least astonishment. + +<p>The books which bear the most remarkable resemblance to each other are +the Bible and Homer, because the people they describe and the men about +whom they speak are forerunners of civilization in pretty much the same +degree. Sarah was twice snatched from the bosom of Abraham and he was +never displeased with his wife and continued to live on good terms with +her. David, a newcomer on the throne, hastened to have Michol brought to +him although she had already married another man. + +<p>The best proof that, during the time of the Romans the women preferred +soldiers to other men is in the claims to successful enterprises by the +bragging soldier of Plautus. Pyrgopolinices thought it was only +necessary to pose as a great warrior, to have all the women chasing after +him; therefore, his parasite and his slave spoke of nothing but the +passions be inspired in women. Tradition has it that among the Samnites, +the bravest men had the choice of the fairest women, and to this custom +is attributed one of the reasons these people were so warlike. + +<p>In the times of chivalry the greatest exploits were achieved for the +pleasure of one's Lady-Love, and there were even such valiant knights, as +Don Quixote, who went about the world proving by force of arms that their +ladies had no peer. The poverty-stricken troubadours singing +harmoniously about their beautiful women found them flying away in the +arms of knights who had broken lances at tournaments, or had performed +the greatest feats of arms. In fine, all the peoples of the world have +said with Dryden: + +<p> "None but the brave deserves the fair." + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="II."></a>II.</h2> +<br> + +<blockquote> + +<br> Ses camarades se saisissent de moi et de Quartilla. +<br> His comrades seized hold of Quartilla and me. +</blockquote> + +<p>The profession of Quartilla corresponded to that which is followed by +our ladies of the Palace Royal. This Palace Royal is a sort of Babylon, +with this difference; that the former prostitute themselves all the year +round, and that they are not quite so attractive as the Chaldean +beauties. For the rest, one of the incontestable facts of ancient +history is this prostitution of the women of Babylon in honor of Venus, +and I cannot understand why Voltaire refused to believe it, since +religions have always been responsible for the most abominable actions, +and because religious wars, the horrors of intolerance, the impostures of +priests, the despotism of kings, the degradation and stupidity of the +people, have been the direct fatal effects of religions; and seeing that +the blind fanaticism of martyrs and the brutal cruelty of tyrants is a +hundred times more deplorable than a sacrifice equally agreeable to the +victim and to the one who officiates at the sacrifice; and seeing that +the enjoyment and giving of life is no less holy than the maceration and +caging of innocent animals. + +<p>The origin of courtesans is lost in the deepest antiquity. It appears +that it was one of the patriarchal customs to enjoy them, for Judah slept +with Thamar, widow of his two sons, and who, to seduce him, disguised +herself as a courtesan. Another courtesan, Rahab, played a great role in +the first wars of the people of the Lord: it was this same Rahab who +married Solomon, father of Boaz, fourth forefather of David, and +thirty-second forefather of Jesus Christ, our divine Savior. Yet the eternal +sagacity of man has failed to take notice of this profession and to +resent the injustice done it by the scorn of men. The elected kings of +the people, the man who adopts the word father according to the flesh, +are descendants of a courtesan. + +<p>For the rest, it must be admitted that many who follow this noble +profession are unworthy of it and only too well justify the ignominy +which is levelled against the entire class. You see these miserable +creatures with livid complexions and haggard eyes, with voices of +Stentor, breathing out at the same time the poisons which circulate in +their veins and the liquors with which they are intoxicated; you see on +their blemished and emaciated bodies, the marks of beings more hideous +than they (twenty come to satisfy their brutal passions for every one of +them); you listen to their vile language, you hear their oaths and +revolting expressions: to go to these Megeres is often to encounter +brigands and assassins: what a spectacle! It is the deformity of vice +in the rags of indigence. + +<p>Ah! But these are not courtesans, they are the dregs of cities. A +courtesan worthy of the name is a beautiful woman, gracious and amiable, +at whose home gather men of letters and men of the world; the first +magistrates, the greatest captains: and who keeps men of all professions +in a happy state of mind because she is pleasing to them, she inspires in +them a desire for reciprocal pleasure: such an one was Aspasia who, after +having charmed the cultured people of Athens was for a long time the good +companion of Pericles, and contributed much, perhaps, towards making his +century what it was, the age of taste in arts and letters. Such an +one also was Phryne, Lais, Glycera, and their names will always be +celebrated; such, also, was Ninon d'Enclos, one of the ornaments of +the century of Louis XIV, and Clairon, the first who realized all the +grandeur of her art; such an one art thou, C-----, French Thalia, who +commands attentions, I do not say this by way of apology but to share the +opinion of Alceste. + +<p>A courtesan such as I have in mind may have all the public and private +virtues. One knows the severe probity of Ninon, her generosity, her +taste for the arts, her attachment to her friends. Epicharis, the soul +of the conspiracy of Piso against the execrable Nero, was a courtesan, +and the severe Tacitus, who cannot be taxed with a partiality for +gallantry, has borne witness to the constancy with which she resisted the +most seductive promises and endured the most terrible tortures, without +revealing any of the details of the conspiracy or any of the names of the +conspirators. + +<p>These facts should be recognized above that ascetic moral idea which +consists of the sovereign virtue of abstinence in defiance of nature's +commands and which places weakness in these matters along with the most +odious crimes. Can one see without indignation Suetonius' reproach of +Caesar for his gallantries with Servilia, with Tertia, and other Roman +ladies, as a thing equal to his extortions and his measureless ambitions, +and praising his warlike ardor against peoples who had never furnished +room for complaint to Rome? The source of these errors was the theory of +emanations. The first dreamers, who were called philosophers imagined +that matter and light were co-eternal; they supposed that was all one +unformed and tenebrous mass; and from the former they established the +principle of evil and of all imperfection, while they regarded the latter +as sovereign perfection. Creation, or, one might better say +co-ordination, was only the emanation of light which penetrated chaos, but +the mixture of light and matter was the cause of all the inevitable +imperfections of the universe. The soul of man was part and parcel of +divinity or of increased light; it would never attain happiness until it +was re-united to the source of all light; but for it, we would be free +from all things we call gross and material, and we would be taken into +the ethereal regions by contemplation and by abstinence from the +pleasures of the flesh. When these absurdities were adopted for the +regulation of conduct, they necessarily resulted in a fierce morality, +inimical to all the pleasures of life, such, in a word, as that of the +Gymnosophists or, in a lesser measure, of the Trappists. + +<p>But despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the +wonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans. +It was about the houses of these that revolved the sands of Pactolus, +their fame exceeded that of the first men of Greece. The rich offerings +that decorated the temples of the Gods were the gifts of these women, +and it must be remembered that most of them were foreigners, originating, +for the most part, in Asia Minor. It happened that an Athenian +financier, who resembled the rest of his tribe as much as two drops of +water, proposed once to levy an impost upon the courtesans. As he spoke +eloquently of the incalculable advantages which would accrue to the +Government by this tax, a certain person asked him by whom the courtesans +were paid. "By the Athenians," replied our orator, after deliberation. +"Then it would be the Athenians who would pay the impost," replied the +questioner, and the people of Athens, who had a little more sense than +certain legislative assemblies, hooted the orator down, and there was +never any more question about a tax upon courtesans. + +<p>Corinth was famous for the number and beauty of its courtesans, from +which comes the proverb: "It is not given to every man to go to Corinth"; +there they ran the risk of losing their money and ruining their health. +The cause of this great vogue of courtesans in Greece was not the +supposed ugliness of the sex, as the savant Paw imagined, and +contradicted by the unanimous evidence of ancient authors and of modern +travellers; but rather, the retired and solitary life which the women of +the country led. They lived in separate apartments and never had any +communication with the streets or with the residences of men "the inner +part of the house which was called the women's apartments," said +Cornelius Nepos (preface). Strangers never visited them; they rarely +visited their nearest relations. This was why marriage between brothers +and sisters was authorized by law and encouraged by usage; the sisters +were exposed to the attacks of their brothers because they lived +separated from them. + +<p>With the Romans, as with us, the virtuous women corrupted somewhat the +profession of the courtesans. The absolute seclusion of women was never +the fashion at Rome and the stories we have on the authority of Valerius +Maximus on the chastity and modesty of the first Roman matrons merit the +same degree of belief as the legend of Romulus and Remus being brought up +by a wolf, the rape of Lucretia or the tragic death of Virginia. On the +contrary, in Livy, a great admirer of the customs of the early days of +Rome, we find that in those times a great number of Roman women of the +noblest families were convicted of having poisoned their husbands and +condemned to death for this hideous crime: that, by no means shows a very +exquisite and tender conjugal sentiment. During the period of the second +Punic War with what energy they went about the city seeking the repeal of +the law which took out of their hands the custody of jewels and precious +stones! A repeal which they obtained despite the opposition of Cato the +Censor. It appears that the profession of the courtesan was generally +practised by the freed-women; their manner necessarily showed the results +of their education. But the young sparks of Rome never paid much +attention to them, they preferred to have love affairs with the wives of +their friends. For one Sallust who ruined himself with freedwomen, there +were five Cupienniuses; "Cupiennius, that admirer of the pudenda garbed +in white," Hor. Sat. I, ii, 36. Delia, Lesbia, Ipsythillia, Corinna, +Nemesis, Neeria, Cynthia, Sulpitia, Lycimnia, and almost all the women to +whom, under real or assumed names, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, +Horace, and others, addressed their erotic compositions, were Roman +married women. Horace is the only one who celebrated a freedwoman in +some of his odes. This is due, however, to his taste for variety and +perhaps also, to his birth, for he himself was the son of a freedwoman. +Ovid's Art of Love and the Satires of Juvenal reveal the extent to which +gallantry was the fashion at Rome and Cato would never have praised the +conduct of that young man who had recourse to a public house if that had +been an ordinary course of procedure. + +<p>In Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some +extent in reviving the profession of the courtesans. Long before, Saint +Paul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles +of the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity. The +deaconesses date from the first century of the church. But the celibacy +of the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the +eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII. During the +preceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their +lovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and +grandsons, as well. But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they +ostensibly took the concubines of which, alas! our housekeepers of today +are but feeble vestiges. The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often +concerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los +clerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably +appeared worthy of envy. Finally the courtesans appeared in all their +magnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and +indignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome. +The princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their +feet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age +of Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and +beautiful women. But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this +calm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the +revenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful +courtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their +pleasures have fled with them. And can anyone longer believe in the +perfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human +institutions has so visibly degenerated! + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="III."></a>III. +</h2><br> + +<blockquote> +<br> Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m'accabler de ses impurs baisers. + +<br> [The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking + kisses.] +</blockquote> + + + +<p>One of the reasons which caused the learned and paradoxical Hardouin to +assert that all the works which have been attributed to the ancients, +with the exception of the Georgics and the Natural History of Pliny, were +the compositions of monks, was doubtless the very frequent repetition of +scenes of love for boys, which one notices in most of these writings: +this savant was a Jesuit. But this taste is not peculiar to convents; it +is to be found among all peoples and in all climates; its origin is lost +in the night of the centuries; it is common in the most polished nations +and it is common among savage tribes. Profound philosophers have argued +in favor of it; poets have sung the objects of this sort of love in their +tender and passionate compositions, and these compositions have always +been the delight of posterity. What stupid or unfeeling reader can read +without emotion that beautiful eclogue of Virgil where Corydon sighs his +hopeless love for the beautiful Alexis? The most passionate ode of +Horace is that one in which he complains of the harshness of Ligurinus. +The tender Tibullus, deceived by his Marathus, brings tears to all who +have hearts. The delicate Anacreon, praising his Bathylle, and the +valiant Alceus giving himself up after his labors in war to sing of the +dark eyes and black hair of Lycus . . . "with dark eyes and black hair +beautiful." It is not to over-civilized refinements of society which, +according to certain misanthropists, degrade nature and corrupt it, that +this taste is due; it is found among the south sea islanders, and the +evidence of the first Spaniards attests that it was common among the +hordes of American Indians before the discovery of the new world. Paw +had attempted to explain this as resulting from defects in the formation +of the organs of pleasure among the natives; but a peculiar cause is not +sufficient explanation for a universal effect. + +<p>At the time of the Patriarchs, Greek love was so general that in the four +cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim, it was impossible to find ten +men exempt from the contagion; that number would have sufficed, said the +Lord, to withhold the punishment which he inflicted upon those cities. + +<p>It should be noted here that most of the assertions about the morals of +the Israelites which are to be found in the Erotica Biblon of Mirabeau +are either false or pure guesswork. It is a bizarre method of judging +the morals of a people, that of taking their legal code and inferring +that the people were accustomed to break all the laws which are forbidden +by that code. Nevertheless, that is the method which the author of the +Erotica Biblon adopts for portraying the morals of the Jewish people. +Again, he has not even understood this code; he has believed that the law +against giving one's seed to the idol Moloch meant giving the human +semen; and he is ignorant of the fact that this seed, as spoken of in the +Bible, means the children and descendants. Thus it is that the land of +Canaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, and the perpetuity of the +reign on Sion to that of David. Moloch was a Phoenician deity, the same +one to which, in Carthage, they sacrificed children; the Romans believed +him to be a reincarnation of their Saturn, but Saturn was an Etruscan +divinity who could never have had any connection with the Gods of +Phoenicia. He (Mirabeau) has translated "those who polluted the temple" +as meaning those who were guilty of some obscenity in the temple; and he +does not know that the temple was "polluted" by a thousand acts, declared +impure by law, and which were not obscene. The entrance of a woman into +a sacred place, less than forty days after her accouchement, or the +entrance of a man who had touched an impure animal, constituted a +pollution of the House of the Lord. When one wishes to make a parade of +erudition he should make some attempt to understand the things which he +pretends to make clear to others. Or is it that this Mirabeau was merely +careless? + +<p>The love of boys was so thoroughly the fashion in Greece that we have +today given it the name "Greek Love." Orestes was regarded as the "good +friend" of Pylades and Patroclus as the lover of Achilles. In this +taste, the Gods set the example for mortals, and the abduction of +Ganymede for the service of the master of thunder, was not the least +cause for annoyance given the chaste but over-prudish Juno. Lastly, +Hercules was not content with the loves of Omphale and Dejanira, he also +loved the beautiful Hylas, who was brought up by the nymphs. + +<p>The Greeks boasted, without blushing, of this love, which they considered +the only passion worthy of men, and they did blush at loving a woman, +intimacy with whom, they said, only rendered her adorers soft and +effeminate. In the Dialogue of Plato, entitled "The Banquet," which is +concerned entirely with discussions of the various forms of love, they +dismiss love for women as unworthy of occupying the attention of sensible +men. One of the speakers, I believe it was Aristophanes, explaining the +cause of this fire which we kindle in the bosoms of our loved ones, +affirms that the first men were doubles which multiplied their force and +their power. This, they abused and, as punishment, Jupiter struck them +with lightning and separated them. By their love for each other they +came together again to regain their primitive state. But the effeminates +sought out only the women because they were only half men, half women; +while those whose tastes were masculine and courageous wanted to become +double men again. + +<p>Phedre has put into the mouth of AEsop an explanation of that love which +would certainly not have been relished by the Greeks. He says that while +Prometheus was occupied with modelling his man and woman, he was invited +to a feast given by Jupiter, to the Gods; he came back intoxicated and, +by mistake, applied the sexual parts of one to the body of the other. + +<p>For the rest, the Greeks were all in accord in their profound contempt +for women. The theatrical writers, especially, who studied more +particularly the general opinions and catered to them in order to obtain +the applause of the public, were distinguished by their bitterness +against the sex. Euripides maintained that Prometheus deserved to be +chained to Mount Caucasus with the vulture gnawing at his entrails, +because he had fashioned a being so pernicious and hateful as woman. The +shade of Agamemnon, in the Odyssey advised Ulysses not to put any faith +in Penelope and did not stop talking until he had enumerated the entire +list of the vices of the sex. The first Latin authors imitated the +Greeks in their invectives against women; the comedies of Plautus, +especially, teem with virulent attacks upon them. + +<p>At Rome, however, the great freedom permitted to women, soon brought +about other opinions in regard to them; they often played an important +role in public and private affairs, and the men convinced themselves +that, like men, women were capable of the greatest crimes and of the most +heroic virtues. The noble stoicism of Arria is not the only example of +courageous virtue displayed by the Roman women at a time when crowned +monsters governed the empire. The young Paulina opened her veins with +her husband, the philosopher, Seneca; Mallonia preferred to die in +torments rather than give herself up to the odious he-goat of Capri. +Who does not admire the noble independence, the conjugal love, and the +matronly virtues of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus? + +<p>Moreover, men began to avow their love for women, and we have here +occasion to observe the rapid progress of gallantry among the Romans. +However, the love for boys was no less universally in vogue in Rome, and +Cicero charges, in his letters to Atticus, that the judges who had so +scandalously white-washed Clodius of the accusation of having profaned +the mysteries of the "Good Goddess," had been publicly promised the +favors of the most illustrious women and the finest young men of the +first families. Caesar himself, in his early youth had yielded to the +embraces of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia; moreover, after his triumph over +the Gauls, on the solemn occasion when it was customary to twit the +victor with all his faults, the soldiers sang: "Caesar subdued the Gauls, +Nicomedes subdued Caesar. But Caesar who subdued the Gauls, triumphed, +and Nicomedes, who subdued Caesar did not." Cato said of him that he was +loved by the King, in his youth and that, when he was older, he loved the +queen and, one day, in the senate, while he was dwelling on I know not +what request of the daughter of Nicomedes, and recounting the benefits +which Rome owed to that monarch, Cicero silenced him by replying: "We +know very well what he has given, and what thou hast given him!" At +last, during the time when the first triumvirate divided all the power, +a bad joker remarked to Pompey: "I salute thee, O King," and, addressing +Caesar, "I salute thee, O Queen!" His enemies maintained that he was the +husband of all the women and the wife of all the husbands. Catullus, who +detested him, always called him "the bald catamite," in his epigrams: he +set forth that his friendship with Mamurra was not at all honorable; he +called this Mamurra "pathicus," a name which they bestowed upon those who +looked for favors among mature men or among men who had passed the stage +of adolescence. + +<p>The masters of the empire never showed any hesitancy in trying and even +in overdoing the pleasures which all their subjects permitted themselves. +Alas! A crown is such a weighty burden! The road of domination is +strewn with so many briars that one would never be able to pass down it +if he did not take care that they were pressed down under the roses. The +Roman emperors adopted that plan; they longed for pleasures and they took +the pleasures which offered themselves without delay and in a spirit of +competition. Caligula was so little accustomed to waiting that, while +occupied in offering a sacrifice to the Gods, and the figure of a priest +having pleased him, he did not take time to finish the sacred ceremonies +before taking his pleasure of him. + +<p>A remarkable thing is that among almost all peoples, the baths are the +places where the prostitution of men by their own sex is the most common. +We see in Catullus that the "cinaedi" (catamites), a noun which my chaste +pen refuses to translate into French, haunted the baths incessantly to +carry out their practices. Among the Orientals, of all modern peoples +who have retained this taste most generally, this same fact holds good. +It was at the bath that Tiberius, impotent through old age and +debauchery, was made young again by the touch little children applied to +his breasts; these children he called "'little fishes," they sucked his +withered breasts, his infected mouth, his livid lips, and finally his +virile parts. Hideous spectacle of a tyrant disgraced by nature and +struggling against her maledictions! But in vain did he invent new +pleasures, in vain did he take part in these scenes in which groups of +young men by threes and fours assumed all sorts of lascivious postures, +and were at the same time active and passive; the sight of these +indulgences of the "sprintriae" (for that is the name which was given +there) did not enable him to resuscitate his vigor any more than the +glamor of the throne or the servile submission of the senate served to +mitigate his remorse. + +<p>But of all the emperors, the ones who carried their taste for young boys +to the greatest lengths were, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian. The first +publicly wedded the young eunuch Sporus, whom he had had operated upon so +that he might serve him like a young woman. He paid court to the boy as +he would to a woman and another of his favorites dressed himself up in a +veil and imitated the lamentations which women were accustomed to utter +on nuptial nights. The second consecrated the month of September to his +favorite and the third loved Antinous passionately and caused him to be +deified after death. + +<p>The most ample proof of the universality of the taste for young boys +among the Romans is found in the Epithalamium of Manilius and Julia, by +Catullus, and it might be cause for surprise that this has escaped all +the philologists, were it not a constant thing that men frequently +reading about these centuries fail to perceive the most palpable facts +in their authors, just as they pass over the most striking phenomena of +nature without observing them. It appears, from this epithalamium, that +young men, before their marriage, had a favorite selected from among +their slaves and that this favorite was charged with the distribution of +nuts among his comrades, on the day, they in turn, treated him with +contempt and hooted him. Here follows an exact translation of this +curious bit. The favorite could not refuse the nuts to the slaves when +by giving them it appeared that he owned that his master had put away his +love for hire. + +<blockquote> +<br> "Lest longer mute tongue stays that +<br> In festal jest, from Fescennine, +<br> Nor yet deny their nuts to boys, +<br> He-Concubine! who learns in fine +<br> His lordling's love is fled. +<br> +<br> Throw nuts to boys thou idle all +<br> He-Concubine! wast fain full long +<br> With nuts to play: now pleased as thrall +<br> Be thou to swell Talasios' throng +<br> He-Concubine throw nuts. +<br> +<br> Wont thou as peasant-girls to jape +<br> He-whore! Thy Lord's delight the while: +<br> Now shall hair-curling chattel scrape +<br> Thy cheeks: poor wretch, ah' poor and vile:-- +<br> He-Concubine, throw nuts." + +</blockquote> + + + +<br>and further on, addressing the husband: + +<blockquote> + +<br> "'Tis said from smooth-faced ingle train +<br> (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain +<br> Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain! +<br> O Hymen Hymenaeus io, +<br> O Hymen Hymenaeus! +<br> +<br> We know that naught save licit rites +<br> Be known to thee, but wedded wights +<br> No more deem lawful such delights. +<br> O Hymen Hymenaeus io, +<br> O Hymen Hymenaeus." +<br> (LXI. Burton, tr.) + +</blockquote> + + +<p>The Christian religion strongly prohibits this love; the theologians put +it among the sins which directly offend against the Holy Ghost. I have +not the honor of knowing just why this thing arouses his anger so much +more than anything else; doubtless there are reasons. But the wrath of +this honest person has not prevented the Christians from having their +"pathici," just as they have in countries where they are authorized by +the reigning deities. We have even noticed that they are the priests of +the Lord and especially the monks who practice this profession most +generally amongst us. The children of Loyola have acquired well-merited +renown in this matter: when they painted "Pleasure" they never failed to +represent him wearing trousers. Those disciples of Joseph Calasanz who +took their places in the education of children, followed their footsteps +with zeal and fervor. Lastly, the cardinals, who have a close +acquaintance with the Holy Ghost, are so prejudiced in favor of Greek +love that they have made it the fashion in the Holy City of Rome; this +leads me to wonder whether the Holy Ghost has changed His mind in regard +to this matter and is no longer shocked by it; or whether the theologians +were not mistaken in assuming an aversion against sodomy which He never +had. The cardinals who are on such familiar terms with him would know +better than to give all their days over to this pleasure if He really +objected to it. + +<p>I shall terminate this over-long note with an extract from a violent +diatribe against this love which Lucian puts into the mouth of Charicles. +He is addressing Callicratidas, a passionate lover of young boys, with +whom he had gone to visit the temple of Venus at Cnidus. + +<p>"O Venus, my queen! to thee I call; lend me your aid while I plead your +cause. For everything over which you deign to shed, be it ever so +little, the persuasion of your charms, reaches absolute perfection, above +all, erotic discourses need your presence, for you are their lawful +mother. In your womanhood, defend the cause of woman, and grant to men +to remain men as they have been born. At the beginning of my discourse, +I call as witness to the truth of my arguments the first mother of all +created things, the source of all generation, the holy Nature of this +universe, who, gathering into one and uniting the elements of the +world--earth, air, fire and water--and mingling them together, gave life to +everything that breathes. Knowing that we are a compound of perishable +matter, and that the span of life assigned to each of us was short, she +contrived that the death of one should be the birth of another, and meted +out to the dying, by way of compensation, the coming into being of +others, that by mutual succession we might live forever. But, as it was +impossible for anything to be born from a single thing alone, she created +two different sexes, and bestowed upon the male the power of emitting +semen, making the female the receptacle of generation. Having inspired +both with mutual desires, she joined them together, ordaining, as a +sacred law of necessity, that each sex should remain faithful to its own +nature--that the female should not play the male unnaturally, nor the +male degrade himself by usurping the functions of the female. Thus +intercourse of men with women has preserved the human race by +never-ending succession: no man can boast of having been created by man alone; +two venerable names are held in equal honor, and men revere their mother +equally with their father. At first, when men were filled with heroic +thoughts, they reverenced those virtues which bring us nearer to the +Gods, obeyed the laws of Nature, and, united to women of suitable age, +became the sires of noble offspring. But, by degrees, human life, +degenerating from that nobility of sentiment, sank to the lowest depths +of pleasure, and began to carve out strange and corrupt ways in the +search after enjoyment. Then sensuality, daring all, violated the laws +of Nature herself. Who was it who first looked upon the male as female, +violating him by force or villainous persuasion? One sex entered one +bed, and men had the shamelessness to look at one another without a blush +for what they did or for what they submitted to, and, sowing seed, as it +were, upon barren rocks, they enjoyed a short-lived pleasure at the cost +of undying shame. + +<p>"Some pushed their cruelty so far as to outrage Nature with the +sacrilegious knife, and, after depriving men of their virility, found in +them the height of pleasure. These miserable and unhappy creatures, that +they may the longer serve the purposes of boys, are stunted in their +manhood, and remain a doubtful riddle of a double sex, neither preserving +that boyhood in which they were born, nor possessing that manhood which +should be theirs. The bloom of their youth withers away in a premature +old age: while yet boys they suddenly become old, without any interval of +manhood. For impure sensuality, the mistress of every vice, devising one +shameless pleasure after another, insensibly plunges into unmentionable +debauchery, experienced in every form of brutal lust. "Whereas, if each +would abide by the laws prescribed by Providence, we should be satisfied +with intercourse with women, and our lives would be undefiled by shameful +practices. Consider the animals, which cannot corrupt by innate +viciousness, how they observe the law of Nature in all its purity. +He-lions do not lust after he-lions, but, in due season, passion excites +them towards the females of their species: the bull that rules the herd +mounts cows, and the ram fills the whole flock of ewes with the seed of +generation. Again, boars mate with sows, he-wolves with shewolves, +neither the birds that fly through the air, nor the fish that inhabit the +deep, or any living creatures upon earth desire male intercourse, but +amongst them the laws of Nature remain unbroken. But you men, who boast +idly of your wisdom, but are in reality worthless brutes, what strange +disease provokes you to outrage one another unnaturally? What blind +folly fills your minds, that you commit the two-fold error of avoiding +what you should pursue, and pursuing what you should avoid? If each and +all were to pursue such evil courses, the race of human beings would +become extinct on earth. And here comes in that wonderful Socratic +argument, whereby the minds of boys, as yet unable to reason clearly, are +deceived, for a ripe intellect could not be misled. These followers of +Socrates pretend to love the soul alone, and, being ashamed to profess +love for the person, call themselves lovers of virtue, whereat I have +often been moved to laughter. How comes it, O grave philosophers, that +you hold in such slight regard a man who, during a long life, has given +proofs of merit, and of that virtue which old age and white hairs become? +How is it that the affections of the philosophers are all in a flutter +after the young; who cannot yet make up their minds which path of life to +take? Is there a law, then, that all ugliness is to be condemned as +vice, and that everything that is beautiful is to be extolled without +further examination? But, according to Homer, the great interpreter of +truth--'One man is meaner than another in looks, but God crowns his words +with beauty, and his hearers gaze upon him with delight, while he speaks +unfalteringly with winning modesty, and is conspicuous amongst the +assembled folk, who look upon him as a God when he walks through the +city.' And again he says: 'Your beauteous form is destitute of +intelligence; the wise Ulysses is praised more highly than the handsome +Nireus.' How then comes it that the love of wisdom, justice, and the +other virtues, which are the heritage of the full-grown man, possess no +attraction for you, while the beauty of boys excites the most vehement +passion! What! should one love Phoedrus, remembering Lysias, whom he +betrayed? Could one love the beauty of Alcibiades, who mutilated the +statues of the Gods, and, in the midst of a debauch, betrayed the +mysteries of the rites of Eleusis? Who would venture to declare himself +his admirer, after Athens was abandoned, and Decelea fortified by the +enemy--the admirer of one whose sole aim in life was tyranny? But, as +the divine Plato says, as long as his chin was beardless, he was beloved +by all; but, when he passed from boyhood to manhood, when his imperfect +intelligence had reached its maturity, he was hated by all. Why, then, +giving modest names to immodest sentiments, do men call personal beauty +virtue, being in reality lovers of youth rather than lovers of wisdom? +However, it is not my intention to speak evil of distinguished men. But, +to descend from graver topics to the mere question of enjoyment, I will +prove that connection with women is far more enjoyable than connection +with boys. In the first place, the longer enjoyment lasts, the more +delight it affords; too rapid pleasure passes quickly away, and it is +over before it is thoroughly appreciated; but, if it lasts, it is thereby +enhanced. Would to heaven that grudging Destiny had allotted us a longer +lease of life, and that we could enjoy perpetual health without any +sorrow to spoil our pleasure; then would our life be one continual feast. +But, since jealous Fortune has grudged us greater blessings, those +enjoyments that last the longest are the sweetest. Again, a woman, from +puberty to middle age, until the last wrinkles furrow her face, is worth +embracing and fit for intercourse; and, even though the prime of her +beauty be past, her experience can speak more eloquently than the love of +boys. + +<p>"I should consider anyone who attempted to have intercourse with a youth +of twenty years to be the slave of unnatural lust. The limbs of such, +like those of a man, are hard and coarse; their chins, formerly so +smooth, are rough and bristly, and their well-grown thighs are disfigured +with hairs. As for their other parts, I leave those of you who have +experience to decide. On the other hand, a woman's charms are always +enhanced by an attractive complexion, flowing locks, dark as hyacinths, +stream down her back and adorn her shoulders, or fall over her ears and +temples, more luxuriant than the parsley in the fields. The rest of her +person, without a hair upon it, shines more brilliantly than amber or +Sidonian crystal. Why should we not pursue those pleasures which are +mutual, which cause equal enjoyment to those who receive and to those who +afford them? For we are not, like animals, fond of solitary lives, but, +united in social relations, we consider these pleasures sweeter, and +those pains easier to bear, which we share with others. Hence, a common +table was instituted, the mediator of friendship. When we minister to +the wants of the belly, we do not drink Thasian wine, or consume costly +food by ourselves alone, but in company: for our pleasures and enjoyments +are increased when shared with others. In like manner, the intercourse +of men with women causes enjoyment to each in turn, and both are alike +delighted; unless we accept the judgment of Tiresias, who declared that +the woman's pleasure was twice as great as the man's. I think that those +who are not selfish should not consider how they may best secure the +whole enjoyment for themselves, but should share what they have with +others. Now, in the case of boys, no one would be mad enough to assert +that this is the case; for, while he who enjoys their person reaches the +height of pleasure--at least, according to his way of thinking--the +object of his passion at first feels pain, even to tears, but when, by +repetition, the pain becomes less keen, while he no longer hurts him, he +will feel no pleasure himself. To mention something still more curious +--as is fitting within the precincts of Venus--you may make the same use +of a woman as of a boy, and thereby open a double avenue to enjoyment; +but the male can never afford the same enjoyment as the female. + +<p>"Therefore, if you are convinced by my arguments, let us, men and women, +keep ourselves apart, as if a wall divided us; but, if it is becoming for +men to have intercourse with men, for the future let women have +intercourse with women. Come, O new generation, inventor of strange +pleasures! As you have devised new methods to satisfy male lust, grant +the same privilege to women; let them have intercourse with one another +like men, girding themselves with the infamous instruments of lust, an +unholy imitation of a fruitless union; in a word, let our wanton Tribads +reign unchecked, and let our women's chambers be disgraced by +hermaphrodites. Far better that a woman, in the madness of her lust, +should usurp the nature of a man, than that man's noble nature should be +so degraded as to play the woman!" + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="IV."></a>IV.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote> + +<br> Embasicetas fut bientot au comble de ses voeux. +<br> The Catamite soon reached the height of his passion. + +</blockquote> + +<p>The theologians class this species of lascivious feeling with pollution +which is complete when it produces a result. The Holy Scripture tells us +of Onan, son of Judas, grandson of Jacob, and husband of Thamar, who was +slain by the Lord because he spilled his semen, "he poured his semen upon +the ground." We may be reproached, perhaps, for citing the Holy Bible +too frequently, but that book contains the knowledge of salvation, and +those who wish to be saved should not fail to study it with assiduity. +That this study has occupied a good part of our life, we admit, and we +have always found that study profitable. To vigorous minds that +admission may seem ridiculous, but we are writing only for pious souls, +and they will willingly applaud this courageous profession of our piety. + +<p>The theologians have also classified onanism and pollution among the sins +against the Holy Ghost, and this being the case, there is no being in the +world who has been sinned against so often. A medium indulgence in this +sin furnished the pleasure of a queen, the severity of one Lucretia does +not repel a thousand Tarquins. Men with vivid imaginations create for +themselves a paradise peopled with the most beautiful houris, more +seductive than those of Mahomet; Lycoris had a beautiful body but it was +unfeeling; the imagination of her lover pictured her as falling before +his caresses, he led her by the hand over pressed flowers, through a +thick grove and along limpid streams; in that sweet reverie his life +slipped by. + +<blockquote> +<br> Here icy cold fountains, here flower covered meadows, Lycoris; +<br> Here shady groves; life itself here would I dream out with thee. + +<br> Virgil Bucol. Ecl. X, 41. + +</blockquote> + + +<p>In the minds of the theologians pollution is synonymous with all +pleasures with persons of the opposite or the same sex, which result in a +waste of the elixir of life. In this sense, love between woman and woman +is pollution and Sappho is a sinner against the Holy Ghost. + +<p>(Notwithstanding), however (these caprices of the third person of the +trinity) I cannot see why pleasure should be regulated, or why a woman +who has surveyed all the charms of a young girl of eighteen years should +give herself up to the rude embraces of a man. What comparisons can be +made between those red lips, that mouth which breathes pleasure for the +first time, those snowy and purplous cheeks whose velvet smoothness is +like the Venus flower, half in bloom, that new-born flesh which +palpitates softly with desire and voluptuousness, that hand which you +press so delicately, those round thighs, those plastic buttocks, that +voice sweet and touching,--what comparison can be made between all this +and pronounced features, rough beard, hard breast, hairy body, and the +strong disagreeable voice of man? Juvenal has wonderfully expended all +his bile in depicting, as hideous scenes, these mysteries of the Bona +Dea, where the young and beautiful Roman women, far from the eyes of men, +give themselves up to mutual caresses. Juvenal has painted the eyes of +the Graces with colors which are proper to the Furies; his tableau, +moreover, revolts one instead of doing good. + +<p>The only work of Sappho's which remains to us is an ode written to one of +her loved ones and from it we may judge whether the poetess merited her +reputation. It has been translated into all languages; Catullus put it +into Latin and Boileau into French. Here follows an imitation of that of +Catullus: + +<blockquote> + +<br> Peer of a God meseemeth he, +<br> Nay passing Gods (and that can be!) +<br> Who all the while sits facing thee +<br> Sees thee and hears +<br> Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze +<br> Mine every sense, and as I gaze +<br> Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays +<br> +<br> My tongue is dulled, limbs adown +<br> Flows subtle flame; with sound its own +<br> Rings either ear, and o'er are strown +<br> Mine eyes with night. + +<br> (LI. Burton, tr.) + +</blockquote> + +<p>After that we should never again exhort the ministers and moralists to +inveigh against love of women for women; never was the interest of men +found to be so fully in accord with the precepts of divine law. + +<p>Here I should like to speak of the brides of the Lord; but I remember +"The Nun" of Diderot, and my pen falls from my hand. Oh, who would dare +to touch a subject handled by Diderot? + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="V."></a>V.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote> + +<br> Giton venait de la deflorer, et de remporter une victoire sanglante. +<br> Giton the victor had won a not bloodless victory. + +</blockquote> + +<p>All people have regarded virginity as something sacred, and God has so +honored it that he willed that his son be born of a virgin, fecundated, +however, by the Holy Ghost. Still, it appears problematical whether the +Virgin Mary, complete virgin that she was, did not have the same pleasure +as those who are not virgins, when she received the divine annunciation. +Father Sanchez has discussed the question very fully "whether the Virgin +Mary 'spent' in copulation with the Holy-Ghost," unhappily, he decided in +the negative, and I have too much veneration for Father Sanchez not to +submit to his decision; but because of it, I am vexed with the Virgin +Mary and the Holy Ghost. + +<p>Notwithstanding this, the daughters of the people of the Lord were not +content to remain virgins; a state of being which, at bottom has not much +to recommend it. The daughter of Jephtha before being immolated for the +sake of the Lord, demanded of her father a reprieve of two months in +which to weep for her virginity upon the mountains of Gelboe; it seems it +should not have taken so long had she had nothing to regret. Ruth had +recourse to the quickest method when she wished to cease being a virgin; +she simply went and lay down upon the bed with Boaz. The spirit of God +has deemed it worth while to transmit this story to us, for the +instruction of virgins from century to century. + +<p>The pagan Gods thought highly of maidenheads, they often took them and +always, they set aside the virgins for themselves. The Phtyian, from +whose organ Apollo was foreordained to come, proved to be only a virgin; +the spirit of God did not communicate itself to anyone who had ever been +sullied by contact with a mortal. It was to virgins that the sacred +fires of Vesta were entrusted, and the violation of their virginity was a +capital crime which all Rome regarded as a scourge from wrathful heaven. + +<p>The Sybils lived and died virgins; in addressing the Cumaean Sybil, +AEneas never failed to bestow that title upon her. + +<p>Most of the immortals have preserved their virginity, Diana, Minerva, et +cet. But what is the most astonishing is that the companions of Venus +and Amor, the most lovable of all divinities, the Graces, were also +virgins. Juno became a virgin again every year, by bathing in the waters +of a magic fountain; that must have rendered Jupiter's duties rather +onerous. + +<p>There are some reasons for this passion of mankind for maidenheads. It +is so wonderful to give the first lessons of voluptuousness to a pure and +innocent heart, to feel under one's hand the first palpitations of the +virginal breasts which arouses unknown delights, to dry the first tears +of tenderness, to inspire that first mixture of fear and hope, of vague +desires and expectant inquietude; whoever has never had that satisfaction +has missed the most pleasurable of all the delights of love. But taken +in that sense, virginity is rather a moral inclination, as Buffon says, +than a physical matter, and nothing can justify the barbarous precautions +against amorous theft which were taken by unnatural fathers and jealous +husbands. + +<p>In those unhappy countries which are bent under oppression, in those +countries where heaven shows its heat in the beauty of the sex, and +where beauty is only an object of speculation for avid parents; in such +countries, I say, they resort to the most odious methods for preserving +the virginity of the young and beautiful daughters who are destined to be +sold like common cattle. They put a lock over the organ of pleasure and +never permit it to be opened except when it is strictly necessary for +carrying out those animal functions for which nature destined them. + +<p>The locks of chastity were long known in Europe; the Italians are accused +with this terrible invention. Nevertheless, it is certain that they were +used upon men, at least, in the time of the first Roman emperors. +Juvenal, in his satire against women, VI, says: "If the singers please +them there is no need for locks of chastity for those who have sold their +voices to the praetors, who keep them." + +<blockquote> + +<br> Si gaudet cantu, nullius fibula durat +<br> Vocem vendentis praetoribus. +<br> Sat. VI, 379. +<br> +<br> If pleased by the song of the singer employed by the praetor +<br> No fibula long will hold out, free, the actor will greet her. + +</blockquote> + +<p>Christianity, most spiritual, most mystical of ancient religions, +attempts to make out a great case for celibacy. Its founder never +married, although the Pharisees reproached him for frequenting gay women, +and had, perhaps, some reason for so doing. Jesus showed a particular +affection for Mary Magdalen, to the point of exciting the jealousy of +Martha, who complained that her sister passed her time in conversation +with Jesus and left her with all the housework to do. "Mary has chosen +the better part," said the Savior. A good Christian must not doubt that +the colloquies were always spiritual. + +<p>St. Paul counseled virginity and most of the apostolic fathers practiced +it. Among others, St. Jerome lived his whole life among women and never +lost his purity. He answered his enemies who reproached him with his +very great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof +of his chastity was that he stank. That stinking of St. Jerome, which is +not a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of +pious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it. + +<p>When the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be +submitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its +interests and those of the common people as far as possible it must +tighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens. Also the Pope +who was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused +it most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and +enunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain +their celibacy. However, although neither priests nor monks were +permitted to marry, the epithet "virgins" cannot be justly applied to all +priests and all monks without exception. Nor shall I repeat here the +naughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others, +against the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more +"satyrical" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have +nothing to say. + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="VI."></a>VI.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote> + +<br> Alors une vielle. . . . +<br> [Finally an old woman . . .] + +</blockquote> + +<p>The question here has to do with a procurers or go-between. That +profession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what +fatality, which befalls the most worthy things. Cervantes the only +philosophic author Spain has produced, wanted that calling to be +venerated in cities above all others. And truly, when one thinks how +much finesse is necessary to pursue that profession with success, when +one considers that those who practice that truly liberal art are the +repositories of the most important as well as the most sacred secrets, +one would never fail to have the greatest respect for them. The +tranquillity of homes, the civil state of persons they hold at their +discretion, and still, though they drink in insults, though they endure +abuse, very rarely do these beings, true stoics, compromise those who +have confided in them. + +<p>In their Mercury, the ancients realized their beau ideal or archetype +of go-between which they called; in vulgar language "pimp". That God, +as go-between for Jupiter, was often involved in the most hazardous +enterprises, such as abducting Io, who was guarded by Argus of the +hundred eyes; Mercury I say, was the God of concord, or eloquence, +and of mystery. Except to inspire them with friendly feeling and kind +affections, Mercury never went among mortals. Touched by his wand, +venomous serpents closely embraced him. Listening to him, Achilles +forgot his pride, extended hospitality to Priam and permitted him to take +away the body of Hector. The ferocious Carthaginians were softened +through the influence of this God of peace, and received the Trojans in +friendship. Mercury it was who gathered men into society and substituted +social customs for barbarism. He invented the lyre and was the master of +Amphion, who opened the walls of Thebes by the charm of his singing. +Mercury or Hermes gave the first man knowledge; but it was enveloped in a +mysterious veil which it was never permitted the profane to penetrate, +which signifies that all that he learned from God, concerning amorous +adventures, should be wrapped in profound silence. How beautiful all +these allegories are! And how true! How insipid life would be without +these mysterious liaisons, by which Nature carries out her designs, +eluding the social ties, without breaking them! Disciples of Mercury, I +salute you, whatever be your sex; to your discretion, to your persuasive +arts are confided our dearest interests, the peace of mind of husbands, +the happiness of lovers, the reputation of women, the legitimacy of +children. Without you, this desolated earth would prove to be, in +reality, a vale of tears; the young and beautiful wife united to decrepit +husband, would languish and grow weak, like the lonely flower which the +sun's rays never touch. Thus did Mexence bind in thine indissoluble +bands the living and the dead. + +<p>Fate, however, has often avenged the go-betweens on account of the +misunderstandings from which they suffer at the hands of the vulgar. +Otho opened the way to the empire of the world by his services as a +go-between for Nero. And the go-betweens of princes, and even of +princesses, are always found in the finest situations. Even Otho did not +lose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, "because +he was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea." "Uxoris moechus +coeperate esse suae" (Suet. Otho, chap. 111), said malicious gossip at +Rome. +<br> +<hr> + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> +<br> +<p>To the scholar contemplating an exhaustive study of Petronius, the +masterly bibliography compiled by Gaselee is indispensable, and those +of my readers who desire to pursue the subject are referred to it. +The following is a list of editions, translations, criticisms and +miscellaneous publications and authors from which I have derived benefit +in the long and pleasant hours devoted to Petronius. + +<br><br><br><br> +<h3>EDITIONS, Opera Omnia.</h3> + + +<center> +<table summary="Review of Editions"> + +<tr><td>--------- </td><td> Lyons </td><td>1615.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hadrianides </td><td> Amsterdam </td><td> 1669.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Bourdelot </td><td> Paris </td><td> 1677.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Boschius </td><td> Amsterdam </td><td> 1677.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Burmann </td><td> Utrecht </td><td> 1709.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Anton </td><td> Leipzig </td><td> 1781.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Buecheler </td><td> Berlin </td><td> 1862.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Herxus(Buecheler) </td><td> Berlin </td><td> 1911.</td></tr> + + +</table> +</center> + + +<br><br> + + +<h3>TRAU FRAGMENT.</h3> +<center> +<table summary=""> + +<tr><td>Amsterdam (Containing Frambotti's corrections)</td><td> 1670</td></tr> + + +<tr><td>Gaselee (Cambridge) </td><td> 1915.</td></tr> + + +</table> +</center> +<br> +<hr> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<pre> +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE "SATYRICON" + +Affairs start to go wrong, your friends will stand from under +Believes, on the spot, every tale +Boys play in the schools, the young men are laughed at +Cardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love +Death is never far from those who seek him +Death levels caste and sufferers unites +Deferred pleasures are a long time coming +Desire no possession unless the world envies me for possessing +Doctor's not good for anything except for a consolation +Double capacity of masseurs and prostitutes +Egyptians "commercialized" that incomparable art +Either 'take-in,' or else they are 'taken-in' +Empress Theodora belonged to this class +Errors committed in the name of religion +Esteeming nothing except what is rare +Everybody's business is nobody's business +Everything including the children, is devoted to ambition +Face, rouged and covered with cosmetics +Fierce morality, inimical to all the pleasures of life +For one hour of nausea you promise it a plethora of good things +Hardouin on homosexuality in priests +He can teach you more than he knows himself +High fortune may rather master us, than we master it +In the arrogance of success, had put on the manner of the master +Laughed ourselves out of a most disgraceful quarrel +Learning's a fine thing, and a trade won't starve +Legislation has never proved a success in repressing vice +Live coals are more readily held in men's mouths than a secret +Love or art never yet made anyone rich +Man is hated when he declares himself an enemy to all vice +Men are lions at home and foxes abroad +No one will confess the errors he was taught in his school days +No one can show a dead man a good time +One could do a man no graver injury than to call him a dancer +Platitudes by which anguished minds are recalled to sanity +Priests, animated by an hypocritical mania for prophecy +Propensity of pouring one's personal troubles into another's ear +Putting as good a face upon the matter as I could +Religions responsible for the most abominable actions +Remarkable resemblance to each other are the Bible and Homer +Rumor but grows in the telling and strives to embellish +Russia there is a sect called the skoptzi +See or hear nothing at all of the affairs of every-day life +She is chaste whom no man has solicited--Ovid +Something in the way of hope at which to nibble +Stained by the lifeblood of the God of Wine +Stinking of St. Jerome +Tax on bachelors +The loser's always the winner in arguments +The teachers, who must gibber with lunatics +They secure their ends, save by setting snares for the ears +They seize what they dread to lose most +To follow all paths; but a road can discover by none +Too many doctors did away with him +Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing women +We know that you're only a fool with a lot of learning +Whatever we have, we despise +Whatever you talk of at home will fly forth in an instant +Whenever you learn a thing, it's yours +While we live, let us live +You can spot a louse on someone else + +</pre> + +<br><br> +<hr> +<br><br> +<br><br> +<br><br> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena +Notes), by Petronius Arbiter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, VOLUME 7 *** + +***** This file should be named 5224-h.htm or 5224-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/2/5224/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/5224-h/images/bookspine.jpg b/5224-h/images/bookspine.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c351430 --- /dev/null +++ b/5224-h/images/bookspine.jpg diff --git a/5224-h/images/pfront.jpg b/5224-h/images/pfront.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..97166b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/5224-h/images/pfront.jpg diff --git a/5224.txt b/5224.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4861333 --- /dev/null +++ b/5224.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1547 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena Notes) +by Petronius Arbiter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena Notes) + +Author: Petronius Arbiter + +Release Date: May 28, 2004 [EBook #5224] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, VOLUME 7 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + + THE SATYRICON OF + PETRONIUS ARBITER + + Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh, + in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena, + and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas. + + + + SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA. + + + +TO THE ARMY OF THE RHINE. + +The conquests of the French have resulted, during this war, in a boon to +knowledge and to letters. Egypt has furnished us with monuments of its +aboriginal inhabitants, which the ignorance and superstition of the Copts +and Mussulmans kept concealed from civilized countries. The libraries of +the convents of the various countries have been ransacked by savants and +precious manuscripts have been brought to light. + +By no means the least interesting of the acquisitions is a fragment of +Petronius, which we offer to the public, taken from an ancient manuscript +which our soldiers, in conquering St. Gall, have sent to us for +examination. We have made an important discovery in reading a parchment +which contains the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests, and +which, judging from the form of the letters employed, we should say was +written in the eleventh century. A most careful examination led us to +perceive that the work by this saint had been written on pages containing +written letters, which had been almost effaced. We know that in the dark +ages it was customary to write ecclesiastical works on the manuscripts +containing the best authors of Latinity. + +At a cost of much labor we have been able to decipher a morsel which we +give to the public: and of the authenticity of which there can be no +doubt. We render homage to the brave French army to which we owe this +acquisition. + +It is easy to notice that there is a lacuna in that passage of Petronius +in which Encolpius is left with Quartilla, looking through a chink in the +door, at the actions of Giton and little Pannychis. A few lines below, +it relates, in effect, that he was fatigued by the voluptuous enjoyment +of Quartilla, and in that which remains to us, there is no mention of the +preliminaries to this enjoyment. The style of the Latin so closely +resembles the original of Petronius that it is impossible to believe that +the fragment was forged. + +For the benefit of those who have not read the author, it is well to +state that this Quartilla was a priestess of Priapus, at whose house they +celebrated the mysteries of that god. Pannychis is a young girl of seven +years who had been handed over to Giton to be deflowered. This Giton is +the "good friend" of Encolpius, who is supposed to relate the scene. +Encolpius, who had drunk an aphrodisiacal beverage, is occupied with +Quartilla in peeping through the door to see in what manner Giton was +acquitting himself in his role. At that moment a soldier enters the +house. + +Finally an old woman, about whom there is some question in the fragment, +is the same as the one who had unexpectedly conducted Encolpius to the +house of the public women and of whom mention is made in the beginning of +the work. + + Ipsa Venus magico religatum brachia nodo + Perdocuit, multis non sine verberibus. + Tibullus viii, 5. + + + +I. + + Vous verrez que vous avez affaire a un homme. + You will learn that you have to deal with a man. + +Fighting men have in all times been distinguished on account of the +beauty of their women. The charming fable of the loves of Venus and +Mars, described by the most ancient of poets, expresses allegorically, +this truth. All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most +valiant were always the most passionate and the happiest. Hercules took +the maidenheads of fifty girls, in a single night. Thesus loved a +thousand beauties, and slept with them. Jason abandoned Hypsipyle for +Medea, and her, for Creusa. Achilles, the swift of foot, forgot the +tender Deidamia in the arms of his Briseis. + +It has been remarked that the lovers did not have very scrupulous tastes +in their methods of attaining satisfaction from the women they loved. +The most common method was abduction and the women always submitted to +this without a murmur of any sort. Helen was carried off by Theseus, +after having also been abducted by Paris. The wife of Atreus was +abducted by Thyestus, and from that arose the implacable hatred between +the two families. Rape was no less common. Goddesses themselves and the +favorites of the Gods were at the risk of falling prey to strong mortals. +Pirithous, aided by Theseus, even attempted to snatch Proserpina from the +God of the under-world. Juno herself was compelled to painful submission +to the pursuit of Ixion, and Thetis succumbed despite herself, to the +assaults of Peleus. The gift of foretelling the future, with which +Apollo endowed Cassandra, did not insure her against the brutal caresses +of Ajax, son of Oileus. + +In the infancy of society, there was never known any other distinction +except between the weak and the strong: the strong commanded and the weak +obeyed. For that reason, women were regarded in the light of beings +destined by nature, to serve the pleasures and even the caprices of men. +Never did her suitors express a tender thought for Penelope, and, instead +of making love to her, they squandered her property, slept with her +slaves, and took charge of things in her house. + +Circe gave herself to Ulysses who desired to slay her, and Calypso, full +blown goddess as she was, was obliged to make his advances for him. The +fine sentiments that Virgil puts into the mouth of the shade of Creusa, +content with having died while serving against the Greeks, "she was a +Trojan, and she wedded the son of Venus"; the confession with which +Andromache, confronted by the murderer of her first husband, responds to +the question of AEneas; these ideas, I say, and these sentiments, +appertained to the polished century of Augustus and not to the epoch or, +scene of the Trojan War. Virgil, in his AEneid, had never subscribed to +the precepts of Horace, and of common sense: + + Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge + Horace Ars Poet. 119. + +From this manner of dealing with women arose another reason for the +possession of beauty by the valiant. One coveted a woman much as one +would covet a fine flock of sheep, and, in the absence of laws, the one +in possession of either the one or the other of these desirable objects +would soon be dispossessed of them if he was not courageous enough to +guard them against theft. Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing +women as they were for taking other property, and one should remember +that Agamemnon promised to retire from before Troy if the Trojans would +restore Helen and his riches to Menelaus; things which Paris had +despoiled him of. + +Also, there was never any of that thing we call "conjugal honor" among +the Greeks; that idea was far too refined; it was a matter too complex +ever to have entered the heads of these semi-barbarous people. This is +exemplified in the fact that, after the taking of Troy, Helen, who had, +of her own free will, belonged successively to Paris, and to Deiphobus, +afterwards returned to Menelaus, who never offered her any reproach. +That conduct of Menelaus was so natural that Telemachus, who, in his trip +to Sparta found Helen again with Menelaus, just as she was before her +abduction, did not show the least astonishment. + +The books which bear the most remarkable resemblance to each other are +the Bible and Homer, because the people they describe and the men about +whom they speak are forerunners of civilization in pretty much the same +degree. Sarah was twice snatched from the bosom of Abraham and he was +never displeased with his wife and continued to live on good terms with +her. David, a newcomer on the throne, hastened to have Michol brought to +him although she had already married another man. + +The best proof that, during the time of the Romans the women preferred +soldiers to other men is in the claims to successful enterprises by the +bragging soldier of Plautus. Pyrgopolinices thought it was only +necessary to pose as a great warrior, to have all the women chasing after +him; therefore, his parasite and his slave spoke of nothing but the +passions be inspired in women. Tradition has it that among the Samnites, +the bravest men had the choice of the fairest women, and to this custom +is attributed one of the reasons these people were so warlike. + +In the times of chivalry the greatest exploits were achieved for the +pleasure of one's Lady-Love, and there were even such valiant knights, as +Don Quixote, who went about the world proving by force of arms that their +ladies had no peer. The poverty-stricken troubadours singing +harmoniously about their beautiful women found them flying away in the +arms of knights who had broken lances at tournaments, or had performed +the greatest feats of arms. In fine, all the peoples of the world have +said with Dryden: + + "None but the brave deserves the fair." + + + + +II. + + Ses camarades se saisissent de moi et de Quartilla. + His comrades seized hold of Quartilla and me. + +The profession of Quartilla corresponded to that which is followed by +our ladies of the Palace Royal. This Palace Royal is a sort of Babylon, +with this difference; that the former prostitute themselves all the year +round, and that they are not quite so attractive as the Chaldean +beauties. For the rest, one of the incontestable facts of ancient +history is this prostitution of the women of Babylon in honor of Venus, +and I cannot understand why Voltaire refused to believe it, since +religions have always been responsible for the most abominable actions, +and because religious wars, the horrors of intolerance, the impostures of +priests, the despotism of kings, the degradation and stupidity of the +people, have been the direct fatal effects of religions; and seeing that +the blind fanaticism of martyrs and the brutal cruelty of tyrants is a +hundred times more deplorable than a sacrifice equally agreeable to the +victim and to the one who officiates at the sacrifice; and seeing that +the enjoyment and giving of life is no less holy than the maceration and +caging of innocent animals. + +The origin of courtesans is lost in the deepest antiquity. It appears +that it was one of the patriarchal customs to enjoy them, for Judah slept +with Thamar, widow of his two sons, and who, to seduce him, disguised +herself as a courtesan. Another courtesan, Rahab, played a great role in +the first wars of the people of the Lord: it was this same Rahab who +married Solomon, father of Boaz, fourth forefather of David, and +thirty-second forefather of Jesus Christ, our divine Savior. Yet the +eternal sagacity of man has failed to take notice of this profession and +to resent the injustice done it by the scorn of men. The elected kings +of the people, the man who adopts the word father according to the +flesh, are descendants of a courtesan. + +For the rest, it must be admitted that many who follow this noble +profession are unworthy of it and only too well justify the ignominy +which is levelled against the entire class. You see these miserable +creatures with livid complexions and haggard eyes, with voices of +Stentor, breathing out at the same time the poisons which circulate in +their veins and the liquors with which they are intoxicated; you see on +their blemished and emaciated bodies, the marks of beings more hideous +than they (twenty come to satisfy their brutal passions for every one of +them); you listen to their vile language, you hear their oaths and +revolting expressions: to go to these Megeres is often to encounter +brigands and assassins: what a spectacle! It is the deformity of vice +in the rags of indigence. + +Ah! But these are not courtesans, they are the dregs of cities. A +courtesan worthy of the name is a beautiful woman, gracious and amiable, +at whose home gather men of letters and men of the world; the first +magistrates, the greatest captains: and who keeps men of all professions +in a happy state of mind because she is pleasing to them, she inspires in +them a desire for reciprocal pleasure: such an one was Aspasia who, after +having charmed the cultured people of Athens was for a long time the good +companion of Pericles, and contributed much, perhaps, towards making his +century what it was, the age of taste in arts and letters. Such an +one also was Phryne, Lais, Glycera, and their names will always be +celebrated; such, also, was Ninon d'Enclos, one of the ornaments of +the century of Louis XIV, and Clairon, the first who realized all the +grandeur of her art; such an one art thou, C-----, French Thalia, who +commands attentions, I do not say this by way of apology but to share the +opinion of Alceste. + +A courtesan such as I have in mind may have all the public and private +virtues. One knows the severe probity of Ninon, her generosity, her +taste for the arts, her attachment to her friends. Epicharis, the soul +of the conspiracy of Piso against the execrable Nero, was a courtesan, +and the severe Tacitus, who cannot be taxed with a partiality for +gallantry, has borne witness to the constancy with which she resisted the +most seductive promises and endured the most terrible tortures, without +revealing any of the details of the conspiracy or any of the names of the +conspirators. + +These facts should be recognized above that ascetic moral idea which +consists of the sovereign virtue of abstinence in defiance of nature's +commands and which places weakness in these matters along with the most +odious crimes. Can one see without indignation Suetonius' reproach of +Caesar for his gallantries with Servilia, with Tertia, and other Roman +ladies, as a thing equal to his extortions and his measureless ambitions, +and praising his warlike ardor against peoples who had never furnished +room for complaint to Rome? The source of these errors was the theory of +emanations. The first dreamers, who were called philosophers imagined +that matter and light were co-eternal; they supposed that was all one +unformed and tenebrous mass; and from the former they established the +principle of evil and of all imperfection, while they regarded the latter +as sovereign perfection. Creation, or, one might better say +co-ordination, was only the emanation of light which penetrated chaos, +but the mixture of light and matter was the cause of all the inevitable +imperfections of the universe. The soul of man was part and parcel of +divinity or of increased light; it would never attain happiness until it +was re-united to the source of all light; but for it, we would be free +from all things we call gross and material, and we would be taken into +the ethereal regions by contemplation and by abstinence from the +pleasures of the flesh. When these absurdities were adopted for the +regulation of conduct, they necessarily resulted in a fierce morality, +inimical to all the pleasures of life, such, in a word, as that of the +Gymnosophists or, in a lesser measure, of the Trappists. + +But despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the +wonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans. +It was about the houses of these that revolved the sands of Pactolus, +their fame exceeded that of the first men of Greece. The rich offerings +that decorated the temples of the Gods were the gifts of these women, +and it must be remembered that most of them were foreigners, originating, +for the most part, in Asia Minor. It happened that an Athenian +financier, who resembled the rest of his tribe as much as two drops of +water, proposed once to levy an impost upon the courtesans. As he spoke +eloquently of the incalculable advantages which would accrue to the +Government by this tax, a certain person asked him by whom the courtesans +were paid. "By the Athenians," replied our orator, after deliberation. +"Then it would be the Athenians who would pay the impost," replied the +questioner, and the people of Athens, who had a little more sense than +certain legislative assemblies, hooted the orator down, and there was +never any more question about a tax upon courtesans. + +Corinth was famous for the number and beauty of its courtesans, from +which comes the proverb: "It is not given to every man to go to Corinth"; +there they ran the risk of losing their money and ruining their health. +The cause of this great vogue of courtesans in Greece was not the +supposed ugliness of the sex, as the savant Paw imagined, and +contradicted by the unanimous evidence of ancient authors and of modern +travellers; but rather, the retired and solitary life which the women of +the country led. They lived in separate apartments and never had any +communication with the streets or with the residences of men "the inner +part of the house which was called the women's apartments," said +Cornelius Nepos (preface). Strangers never visited them; they rarely +visited their nearest relations. This was why marriage between brothers +and sisters was authorized by law and encouraged by usage; the sisters +were exposed to the attacks of their brothers because they lived +separated from them. + +With the Romans, as with us, the virtuous women corrupted somewhat the +profession of the courtesans. The absolute seclusion of women was never +the fashion at Rome and the stories we have on the authority of Valerius +Maximus on the chastity and modesty of the first Roman matrons merit the +same degree of belief as the legend of Romulus and Remus being brought up +by a wolf, the rape of Lucretia or the tragic death of Virginia. On the +contrary, in Livy, a great admirer of the customs of the early days of +Rome, we find that in those times a great number of Roman women of the +noblest families were convicted of having poisoned their husbands and +condemned to death for this hideous crime: that, by no means shows a very +exquisite and tender conjugal sentiment. During the period of the second +Punic War with what energy they went about the city seeking the repeal of +the law which took out of their hands the custody of jewels and precious +stones! A repeal which they obtained despite the opposition of Cato the +Censor. It appears that the profession of the courtesan was generally +practised by the freed-women; their manner necessarily showed the results +of their education. But the young sparks of Rome never paid much +attention to them, they preferred to have love affairs with the wives of +their friends. For one Sallust who ruined himself with freedwomen, there +were five Cupienniuses; "Cupiennius, that admirer of the pudenda garbed +in white," Hor. Sat. I, ii, 36. Delia, Lesbia, Ipsythillia, Corinna, +Nemesis, Neeria, Cynthia, Sulpitia, Lycimnia, and almost all the women to +whom, under real or assumed names, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, +Horace, and others, addressed their erotic compositions, were Roman +married women. Horace is the only one who celebrated a freedwoman in +some of his odes. This is due, however, to his taste for variety and +perhaps also, to his birth, for he himself was the son of a freedwoman. +Ovid's Art of Love and the Satires of Juvenal reveal the extent to which +gallantry was the fashion at Rome and Cato would never have praised the +conduct of that young man who had recourse to a public house if that had +been an ordinary course of procedure. + +In Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some +extent in reviving the profession of the courtesans. Long before, Saint +Paul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles +of the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity. The +deaconesses date from the first century of the church. But the celibacy +of the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the +eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII. During the +preceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their +lovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and +grandsons, as well. But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they +ostensibly took the concubines of which, alas! our housekeepers of today +are but feeble vestiges. The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often +concerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los +clerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably +appeared worthy of envy. Finally the courtesans appeared in all their +magnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and +indignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome. +The princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their +feet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age +of Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and +beautiful women. But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this +calm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the +revenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful +courtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their +pleasures have fled with them. And can anyone longer believe in the +perfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human +institutions has so visibly degenerated! + + + + +III. + + Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m'accabler de ses impurs baisers. + + The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking + kisses. + +One of the reasons which caused the learned and paradoxical Hardouin to +assert that all the works which have been attributed to the ancients, +with the exception of the Georgics and the Natural History of Pliny, were +the compositions of monks, was doubtless the very frequent repetition of +scenes of love for boys, which one notices in most of these writings: +this savant was a Jesuit. But this taste is not peculiar to convents; it +is to be found among all peoples and in all climates; its origin is lost +in the night of the centuries; it is common in the most polished nations +and it is common among savage tribes. Profound philosophers have argued +in favor of it; poets have sung the objects of this sort of love in their +tender and passionate compositions, and these compositions have always +been the delight of posterity. What stupid or unfeeling reader can read +without emotion that beautiful eclogue of Virgil where Corydon sighs his +hopeless love for the beautiful Alexis? The most passionate ode of +Horace is that one in which he complains of the harshness of Ligurinus. +The tender Tibullus, deceived by his Marathus, brings tears to all who +have hearts. The delicate Anacreon, praising his Bathylle, and the +valiant Alceus giving himself up after his labors in war to sing of the +dark eyes and black hair of Lycus . . . "with dark eyes and black hair +beautiful." It is not to over-civilized refinements of society which, +according to certain misanthropists, degrade nature and corrupt it, that +this taste is due; it is found among the south sea islanders, and the +evidence of the first Spaniards attests that it was common among the +hordes of American Indians before the discovery of the new world. Paw +had attempted to explain this as resulting from defects in the formation +of the organs of pleasure among the natives; but a peculiar cause is not +sufficient explanation for a universal effect. + +At the time of the Patriarchs, Greek love was so general that in the four +cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim, it was impossible to find ten +men exempt from the contagion; that number would have sufficed, said the +Lord, to withhold the punishment which he inflicted upon those cities. + +It should be noted here that most of the assertions about the morals of +the Israelites which are to be found in the Erotica Biblon of Mirabeau +are either false or pure guesswork. It is a bizarre method of judging +the morals of a people, that of taking their legal code and inferring +that the people were accustomed to break all the laws which are forbidden +by that code. Nevertheless, that is the method which the author of the +Erotica Biblon adopts for portraying the morals of the Jewish people. +Again, he has not even understood this code; he has believed that the law +against giving one's seed to the idol Moloch meant giving the human +semen; and he is ignorant of the fact that this seed, as spoken of in the +Bible, means the children and descendants. Thus it is that the land of +Canaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, and the perpetuity of the +reign on Sion to that of David. Moloch was a Phoenician deity, the same +one to which, in Carthage, they sacrificed children; the Romans believed +him to be a reincarnation of their Saturn, but Saturn was an Etruscan +divinity who could never have had any connection with the Gods of +Phoenicia. He (Mirabeau) has translated "those who polluted the temple" +as meaning those who were guilty of some obscenity in the temple; and he +does not know that the temple was "polluted" by a thousand acts, declared +impure by law, and which were not obscene. The entrance of a woman into +a sacred place, less than forty days after her accouchement, or the +entrance of a man who had touched an impure animal, constituted a +pollution of the House of the Lord. When one wishes to make a parade of +erudition he should make some attempt to understand the things which he +pretends to make clear to others. Or is it that this Mirabeau was merely +careless? + +The love of boys was so thoroughly the fashion in Greece that we have +today given it the name "Greek Love." Orestes was regarded as the "good +friend" of Pylades and Patroclus as the lover of Achilles. In this +taste, the Gods set the example for mortals, and the abduction of +Ganymede for the service of the master of thunder, was not the least +cause for annoyance given the chaste but over-prudish Juno. Lastly, +Hercules was not content with the loves of Omphale and Dejanira, he also +loved the beautiful Hylas, who was brought up by the nymphs. + +The Greeks boasted, without blushing, of this love, which they considered +the only passion worthy of men, and they did blush at loving a woman, +intimacy with whom, they said, only rendered her adorers soft and +effeminate. In the Dialogue of Plato, entitled "The Banquet," which is +concerned entirely with discussions of the various forms of love, they +dismiss love for women as unworthy of occupying the attention of sensible +men. One of the speakers, I believe it was Aristophanes, explaining the +cause of this fire which we kindle in the bosoms of our loved ones, +affirms that the first men were doubles which multiplied their force and +their power. This, they abused and, as punishment, Jupiter struck them +with lightning and separated them. By their love for each other they +came together again to regain their primitive state. But the effeminates +sought out only the women because they were only half men, half women; +while those whose tastes were masculine and courageous wanted to become +double men again. + +Phedre has put into the mouth of AEsop an explanation of that love which +would certainly not have been relished by the Greeks. He says that while +Prometheus was occupied with modelling his man and woman, he was invited +to a feast given by Jupiter, to the Gods; he came back intoxicated and, +by mistake, applied the sexual parts of one to the body of the other. + +For the rest, the Greeks were all in accord in their profound contempt +for women. The theatrical writers, especially, who studied more +particularly the general opinions and catered to them in order to obtain +the applause of the public, were distinguished by their bitterness +against the sex. Euripides maintained that Prometheus deserved to be +chained to Mount Caucasus with the vulture gnawing at his entrails, +because he had fashioned a being so pernicious and hateful as woman. The +shade of Agamemnon, in the Odyssey advised Ulysses not to put any faith +in Penelope and did not stop talking until he had enumerated the entire +list of the vices of the sex. The first Latin authors imitated the +Greeks in their invectives against women; the comedies of Plautus, +especially, teem with virulent attacks upon them. + +At Rome, however, the great freedom permitted to women, soon brought +about other opinions in regard to them; they often played an important +role in public and private affairs, and the men convinced themselves +that, like men, women were capable of the greatest crimes and of the most +heroic virtues. The noble stoicism of Arria is not the only example of +courageous virtue displayed by the Roman women at a time when crowned +monsters governed the empire. The young Paulina opened her veins with +her husband, the philosopher, Seneca; Mallonia preferred to die in +torments rather than give herself up to the odious he-goat of Capri. +Who does not admire the noble independence, the conjugal love, and the +matronly virtues of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus? + +Moreover, men began to avow their love for women, and we have here +occasion to observe the rapid progress of gallantry among the Romans. +However, the love for boys was no less universally in vogue in Rome, and +Cicero charges, in his letters to Atticus, that the judges who had so +scandalously white-washed Clodius of the accusation of having profaned +the mysteries of the "Good Goddess," had been publicly promised the +favors of the most illustrious women and the finest young men of the +first families. Caesar himself, in his early youth had yielded to the +embraces of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia; moreover, after his triumph over +the Gauls, on the solemn occasion when it was customary to twit the +victor with all his faults, the soldiers sang: "Caesar subdued the Gauls, +Nicomedes subdued Caesar. But Caesar who subdued the Gauls, triumphed, +and Nicomedes, who subdued Caesar did not." Cato said of him that he was +loved by the King, in his youth and that, when he was older, he loved the +queen and, one day, in the senate, while he was dwelling on I know not +what request of the daughter of Nicomedes, and recounting the benefits +which Rome owed to that monarch, Cicero silenced him by replying: "We +know very well what he has given, and what thou hast given him!" At +last, during the time when the first triumvirate divided all the power, +a bad joker remarked to Pompey: "I salute thee, O King," and, addressing +Caesar, "I salute thee, O Queen!" His enemies maintained that he was the +husband of all the women and the wife of all the husbands. Catullus, who +detested him, always called him "the bald catamite," in his epigrams: he +set forth that his friendship with Mamurra was not at all honorable; he +called this Mamurra "pathicus," a name which they bestowed upon those who +looked for favors among mature men or among men who had passed the stage +of adolescence. + +The masters of the empire never showed any hesitancy in trying and even +in overdoing the pleasures which all their subjects permitted themselves. +Alas! A crown is such a weighty burden! The road of domination is +strewn with so many briars that one would never be able to pass down it +if he did not take care that they were pressed down under the roses. The +Roman emperors adopted that plan; they longed for pleasures and they took +the pleasures which offered themselves without delay and in a spirit of +competition. Caligula was so little accustomed to waiting that, while +occupied in offering a sacrifice to the Gods, and the figure of a priest +having pleased him, he did not take time to finish the sacred ceremonies +before taking his pleasure of him. + +A remarkable thing is that among almost all peoples, the baths are the +places where the prostitution of men by their own sex is the most common. +We see in Catullus that the "cinaedi" (catamites), a noun which my chaste +pen refuses to translate into French, haunted the baths incessantly to +carry out their practices. Among the Orientals, of all modern peoples +who have retained this taste most generally, this same fact holds good. +It was at the bath that Tiberius, impotent through old age and +debauchery, was made young again by the touch little children applied to +his breasts; these children he called "'little fishes," they sucked his +withered breasts, his infected mouth, his livid lips, and finally his +virile parts. Hideous spectacle of a tyrant disgraced by nature and +struggling against her maledictions! But in vain did he invent new +pleasures, in vain did he take part in these scenes in which groups of +young men by threes and fours assumed all sorts of lascivious postures, +and were at the same time active and passive; the sight of these +indulgences of the "sprintriae" (for that is the name which was given +there) did not enable him to resuscitate his vigor any more than the +glamor of the throne or the servile submission of the senate served to +mitigate his remorse. + +But of all the emperors, the ones who carried their taste for young boys +to the greatest lengths were, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian. The first +publicly wedded the young eunuch Sporus, whom he had had operated upon so +that he might serve him like a young woman. He paid court to the boy as +he would to a woman and another of his favorites dressed himself up in a +veil and imitated the lamentations which women were accustomed to utter +on nuptial nights. The second consecrated the month of September to his +favorite and the third loved Antinous passionately and caused him to be +deified after death. + +The most ample proof of the universality of the taste for young boys +among the Romans is found in the Epithalamium of Manilius and Julia, by +Catullus, and it might be cause for surprise that this has escaped all +the philologists, were it not a constant thing that men frequently +reading about these centuries fail to perceive the most palpable facts +in their authors, just as they pass over the most striking phenomena of +nature without observing them. It appears, from this epithalamium, that +young men, before their marriage, had a favorite selected from among +their slaves and that this favorite was charged with the distribution of +nuts among his comrades, on the day, they in turn, treated him with +contempt and hooted him. Here follows an exact translation of this +curious bit. The favorite could not refuse the nuts to the slaves when +by giving them it appeared that he owned that his master had put away his +love for hire. + + "Lest longer mute tongue stays that + In festal jest, from Fescennine, + Nor yet deny their nuts to boys, + He-Concubine! who learns in fine + His lordling's love is fled. + + Throw nuts to boys thou idle all + He-Concubine! wast fain full long + With nuts to play: now pleased as thrall + Be thou to swell Talasios' throng + He-Concubine throw nuts. + + Wont thou as peasant-girls to jape + He-whore! Thy Lord's delight the while: + Now shall hair-curling chattel scrape + Thy cheeks: poor wretch, ah' poor and vile:-- + He-Concubine, throw nuts." + +and further on, addressing the husband: + + "'Tis said from smooth-faced ingle train + (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain + Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain! + O Hymen Hymenaeus io, + O Hymen Hymenaeus! + + We know that naught save licit rites + Be known to thee, but wedded wights + No more deem lawful such delights. + O Hymen Hymenaeus io, + O Hymen Hymenaeus." + (LXI. Burton, tr.) + +The Christian religion strongly prohibits this love; the theologians put +it among the sins which directly offend against the Holy Ghost. I have +not the honor of knowing just why this thing arouses his anger so much +more than anything else; doubtless there are reasons. But the wrath of +this honest person has not prevented the Christians from having their +"pathici," just as they have in countries where they are authorized by +the reigning deities. We have even noticed that they are the priests of +the Lord and especially the monks who practice this profession most +generally amongst us. The children of Loyola have acquired well-merited +renown in this matter: when they painted "Pleasure" they never failed to +represent him wearing trousers. Those disciples of Joseph Calasanz who +took their places in the education of children, followed their footsteps +with zeal and fervor. Lastly, the cardinals, who have a close +acquaintance with the Holy Ghost, are so prejudiced in favor of Greek +love that they have made it the fashion in the Holy City of Rome; this +leads me to wonder whether the Holy Ghost has changed His mind in regard +to this matter and is no longer shocked by it; or whether the theologians +were not mistaken in assuming an aversion against sodomy which He never +had. The cardinals who are on such familiar terms with him would know +better than to give all their days over to this pleasure if He really +objected to it. + +I shall terminate this over-long note with an extract from a violent +diatribe against this love which Lucian puts into the mouth of Charicles. +He is addressing Callicratidas, a passionate lover of young boys, with +whom he had gone to visit the temple of Venus at Cnidus. + +"O Venus, my queen! to thee I call; lend me your aid while I plead your +cause. For everything over which you deign to shed, be it ever so +little, the persuasion of your charms, reaches absolute perfection, above +all, erotic discourses need your presence, for you are their lawful +mother. In your womanhood, defend the cause of woman, and grant to men +to remain men as they have been born. At the beginning of my discourse, +I call as witness to the truth of my arguments the first mother of all +created things, the source of all generation, the holy Nature of this +universe, who, gathering into one and uniting the elements of the +world--earth, air, fire and water--and mingling them together, gave life +to everything that breathes. Knowing that we are a compound of +perishable matter, and that the span of life assigned to each of us was +short, she contrived that the death of one should be the birth of +another, and meted out to the dying, by way of compensation, the coming +into being of others, that by mutual succession we might live forever. +But, as it was impossible for anything to be born from a single thing +alone, she created two different sexes, and bestowed upon the male the +power of emitting semen, making the female the receptacle of generation. +Having inspired both with mutual desires, she joined them together, +ordaining, as a sacred law of necessity, that each sex should remain +faithful to its own nature--that the female should not play the male +unnaturally, nor the male degrade himself by usurping the functions of +the female. Thus intercourse of men with women has preserved the human +race by never-ending succession: no man can boast of having been created +by man alone; two venerable names are held in equal honor, and men +revere their mother equally with their father. At first, when men were +filled with heroic thoughts, they reverenced those virtues which bring +us nearer to the Gods, obeyed the laws of Nature, and, united to women +of suitable age, became the sires of noble offspring. But, by degrees, +human life, degenerating from that nobility of sentiment, sank to the +lowest depths of pleasure, and began to carve out strange and corrupt +ways in the search after enjoyment. Then sensuality, daring all, +violated the laws of Nature herself. Who was it who first looked upon +the male as female, violating him by force or villainous persuasion? +One sex entered one bed, and men had the shamelessness to look at one +another without a blush for what they did or for what they submitted to, +and, sowing seed, as it were, upon barren rocks, they enjoyed a +short-lived pleasure at the cost of undying shame. + +"Some pushed their cruelty so far as to outrage Nature with the +sacrilegious knife, and, after depriving men of their virility, found in +them the height of pleasure. These miserable and unhappy creatures, that +they may the longer serve the purposes of boys, are stunted in their +manhood, and remain a doubtful riddle of a double sex, neither preserving +that boyhood in which they were born, nor possessing that manhood which +should be theirs. The bloom of their youth withers away in a premature +old age: while yet boys they suddenly become old, without any interval of +manhood. For impure sensuality, the mistress of every vice, devising one +shameless pleasure after another, insensibly plunges into unmentionable +debauchery, experienced in every form of brutal lust. "Whereas, if each +would abide by the laws prescribed by Providence, we should be satisfied +with intercourse with women, and our lives would be undefiled by shameful +practices. Consider the animals, which cannot corrupt by innate +viciousness, how they observe the law of Nature in all its purity. +He-lions do not lust after he-lions, but, in due season, passion excites +them towards the females of their species: the bull that rules the herd +mounts cows, and the ram fills the whole flock of ewes with the seed of +generation. Again, boars mate with sows, he-wolves with shewolves, +neither the birds that fly through the air, nor the fish that inhabit the +deep, or any living creatures upon earth desire male intercourse, but +amongst them the laws of Nature remain unbroken. But you men, who boast +idly of your wisdom, but are in reality worthless brutes, what strange +disease provokes you to outrage one another unnaturally? What blind +folly fills your minds, that you commit the two-fold error of avoiding +what you should pursue, and pursuing what you should avoid? If each and +all were to pursue such evil courses, the race of human beings would +become extinct on earth. And here comes in that wonderful Socratic +argument, whereby the minds of boys, as yet unable to reason clearly, are +deceived, for a ripe intellect could not be misled. These followers of +Socrates pretend to love the soul alone, and, being ashamed to profess +love for the person, call themselves lovers of virtue, whereat I have +often been moved to laughter. How comes it, O grave philosophers, that +you hold in such slight regard a man who, during a long life, has given +proofs of merit, and of that virtue which old age and white hairs become? +How is it that the affections of the philosophers are all in a flutter +after the young; who cannot yet make up their minds which path of life to +take? Is there a law, then, that all ugliness is to be condemned as +vice, and that everything that is beautiful is to be extolled without +further examination? But, according to Homer, the great interpreter of +truth--'One man is meaner than another in looks, but God crowns his words +with beauty, and his hearers gaze upon him with delight, while he speaks +unfalteringly with winning modesty, and is conspicuous amongst the +assembled folk, who look upon him as a God when he walks through the +city.' And again he says: 'Your beauteous form is destitute of +intelligence; the wise Ulysses is praised more highly than the handsome +Nireus.' How then comes it that the love of wisdom, justice, and the +other virtues, which are the heritage of the full-grown man, possess no +attraction for you, while the beauty of boys excites the most vehement +passion! What! should one love Phoedrus, remembering Lysias, whom he +betrayed? Could one love the beauty of Alcibiades, who mutilated the +statues of the Gods, and, in the midst of a debauch, betrayed the +mysteries of the rites of Eleusis? Who would venture to declare himself +his admirer, after Athens was abandoned, and Decelea fortified by the +enemy--the admirer of one whose sole aim in life was tyranny? But, as +the divine Plato says, as long as his chin was beardless, he was beloved +by all; but, when he passed from boyhood to manhood, when his imperfect +intelligence had reached its maturity, he was hated by all. Why, then, +giving modest names to immodest sentiments, do men call personal beauty +virtue, being in reality lovers of youth rather than lovers of wisdom? +However, it is not my intention to speak evil of distinguished men. But, +to descend from graver topics to the mere question of enjoyment, I will +prove that connection with women is far more enjoyable than connection +with boys. In the first place, the longer enjoyment lasts, the more +delight it affords; too rapid pleasure passes quickly away, and it is +over before it is thoroughly appreciated; but, if it lasts, it is thereby +enhanced. Would to heaven that grudging Destiny had allotted us a longer +lease of life, and that we could enjoy perpetual health without any +sorrow to spoil our pleasure; then would our life be one continual feast. +But, since jealous Fortune has grudged us greater blessings, those +enjoyments that last the longest are the sweetest. Again, a woman, from +puberty to middle age, until the last wrinkles furrow her face, is worth +embracing and fit for intercourse; and, even though the prime of her +beauty be past, her experience can speak more eloquently than the love of +boys. + +"I should consider anyone who attempted to have intercourse with a youth +of twenty years to be the slave of unnatural lust. The limbs of such, +like those of a man, are hard and coarse; their chins, formerly so +smooth, are rough and bristly, and their well-grown thighs are disfigured +with hairs. As for their other parts, I leave those of you who have +experience to decide. On the other hand, a woman's charms are always +enhanced by an attractive complexion, flowing locks, dark as hyacinths, +stream down her back and adorn her shoulders, or fall over her ears and +temples, more luxuriant than the parsley in the fields. The rest of her +person, without a hair upon it, shines more brilliantly than amber or +Sidonian crystal. Why should we not pursue those pleasures which are +mutual, which cause equal enjoyment to those who receive and to those who +afford them? For we are not, like animals, fond of solitary lives, but, +united in social relations, we consider these pleasures sweeter, and +those pains easier to bear, which we share with others. Hence, a common +table was instituted, the mediator of friendship. When we minister to +the wants of the belly, we do not drink Thasian wine, or consume costly +food by ourselves alone, but in company: for our pleasures and enjoyments +are increased when shared with others. In like manner, the intercourse +of men with women causes enjoyment to each in turn, and both are alike +delighted; unless we accept the judgment of Tiresias, who declared that +the woman's pleasure was twice as great as the man's. I think that those +who are not selfish should not consider how they may best secure the +whole enjoyment for themselves, but should share what they have with +others. Now, in the case of boys, no one would be mad enough to assert +that this is the case; for, while he who enjoys their person reaches the +height of pleasure--at least, according to his way of thinking--the +object of his passion at first feels pain, even to tears, but when, by +repetition, the pain becomes less keen, while he no longer hurts him, he +will feel no pleasure himself. To mention something still more curious +--as is fitting within the precincts of Venus--you may make the same use +of a woman as of a boy, and thereby open a double avenue to enjoyment; +but the male can never afford the same enjoyment as the female. + +"Therefore, if you are convinced by my arguments, let us, men and women, +keep ourselves apart, as if a wall divided us; but, if it is becoming for +men to have intercourse with men, for the future let women have +intercourse with women. Come, O new generation, inventor of strange +pleasures! As you have devised new methods to satisfy male lust, grant +the same privilege to women; let them have intercourse with one another +like men, girding themselves with the infamous instruments of lust, an +unholy imitation of a fruitless union; in a word, let our wanton Tribads +reign unchecked, and let our women's chambers be disgraced by +hermaphrodites. Far better that a woman, in the madness of her lust, +should usurp the nature of a man, than that man's noble nature should be +so degraded as to play the woman!" + + + + +IV. + + Embasicetas fut bientot au comble de ses voeux. + The Catamite soon reached the height of his passion. + +The theologians class this species of lascivious feeling with pollution +which is complete when it produces a result. The Holy Scripture tells us +of Onan, son of Judas, grandson of Jacob, and husband of Thamar, who was +slain by the Lord because he spilled his semen, "he poured his semen upon +the ground." We may be reproached, perhaps, for citing the Holy Bible +too frequently, but that book contains the knowledge of salvation, and +those who wish to be saved should not fail to study it with assiduity. +That this study has occupied a good part of our life, we admit, and we +have always found that study profitable. To vigorous minds that +admission may seem ridiculous, but we are writing only for pious souls, +and they will willingly applaud this courageous profession of our piety. + +The theologians have also classified onanism and pollution among the sins +against the Holy Ghost, and this being the case, there is no being in the +world who has been sinned against so often. A medium indulgence in this +sin furnished the pleasure of a queen, the severity of one Lucretia does +not repel a thousand Tarquins. Men with vivid imaginations create for +themselves a paradise peopled with the most beautiful houris, more +seductive than those of Mahomet; Lycoris had a beautiful body but it was +unfeeling; the imagination of her lover pictured her as falling before +his caresses, he led her by the hand over pressed flowers, through a +thick grove and along limpid streams; in that sweet reverie his life +slipped by. + + Here icy cold fountains, here flower covered meadows, Lycoris; + Here shady groves; life itself here would I dream out with thee. + + Virgil Bucol. Ecl. X, 41. + +In the minds of the theologians pollution is synonymous with all +pleasures with persons of the opposite or the same sex, which result in a +waste of the elixir of life. In this sense, love between woman and woman +is pollution and Sappho is a sinner against the Holy Ghost. + +(Notwithstanding), however (these caprices of the third person of the +trinity) I cannot see why pleasure should be regulated, or why a woman +who has surveyed all the charms of a young girl of eighteen years should +give herself up to the rude embraces of a man. What comparisons can be +made between those red lips, that mouth which breathes pleasure for the +first time, those snowy and purplous cheeks whose velvet smoothness is +like the Venus flower, half in bloom, that new-born flesh which +palpitates softly with desire and voluptuousness, that hand which you +press so delicately, those round thighs, those plastic buttocks, that +voice sweet and touching,--what comparison can be made between all this +and pronounced features, rough beard, hard breast, hairy body, and the +strong disagreeable voice of man? Juvenal has wonderfully expended all +his bile in depicting, as hideous scenes, these mysteries of the Bona +Dea, where the young and beautiful Roman women, far from the eyes of men, +give themselves up to mutual caresses. Juvenal has painted the eyes of +the Graces with colors which are proper to the Furies; his tableau, +moreover, revolts one instead of doing good. + +The only work of Sappho's which remains to us is an ode written to one of +her loved ones and from it we may judge whether the poetess merited her +reputation. It has been translated into all languages; Catullus put it +into Latin and Boileau into French. Here follows an imitation of that of +Catullus: + + Peer of a God meseemeth he, + Nay passing Gods (and that can be!) + Who all the while sits facing thee + Sees thee and hears + Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze + Mine every sense, and as I gaze + Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays + + My tongue is dulled, limbs adown + Flows subtle flame; with sound its own + Rings either ear, and o'er are strown + Mine eyes with night. + + (LI. Burton, tr.) + +After that we should never again exhort the ministers and moralists to +inveigh against love of women for women; never was the interest of men +found to be so fully in accord with the precepts of divine law. + +Here I should like to speak of the brides of the Lord; but I remember +"The Nun" of Diderot, and my pen falls from my hand. Oh, who would dare +to touch a subject handled by Diderot? + + + + +V. + + Giton venait de la deflorer, et de remporter une victoire sanglante. + Giton the victor had won a not bloodless victory. + +All people have regarded virginity as something sacred, and God has so +honored it that he willed that his son be born of a virgin, fecundated, +however, by the Holy Ghost. Still, it appears problematical whether the +Virgin Mary, complete virgin that she was, did not have the same pleasure +as those who are not virgins, when she received the divine annunciation. +Father Sanchez has discussed the question very fully "whether the Virgin +Mary 'spent' in copulation with the Holy-Ghost," unhappily, he decided in +the negative, and I have too much veneration for Father Sanchez not to +submit to his decision; but because of it, I am vexed with the Virgin +Mary and the Holy Ghost. + +Notwithstanding this, the daughters of the people of the Lord were not +content to remain virgins; a state of being which, at bottom has not much +to recommend it. The daughter of Jephtha before being immolated for the +sake of the Lord, demanded of her father a reprieve of two months in +which to weep for her virginity upon the mountains of Gelboe; it seems it +should not have taken so long had she had nothing to regret. Ruth had +recourse to the quickest method when she wished to cease being a virgin; +she simply went and lay down upon the bed with Boaz. The spirit of God +has deemed it worth while to transmit this story to us, for the +instruction of virgins from century to century. + +The pagan Gods thought highly of maidenheads, they often took them and +always, they set aside the virgins for themselves. The Phtyian, from +whose organ Apollo was foreordained to come, proved to be only a virgin; +the spirit of God did not communicate itself to anyone who had ever been +sullied by contact with a mortal. It was to virgins that the sacred +fires of Vesta were entrusted, and the violation of their virginity was a +capital crime which all Rome regarded as a scourge from wrathful heaven. + +The Sybils lived and died virgins; in addressing the Cumaean Sybil, +AEneas never failed to bestow that title upon her. + +Most of the immortals have preserved their virginity, Diana, Minerva, et +cet. But what is the most astonishing is that the companions of Venus +and Amor, the most lovable of all divinities, the Graces, were also +virgins. Juno became a virgin again every year, by bathing in the waters +of a magic fountain; that must have rendered Jupiter's duties rather +onerous. + +There are some reasons for this passion of mankind for maidenheads. It +is so wonderful to give the first lessons of voluptuousness to a pure and +innocent heart, to feel under one's hand the first palpitations of the +virginal breasts which arouses unknown delights, to dry the first tears +of tenderness, to inspire that first mixture of fear and hope, of vague +desires and expectant inquietude; whoever has never had that satisfaction +has missed the most pleasurable of all the delights of love. But taken +in that sense, virginity is rather a moral inclination, as Buffon says, +than a physical matter, and nothing can justify the barbarous precautions +against amorous theft which were taken by unnatural fathers and jealous +husbands. + +In those unhappy countries which are bent under oppression, in those +countries where heaven shows its heat in the beauty of the sex, and +where beauty is only an object of speculation for avid parents; in such +countries, I say, they resort to the most odious methods for preserving +the virginity of the young and beautiful daughters who are destined to be +sold like common cattle. They put a lock over the organ of pleasure and +never permit it to be opened except when it is strictly necessary for +carrying out those animal functions for which nature destined them. + +The locks of chastity were long known in Europe; the Italians are accused +with this terrible invention. Nevertheless, it is certain that they were +used upon men, at least, in the time of the first Roman emperors. +Juvenal, in his satire against women, VI, says: "If the singers please +them there is no need for locks of chastity for those who have sold their +voices to the praetors, who keep them." + + Si gaudet cantu, nullius fibula durat + Vocem vendentis praetoribus. + Sat. VI, 379. + + If pleased by the song of the singer employed by the praetor + No fibula long will hold out, free, the actor will greet her. + +Christianity, most spiritual, most mystical of ancient religions, +attempts to make out a great case for celibacy. Its founder never +married, although the Pharisees reproached him for frequenting gay women, +and had, perhaps, some reason for so doing. Jesus showed a particular +affection for Mary Magdalen, to the point of exciting the jealousy of +Martha, who complained that her sister passed her time in conversation +with Jesus and left her with all the housework to do. "Mary has chosen +the better part," said the Savior. A good Christian must not doubt that +the colloquies were always spiritual. + +St. Paul counseled virginity and most of the apostolic fathers practiced +it. Among others, St. Jerome lived his whole life among women and never +lost his purity. He answered his enemies who reproached him with his +very great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof +of his chastity was that he stank. That stinking of St. Jerome, which is +not a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of +pious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it. + +When the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be +submitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its +interests and those of the common people as far as possible it must +tighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens. Also the Pope +who was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused +it most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and +enunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain +their celibacy. However, although neither priests nor monks were +permitted to marry, the epithet "virgins" cannot be justly applied to all +priests and all monks without exception. Nor shall I repeat here the +naughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others, +against the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more +"satyrical" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have +nothing to say. + + + + +VI. + + Alors une vielle. . . . + Finally an old woman . . . + +The question here has to do with a procurers or go-between. That +profession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what +fatality, which befalls the most worthy things. Cervantes the only +philosophic author Spain has produced, wanted that calling to be +venerated in cities above all others. And truly, when one thinks how +much finesse is necessary to pursue that profession with success, when +one considers that those who practice that truly liberal art are the +repositories of the most important as well as the most sacred secrets, +one would never fail to have the greatest respect for them. The +tranquillity of homes, the civil state of persons they hold at their +discretion, and still, though they drink in insults, though they endure +abuse, very rarely do these beings, true stoics, compromise those who +have confided in them. + +In their Mercury, the ancients realized their beau ideal or archetype +of go-between which they called; in vulgar language "pimp". That God, +as go-between for Jupiter, was often involved in the most hazardous +enterprises, such as abducting Io, who was guarded by Argus of the +hundred eyes; Mercury I say, was the God of concord, or eloquence, +and of mystery. Except to inspire them with friendly feeling and kind +affections, Mercury never went among mortals. Touched by his wand, +venomous serpents closely embraced him. Listening to him, Achilles +forgot his pride, extended hospitality to Priam and permitted him to take +away the body of Hector. The ferocious Carthaginians were softened +through the influence of this God of peace, and received the Trojans in +friendship. Mercury it was who gathered men into society and substituted +social customs for barbarism. He invented the lyre and was the master of +Amphion, who opened the walls of Thebes by the charm of his singing. +Mercury or Hermes gave the first man knowledge; but it was enveloped in a +mysterious veil which it was never permitted the profane to penetrate, +which signifies that all that he learned from God, concerning amorous +adventures, should be wrapped in profound silence. How beautiful all +these allegories are! And how true! How insipid life would be without +these mysterious liaisons, by which Nature carries out her designs, +eluding the social ties, without breaking them! Disciples of Mercury, I +salute you, whatever be your sex; to your discretion, to your persuasive +arts are confided our dearest interests, the peace of mind of husbands, +the happiness of lovers, the reputation of women, the legitimacy of +children. Without you, this desolated earth would prove to be, in +reality, a vale of tears; the young and beautiful wife united to decrepit +husband, would languish and grow weak, like the lonely flower which the +sun's rays never touch. Thus did Mexence bind in thine indissoluble +bands the living and the dead. + +Fate, however, has often avenged the go-betweens on account of the +misunderstandings from which they suffer at the hands of the vulgar. +Otho opened the way to the empire of the world by his services as a +go-between for Nero. And the go-betweens of princes, and even of +princesses, are always found in the finest situations. Even Otho did not +lose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, "because +he was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea." "Uxoris moechus +coeperate esse suae" (Suet. Otho, chap. 111), said malicious gossip at +Rome. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +To the scholar contemplating an exhaustive study of Petronius, the +masterly bibliography compiled by Gaselee is indispensable, and those +of my readers who desire to pursue the subject are referred to it. +The following is a list of editions, translations, criticisms and +miscellaneous publications and authors from which I have derived benefit +in the long and pleasant hours devoted to Petronius. + + +EDITIONS, Opera Omnia. + +Frellon Lyons 1615. +Hadrianides Amsterdam 1669. +Bourdelot Paris 1677. +Boschius Amsterdam 1677. +Burmann Utrecht 1709. +Anton Leipzig 1781. +Buecheler Berlin 1862. +Herxus (Buecheler) Berlin 1911. + + + +TRAU FRAGMENT. + Amsterdam 1670. + Containing Frambotti's + corrections. + +Gaselee Cambridge 1915. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Cardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love +Fierce morality, inimical to all the pleasures of life +Hardouin on homosexuality in priests +Religions responsible for the most abominable actions +Remarkable resemblance to each other are the Bible and Homer +Stinking of St. Jerome +Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing women + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Satyricon, Volume 7 (Marchena +Notes), by Petronius Arbiter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, VOLUME 7 *** + +***** This file should be named 5224.txt or 5224.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/2/5224/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Satyricon, v7 (Marchena Notes) + +Author: Petronius Arbiter + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5224] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 8, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS, V7 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + + THE SATYRICON OF + PETRONIUS ARBITER + + Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh, + in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena, + and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas. + + + + SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA. + + + +TO THE ARMY OF THE RHINE. + +The conquests of the French have resulted, during this war, in a boon to +knowledge and to letters. Egypt has furnished us with monuments of its +aboriginal inhabitants, which the ignorance and superstition of the Copts +and Mussulmans kept concealed from civilized countries. The libraries of +the convents of the various countries have been ransacked by savants and +precious manuscripts have been brought to light. + +By no means the least interesting of the acquisitions is a fragment of +Petronius, which we offer to the public, taken from an ancient manuscript +which our soldiers, in conquering St. Gall, have sent to us for +examination. We have made an important discovery in reading a parchment +which contains the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests, and +which, judging from the form of the letters employed, we should say was +written in the eleventh century. A most careful examination led us to +perceive that the work by this saint had been written on pages containing +written letters, which had been almost effaced. We know that in the dark +ages it was customary to write ecclesiastical works on the manuscripts +containing the best authors of Latinity. + +At a cost of much labor we have been able to decipher a morsel which we +give to the public: and of the authenticity of which there can be no +doubt. We render homage to the brave French army to which we owe this +acquisition. + +It is easy to notice that there is a lacuna in that passage of Petronius +in which Encolpius is left with Quartilla, looking through a chink in the +door, at the actions of Giton and little Pannychis. A few lines below, +it relates, in effect, that he was fatigued by the voluptuous enjoyment +of Quartilla, and in that which remains to us, there is no mention of the +preliminaries to this enjoyment. The style of the Latin so closely +resembles the original of Petronius that it is impossible to believe that +the fragment was forged. + +For the benefit of those who have not read the author, it is well to +state that this Quartilla was a priestess of Priapus, at whose house they +celebrated the mysteries of that god. Pannychis is a young girl of seven +years who had been handed over to Giton to be deflowered. This Giton is +the "good friend" of Encolpius, who is supposed to relate the scene. +Encolpius, who had drunk an aphrodisiacal beverage, is occupied with +Quartilla in peeping through the door to see in what manner Giton was +acquitting himself in his role. At that moment a soldier enters the +house. + +Finally an old woman, about whom there is some question in the fragment, +is the same as the one who had unexpectedly conducted Encolpius to the +house of the public women and of whom mention is made in the beginning of +the work. + + Ipsa Venus magico religatum brachia nodo + Perdocuit, multis non sine verberibus. + Tibullus viii, 5. + + + +I. + + Vous verrez que vous avez affaire a un homme. + You will learn that you have to deal with a man. + +Fighting men have in all times been distinguished on account of the +beauty of their women. The charming fable of the loves of Venus and +Mars, described by the most ancient of poets, expresses allegorically, +this truth. All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most +valiant were always the most passionate and the happiest. Hercules took +the maidenheads of fifty girls, in a single night. Thesus loved a +thousand beauties, and slept with them. Jason abandoned Hypsipyle for +Medea, and her, for Creusa. Achilles, the swift of foot, forgot the +tender Deidamia in the arms of his Briseis. + +It has been remarked that the lovers did not have very scrupulous tastes +in their methods of attaining satisfaction from the women they loved. +The most common method was abduction and the women always submitted to +this without a murmur of any sort. Helen was carried off by Theseus, +after having also been abducted by Paris. The wife of Atreus was +abducted by Thyestus, and from that arose the implacable hatred between +the two families. Rape was no less common. Goddesses themselves and the +favorites of the Gods were at the risk of falling prey to strong mortals. +Pirithous, aided by Theseus, even attempted to snatch Proserpina from the +God of the under-world. Juno herself was compelled to painful submission +to the pursuit of Ixion, and Thetis succumbed despite herself, to the +assaults of Peleus. The gift of foretelling the future, with which +Apollo endowed Cassandra, did not insure her against the brutal caresses +of Ajax, son of Oileus. + +In the infancy of society, there was never known any other distinction +except between the weak and the strong: the strong commanded and the weak +obeyed. For that reason, women were regarded in the light of beings +destined by nature, to serve the pleasures and even the caprices of men. +Never did her suitors express a tender thought for Penelope, and, instead +of making love to her, they squandered her property, slept with her +slaves, and took charge of things in her house. + +Circe gave herself to Ulysses who desired to slay her, and Calypso, full +blown goddess as she was, was obliged to make his advances for him. The +fine sentiments that Virgil puts into the mouth of the shade of Creusa, +content with having died while serving against the Greeks, "she was a +Trojan, and she wedded the son of Venus"; the confession with which +Andromache, confronted by the murderer of her first husband, responds to +the question of AEneas; these ideas, I say, and these sentiments, +appertained to the polished century of Augustus and not to the epoch or, +scene of the Trojan War. Virgil, in his AEneid, had never subscribed to +the precepts of Horace, and of common sense: + + Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge + Horace Ars Poet. 119. + +From this manner of dealing with women arose another reason for the +possession of beauty by the valiant. One coveted a woman much as one +would covet a fine flock of sheep, and, in the absence of laws, the one +in possession of either the one or the other of these desirable objects +would soon be dispossessed of them if he was not courageous enough to +guard them against theft. Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing +women as they were for taking other property, and one should remember +that Agamemnon promised to retire from before Troy if the Trojans would +restore Helen and his riches to Menelaus; things which Paris had +despoiled him of. + +Also, there was never any of that thing we call "conjugal honor" among +the Greeks; that idea was far too refined; it was a matter too complex +ever to have entered the heads of these semi-barbarous people. This is +exemplified in the fact that, after the taking of Troy, Helen, who had, +of her own free will, belonged successively to Paris, and to Deiphobus, +afterwards returned to Menelaus, who never offered her any reproach. +That conduct of Menelaus was so natural that Telemachus, who, in his trip +to Sparta found Helen again with Menelaus, just as she was before her +abduction, did not show the least astonishment. + +The books which bear the most remarkable resemblance to each other are +the Bible and Homer, because the people they describe and the men about +whom they speak are forerunners of civilization in pretty much the same +degree. Sarah was twice snatched from the bosom of Abraham and he was +never displeased with his wife and continued to live on good terms with +her. David, a newcomer on the throne, hastened to have Michol brought to +him although she had already married another man. + +The best proof that, during the time of the Romans the women preferred +soldiers to other men is in the claims to successful enterprises by the +bragging soldier of Plautus. Pyrgopolinices thought it was only +necessary to pose as a great warrior, to have all the women chasing after +him; therefore, his parasite and his slave spoke of nothing but the +passions be inspired in women. Tradition has it that among the Samnites, +the bravest men had the choice of the fairest women, and to this custom +is attributed one of the reasons these people were so warlike. + +In the times of chivalry the greatest exploits were achieved for the +pleasure of one's Lady-Love, and there were even such valiant knights, as +Don Quixote, who went about the world proving by force of arms that their +ladies had no peer. The poverty-stricken troubadours singing +harmoniously about their beautiful women found them flying away in the +arms of knights who had broken lances at tournaments, or had performed +the greatest feats of arms. In fine, all the peoples of the world have +said with Dryden: + + "None but the brave deserves the fair." + + + + +II. + + Ses camarades se saisissent de moi et de Quartilla. + His comrades seized hold of Quartilla and me. + +The profession of Quartilla corresponded to that which is followed by +our ladies of the Palace Royal. This Palace Royal is a sort of Babylon, +with this difference; that the former prostitute themselves all the year +round, and that they are not quite so attractive as the Chaldean +beauties. For the rest, one of the incontestable facts of ancient +history is this prostitution of the women of Babylon in honor of Venus, +and I cannot understand why Voltaire refused to believe it, since +religions have always been responsible for the most abominable actions, +and because religious wars, the horrors of intolerance, the impostures of +priests, the despotism of kings, the degradation and stupidity of the +people, have been the direct fatal effects of religions; and seeing that +the blind fanaticism of martyrs and the brutal cruelty of tyrants is a +hundred times more deplorable than a sacrifice equally agreeable to the +victim and to the one who officiates at the sacrifice; and seeing that +the enjoyment and giving of life is no less holy than the maceration and +caging of innocent animals. + +The origin of courtesans is lost in the deepest antiquity. It appears +that it was one of the patriarchal customs to enjoy them, for Judah slept +with Thamar, widow of his two sons, and who, to seduce him, disguised +herself as a courtesan. Another courtesan, Rahab, played a great role in +the first wars of the people of the Lord: it was this same Rahab who +married Solomon, father of Boaz, fourth forefather of David, and +thirty-second forefather of Jesus Christ, our divine Savior. Yet the +eternal sagacity of man has failed to take notice of this profession and +to resent the injustice done it by the scorn of men. The elected kings +of the people, the man who adopts the word father according to the +flesh, are descendants of a courtesan. + +For the rest, it must be admitted that many who follow this noble +profession are unworthy of it and only too well justify the ignominy +which is levelled against the entire class. You see these miserable +creatures with livid complexions and haggard eyes, with voices of +Stentor, breathing out at the same time the poisons which circulate in +their veins and the liquors with which they are intoxicated; you see on +their blemished and emaciated bodies, the marks of beings more hideous +than they (twenty come to satisfy their brutal passions for every one of +them); you listen to their vile language, you hear their oaths and +revolting expressions: to go to these Megeres is often to encounter +brigands and assassins: what a spectacle! It is the deformity of vice +in the rags of indigence. + +Ah! But these are not courtesans, they are the dregs of cities. A +courtesan worthy of the name is a beautiful woman, gracious and amiable, +at whose home gather men of letters and men of the world; the first +magistrates, the greatest captains: and who keeps men of all professions +in a happy state of mind because she is pleasing to them, she inspires in +them a desire for reciprocal pleasure: such an one was Aspasia who, after +having charmed the cultured people of Athens was for a long time the good +companion of Pericles, and contributed much, perhaps, towards making his +century what it was, the age of taste in arts and letters. Such an +one also was Phryne, Lais, Glycera, and their names will always be +celebrated; such, also, was Ninon d'Enclos, one of the ornaments of +the century of Louis XIV, and Clairon, the first who realized all the +grandeur of her art; such an one art thou, C-----, French Thalia, who +commands attentions, I do not say this by way of apology but to share the +opinion of Alceste. + +A courtesan such as I have in mind may have all the public and private +virtues. One knows the severe probity of Ninon, her generosity, her +taste for the arts, her attachment to her friends. Epicharis, the soul +of the conspiracy of Piso against the execrable Nero, was a courtesan, +and the severe Tacitus, who cannot be taxed with a partiality for +gallantry, has borne witness to the constancy with which she resisted the +most seductive promises and endured the most terrible tortures, without +revealing any of the details of the conspiracy or any of the names of the +conspirators. + +These facts should be recognized above that ascetic moral idea which +consists of the sovereign virtue of abstinence in defiance of nature's +commands and which places weakness in these matters along with the most +odious crimes. Can one see without indignation Suetonius' reproach of +Caesar for his gallantries with Servilia, with Tertia, and other Roman +ladies, as a thing equal to his extortions and his measureless ambitions, +and praising his warlike ardor against peoples who had never furnished +room for complaint to Rome? The source of these errors was the theory of +emanations. The first dreamers, who were called philosophers imagined +that matter and light were co-eternal; they supposed that was all one +unformed and tenebrous mass; and from the former they established the +principle of evil and of all imperfection, while they regarded the latter +as sovereign perfection. Creation, or, one might better say +co-ordination, was only the emanation of light which penetrated chaos, +but the mixture of light and matter was the cause of all the inevitable +imperfections of the universe. The soul of man was part and parcel of +divinity or of increased light; it would never attain happiness until it +was re-united to the source of all light; but for it, we would be free +from all things we call gross and material, and we would be taken into +the ethereal regions by contemplation and by abstinence from the +pleasures of the flesh. When these absurdities were adopted for the +regulation of conduct, they necessarily resulted in a fierce morality, +inimical to all the pleasures of life, such, in a word, as that of the +Gymnosophists or, in a lesser measure, of the Trappists. + +But despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the +wonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans. +It was about the houses of these that revolved the sands of Pactolus, +their fame exceeded that of the first men of Greece. The rich offerings +that decorated the temples of the Gods were the gifts of these women, +and it must be remembered that most of them were foreigners, originating, +for the most part, in Asia Minor. It happened that an Athenian +financier, who resembled the rest of his tribe as much as two drops of +water, proposed once to levy an impost upon the courtesans. As he spoke +eloquently of the incalculable advantages which would accrue to the +Government by this tax, a certain person asked him by whom the courtesans +were paid. "By the Athenians," replied our orator, after deliberation. +"Then it would be the Athenians who would pay the impost," replied the +questioner, and the people of Athens, who had a little more sense than +certain legislative assemblies, hooted the orator down, and there was +never any more question about a tax upon courtesans. + +Corinth was famous for the number and beauty of its courtesans, from +which comes the proverb: "It is not given to every man to go to Corinth"; +there they ran the risk of losing their money and ruining their health. +The cause of this great vogue of courtesans in Greece was not the +supposed ugliness of the sex, as the savant Paw imagined, and +contradicted by the unanimous evidence of ancient authors and of modern +travellers; but rather, the retired and solitary life which the women of +the country led. They lived in separate apartments and never had any +communication with the streets or with the residences of men "the inner +part of the house which was called the women's apartments," said +Cornelius Nepos (preface). Strangers never visited them; they rarely +visited their nearest relations. This was why marriage between brothers +and sisters was authorized by law and encouraged by usage; the sisters +were exposed to the attacks of their brothers because they lived +separated from them. + +With the Romans, as with us, the virtuous women corrupted somewhat the +profession of the courtesans. The absolute seclusion of women was never +the fashion at Rome and the stories we have on the authority of Valerius +Maximus on the chastity and modesty of the first Roman matrons merit the +same degree of belief as the legend of Romulus and Remus being brought up +by a wolf, the rape of Lucretia or the tragic death of Virginia. On the +contrary, in Livy, a great admirer of the customs of the early days of +Rome, we find that in those times a great number of Roman women of the +noblest families were convicted of having poisoned their husbands and +condemned to death for this hideous crime: that, by no means shows a very +exquisite and tender conjugal sentiment. During the period of the second +Punic War with what energy they went about the city seeking the repeal of +the law which took out of their hands the custody of jewels and precious +stones! A repeal which they obtained despite the opposition of Cato the +Censor. It appears that the profession of the courtesan was generally +practised by the freed-women; their manner necessarily showed the results +of their education. But the young sparks of Rome never paid much +attention to them, they preferred to have love affairs with the wives of +their friends. For one Sallust who ruined himself with freedwomen, there +were five Cupienniuses; "Cupiennius, that admirer of the pudenda garbed +in white," Hor. Sat. I, ii, 36. Delia, Lesbia, Ipsythillia, Corinna, +Nemesis, Neeria, Cynthia, Sulpitia, Lycimnia, and almost all the women to +whom, under real or assumed names, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, +Horace, and others, addressed their erotic compositions, were Roman +married women. Horace is the only one who celebrated a freedwoman in +some of his odes. This is due, however, to his taste for variety and +perhaps also, to his birth, for he himself was the son of a freedwoman. +Ovid's Art of Love and the Satires of Juvenal reveal the extent to which +gallantry was the fashion at Rome and Cato would never have praised the +conduct of that young man who had recourse to a public house if that had +been an ordinary course of procedure. + +In Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some +extent in reviving the profession of the courtesans. Long before, Saint +Paul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles +of the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity. The +deaconesses date from the first century of the church. But the celibacy +of the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the +eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII. During the +preceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their +lovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and +grandsons, as well. But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they +ostensibly took the concubines of which, alas! our housekeepers of today +are but feeble vestiges. The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often +concerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los +clerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably +appeared worthy of envy. Finally the courtesans appeared in all their +magnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and +indignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome. +The princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their +feet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age +of Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and +beautiful women. But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this +calm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the +revenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful +courtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their +pleasures have fled with them. And can anyone longer believe in the +perfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human +institutions has so visibly degenerated! + + + + +III. + + Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m'accabler de ses impurs baisers. + + The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking + kisses. + +One of the reasons which caused the learned and paradoxical Hardouin to +assert that all the works which have been attributed to the ancients, +with the exception of the Georgics and the Natural History of Pliny, were +the compositions of monks, was doubtless the very frequent repetition of +scenes of love for boys, which one notices in most of these writings: +this savant was a Jesuit. But this taste is not peculiar to convents; it +is to be found among all peoples and in all climates; its origin is lost +in the night of the centuries; it is common in the most polished nations +and it is common among savage tribes. Profound philosophers have argued +in favor of it; poets have sung the objects of this sort of love in their +tender and passionate compositions, and these compositions have always +been the delight of posterity. What stupid or unfeeling reader can read +without emotion that beautiful eclogue of Virgil where Corydon sighs his +hopeless love for the beautiful Alexis? The most passionate ode of +Horace is that one in which he complains of the harshness of Ligurinus. +The tender Tibullus, deceived by his Marathus, brings tears to all who +have hearts. The delicate Anacreon, praising his Bathylle, and the +valiant Alceus giving himself up after his labors in war to sing of the +dark eyes and black hair of Lycus . . . "with dark eyes and black hair +beautiful." It is not to over-civilized refinements of society which, +according to certain misanthropists, degrade nature and corrupt it, that +this taste is due; it is found among the south sea islanders, and the +evidence of the first Spaniards attests that it was common among the +hordes of American Indians before the discovery of the new world. Paw +had attempted to explain this as resulting from defects in the formation +of the organs of pleasure among the natives; but a peculiar cause is not +sufficient explanation for a universal effect. + +At the time of the Patriarchs, Greek love was so general that in the four +cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim, it was impossible to find ten +men exempt from the contagion; that number would have sufficed, said the +Lord, to withhold the punishment which he inflicted upon those cities. + +It should be noted here that most of the assertions about the morals of +the Israelites which are to be found in the Erotica Biblon of Mirabeau +are either false or pure guesswork. It is a bizarre method of judging +the morals of a people, that of taking their legal code and inferring +that the people were accustomed to break all the laws which are forbidden +by that code. Nevertheless, that is the method which the author of the +Erotica Biblon adopts for portraying the morals of the Jewish people. +Again, he has not even understood this code; he has believed that the law +against giving one's seed to the idol Moloch meant giving the human +semen; and he is ignorant of the fact that this seed, as spoken of in the +Bible, means the children and descendants. Thus it is that the land of +Canaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, and the perpetuity of the +reign on Sion to that of David. Moloch was a Phoenician deity, the same +one to which, in Carthage, they sacrificed children; the Romans believed +him to be a reincarnation of their Saturn, but Saturn was an Etruscan +divinity who could never have had any connection with the Gods of +Phoenicia. He (Mirabeau) has translated "those who polluted the temple" +as meaning those who were guilty of some obscenity in the temple; and he +does not know that the temple was "polluted" by a thousand acts, declared +impure by law, and which were not obscene. The entrance of a woman into +a sacred place, less than forty days after her accouchement, or the +entrance of a man who had touched an impure animal, constituted a +pollution of the House of the Lord. When one wishes to make a parade of +erudition he should make some attempt to understand the things which he +pretends to make clear to others. Or is it that this Mirabeau was merely +careless? + +The love of boys was so thoroughly the fashion in Greece that we have +today given it the name "Greek Love." Orestes was regarded as the "good +friend" of Pylades and Patroclus as the lover of Achilles. In this +taste, the Gods set the example for mortals, and the abduction of +Ganymede for the service of the master of thunder, was not the least +cause for annoyance given the chaste but over-prudish Juno. Lastly, +Hercules was not content with the loves of Omphale and Dejanira, he also +loved the beautiful Hylas, who was brought up by the nymphs. + +The Greeks boasted, without blushing, of this love, which they considered +the only passion worthy of men, and they did blush at loving a woman, +intimacy with whom, they said, only rendered her adorers soft and +effeminate. In the Dialogue of Plato, entitled "The Banquet," which is +concerned entirely with discussions of the various forms of love, they +dismiss love for women as unworthy of occupying the attention of sensible +men. One of the speakers, I believe it was Aristophanes, explaining the +cause of this fire which we kindle in the bosoms of our loved ones, +affirms that the first men were doubles which multiplied their force and +their power. This, they abused and, as punishment, Jupiter struck them +with lightning and separated them. By their love for each other they +came together again to regain their primitive state. But the effeminates +sought out only the women because they were only half men, half women; +while those whose tastes were masculine and courageous wanted to become +double men again. + +Phedre has put into the mouth of AEsop an explanation of that love which +would certainly not have been relished by the Greeks. He says that while +Prometheus was occupied with modelling his man and woman, he was invited +to a feast given by Jupiter, to the Gods; he came back intoxicated and, +by mistake, applied the sexual parts of one to the body of the other. + +For the rest, the Greeks were all in accord in their profound contempt +for women. The theatrical writers, especially, who studied more +particularly the general opinions and catered to them in order to obtain +the applause of the public, were distinguished by their bitterness +against the sex. Euripides maintained that Prometheus deserved to be +chained to Mount Caucasus with the vulture gnawing at his entrails, +because he had fashioned a being so pernicious and hateful as woman. The +shade of Agamemnon, in the Odyssey advised Ulysses not to put any faith +in Penelope and did not stop talking until he had enumerated the entire +list of the vices of the sex. The first Latin authors imitated the +Greeks in their invectives against women; the comedies of Plautus, +especially, teem with virulent attacks upon them. + +At Rome, however, the great freedom permitted to women, soon brought +about other opinions in regard to them; they often played an important +role in public and private affairs, and the men convinced themselves +that, like men, women were capable of the greatest crimes and of the most +heroic virtues. The noble stoicism of Arria is not the only example of +courageous virtue displayed by the Roman women at a time when crowned +monsters governed the empire. The young Paulina opened her veins with +her husband, the philosopher, Seneca; Mallonia preferred to die in +torments rather than give herself up to the odious he-goat of Capri. +Who does not admire the noble independence, the conjugal love, and the +matronly virtues of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus? + +Moreover, men began to avow their love for women, and we have here +occasion to observe the rapid progress of gallantry among the Romans. +However, the love for boys was no less universally in vogue in Rome, and +Cicero charges, in his letters to Atticus, that the judges who had so +scandalously white-washed Clodius of the accusation of having profaned +the mysteries of the "Good Goddess," had been publicly promised the +favors of the most illustrious women and the finest young men of the +first families. Caesar himself, in his early youth had yielded to the +embraces of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia; moreover, after his triumph over +the Gauls, on the solemn occasion when it was customary to twit the +victor with all his faults, the soldiers sang: "Caesar subdued the Gauls, +Nicomedes subdued Caesar. But Caesar who subdued the Gauls, triumphed, +and Nicomedes, who subdued Caesar did not." Cato said of him that he was +loved by the King, in his youth and that, when he was older, he loved the +queen and, one day, in the senate, while he was dwelling on I know not +what request of the daughter of Nicomedes, and recounting the benefits +which Rome owed to that monarch, Cicero silenced him by replying: "We +know very well what he has given, and what thou hast given him!" At +last, during the time when the first triumvirate divided all the power, +a bad joker remarked to Pompey: "I salute thee, O King," and, addressing +Caesar, "I salute thee, O Queen!" His enemies maintained that he was the +husband of all the women and the wife of all the husbands. Catullus, who +detested him, always called him "the bald catamite," in his epigrams: he +set forth that his friendship with Mamurra was not at all honorable; he +called this Mamurra "pathicus," a name which they bestowed upon those who +looked for favors among mature men or among men who had passed the stage +of adolescence. + +The masters of the empire never showed any hesitancy in trying and even +in overdoing the pleasures which all their subjects permitted themselves. +Alas! A crown is such a weighty burden! The road of domination is +strewn with so many briars that one would never be able to pass down it +if he did not take care that they were pressed down under the roses. The +Roman emperors adopted that plan; they longed for pleasures and they took +the pleasures which offered themselves without delay and in a spirit of +competition. Caligula was so little accustomed to waiting that, while +occupied in offering a sacrifice to the Gods, and the figure of a priest +having pleased him, he did not take time to finish the sacred ceremonies +before taking his pleasure of him. + +A remarkable thing is that among almost all peoples, the baths are the +places where the prostitution of men by their own sex is the most common. +We see in Catullus that the "cinaedi" (catamites), a noun which my chaste +pen refuses to translate into French, haunted the baths incessantly to +carry out their practices. Among the Orientals, of all modern peoples +who have retained this taste most generally, this same fact holds good. +It was at the bath that Tiberius, impotent through old age and +debauchery, was made young again by the touch little children applied to +his breasts; these children he called "'little fishes," they sucked his +withered breasts, his infected mouth, his livid lips, and finally his +virile parts. Hideous spectacle of a tyrant disgraced by nature and +struggling against her maledictions! But in vain did he invent new +pleasures, in vain did he take part in these scenes in which groups of +young men by threes and fours assumed all sorts of lascivious postures, +and were at the same time active and passive; the sight of these +indulgences of the "sprintriae" (for that is the name which was given +there) did not enable him to resuscitate his vigor any more than the +glamor of the throne or the servile submission of the senate served to +mitigate his remorse. + +But of all the emperors, the ones who carried their taste for young boys +to the greatest lengths were, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian. The first +publicly wedded the young eunuch Sporus, whom he had had operated upon so +that he might serve him like a young woman. He paid court to the boy as +he would to a woman and another of his favorites dressed himself up in a +veil and imitated the lamentations which women were accustomed to utter +on nuptial nights. The second consecrated the month of September to his +favorite and the third loved Antinous passionately and caused him to be +deified after death. + +The most ample proof of the universality of the taste for young boys +among the Romans is found in the Epithalamium of Manilius and Julia, by +Catullus, and it might be cause for surprise that this has escaped all +the philologists, were it not a constant thing that men frequently +reading about these centuries fail to perceive the most palpable facts +in their authors, just as they pass over the most striking phenomena of +nature without observing them. It appears, from this epithalamium, that +young men, before their marriage, had a favorite selected from among +their slaves and that this favorite was charged with the distribution of +nuts among his comrades, on the day, they in turn, treated him with +contempt and hooted him. Here follows an exact translation of this +curious bit. The favorite could not refuse the nuts to the slaves when +by giving them it appeared that he owned that his master had put away his +love for hire. + + "Lest longer mute tongue stays that + In festal jest, from Fescennine, + Nor yet deny their nuts to boys, + He-Concubine! who learns in fine + His lordling's love is fled. + + Throw nuts to boys thou idle all + He-Concubine! wast fain full long + With nuts to play: now pleased as thrall + Be thou to swell Talasios' throng + He-Concubine throw nuts. + + Wont thou as peasant-girls to jape + He-whore! Thy Lord's delight the while: + Now shall hair-curling chattel scrape + Thy cheeks: poor wretch, ah' poor and vile:-- + He-Concubine, throw nuts." + +and further on, addressing the husband: + + "'Tis said from smooth-faced ingle train + (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain + Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain! + O Hymen Hymenaeus io, + O Hymen Hymenaeus! + + We know that naught save licit rites + Be known to thee, but wedded wights + No more deem lawful such delights. + O Hymen Hymenaeus io, + O Hymen Hymenaeus." + (LXI. Burton, tr.) + +The Christian religion strongly prohibits this love; the theologians put +it among the sins which directly offend against the Holy Ghost. I have +not the honor of knowing just why this thing arouses his anger so much +more than anything else; doubtless there are reasons. But the wrath of +this honest person has not prevented the Christians from having their +"pathici," just as they have in countries where they are authorized by +the reigning deities. We have even noticed that they are the priests of +the Lord and especially the monks who practice this profession most +generally amongst us. The children of Loyola have acquired well-merited +renown in this matter: when they painted "Pleasure" they never failed to +represent him wearing trousers. Those disciples of Joseph Calasanz who +took their places in the education of children, followed their footsteps +with zeal and fervor. Lastly, the cardinals, who have a close +acquaintance with the Holy Ghost, are so prejudiced in favor of Greek +love that they have made it the fashion in the Holy City of Rome; this +leads me to wonder whether the Holy Ghost has changed His mind in regard +to this matter and is no longer shocked by it; or whether the theologians +were not mistaken in assuming an aversion against sodomy which He never +had. The cardinals who are on such familiar terms with him would know +better than to give all their days over to this pleasure if He really +objected to it. + +I shall terminate this over-long note with an extract from a violent +diatribe against this love which Lucian puts into the mouth of Charicles. +He is addressing Callicratidas, a passionate lover of young boys, with +whom he had gone to visit the temple of Venus at Cnidus. + +"O Venus, my queen! to thee I call; lend me your aid while I plead your +cause. For everything over which you deign to shed, be it ever so +little, the persuasion of your charms, reaches absolute perfection, above +all, erotic discourses need your presence, for you are their lawful +mother. In your womanhood, defend the cause of woman, and grant to men +to remain men as they have been born. At the beginning of my discourse, +I call as witness to the truth of my arguments the first mother of all +created things, the source of all generation, the holy Nature of this +universe, who, gathering into one and uniting the elements of the +world--earth, air, fire and water--and mingling them together, gave life +to everything that breathes. Knowing that we are a compound of +perishable matter, and that the span of life assigned to each of us was +short, she contrived that the death of one should be the birth of +another, and meted out to the dying, by way of compensation, the coming +into being of others, that by mutual succession we might live forever. +But, as it was impossible for anything to be born from a single thing +alone, she created two different sexes, and bestowed upon the male the +power of emitting semen, making the female the receptacle of generation. +Having inspired both with mutual desires, she joined them together, +ordaining, as a sacred law of necessity, that each sex should remain +faithful to its own nature--that the female should not play the male +unnaturally, nor the male degrade himself by usurping the functions of +the female. Thus intercourse of men with women has preserved the human +race by never-ending succession: no man can boast of having been created +by man alone; two venerable names are held in equal honor, and men +revere their mother equally with their father. At first, when men were +filled with heroic thoughts, they reverenced those virtues which bring +us nearer to the Gods, obeyed the laws of Nature, and, united to women +of suitable age, became the sires of noble offspring. But, by degrees, +human life, degenerating from that nobility of sentiment, sank to the +lowest depths of pleasure, and began to carve out strange and corrupt +ways in the search after enjoyment. Then sensuality, daring all, +violated the laws of Nature herself. Who was it who first looked upon +the male as female, violating him by force or villainous persuasion? +One sex entered one bed, and men had the shamelessness to look at one +another without a blush for what they did or for what they submitted to, +and, sowing seed, as it were, upon barren rocks, they enjoyed a +short-lived pleasure at the cost of undying shame. + +"Some pushed their cruelty so far as to outrage Nature with the +sacrilegious knife, and, after depriving men of their virility, found in +them the height of pleasure. These miserable and unhappy creatures, that +they may the longer serve the purposes of boys, are stunted in their +manhood, and remain a doubtful riddle of a double sex, neither preserving +that boyhood in which they were born, nor possessing that manhood which +should be theirs. The bloom of their youth withers away in a premature +old age: while yet boys they suddenly become old, without any interval of +manhood. For impure sensuality, the mistress of every vice, devising one +shameless pleasure after another, insensibly plunges into unmentionable +debauchery, experienced in every form of brutal lust. "Whereas, if each +would abide by the laws prescribed by Providence, we should be satisfied +with intercourse with women, and our lives would be undefiled by shameful +practices. Consider the animals, which cannot corrupt by innate +viciousness, how they observe the law of Nature in all its purity. +He-lions do not lust after he-lions, but, in due season, passion excites +them towards the females of their species: the bull that rules the herd +mounts cows, and the ram fills the whole flock of ewes with the seed of +generation. Again, boars mate with sows, he-wolves with shewolves, +neither the birds that fly through the air, nor the fish that inhabit the +deep, or any living creatures upon earth desire male intercourse, but +amongst them the laws of Nature remain unbroken. But you men, who boast +idly of your wisdom, but are in reality worthless brutes, what strange +disease provokes you to outrage one another unnaturally? What blind +folly fills your minds, that you commit the two-fold error of avoiding +what you should pursue, and pursuing what you should avoid? If each and +all were to pursue such evil courses, the race of human beings would +become extinct on earth. And here comes in that wonderful Socratic +argument, whereby the minds of boys, as yet unable to reason clearly, are +deceived, for a ripe intellect could not be misled. These followers of +Socrates pretend to love the soul alone, and, being ashamed to profess +love for the person, call themselves lovers of virtue, whereat I have +often been moved to laughter. How comes it, O grave philosophers, that +you hold in such slight regard a man who, during a long life, has given +proofs of merit, and of that virtue which old age and white hairs become? +How is it that the affections of the philosophers are all in a flutter +after the young; who cannot yet make up their minds which path of life to +take? Is there a law, then, that all ugliness is to be condemned as +vice, and that everything that is beautiful is to be extolled without +further examination? But, according to Homer, the great interpreter of +truth--'One man is meaner than another in looks, but God crowns his words +with beauty, and his hearers gaze upon him with delight, while he speaks +unfalteringly with winning modesty, and is conspicuous amongst the +assembled folk, who look upon him as a God when he walks through the +city.' And again he says: 'Your beauteous form is destitute of +intelligence; the wise Ulysses is praised more highly than the handsome +Nireus.' How then comes it that the love of wisdom, justice, and the +other virtues, which are the heritage of the full-grown man, possess no +attraction for you, while the beauty of boys excites the most vehement +passion! What! should one love Phoedrus, remembering Lysias, whom he +betrayed? Could one love the beauty of Alcibiades, who mutilated the +statues of the Gods, and, in the midst of a debauch, betrayed the +mysteries of the rites of Eleusis? Who would venture to declare himself +his admirer, after Athens was abandoned, and Decelea fortified by the +enemy--the admirer of one whose sole aim in life was tyranny? But, as +the divine Plato says, as long as his chin was beardless, he was beloved +by all; but, when he passed from boyhood to manhood, when his imperfect +intelligence had reached its maturity, he was hated by all. Why, then, +giving modest names to immodest sentiments, do men call personal beauty +virtue, being in reality lovers of youth rather than lovers of wisdom? +However, it is not my intention to speak evil of distinguished men. But, +to descend from graver topics to the mere question of enjoyment, I will +prove that connection with women is far more enjoyable than connection +with boys. In the first place, the longer enjoyment lasts, the more +delight it affords; too rapid pleasure passes quickly away, and it is +over before it is thoroughly appreciated; but, if it lasts, it is thereby +enhanced. Would to heaven that grudging Destiny had allotted us a longer +lease of life, and that we could enjoy perpetual health without any +sorrow to spoil our pleasure; then would our life be one continual feast. +But, since jealous Fortune has grudged us greater blessings, those +enjoyments that last the longest are the sweetest. Again, a woman, from +puberty to middle age, until the last wrinkles furrow her face, is worth +embracing and fit for intercourse; and, even though the prime of her +beauty be past, her experience can speak more eloquently than the love of +boys. + +"I should consider anyone who attempted to have intercourse with a youth +of twenty years to be the slave of unnatural lust. The limbs of such, +like those of a man, are hard and coarse; their chins, formerly so +smooth, are rough and bristly, and their well-grown thighs are disfigured +with hairs. As for their other parts, I leave those of you who have +experience to decide. On the other hand, a woman's charms are always +enhanced by an attractive complexion, flowing locks, dark as hyacinths, +stream down her back and adorn her shoulders, or fall over her ears and +temples, more luxuriant than the parsley in the fields. The rest of her +person, without a hair upon it, shines more brilliantly than amber or +Sidonian crystal. Why should we not pursue those pleasures which are +mutual, which cause equal enjoyment to those who receive and to those who +afford them? For we are not, like animals, fond of solitary lives, but, +united in social relations, we consider these pleasures sweeter, and +those pains easier to bear, which we share with others. Hence, a common +table was instituted, the mediator of friendship. When we minister to +the wants of the belly, we do not drink Thasian wine, or consume costly +food by ourselves alone, but in company: for our pleasures and enjoyments +are increased when shared with others. In like manner, the intercourse +of men with women causes enjoyment to each in turn, and both are alike +delighted; unless we accept the judgment of Tiresias, who declared that +the woman's pleasure was twice as great as the man's. I think that those +who are not selfish should not consider how they may best secure the +whole enjoyment for themselves, but should share what they have with +others. Now, in the case of boys, no one would be mad enough to assert +that this is the case; for, while he who enjoys their person reaches the +height of pleasure--at least, according to his way of thinking--the +object of his passion at first feels pain, even to tears, but when, by +repetition, the pain becomes less keen, while he no longer hurts him, he +will feel no pleasure himself. To mention something still more curious +--as is fitting within the precincts of Venus--you may make the same use +of a woman as of a boy, and thereby open a double avenue to enjoyment; +but the male can never afford the same enjoyment as the female. + +"Therefore, if you are convinced by my arguments, let us, men and women, +keep ourselves apart, as if a wall divided us; but, if it is becoming for +men to have intercourse with men, for the future let women have +intercourse with women. Come, O new generation, inventor of strange +pleasures! As you have devised new methods to satisfy male lust, grant +the same privilege to women; let them have intercourse with one another +like men, girding themselves with the infamous instruments of lust, an +unholy imitation of a fruitless union; in a word, let our wanton Tribads +reign unchecked, and let our women's chambers be disgraced by +hermaphrodites. Far better that a woman, in the madness of her lust, +should usurp the nature of a man, than that man's noble nature should be +so degraded as to play the woman!" + + + + +IV. + + Embasicetas fut bientot au comble de ses voeux. + The Catamite soon reached the height of his passion. + +The theologians class this species of lascivious feeling with pollution +which is complete when it produces a result. The Holy Scripture tells us +of Onan, son of Judas, grandson of Jacob, and husband of Thamar, who was +slain by the Lord because he spilled his semen, "he poured his semen upon +the ground." We may be reproached, perhaps, for citing the Holy Bible +too frequently, but that book contains the knowledge of salvation, and +those who wish to be saved should not fail to study it with assiduity. +That this study has occupied a good part of our life, we admit, and we +have always found that study profitable. To vigorous minds that +admission may seem ridiculous, but we are writing only for pious souls, +and they will willingly applaud this courageous profession of our piety. + +The theologians have also classified onanism and pollution among the sins +against the Holy Ghost, and this being the case, there is no being in the +world who has been sinned against so often. A medium indulgence in this +sin furnished the pleasure of a queen, the severity of one Lucretia does +not repel a thousand Tarquins. Men with vivid imaginations create for +themselves a paradise peopled with the most beautiful houris, more +seductive than those of Mahomet; Lycoris had a beautiful body but it was +unfeeling; the imagination of her lover pictured her as falling before +his caresses, he led her by the hand over pressed flowers, through a +thick grove and along limpid streams; in that sweet reverie his life +slipped by. + + Here icy cold fountains, here flower covered meadows, Lycoris; + Here shady groves; life itself here would I dream out with thee. + + Virgil Bucol. Ecl. X, 41. + +In the minds of the theologians pollution is synonymous with all +pleasures with persons of the opposite or the same sex, which result in a +waste of the elixir of life. In this sense, love between woman and woman +is pollution and Sappho is a sinner against the Holy Ghost. + +(Notwithstanding), however (these caprices of the third person of the +trinity) I cannot see why pleasure should be regulated, or why a woman +who has surveyed all the charms of a young girl of eighteen years should +give herself up to the rude embraces of a man. What comparisons can be +made between those red lips, that mouth which breathes pleasure for the +first time, those snowy and purplous cheeks whose velvet smoothness is +like the Venus flower, half in bloom, that new-born flesh which +palpitates softly with desire and voluptuousness, that hand which you +press so delicately, those round thighs, those plastic buttocks, that +voice sweet and touching,--what comparison can be made between all this +and pronounced features, rough beard, hard breast, hairy body, and the +strong disagreeable voice of man? Juvenal has wonderfully expended all +his bile in depicting, as hideous scenes, these mysteries of the Bona +Dea, where the young and beautiful Roman women, far from the eyes of men, +give themselves up to mutual caresses. Juvenal has painted the eyes of +the Graces with colors which are proper to the Furies; his tableau, +moreover, revolts one instead of doing good. + +The only work of Sappho's which remains to us is an ode written to one of +her loved ones and from it we may judge whether the poetess merited her +reputation. It has been translated into all languages; Catullus put it +into Latin and Boileau into French. Here follows an imitation of that of +Catullus: + + Peer of a God meseemeth he, + Nay passing Gods (and that can be!) + Who all the while sits facing thee + Sees thee and hears + Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze + Mine every sense, and as I gaze + Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays + + My tongue is dulled, limbs adown + Flows subtle flame; with sound its own + Rings either ear, and o'er are strown + Mine eyes with night. + + (LI. Burton, tr.) + +After that we should never again exhort the ministers and moralists to +inveigh against love of women for women; never was the interest of men +found to be so fully in accord with the precepts of divine law. + +Here I should like to speak of the brides of the Lord; but I remember +"The Nun" of Diderot, and my pen falls from my hand. Oh, who would dare +to touch a subject handled by Diderot? + + + + +V. + + Giton venait de la deflorer, et de remporter une victoire sanglante. + Giton the victor had won a not bloodless victory. + +All people have regarded virginity as something sacred, and God has so +honored it that he willed that his son be born of a virgin, fecundated, +however, by the Holy Ghost. Still, it appears problematical whether the +Virgin Mary, complete virgin that she was, did not have the same pleasure +as those who are not virgins, when she received the divine annunciation. +Father Sanchez has discussed the question very fully "whether the Virgin +Mary 'spent' in copulation with the Holy-Ghost," unhappily, he decided in +the negative, and I have too much veneration for Father Sanchez not to +submit to his decision; but because of it, I am vexed with the Virgin +Mary and the Holy Ghost. + +Notwithstanding this, the daughters of the people of the Lord were not +content to remain virgins; a state of being which, at bottom has not much +to recommend it. The daughter of Jephtha before being immolated for the +sake of the Lord, demanded of her father a reprieve of two months in +which to weep for her virginity upon the mountains of Gelboe; it seems it +should not have taken so long had she had nothing to regret. Ruth had +recourse to the quickest method when she wished to cease being a virgin; +she simply went and lay down upon the bed with Boaz. The spirit of God +has deemed it worth while to transmit this story to us, for the +instruction of virgins from century to century. + +The pagan Gods thought highly of maidenheads, they often took them and +always, they set aside the virgins for themselves. The Phtyian, from +whose organ Apollo was foreordained to come, proved to be only a virgin; +the spirit of God did not communicate itself to anyone who had ever been +sullied by contact with a mortal. It was to virgins that the sacred +fires of Vesta were entrusted, and the violation of their virginity was a +capital crime which all Rome regarded as a scourge from wrathful heaven. + +The Sybils lived and died virgins; in addressing the Cumaean Sybil, +AEneas never failed to bestow that title upon her. + +Most of the immortals have preserved their virginity, Diana, Minerva, et +cet. But what is the most astonishing is that the companions of Venus +and Amor, the most lovable of all divinities, the Graces, were also +virgins. Juno became a virgin again every year, by bathing in the waters +of a magic fountain; that must have rendered Jupiter's duties rather +onerous. + +There are some reasons for this passion of mankind for maidenheads. It +is so wonderful to give the first lessons of voluptuousness to a pure and +innocent heart, to feel under one's hand the first palpitations of the +virginal breasts which arouses unknown delights, to dry the first tears +of tenderness, to inspire that first mixture of fear and hope, of vague +desires and expectant inquietude; whoever has never had that satisfaction +has missed the most pleasurable of all the delights of love. But taken +in that sense, virginity is rather a moral inclination, as Buffon says, +than a physical matter, and nothing can justify the barbarous precautions +against amorous theft which were taken by unnatural fathers and jealous +husbands. + +In those unhappy countries which are bent under oppression, in those +countries where heaven shows its heat in the beauty of the sex, and +where beauty is only an object of speculation for avid parents; in such +countries, I say, they resort to the most odious methods for preserving +the virginity of the young and beautiful daughters who are destined to be +sold like common cattle. They put a lock over the organ of pleasure and +never permit it to be opened except when it is strictly necessary for +carrying out those animal functions for which nature destined them. + +The locks of chastity were long known in Europe; the Italians are accused +with this terrible invention. Nevertheless, it is certain that they were +used upon men, at least, in the time of the first Roman emperors. +Juvenal, in his satire against women, VI, says: "If the singers please +them there is no need for locks of chastity for those who have sold their +voices to the praetors, who keep them." + + Si gaudet cantu, nullius fibula durat + Vocem vendentis praetoribus. + Sat. VI, 379. + + If pleased by the song of the singer employed by the praetor + No fibula long will hold out, free, the actor will greet her. + +Christianity, most spiritual, most mystical of ancient religions, +attempts to make out a great case for celibacy. Its founder never +married, although the Pharisees reproached him for frequenting gay women, +and had, perhaps, some reason for so doing. Jesus showed a particular +affection for Mary Magdalen, to the point of exciting the jealousy of +Martha, who complained that her sister passed her time in conversation +with Jesus and left her with all the housework to do. "Mary has chosen +the better part," said the Savior. A good Christian must not doubt that +the colloquies were always spiritual. + +St. Paul counseled virginity and most of the apostolic fathers practiced +it. Among others, St. Jerome lived his whole life among women and never +lost his purity. He answered his enemies who reproached him with his +very great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof +of his chastity was that he stank. That stinking of St. Jerome, which is +not a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of +pious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it. + +When the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be +submitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its +interests and those of the common people as far as possible it must +tighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens. Also the Pope +who was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused +it most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and +enunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain +their celibacy. However, although neither priests nor monks were +permitted to marry, the epithet "virgins" cannot be justly applied to all +priests and all monks without exception. Nor shall I repeat here the +naughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others, +against the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more +"satyrical" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have +nothing to say. + + + + +VI. + + Alors une vielle. . . . + Finally an old woman . . . + +The question here has to do with a procurers or go-between. That +profession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what +fatality, which befalls the most worthy things. Cervantes the only +philosophic author Spain has produced, wanted that calling to be +venerated in cities above all others. And truly, when one thinks how +much finesse is necessary to pursue that profession with success, when +one considers that those who practice that truly liberal art are the +repositories of the most important as well as the most sacred secrets, +one would never fail to have the greatest respect for them. The +tranquillity of homes, the civil state of persons they hold at their +discretion, and still, though they drink in insults, though they endure +abuse, very rarely do these beings, true stoics, compromise those who +have confided in them. + +In their Mercury, the ancients realized their beau ideal or archetype +of go-between which they called; in vulgar language "pimp". That God, +as go-between for Jupiter, was often involved in the most hazardous +enterprises, such as abducting Io, who was guarded by Argus of the +hundred eyes; Mercury I say, was the God of concord, or eloquence, +and of mystery. Except to inspire them with friendly feeling and kind +affections, Mercury never went among mortals. Touched by his wand, +venomous serpents closely embraced him. Listening to him, Achilles +forgot his pride, extended hospitality to Priam and permitted him to take +away the body of Hector. The ferocious Carthaginians were softened +through the influence of this God of peace, and received the Trojans in +friendship. Mercury it was who gathered men into society and substituted +social customs for barbarism. He invented the lyre and was the master of +Amphion, who opened the walls of Thebes by the charm of his singing. +Mercury or Hermes gave the first man knowledge; but it was enveloped in a +mysterious veil which it was never permitted the profane to penetrate, +which signifies that all that he learned from God, concerning amorous +adventures, should be wrapped in profound silence. How beautiful all +these allegories are! And how true! How insipid life would be without +these mysterious liaisons, by which Nature carries out her designs, +eluding the social ties, without breaking them! Disciples of Mercury, I +salute you, whatever be your sex; to your discretion, to your persuasive +arts are confided our dearest interests, the peace of mind of husbands, +the happiness of lovers, the reputation of women, the legitimacy of +children. Without you, this desolated earth would prove to be, in +reality, a vale of tears; the young and beautiful wife united to decrepit +husband, would languish and grow weak, like the lonely flower which the +sun's rays never touch. Thus did Mexence bind in thine indissoluble +bands the living and the dead. + +Fate, however, has often avenged the go-betweens on account of the +misunderstandings from which they suffer at the hands of the vulgar. +Otho opened the way to the empire of the world by his services as a +go-between for Nero. And the go-betweens of princes, and even of +princesses, are always found in the finest situations. Even Otho did not +lose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, "because +he was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea." "Uxoris moechus +coeperate esse suae" (Suet. Otho, chap. 111), said malicious gossip at +Rome. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +To the scholar contemplating an exhaustive study of Petronius, the +masterly bibliography compiled by Gaselee is indispensable, and those +of my readers who desire to pursue the subject are referred to it. +The following is a list of editions, translations, criticisms and +miscellaneous publications and authors from which I have derived benefit +in the long and pleasant hours devoted to Petronius. + + +EDITIONS, Opera Omnia. + +Frellon Lyons 1615. +Hadrianides Amsterdam 1669. +Bourdelot Paris 1677. +Boschius Amsterdam 1677. +Burmann Utrecht 1709. +Anton Leipzig 1781. +Buecheler Berlin 1862. +Herxus (Buecheler) Berlin 1911. + + + +TRAU FRAGMENT. + Amsterdam 1670. + Containing Frambotti's + corrections. +Gaselee Cambridge 1915. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Cardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love +Fierce morality, inimical to all the pleasures of life +Hardouin on homosexuality in priests +Religions responsible for the most abominable actions +Remarkable resemblance to each other are the Bible and Homer +Stinking of St. Jerome +Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing women + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS, V7 *** + +******* This file should be named pas7w10.txt or pas7w10.zip ******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, pas7w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, pas7w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/pas7w10.zip b/old/pas7w10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eea773 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pas7w10.zip diff --git a/old/pas7w10h.html b/old/pas7w10h.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffc5522 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pas7w10h.html @@ -0,0 +1,1688 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE SATYRICON</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {color:brown} +blockquote {font:smaller} +P {font-size:"14pt"} +p.poem {text-align:center} +p.external {font:bold} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<h2>THE SATYRICON of Petronius, Illustrated, v7</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Satyricon of Petronius, Illustrated, v7 +#7 in our series by Petronius Arbiter (Translated by Firebaugh) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Satyricon, Illustrated, Volume 7. + +Author: Petronius Arbiter + + +Release Date: March, 2004 [Etext #5224] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 8, 2002] +[This file was last updated on October 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON, V7 *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +</pre> +<br><hr> +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + +<center> +<h1> + <a name="PREFACE">THE SATYRICON OF</a> +<br> PETRONIUS ARBITER +</h1> +</center> + +<br> +<br> + <center><h3>Volume 7.</h3></center> + +<br> +<br> +<center> +<a name="bookspine"></a><img alt="bookspine.jpg (92K)" src="bookspine.jpg" height="1182" width="650"> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p><i>Complete and unexpurgated translation by W. C. Firebaugh, +in which are incorporated the forgeries of Nodot and Marchena, +and the readings introduced into the text by De Salas.</i></blockquote> +</blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center> +<a name="pfront"></a><img alt="pfront.jpg (108K)" src="pfront.jpg" height="829" width="599"> +</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS:</h2> + +<br> +<h4><a href="#SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA">SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA</a></h4> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<h5><a href="#ARMY OF THE RHINE">Army of the Rhine</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#I.">I. Soldiers in love</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#II.">II. Courtesans</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#III.">III. Greek love</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#IV.">IV. Pollution</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#V.">V. Virginity</a></h5> +<h5><a href="#VI.">VI. Pandars</a></h5> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<h4><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY</a></h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS:</h2> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p><a href="#pfront">The Witches [Frontpiece]</a> + +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center> + <h1><a name="THE SATYRICON"></a>THE SATYRICON OF</h1> + <h1>PETRONIUS ARBITER</h1> +</center> + +<br> +<br> + <center><h3>Volume 7.</h3></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<blockquote> +<p><i><b>BRACKET CODE:</b></i></p> +<p><i>(Forgeries of Nodot)</i></p> +<p><i>[Forgeries of Marchena]</i></p> +<p><i>{Additions of De Salas}</i></p> +<p><i> DW</i></p> +</blockquote> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + + +<center> + <h1>THE SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS ARBITER</h1> + <h2><a name="SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA"></a>SIX NOTES BY MARCHENA.</h2> +</center> + +<br><br> +<h2><a name="ARMY OF THE RHINE"></a>TO THE ARMY OF THE RHINE. +</h2><br> +<p>The conquests of the French have resulted, during this war, in a boon to +knowledge and to letters. Egypt has furnished us with monuments of its +aboriginal inhabitants, which the ignorance and superstition of the Copts +and Mussulmans kept concealed from civilized countries. The libraries of +the convents of the various countries have been ransacked by savants and +precious manuscripts have been brought to light. + +<p>By no means the least interesting of the acquisitions is a fragment of +Petronius, which we offer to the public, taken from an ancient manuscript +which our soldiers, in conquering St. Gall, have sent to us for +examination. We have made an important discovery in reading a parchment +which contains the work of St. Gennadius on the Duties of Priests, and +which, judging from the form of the letters employed, we should say was +written in the eleventh century. A most careful examination led us to +perceive that the work by this saint had been written on pages containing +written letters, which had been almost effaced. We know that in the dark +ages it was customary to write ecclesiastical works on the manuscripts +containing the best authors of Latinity. + +<p>At a cost of much labor we have been able to decipher a morsel which we +give to the public: and of the authenticity of which there can be no +doubt. We render homage to the brave French army to which we owe this +acquisition. + +<p>It is easy to notice that there is a lacuna in that passage of Petronius +in which Encolpius is left with Quartilla, looking through a chink in the +door, at the actions of Giton and little Pannychis. A few lines below, +it relates, in effect, that he was fatigued by the voluptuous enjoyment +of Quartilla, and in that which remains to us, there is no mention of the +preliminaries to this enjoyment. The style of the Latin so closely +resembles the original of Petronius that it is impossible to believe that +the fragment was forged. + +<p>For the benefit of those who have not read the author, it is well to +state that this Quartilla was a priestess of Priapus, at whose house they +celebrated the mysteries of that god. Pannychis is a young girl of seven +years who had been handed over to Giton to be deflowered. This Giton is +the "good friend" of Encolpius, who is supposed to relate the scene. +Encolpius, who had drunk an aphrodisiacal beverage, is occupied with +Quartilla in peeping through the door to see in what manner Giton was +acquitting himself in his role. At that moment a soldier enters the +house. + +<p>Finally an old woman, about whom there is some question in the fragment, +is the same as the one who had unexpectedly conducted Encolpius to the +house of the public women and of whom mention is made in the beginning of +the work. + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Ipsa Venus magico religatum brachia nodo +<p> Perdocuit, multis non sine verberibus. +<p> Tibullus viii, 5. +</blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +<br><br><br><br> +<p><a name="I."></a>I. + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Vous verrez que vous avez affaire a un homme. +<p> You will learn that you have to deal with a man. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>Fighting men have in all times been distinguished on account of the +beauty of their women. The charming fable of the loves of Venus and +Mars, described by the most ancient of poets, expresses allegorically, +this truth. All the demi-gods had their amorous adventures; the most +valiant were always the most passionate and the happiest. Hercules took +the maidenheads of fifty girls, in a single night. Thesus loved a +thousand beauties, and slept with them. Jason abandoned Hypsipyle for +Medea, and her, for Creusa. Achilles, the swift of foot, forgot the +tender Deidamia in the arms of his Briseis. + +<p>It has been remarked that the lovers did not have very scrupulous tastes +in their methods of attaining satisfaction from the women they loved. +The most common method was abduction and the women always submitted to +this without a murmur of any sort. Helen was carried off by Theseus, +after having also been abducted by Paris. The wife of Atreus was +abducted by Thyestus, and from that arose the implacable hatred between +the two families. Rape was no less common. Goddesses themselves and the +favorites of the Gods were at the risk of falling prey to strong mortals. +Pirithous, aided by Theseus, even attempted to snatch Proserpina from the +God of the under-world. Juno herself was compelled to painful submission +to the pursuit of Ixion, and Thetis succumbed despite herself, to the +assaults of Peleus. The gift of foretelling the future, with which +Apollo endowed Cassandra, did not insure her against the brutal caresses +of Ajax, son of Oileus. + +<p>In the infancy of society, there was never known any other distinction +except between the weak and the strong: the strong commanded and the weak +obeyed. For that reason, women were regarded in the light of beings +destined by nature, to serve the pleasures and even the caprices of men. +Never did her suitors express a tender thought for Penelope, and, instead +of making love to her, they squandered her property, slept with her +slaves, and took charge of things in her house. + +<p>Circe gave herself to Ulysses who desired to slay her, and Calypso, full +blown goddess as she was, was obliged to make his advances for him. The +fine sentiments that Virgil puts into the mouth of the shade of Creusa, +content with having died while serving against the Greeks, "she was a +Trojan, and she wedded the son of Venus"; the confession with which +Andromache, confronted by the murderer of her first husband, responds to +the question of AEneas; these ideas, I say, and these sentiments, +appertained to the polished century of Augustus and not to the epoch or, +scene of the Trojan War. Virgil, in his AEneid, had never subscribed to +the precepts of Horace, and of common sense: + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge +<p> Horace Ars Poet. 119. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>From this manner of dealing with women arose another reason for the +possession of beauty by the valiant. One coveted a woman much as one +would covet a fine flock of sheep, and, in the absence of laws, the one +in possession of either the one or the other of these desirable objects +would soon be dispossessed of them if he was not courageous enough to +guard them against theft. Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing +women as they were for taking other property, and one should remember +that Agamemnon promised to retire from before Troy if the Trojans would +restore Helen and his riches to Menelaus; things which Paris had +despoiled him of. + +<p>Also, there was never any of that thing we call "conjugal honor" among +the Greeks; that idea was far too refined; it was a matter too complex +ever to have entered the heads of these semi-barbarous people. This is +exemplified in the fact that, after the taking of Troy, Helen, who had, +of her own free will, belonged successively to Paris, and to Deiphobus, +afterwards returned to Menelaus, who never offered her any reproach. +That conduct of Menelaus was so natural that Telemachus, who, in his trip +to Sparta found Helen again with Menelaus, just as she was before her +abduction, did not show the least astonishment. + +<p>The books which bear the most remarkable resemblance to each other are +the Bible and Homer, because the people they describe and the men about +whom they speak are forerunners of civilization in pretty much the same +degree. Sarah was twice snatched from the bosom of Abraham and he was +never displeased with his wife and continued to live on good terms with +her. David, a newcomer on the throne, hastened to have Michol brought to +him although she had already married another man. + +<p>The best proof that, during the time of the Romans the women preferred +soldiers to other men is in the claims to successful enterprises by the +bragging soldier of Plautus. Pyrgopolinices thought it was only +necessary to pose as a great warrior, to have all the women chasing after +him; therefore, his parasite and his slave spoke of nothing but the +passions be inspired in women. Tradition has it that among the Samnites, +the bravest men had the choice of the fairest women, and to this custom +is attributed one of the reasons these people were so warlike. + +<p>In the times of chivalry the greatest exploits were achieved for the +pleasure of one's Lady-Love, and there were even such valiant knights, as +Don Quixote, who went about the world proving by force of arms that their +ladies had no peer. The poverty-stricken troubadours singing +harmoniously about their beautiful women found them flying away in the +arms of knights who had broken lances at tournaments, or had performed +the greatest feats of arms. In fine, all the peoples of the world have +said with Dryden: + +<p> "None but the brave deserves the fair." + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="II."></a>II.</h2> +<br> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Ses camarades se saisissent de moi et de Quartilla. +<p> His comrades seized hold of Quartilla and me. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>The profession of Quartilla corresponded to that which is followed by +our ladies of the Palace Royal. This Palace Royal is a sort of Babylon, +with this difference; that the former prostitute themselves all the year +round, and that they are not quite so attractive as the Chaldean +beauties. For the rest, one of the incontestable facts of ancient +history is this prostitution of the women of Babylon in honor of Venus, +and I cannot understand why Voltaire refused to believe it, since +religions have always been responsible for the most abominable actions, +and because religious wars, the horrors of intolerance, the impostures of +priests, the despotism of kings, the degradation and stupidity of the +people, have been the direct fatal effects of religions; and seeing that +the blind fanaticism of martyrs and the brutal cruelty of tyrants is a +hundred times more deplorable than a sacrifice equally agreeable to the +victim and to the one who officiates at the sacrifice; and seeing that +the enjoyment and giving of life is no less holy than the maceration and +caging of innocent animals. + +<p>The origin of courtesans is lost in the deepest antiquity. It appears +that it was one of the patriarchal customs to enjoy them, for Judah slept +with Thamar, widow of his two sons, and who, to seduce him, disguised +herself as a courtesan. Another courtesan, Rahab, played a great role in +the first wars of the people of the Lord: it was this same Rahab who +married Solomon, father of Boaz, fourth forefather of David, and +thirty-second forefather of Jesus Christ, our divine Savior. Yet the eternal +sagacity of man has failed to take notice of this profession and to +resent the injustice done it by the scorn of men. The elected kings of +the people, the man who adopts the word father according to the flesh, +are descendants of a courtesan. + +<p>For the rest, it must be admitted that many who follow this noble +profession are unworthy of it and only too well justify the ignominy +which is levelled against the entire class. You see these miserable +creatures with livid complexions and haggard eyes, with voices of +Stentor, breathing out at the same time the poisons which circulate in +their veins and the liquors with which they are intoxicated; you see on +their blemished and emaciated bodies, the marks of beings more hideous +than they (twenty come to satisfy their brutal passions for every one of +them); you listen to their vile language, you hear their oaths and +revolting expressions: to go to these Megeres is often to encounter +brigands and assassins: what a spectacle! It is the deformity of vice +in the rags of indigence. + +<p>Ah! But these are not courtesans, they are the dregs of cities. A +courtesan worthy of the name is a beautiful woman, gracious and amiable, +at whose home gather men of letters and men of the world; the first +magistrates, the greatest captains: and who keeps men of all professions +in a happy state of mind because she is pleasing to them, she inspires in +them a desire for reciprocal pleasure: such an one was Aspasia who, after +having charmed the cultured people of Athens was for a long time the good +companion of Pericles, and contributed much, perhaps, towards making his +century what it was, the age of taste in arts and letters. Such an +one also was Phryne, Lais, Glycera, and their names will always be +celebrated; such, also, was Ninon d'Enclos, one of the ornaments of +the century of Louis XIV, and Clairon, the first who realized all the +grandeur of her art; such an one art thou, C-----, French Thalia, who +commands attentions, I do not say this by way of apology but to share the +opinion of Alceste. + +<p>A courtesan such as I have in mind may have all the public and private +virtues. One knows the severe probity of Ninon, her generosity, her +taste for the arts, her attachment to her friends. Epicharis, the soul +of the conspiracy of Piso against the execrable Nero, was a courtesan, +and the severe Tacitus, who cannot be taxed with a partiality for +gallantry, has borne witness to the constancy with which she resisted the +most seductive promises and endured the most terrible tortures, without +revealing any of the details of the conspiracy or any of the names of the +conspirators. + +<p>These facts should be recognized above that ascetic moral idea which +consists of the sovereign virtue of abstinence in defiance of nature's +commands and which places weakness in these matters along with the most +odious crimes. Can one see without indignation Suetonius' reproach of +Caesar for his gallantries with Servilia, with Tertia, and other Roman +ladies, as a thing equal to his extortions and his measureless ambitions, +and praising his warlike ardor against peoples who had never furnished +room for complaint to Rome? The source of these errors was the theory of +emanations. The first dreamers, who were called philosophers imagined +that matter and light were co-eternal; they supposed that was all one +unformed and tenebrous mass; and from the former they established the +principle of evil and of all imperfection, while they regarded the latter +as sovereign perfection. Creation, or, one might better say +co-ordination, was only the emanation of light which penetrated chaos, but +the mixture of light and matter was the cause of all the inevitable +imperfections of the universe. The soul of man was part and parcel of +divinity or of increased light; it would never attain happiness until it +was re-united to the source of all light; but for it, we would be free +from all things we call gross and material, and we would be taken into +the ethereal regions by contemplation and by abstinence from the +pleasures of the flesh. When these absurdities were adopted for the +regulation of conduct, they necessarily resulted in a fierce morality, +inimical to all the pleasures of life, such, in a word, as that of the +Gymnosophists or, in a lesser measure, of the Trappists. + +<p>But despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the +wonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans. +It was about the houses of these that revolved the sands of Pactolus, +their fame exceeded that of the first men of Greece. The rich offerings +that decorated the temples of the Gods were the gifts of these women, +and it must be remembered that most of them were foreigners, originating, +for the most part, in Asia Minor. It happened that an Athenian +financier, who resembled the rest of his tribe as much as two drops of +water, proposed once to levy an impost upon the courtesans. As he spoke +eloquently of the incalculable advantages which would accrue to the +Government by this tax, a certain person asked him by whom the courtesans +were paid. "By the Athenians," replied our orator, after deliberation. +"Then it would be the Athenians who would pay the impost," replied the +questioner, and the people of Athens, who had a little more sense than +certain legislative assemblies, hooted the orator down, and there was +never any more question about a tax upon courtesans. + +<p>Corinth was famous for the number and beauty of its courtesans, from +which comes the proverb: "It is not given to every man to go to Corinth"; +there they ran the risk of losing their money and ruining their health. +The cause of this great vogue of courtesans in Greece was not the +supposed ugliness of the sex, as the savant Paw imagined, and +contradicted by the unanimous evidence of ancient authors and of modern +travellers; but rather, the retired and solitary life which the women of +the country led. They lived in separate apartments and never had any +communication with the streets or with the residences of men "the inner +part of the house which was called the women's apartments," said +Cornelius Nepos (preface). Strangers never visited them; they rarely +visited their nearest relations. This was why marriage between brothers +and sisters was authorized by law and encouraged by usage; the sisters +were exposed to the attacks of their brothers because they lived +separated from them. + +<p>With the Romans, as with us, the virtuous women corrupted somewhat the +profession of the courtesans. The absolute seclusion of women was never +the fashion at Rome and the stories we have on the authority of Valerius +Maximus on the chastity and modesty of the first Roman matrons merit the +same degree of belief as the legend of Romulus and Remus being brought up +by a wolf, the rape of Lucretia or the tragic death of Virginia. On the +contrary, in Livy, a great admirer of the customs of the early days of +Rome, we find that in those times a great number of Roman women of the +noblest families were convicted of having poisoned their husbands and +condemned to death for this hideous crime: that, by no means shows a very +exquisite and tender conjugal sentiment. During the period of the second +Punic War with what energy they went about the city seeking the repeal of +the law which took out of their hands the custody of jewels and precious +stones! A repeal which they obtained despite the opposition of Cato the +Censor. It appears that the profession of the courtesan was generally +practised by the freed-women; their manner necessarily showed the results +of their education. But the young sparks of Rome never paid much +attention to them, they preferred to have love affairs with the wives of +their friends. For one Sallust who ruined himself with freedwomen, there +were five Cupienniuses; "Cupiennius, that admirer of the pudenda garbed +in white," Hor. Sat. I, ii, 36. Delia, Lesbia, Ipsythillia, Corinna, +Nemesis, Neeria, Cynthia, Sulpitia, Lycimnia, and almost all the women to +whom, under real or assumed names, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, +Horace, and others, addressed their erotic compositions, were Roman +married women. Horace is the only one who celebrated a freedwoman in +some of his odes. This is due, however, to his taste for variety and +perhaps also, to his birth, for he himself was the son of a freedwoman. +Ovid's Art of Love and the Satires of Juvenal reveal the extent to which +gallantry was the fashion at Rome and Cato would never have praised the +conduct of that young man who had recourse to a public house if that had +been an ordinary course of procedure. + +<p>In Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some +extent in reviving the profession of the courtesans. Long before, Saint +Paul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles +of the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity. The +deaconesses date from the first century of the church. But the celibacy +of the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the +eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII. During the +preceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their +lovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and +grandsons, as well. But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they +ostensibly took the concubines of which, alas! our housekeepers of today +are but feeble vestiges. The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often +concerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los +clerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably +appeared worthy of envy. Finally the courtesans appeared in all their +magnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and +indignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome. +The princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their +feet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age +of Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and +beautiful women. But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this +calm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the +revenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful +courtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their +pleasures have fled with them. And can anyone longer believe in the +perfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human +institutions has so visibly degenerated! + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="III."></a>III. +</h2><br> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m'accabler de ses impurs baisers. + +<p> [The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking + kisses.[ +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>One of the reasons which caused the learned and paradoxical Hardouin to +assert that all the works which have been attributed to the ancients, +with the exception of the Georgics and the Natural History of Pliny, were +the compositions of monks, was doubtless the very frequent repetition of +scenes of love for boys, which one notices in most of these writings: +this savant was a Jesuit. But this taste is not peculiar to convents; it +is to be found among all peoples and in all climates; its origin is lost +in the night of the centuries; it is common in the most polished nations +and it is common among savage tribes. Profound philosophers have argued +in favor of it; poets have sung the objects of this sort of love in their +tender and passionate compositions, and these compositions have always +been the delight of posterity. What stupid or unfeeling reader can read +without emotion that beautiful eclogue of Virgil where Corydon sighs his +hopeless love for the beautiful Alexis? The most passionate ode of +Horace is that one in which he complains of the harshness of Ligurinus. +The tender Tibullus, deceived by his Marathus, brings tears to all who +have hearts. The delicate Anacreon, praising his Bathylle, and the +valiant Alceus giving himself up after his labors in war to sing of the +dark eyes and black hair of Lycus . . . "with dark eyes and black hair +beautiful." It is not to over-civilized refinements of society which, +according to certain misanthropists, degrade nature and corrupt it, that +this taste is due; it is found among the south sea islanders, and the +evidence of the first Spaniards attests that it was common among the +hordes of American Indians before the discovery of the new world. Paw +had attempted to explain this as resulting from defects in the formation +of the organs of pleasure among the natives; but a peculiar cause is not +sufficient explanation for a universal effect. + +<p>At the time of the Patriarchs, Greek love was so general that in the four +cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, and Seboim, it was impossible to find ten +men exempt from the contagion; that number would have sufficed, said the +Lord, to withhold the punishment which he inflicted upon those cities. + +<p>It should be noted here that most of the assertions about the morals of +the Israelites which are to be found in the Erotica Biblon of Mirabeau +are either false or pure guesswork. It is a bizarre method of judging +the morals of a people, that of taking their legal code and inferring +that the people were accustomed to break all the laws which are forbidden +by that code. Nevertheless, that is the method which the author of the +Erotica Biblon adopts for portraying the morals of the Jewish people. +Again, he has not even understood this code; he has believed that the law +against giving one's seed to the idol Moloch meant giving the human +semen; and he is ignorant of the fact that this seed, as spoken of in the +Bible, means the children and descendants. Thus it is that the land of +Canaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, and the perpetuity of the +reign on Sion to that of David. Moloch was a Phoenician deity, the same +one to which, in Carthage, they sacrificed children; the Romans believed +him to be a reincarnation of their Saturn, but Saturn was an Etruscan +divinity who could never have had any connection with the Gods of +Phoenicia. He (Mirabeau) has translated "those who polluted the temple" +as meaning those who were guilty of some obscenity in the temple; and he +does not know that the temple was "polluted" by a thousand acts, declared +impure by law, and which were not obscene. The entrance of a woman into +a sacred place, less than forty days after her accouchement, or the +entrance of a man who had touched an impure animal, constituted a +pollution of the House of the Lord. When one wishes to make a parade of +erudition he should make some attempt to understand the things which he +pretends to make clear to others. Or is it that this Mirabeau was merely +careless? + +<p>The love of boys was so thoroughly the fashion in Greece that we have +today given it the name "Greek Love." Orestes was regarded as the "good +friend" of Pylades and Patroclus as the lover of Achilles. In this +taste, the Gods set the example for mortals, and the abduction of +Ganymede for the service of the master of thunder, was not the least +cause for annoyance given the chaste but over-prudish Juno. Lastly, +Hercules was not content with the loves of Omphale and Dejanira, he also +loved the beautiful Hylas, who was brought up by the nymphs. + +<p>The Greeks boasted, without blushing, of this love, which they considered +the only passion worthy of men, and they did blush at loving a woman, +intimacy with whom, they said, only rendered her adorers soft and +effeminate. In the Dialogue of Plato, entitled "The Banquet," which is +concerned entirely with discussions of the various forms of love, they +dismiss love for women as unworthy of occupying the attention of sensible +men. One of the speakers, I believe it was Aristophanes, explaining the +cause of this fire which we kindle in the bosoms of our loved ones, +affirms that the first men were doubles which multiplied their force and +their power. This, they abused and, as punishment, Jupiter struck them +with lightning and separated them. By their love for each other they +came together again to regain their primitive state. But the effeminates +sought out only the women because they were only half men, half women; +while those whose tastes were masculine and courageous wanted to become +double men again. + +<p>Phedre has put into the mouth of AEsop an explanation of that love which +would certainly not have been relished by the Greeks. He says that while +Prometheus was occupied with modelling his man and woman, he was invited +to a feast given by Jupiter, to the Gods; he came back intoxicated and, +by mistake, applied the sexual parts of one to the body of the other. + +<p>For the rest, the Greeks were all in accord in their profound contempt +for women. The theatrical writers, especially, who studied more +particularly the general opinions and catered to them in order to obtain +the applause of the public, were distinguished by their bitterness +against the sex. Euripides maintained that Prometheus deserved to be +chained to Mount Caucasus with the vulture gnawing at his entrails, +because he had fashioned a being so pernicious and hateful as woman. The +shade of Agamemnon, in the Odyssey advised Ulysses not to put any faith +in Penelope and did not stop talking until he had enumerated the entire +list of the vices of the sex. The first Latin authors imitated the +Greeks in their invectives against women; the comedies of Plautus, +especially, teem with virulent attacks upon them. + +<p>At Rome, however, the great freedom permitted to women, soon brought +about other opinions in regard to them; they often played an important +role in public and private affairs, and the men convinced themselves +that, like men, women were capable of the greatest crimes and of the most +heroic virtues. The noble stoicism of Arria is not the only example of +courageous virtue displayed by the Roman women at a time when crowned +monsters governed the empire. The young Paulina opened her veins with +her husband, the philosopher, Seneca; Mallonia preferred to die in +torments rather than give herself up to the odious he-goat of Capri. +Who does not admire the noble independence, the conjugal love, and the +matronly virtues of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus? + +<p>Moreover, men began to avow their love for women, and we have here +occasion to observe the rapid progress of gallantry among the Romans. +However, the love for boys was no less universally in vogue in Rome, and +Cicero charges, in his letters to Atticus, that the judges who had so +scandalously white-washed Clodius of the accusation of having profaned +the mysteries of the "Good Goddess," had been publicly promised the +favors of the most illustrious women and the finest young men of the +first families. Caesar himself, in his early youth had yielded to the +embraces of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia; moreover, after his triumph over +the Gauls, on the solemn occasion when it was customary to twit the +victor with all his faults, the soldiers sang: "Caesar subdued the Gauls, +Nicomedes subdued Caesar. But Caesar who subdued the Gauls, triumphed, +and Nicomedes, who subdued Caesar did not." Cato said of him that he was +loved by the King, in his youth and that, when he was older, he loved the +queen and, one day, in the senate, while he was dwelling on I know not +what request of the daughter of Nicomedes, and recounting the benefits +which Rome owed to that monarch, Cicero silenced him by replying: "We +know very well what he has given, and what thou hast given him!" At +last, during the time when the first triumvirate divided all the power, +a bad joker remarked to Pompey: "I salute thee, O King," and, addressing +Caesar, "I salute thee, O Queen!" His enemies maintained that he was the +husband of all the women and the wife of all the husbands. Catullus, who +detested him, always called him "the bald catamite," in his epigrams: he +set forth that his friendship with Mamurra was not at all honorable; he +called this Mamurra "pathicus," a name which they bestowed upon those who +looked for favors among mature men or among men who had passed the stage +of adolescence. + +<p>The masters of the empire never showed any hesitancy in trying and even +in overdoing the pleasures which all their subjects permitted themselves. +Alas! A crown is such a weighty burden! The road of domination is +strewn with so many briars that one would never be able to pass down it +if he did not take care that they were pressed down under the roses. The +Roman emperors adopted that plan; they longed for pleasures and they took +the pleasures which offered themselves without delay and in a spirit of +competition. Caligula was so little accustomed to waiting that, while +occupied in offering a sacrifice to the Gods, and the figure of a priest +having pleased him, he did not take time to finish the sacred ceremonies +before taking his pleasure of him. + +<p>A remarkable thing is that among almost all peoples, the baths are the +places where the prostitution of men by their own sex is the most common. +We see in Catullus that the "cinaedi" (catamites), a noun which my chaste +pen refuses to translate into French, haunted the baths incessantly to +carry out their practices. Among the Orientals, of all modern peoples +who have retained this taste most generally, this same fact holds good. +It was at the bath that Tiberius, impotent through old age and +debauchery, was made young again by the touch little children applied to +his breasts; these children he called "'little fishes," they sucked his +withered breasts, his infected mouth, his livid lips, and finally his +virile parts. Hideous spectacle of a tyrant disgraced by nature and +struggling against her maledictions! But in vain did he invent new +pleasures, in vain did he take part in these scenes in which groups of +young men by threes and fours assumed all sorts of lascivious postures, +and were at the same time active and passive; the sight of these +indulgences of the "sprintriae" (for that is the name which was given +there) did not enable him to resuscitate his vigor any more than the +glamor of the throne or the servile submission of the senate served to +mitigate his remorse. + +<p>But of all the emperors, the ones who carried their taste for young boys +to the greatest lengths were, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian. The first +publicly wedded the young eunuch Sporus, whom he had had operated upon so +that he might serve him like a young woman. He paid court to the boy as +he would to a woman and another of his favorites dressed himself up in a +veil and imitated the lamentations which women were accustomed to utter +on nuptial nights. The second consecrated the month of September to his +favorite and the third loved Antinous passionately and caused him to be +deified after death. + +<p>The most ample proof of the universality of the taste for young boys +among the Romans is found in the Epithalamium of Manilius and Julia, by +Catullus, and it might be cause for surprise that this has escaped all +the philologists, were it not a constant thing that men frequently +reading about these centuries fail to perceive the most palpable facts +in their authors, just as they pass over the most striking phenomena of +nature without observing them. It appears, from this epithalamium, that +young men, before their marriage, had a favorite selected from among +their slaves and that this favorite was charged with the distribution of +nuts among his comrades, on the day, they in turn, treated him with +contempt and hooted him. Here follows an exact translation of this +curious bit. The favorite could not refuse the nuts to the slaves when +by giving them it appeared that he owned that his master had put away his +love for hire. + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> "Lest longer mute tongue stays that +<p> In festal jest, from Fescennine, +<p> Nor yet deny their nuts to boys, +<p> He-Concubine! who learns in fine +<p> His lordling's love is fled. +<br> +<p> Throw nuts to boys thou idle all +<p> He-Concubine! wast fain full long +<p> With nuts to play: now pleased as thrall +<p> Be thou to swell Talasios' throng +<p> He-Concubine throw nuts. +<br> +<p> Wont thou as peasant-girls to jape +<p> He-whore! Thy Lord's delight the while: +<p> Now shall hair-curling chattel scrape +<p> Thy cheeks: poor wretch, ah' poor and vile:-- +<p> He-Concubine, throw nuts." + +<p>and further on, addressing the husband: + +<p> "'Tis said from smooth-faced ingle train +<p> (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain +<p> Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain! +<p> O Hymen Hymenaeus io, +<p> O Hymen Hymenaeus! +<br> +<p> We know that naught save licit rites +<p> Be known to thee, but wedded wights +<p> No more deem lawful such delights. +<p> O Hymen Hymenaeus io, +<p> O Hymen Hymenaeus." +<p> (LXI. Burton, tr.) +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>The Christian religion strongly prohibits this love; the theologians put +it among the sins which directly offend against the Holy Ghost. I have +not the honor of knowing just why this thing arouses his anger so much +more than anything else; doubtless there are reasons. But the wrath of +this honest person has not prevented the Christians from having their +"pathici," just as they have in countries where they are authorized by +the reigning deities. We have even noticed that they are the priests of +the Lord and especially the monks who practice this profession most +generally amongst us. The children of Loyola have acquired well-merited +renown in this matter: when they painted "Pleasure" they never failed to +represent him wearing trousers. Those disciples of Joseph Calasanz who +took their places in the education of children, followed their footsteps +with zeal and fervor. Lastly, the cardinals, who have a close +acquaintance with the Holy Ghost, are so prejudiced in favor of Greek +love that they have made it the fashion in the Holy City of Rome; this +leads me to wonder whether the Holy Ghost has changed His mind in regard +to this matter and is no longer shocked by it; or whether the theologians +were not mistaken in assuming an aversion against sodomy which He never +had. The cardinals who are on such familiar terms with him would know +better than to give all their days over to this pleasure if He really +objected to it. + +<p>I shall terminate this over-long note with an extract from a violent +diatribe against this love which Lucian puts into the mouth of Charicles. +He is addressing Callicratidas, a passionate lover of young boys, with +whom he had gone to visit the temple of Venus at Cnidus. + +<p>"O Venus, my queen! to thee I call; lend me your aid while I plead your +cause. For everything over which you deign to shed, be it ever so +little, the persuasion of your charms, reaches absolute perfection, above +all, erotic discourses need your presence, for you are their lawful +mother. In your womanhood, defend the cause of woman, and grant to men +to remain men as they have been born. At the beginning of my discourse, +I call as witness to the truth of my arguments the first mother of all +created things, the source of all generation, the holy Nature of this +universe, who, gathering into one and uniting the elements of the +world--earth, air, fire and water--and mingling them together, gave life to +everything that breathes. Knowing that we are a compound of perishable +matter, and that the span of life assigned to each of us was short, she +contrived that the death of one should be the birth of another, and meted +out to the dying, by way of compensation, the coming into being of +others, that by mutual succession we might live forever. But, as it was +impossible for anything to be born from a single thing alone, she created +two different sexes, and bestowed upon the male the power of emitting +semen, making the female the receptacle of generation. Having inspired +both with mutual desires, she joined them together, ordaining, as a +sacred law of necessity, that each sex should remain faithful to its own +nature--that the female should not play the male unnaturally, nor the +male degrade himself by usurping the functions of the female. Thus +intercourse of men with women has preserved the human race by +never-ending succession: no man can boast of having been created by man alone; +two venerable names are held in equal honor, and men revere their mother +equally with their father. At first, when men were filled with heroic +thoughts, they reverenced those virtues which bring us nearer to the +Gods, obeyed the laws of Nature, and, united to women of suitable age, +became the sires of noble offspring. But, by degrees, human life, +degenerating from that nobility of sentiment, sank to the lowest depths +of pleasure, and began to carve out strange and corrupt ways in the +search after enjoyment. Then sensuality, daring all, violated the laws +of Nature herself. Who was it who first looked upon the male as female, +violating him by force or villainous persuasion? One sex entered one +bed, and men had the shamelessness to look at one another without a blush +for what they did or for what they submitted to, and, sowing seed, as it +were, upon barren rocks, they enjoyed a short-lived pleasure at the cost +of undying shame. + +<p>"Some pushed their cruelty so far as to outrage Nature with the +sacrilegious knife, and, after depriving men of their virility, found in +them the height of pleasure. These miserable and unhappy creatures, that +they may the longer serve the purposes of boys, are stunted in their +manhood, and remain a doubtful riddle of a double sex, neither preserving +that boyhood in which they were born, nor possessing that manhood which +should be theirs. The bloom of their youth withers away in a premature +old age: while yet boys they suddenly become old, without any interval of +manhood. For impure sensuality, the mistress of every vice, devising one +shameless pleasure after another, insensibly plunges into unmentionable +debauchery, experienced in every form of brutal lust. "Whereas, if each +would abide by the laws prescribed by Providence, we should be satisfied +with intercourse with women, and our lives would be undefiled by shameful +practices. Consider the animals, which cannot corrupt by innate +viciousness, how they observe the law of Nature in all its purity. +He-lions do not lust after he-lions, but, in due season, passion excites +them towards the females of their species: the bull that rules the herd +mounts cows, and the ram fills the whole flock of ewes with the seed of +generation. Again, boars mate with sows, he-wolves with shewolves, +neither the birds that fly through the air, nor the fish that inhabit the +deep, or any living creatures upon earth desire male intercourse, but +amongst them the laws of Nature remain unbroken. But you men, who boast +idly of your wisdom, but are in reality worthless brutes, what strange +disease provokes you to outrage one another unnaturally? What blind +folly fills your minds, that you commit the two-fold error of avoiding +what you should pursue, and pursuing what you should avoid? If each and +all were to pursue such evil courses, the race of human beings would +become extinct on earth. And here comes in that wonderful Socratic +argument, whereby the minds of boys, as yet unable to reason clearly, are +deceived, for a ripe intellect could not be misled. These followers of +Socrates pretend to love the soul alone, and, being ashamed to profess +love for the person, call themselves lovers of virtue, whereat I have +often been moved to laughter. How comes it, O grave philosophers, that +you hold in such slight regard a man who, during a long life, has given +proofs of merit, and of that virtue which old age and white hairs become? +How is it that the affections of the philosophers are all in a flutter +after the young; who cannot yet make up their minds which path of life to +take? Is there a law, then, that all ugliness is to be condemned as +vice, and that everything that is beautiful is to be extolled without +further examination? But, according to Homer, the great interpreter of +truth--'One man is meaner than another in looks, but God crowns his words +with beauty, and his hearers gaze upon him with delight, while he speaks +unfalteringly with winning modesty, and is conspicuous amongst the +assembled folk, who look upon him as a God when he walks through the +city.' And again he says: 'Your beauteous form is destitute of +intelligence; the wise Ulysses is praised more highly than the handsome +Nireus.' How then comes it that the love of wisdom, justice, and the +other virtues, which are the heritage of the full-grown man, possess no +attraction for you, while the beauty of boys excites the most vehement +passion! What! should one love Phoedrus, remembering Lysias, whom he +betrayed? Could one love the beauty of Alcibiades, who mutilated the +statues of the Gods, and, in the midst of a debauch, betrayed the +mysteries of the rites of Eleusis? Who would venture to declare himself +his admirer, after Athens was abandoned, and Decelea fortified by the +enemy--the admirer of one whose sole aim in life was tyranny? But, as +the divine Plato says, as long as his chin was beardless, he was beloved +by all; but, when he passed from boyhood to manhood, when his imperfect +intelligence had reached its maturity, he was hated by all. Why, then, +giving modest names to immodest sentiments, do men call personal beauty +virtue, being in reality lovers of youth rather than lovers of wisdom? +However, it is not my intention to speak evil of distinguished men. But, +to descend from graver topics to the mere question of enjoyment, I will +prove that connection with women is far more enjoyable than connection +with boys. In the first place, the longer enjoyment lasts, the more +delight it affords; too rapid pleasure passes quickly away, and it is +over before it is thoroughly appreciated; but, if it lasts, it is thereby +enhanced. Would to heaven that grudging Destiny had allotted us a longer +lease of life, and that we could enjoy perpetual health without any +sorrow to spoil our pleasure; then would our life be one continual feast. +But, since jealous Fortune has grudged us greater blessings, those +enjoyments that last the longest are the sweetest. Again, a woman, from +puberty to middle age, until the last wrinkles furrow her face, is worth +embracing and fit for intercourse; and, even though the prime of her +beauty be past, her experience can speak more eloquently than the love of +boys. + +<p>"I should consider anyone who attempted to have intercourse with a youth +of twenty years to be the slave of unnatural lust. The limbs of such, +like those of a man, are hard and coarse; their chins, formerly so +smooth, are rough and bristly, and their well-grown thighs are disfigured +with hairs. As for their other parts, I leave those of you who have +experience to decide. On the other hand, a woman's charms are always +enhanced by an attractive complexion, flowing locks, dark as hyacinths, +stream down her back and adorn her shoulders, or fall over her ears and +temples, more luxuriant than the parsley in the fields. The rest of her +person, without a hair upon it, shines more brilliantly than amber or +Sidonian crystal. Why should we not pursue those pleasures which are +mutual, which cause equal enjoyment to those who receive and to those who +afford them? For we are not, like animals, fond of solitary lives, but, +united in social relations, we consider these pleasures sweeter, and +those pains easier to bear, which we share with others. Hence, a common +table was instituted, the mediator of friendship. When we minister to +the wants of the belly, we do not drink Thasian wine, or consume costly +food by ourselves alone, but in company: for our pleasures and enjoyments +are increased when shared with others. In like manner, the intercourse +of men with women causes enjoyment to each in turn, and both are alike +delighted; unless we accept the judgment of Tiresias, who declared that +the woman's pleasure was twice as great as the man's. I think that those +who are not selfish should not consider how they may best secure the +whole enjoyment for themselves, but should share what they have with +others. Now, in the case of boys, no one would be mad enough to assert +that this is the case; for, while he who enjoys their person reaches the +height of pleasure--at least, according to his way of thinking--the +object of his passion at first feels pain, even to tears, but when, by +repetition, the pain becomes less keen, while he no longer hurts him, he +will feel no pleasure himself. To mention something still more curious +--as is fitting within the precincts of Venus--you may make the same use +of a woman as of a boy, and thereby open a double avenue to enjoyment; +but the male can never afford the same enjoyment as the female. + +<p>"Therefore, if you are convinced by my arguments, let us, men and women, +keep ourselves apart, as if a wall divided us; but, if it is becoming for +men to have intercourse with men, for the future let women have +intercourse with women. Come, O new generation, inventor of strange +pleasures! As you have devised new methods to satisfy male lust, grant +the same privilege to women; let them have intercourse with one another +like men, girding themselves with the infamous instruments of lust, an +unholy imitation of a fruitless union; in a word, let our wanton Tribads +reign unchecked, and let our women's chambers be disgraced by +hermaphrodites. Far better that a woman, in the madness of her lust, +should usurp the nature of a man, than that man's noble nature should be +so degraded as to play the woman!" + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="IV."></a>IV.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Embasicetas fut bientot au comble de ses voeux. +<p> The Catamite soon reached the height of his passion. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>The theologians class this species of lascivious feeling with pollution +which is complete when it produces a result. The Holy Scripture tells us +of Onan, son of Judas, grandson of Jacob, and husband of Thamar, who was +slain by the Lord because he spilled his semen, "he poured his semen upon +the ground." We may be reproached, perhaps, for citing the Holy Bible +too frequently, but that book contains the knowledge of salvation, and +those who wish to be saved should not fail to study it with assiduity. +That this study has occupied a good part of our life, we admit, and we +have always found that study profitable. To vigorous minds that +admission may seem ridiculous, but we are writing only for pious souls, +and they will willingly applaud this courageous profession of our piety. + +<p>The theologians have also classified onanism and pollution among the sins +against the Holy Ghost, and this being the case, there is no being in the +world who has been sinned against so often. A medium indulgence in this +sin furnished the pleasure of a queen, the severity of one Lucretia does +not repel a thousand Tarquins. Men with vivid imaginations create for +themselves a paradise peopled with the most beautiful houris, more +seductive than those of Mahomet; Lycoris had a beautiful body but it was +unfeeling; the imagination of her lover pictured her as falling before +his caresses, he led her by the hand over pressed flowers, through a +thick grove and along limpid streams; in that sweet reverie his life +slipped by. + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Here icy cold fountains, here flower covered meadows, Lycoris; +<p> Here shady groves; life itself here would I dream out with thee. + +<p> Virgil Bucol. Ecl. X, 41. +</blockquote></blockquote> +<p>In the minds of the theologians pollution is synonymous with all +pleasures with persons of the opposite or the same sex, which result in a +waste of the elixir of life. In this sense, love between woman and woman +is pollution and Sappho is a sinner against the Holy Ghost. + +<p>(Notwithstanding), however (these caprices of the third person of the +trinity) I cannot see why pleasure should be regulated, or why a woman +who has surveyed all the charms of a young girl of eighteen years should +give herself up to the rude embraces of a man. What comparisons can be +made between those red lips, that mouth which breathes pleasure for the +first time, those snowy and purplous cheeks whose velvet smoothness is +like the Venus flower, half in bloom, that new-born flesh which +palpitates softly with desire and voluptuousness, that hand which you +press so delicately, those round thighs, those plastic buttocks, that +voice sweet and touching,--what comparison can be made between all this +and pronounced features, rough beard, hard breast, hairy body, and the +strong disagreeable voice of man? Juvenal has wonderfully expended all +his bile in depicting, as hideous scenes, these mysteries of the Bona +Dea, where the young and beautiful Roman women, far from the eyes of men, +give themselves up to mutual caresses. Juvenal has painted the eyes of +the Graces with colors which are proper to the Furies; his tableau, +moreover, revolts one instead of doing good. + +<p>The only work of Sappho's which remains to us is an ode written to one of +her loved ones and from it we may judge whether the poetess merited her +reputation. It has been translated into all languages; Catullus put it +into Latin and Boileau into French. Here follows an imitation of that of +Catullus: + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Peer of a God meseemeth he, +<p> Nay passing Gods (and that can be!) +<p> Who all the while sits facing thee +<p> Sees thee and hears +<p> Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze +<p> Mine every sense, and as I gaze +<p> Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays +<br> +<p> My tongue is dulled, limbs adown +<p> Flows subtle flame; with sound its own +<p> Rings either ear, and o'er are strown +<p> Mine eyes with night. + +<p> (LI. Burton, tr.) +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>After that we should never again exhort the ministers and moralists to +inveigh against love of women for women; never was the interest of men +found to be so fully in accord with the precepts of divine law. + +<p>Here I should like to speak of the brides of the Lord; but I remember +"The Nun" of Diderot, and my pen falls from my hand. Oh, who would dare +to touch a subject handled by Diderot? + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="V."></a>V.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Giton venait de la deflorer, et de remporter une victoire sanglante. +<p> Giton the victor had won a not bloodless victory. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>All people have regarded virginity as something sacred, and God has so +honored it that he willed that his son be born of a virgin, fecundated, +however, by the Holy Ghost. Still, it appears problematical whether the +Virgin Mary, complete virgin that she was, did not have the same pleasure +as those who are not virgins, when she received the divine annunciation. +Father Sanchez has discussed the question very fully "whether the Virgin +Mary 'spent' in copulation with the Holy-Ghost," unhappily, he decided in +the negative, and I have too much veneration for Father Sanchez not to +submit to his decision; but because of it, I am vexed with the Virgin +Mary and the Holy Ghost. + +<p>Notwithstanding this, the daughters of the people of the Lord were not +content to remain virgins; a state of being which, at bottom has not much +to recommend it. The daughter of Jephtha before being immolated for the +sake of the Lord, demanded of her father a reprieve of two months in +which to weep for her virginity upon the mountains of Gelboe; it seems it +should not have taken so long had she had nothing to regret. Ruth had +recourse to the quickest method when she wished to cease being a virgin; +she simply went and lay down upon the bed with Boaz. The spirit of God +has deemed it worth while to transmit this story to us, for the +instruction of virgins from century to century. + +<p>The pagan Gods thought highly of maidenheads, they often took them and +always, they set aside the virgins for themselves. The Phtyian, from +whose organ Apollo was foreordained to come, proved to be only a virgin; +the spirit of God did not communicate itself to anyone who had ever been +sullied by contact with a mortal. It was to virgins that the sacred +fires of Vesta were entrusted, and the violation of their virginity was a +capital crime which all Rome regarded as a scourge from wrathful heaven. + +<p>The Sybils lived and died virgins; in addressing the Cumaean Sybil, +AEneas never failed to bestow that title upon her. + +<p>Most of the immortals have preserved their virginity, Diana, Minerva, et +cet. But what is the most astonishing is that the companions of Venus +and Amor, the most lovable of all divinities, the Graces, were also +virgins. Juno became a virgin again every year, by bathing in the waters +of a magic fountain; that must have rendered Jupiter's duties rather +onerous. + +<p>There are some reasons for this passion of mankind for maidenheads. It +is so wonderful to give the first lessons of voluptuousness to a pure and +innocent heart, to feel under one's hand the first palpitations of the +virginal breasts which arouses unknown delights, to dry the first tears +of tenderness, to inspire that first mixture of fear and hope, of vague +desires and expectant inquietude; whoever has never had that satisfaction +has missed the most pleasurable of all the delights of love. But taken +in that sense, virginity is rather a moral inclination, as Buffon says, +than a physical matter, and nothing can justify the barbarous precautions +against amorous theft which were taken by unnatural fathers and jealous +husbands. + +<p>In those unhappy countries which are bent under oppression, in those +countries where heaven shows its heat in the beauty of the sex, and +where beauty is only an object of speculation for avid parents; in such +countries, I say, they resort to the most odious methods for preserving +the virginity of the young and beautiful daughters who are destined to be +sold like common cattle. They put a lock over the organ of pleasure and +never permit it to be opened except when it is strictly necessary for +carrying out those animal functions for which nature destined them. + +<p>The locks of chastity were long known in Europe; the Italians are accused +with this terrible invention. Nevertheless, it is certain that they were +used upon men, at least, in the time of the first Roman emperors. +Juvenal, in his satire against women, VI, says: "If the singers please +them there is no need for locks of chastity for those who have sold their +voices to the praetors, who keep them." + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Si gaudet cantu, nullius fibula durat +<p> Vocem vendentis praetoribus. +<p> Sat. VI, 379. +<br> +<p> If pleased by the song of the singer employed by the praetor +<p> No fibula long will hold out, free, the actor will greet her. +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>Christianity, most spiritual, most mystical of ancient religions, +attempts to make out a great case for celibacy. Its founder never +married, although the Pharisees reproached him for frequenting gay women, +and had, perhaps, some reason for so doing. Jesus showed a particular +affection for Mary Magdalen, to the point of exciting the jealousy of +Martha, who complained that her sister passed her time in conversation +with Jesus and left her with all the housework to do. "Mary has chosen +the better part," said the Savior. A good Christian must not doubt that +the colloquies were always spiritual. + +<p>St. Paul counseled virginity and most of the apostolic fathers practiced +it. Among others, St. Jerome lived his whole life among women and never +lost his purity. He answered his enemies who reproached him with his +very great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof +of his chastity was that he stank. That stinking of St. Jerome, which is +not a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of +pious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it. + +<p>When the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be +submitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its +interests and those of the common people as far as possible it must +tighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens. Also the Pope +who was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused +it most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and +enunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain +their celibacy. However, although neither priests nor monks were +permitted to marry, the epithet "virgins" cannot be justly applied to all +priests and all monks without exception. Nor shall I repeat here the +naughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others, +against the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more +"satyrical" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have +nothing to say. + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="VI."></a>VI.</h2> +<br> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p> Alors une vielle. . . . +<p> [Finally an old woman . . .] +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>The question here has to do with a procurers or go-between. That +profession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what +fatality, which befalls the most worthy things. Cervantes the only +philosophic author Spain has produced, wanted that calling to be +venerated in cities above all others. And truly, when one thinks how +much finesse is necessary to pursue that profession with success, when +one considers that those who practice that truly liberal art are the +repositories of the most important as well as the most sacred secrets, +one would never fail to have the greatest respect for them. The +tranquillity of homes, the civil state of persons they hold at their +discretion, and still, though they drink in insults, though they endure +abuse, very rarely do these beings, true stoics, compromise those who +have confided in them. + +<p>In their Mercury, the ancients realized their beau ideal or archetype +of go-between which they called; in vulgar language "pimp". That God, +as go-between for Jupiter, was often involved in the most hazardous +enterprises, such as abducting Io, who was guarded by Argus of the +hundred eyes; Mercury I say, was the God of concord, or eloquence, +and of mystery. Except to inspire them with friendly feeling and kind +affections, Mercury never went among mortals. Touched by his wand, +venomous serpents closely embraced him. Listening to him, Achilles +forgot his pride, extended hospitality to Priam and permitted him to take +away the body of Hector. The ferocious Carthaginians were softened +through the influence of this God of peace, and received the Trojans in +friendship. Mercury it was who gathered men into society and substituted +social customs for barbarism. He invented the lyre and was the master of +Amphion, who opened the walls of Thebes by the charm of his singing. +Mercury or Hermes gave the first man knowledge; but it was enveloped in a +mysterious veil which it was never permitted the profane to penetrate, +which signifies that all that he learned from God, concerning amorous +adventures, should be wrapped in profound silence. How beautiful all +these allegories are! And how true! How insipid life would be without +these mysterious liaisons, by which Nature carries out her designs, +eluding the social ties, without breaking them! Disciples of Mercury, I +salute you, whatever be your sex; to your discretion, to your persuasive +arts are confided our dearest interests, the peace of mind of husbands, +the happiness of lovers, the reputation of women, the legitimacy of +children. Without you, this desolated earth would prove to be, in +reality, a vale of tears; the young and beautiful wife united to decrepit +husband, would languish and grow weak, like the lonely flower which the +sun's rays never touch. Thus did Mexence bind in thine indissoluble +bands the living and the dead. + +<p>Fate, however, has often avenged the go-betweens on account of the +misunderstandings from which they suffer at the hands of the vulgar. +Otho opened the way to the empire of the world by his services as a +go-between for Nero. And the go-betweens of princes, and even of +princesses, are always found in the finest situations. Even Otho did not +lose all his rights; Nero exiled him with a commission of honor, "because +he was caught in adultery with his own wife, Poppaea." "Uxoris moechus +coeperate esse suae" (Suet. Otho, chap. 111), said malicious gossip at +Rome. +<br> +<hr> + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> +<br> +<p>To the scholar contemplating an exhaustive study of Petronius, the +masterly bibliography compiled by Gaselee is indispensable, and those +of my readers who desire to pursue the subject are referred to it. +The following is a list of editions, translations, criticisms and +miscellaneous publications and authors from which I have derived benefit +in the long and pleasant hours devoted to Petronius. + +<p> +EDITIONS, Opera Omnia. +<table summary="Review of Editions"> +<tr> +<td>--------- Lyons 1615.</td> +<td>Hadrianides Amsterdam 1669.</td> +<td>Bourdelot Paris 1677.</td> +<td>Boschius Amsterdam 1677.</td> +<td>Burmann Utrecht 1709.</td> +<td>Anton Leipzig 1781.</td> +<td>Buecheler Berlin 1862.</td> +<td>Herxus(Buecheler) Berlin 1911.</td> +</table> +<br><br> +<p>TRAU FRAGMENT. +<p> Amsterdam 1670. +<p> Containing Frambotti's corrections. +<p> Gaselee Cambridge 1915. + +<br> +<hr> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<pre> +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE "SATYRICON" + +Affairs start to go wrong, your friends will stand from under +Believes, on the spot, every tale +Boys play in the schools, the young men are laughed at +Cardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love +Death is never far from those who seek him +Death levels caste and sufferers unites +Deferred pleasures are a long time coming +Desire no possession unless the world envies me for possessing +Doctor's not good for anything except for a consolation +Double capacity of masseurs and prostitutes +Egyptians "commercialized" that incomparable art +Either 'take-in,' or else they are 'taken-in' +Empress Theodora belonged to this class +Errors committed in the name of religion +Esteeming nothing except what is rare +Everybody's business is nobody's business +Everything including the children, is devoted to ambition +Face, rouged and covered with cosmetics +Fierce morality, inimical to all the pleasures of life +For one hour of nausea you promise it a plethora of good things +Hardouin on homosexuality in priests +He can teach you more than he knows himself +High fortune may rather master us, than we master it +In the arrogance of success, had put on the manner of the master +Laughed ourselves out of a most disgraceful quarrel +Learning's a fine thing, and a trade won't starve +Legislation has never proved a success in repressing vice +Live coals are more readily held in men's mouths than a secret +Love or art never yet made anyone rich +Man is hated when he declares himself an enemy to all vice +Men are lions at home and foxes abroad +No one will confess the errors he was taught in his school days +No one can show a dead man a good time +One could do a man no graver injury than to call him a dancer +Platitudes by which anguished minds are recalled to sanity +Priests, animated by an hypocritical mania for prophecy +Propensity of pouring one's personal troubles into another's ear +Putting as good a face upon the matter as I could +Religions responsible for the most abominable actions +Remarkable resemblance to each other are the Bible and Homer +Rumor but grows in the telling and strives to embellish +Russia there is a sect called the skoptzi +See or hear nothing at all of the affairs of every-day life +She is chaste whom no man has solicited--Ovid +Something in the way of hope at which to nibble +Stained by the lifeblood of the God of Wine +Stinking of St. Jerome +Tax on bachelors +The loser's always the winner in arguments +The teachers, who must gibber with lunatics +They secure their ends, save by setting snares for the ears +They seize what they dread to lose most +To follow all paths; but a road can discover by none +Too many doctors did away with him +Wars were as much enterprises for ravishing women +We know that you're only a fool with a lot of learning +Whatever we have, we despise +Whatever you talk of at home will fly forth in an instant +Whenever you learn a thing, it's yours +While we live, let us live +You can spot a louse on someone else + +</pre> + +<br><br> +<hr> +<br><br> +<br><br> +<br><br> + + +<pre> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS, V7 *** + +******** This file should be named pas7w10h.html or pas7w10h.zip ******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, pas7w11h.html +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, pas7w10ha.html + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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