Louis (Budé, 1964–69) · Thompson (1910)
Thompson (1910)
Greek line numbers are exact. The translations carry no Bekker numbers of their own, so those beside the English are aligned to the Greek: upright = fixed (anchored to this point in the text), italic grey = approximate (interpolated estimate).
Book 7,Chapter 1 (581a9–582a33)
581a
Περὶ δ' ἀνθρώπου γενέσεως τῆς τε πρώτης τῆς ἐν τῷ
10 θήλει καὶ τῆς ὕστερον μέχρι γήρως, ὅσα συμβαίνει διὰ τὴν
φύσιν τὴν οἰκείαν, τόνδ' ἔχει τὸν τρόπον. Ἡ μὲν διαφορὰ τοῦ
ἄρρενος πρὸς τὸ θῆλυ καὶ τὰ μόρια πρότερον εἴρηται. Φέρειν
δὲ σπέρμα πρῶτον ἄρχεται τὸ ἄρρεν ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ἐν
τοῖς ἔτεσι τοῖς δὶς ἑπτὰ τετελεσμένοις· ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἡ τρίχωσις
15 τῆς ἥβης ἄρχεται, καθάπερ καὶ τὰ φυτὰ μέλλοντα
σπέρμα φέρειν ἀνθεῖν πρῶτον Ἀλκμαίων φησὶν ὁ Κροτωνιάτης.
Περὶ δὲ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον τοῦτον ἥ τε φωνὴ μεταβάλλειν
ἄρχεται ἐπὶ τὸ τραχύτερον καὶ ἀνωμαλέστερον, οὔτ' ἔτι
ὀξεῖα οὖσα οὔτε πω βαρεῖα, οὔτε πᾶσα ὁμαλή, ἀλλ' ὁμοία
20 φαινομένη ταῖς παρανενευρισμέναις καὶ τραχείαις χορδαῖς·
ὃ καλοῦσι τραγίζειν. Γίνεται δὲ τοῦτο μᾶλλον τοῖς πειρωμένοις
ἀφροδισιάζειν· τοῖς γὰρ περὶ ταῦτα προθυμουμένοις
καὶ μεταβάλλουσιν αἱ φωναὶ εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀνδρῶν φωνήν,
ἀπεχομένοις δὲ τοὐναντίον· ἂν δὲ καὶ συναποβιάζωνται ταῖς
25 ἐπιμελείαις, ὅπερ ποιοῦσιν ἔνιοι τῶν περὶ τὰς χορείας σπουδαζόντων,
καὶ μέχρι πόρρω διαμένει καὶ τὸ πάμπαν μικρὰν
λαμβάνει μεταβολήν. Καὶ μαστῶν ἔπαρσις γίνεται καὶ
αἰδοίων, οὐ μεγέθει μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴδει. Συμβαίνει δὲ περὶ
τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον τοῖς τε πειρωμένοις τρίβεσθαι περὶ τὴν τοῦ
30 σπέρματος πρόεσιν οὐ μόνον ἡδονὴν γίνεσθαι τοῦ σπέρματος
ἐξιόντος, ἀλλὰ καὶ λύπην. Περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ χρόνον καὶ
τοῖς θήλεσιν ἥ τ' ἔπαρσις γίνεται τῶν μαστῶν καὶ τὰ καταμήνια
As to Man's growth, first within his mother's womb and afterward to 10old age, the course of nature, in so far as man is specially concerned, is after the following manner. And, by the way, the difference of male and female and of their respective organs has been dealt with heretofore. When twice seven years old, in the most of cases, the male begins to engender seed; and at the same time hair appears upon the 15pubes, in like manner, so Alcmaeon of Croton remarks, as plants first blossom and then seed. About the same time, the voice begins to alter, getting harsher and more uneven, neither shrill as formerly nor deep as afterward, nor yet of any even tone, but like an instrument whose strings are frayed and out of tune; and it is called, by way of 20by-word, the bleat of the billy-goat. Now this breaking of the voice is the more apparent in those who are making trial of their sexual powers; for in those who are prone to lustfulness the voice turns into the voice of a man, but not so in the continent. For if a lad strive diligently to hinder his voice from breaking, as some do of those 25who devote themselves to music, the voice lasts a long while unbroken and may even persist with little change. And the breasts swell and likewise the private parts, altering in size and shape. (And by the way, at this time of life those who try by friction to provoke emission of seed are apt to experience pain as well as voluptuous sensations.) 30At the same age in the female, the breasts swell and the so-called catamenia commence to flow; and this fluid resembles fresh blood.
581b
1 καλούμενα καταρρήγνυται· τοῦτο δ' ἐστὶν αἷμα
οἷον νεόσφακτον. Τὰ δὲ λευκὰ καὶ παιδίοις οὖσι γίνεται νέοις
πάμπαν, μᾶλλον δ' ἂν ὑγρᾷ χρῶνται τροφῇ· καὶ κωλύει
τὴν αὔξησιν, καὶ τὰ σώματα ἰσχναίνει τῶν παιδίων. Τὰ δὲ
5 καταμήνια γίνεται ταῖς πλείσταις ἤδη τῶν μαστῶν ἐπὶ
δύο δακτύλους ἠρμένων. Καὶ ἡ φωνὴ δὲ καὶ ταῖς παισὶ
μεταβάλλει περὶ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον ἐπὶ τὸ βαρύτερον. Ὅλως
μὲν γὰρ γυνὴ ἀνδρὸς ὀξυφωνότερον, αἱ δὲ νέαι τῶν πρεςβυτέρων,
ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ παῖδες τῶν ἀνδρῶν· ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἡ
10 φωνὴ ὀξυτέρα ἡ τῶν θηλειῶν παίδων ἢ τῶν ἀρρένων, καὶ ὁ
παρθένιος αὐλὸς τοῦ παιδικοῦ ὀξύτερος. Μάλιστα δὲ καὶ φυλακῆς
δέονται περὶ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον· μάλιστα γὰρ ὁρμῶσι
πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀφροδισίων χρῆσιν ἀρχομένων αὐτῶν, ὥστ' ἂν
μὴ διευλαβηθῶσι μηδὲν ἐπὶ πλεῖον κινῆσαι οὗ αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα
15 μεταβάλλει μηδὲν χρωμένων ἀφροδισίοις, ἀκολουθεῖν
εἴωθεν εἰς τὰς ὕστερον ἡλικίας. Αἵ τε γὰρ νέαι πάμπαν
ἀφροδισιαζόμεναι ἀκολαστότεραι γίνονται καὶ οἱ ἄρρενες,
ἐάν τ' ἐπὶ θάτερα ἐάν τ' ἐπ' ἀμφότερα ἀφυλακτήσωσιν·
οἵ τε γὰρ πόροι ἀναστομοῦνται, καὶ ποιοῦσιν εὔρουν τὸ σῶμα
20 ταύτῃ· καὶ ἅμα ἡ τότε μνήμη τῆς συμβαινούσης ἡδονῆς
ἐπιθυμίαν ποιεῖ τῆς τότε γινομένης ὁμιλίας. Γίνονται δέ τινες
ἄνηβοι ἐκ γενετῆς καὶ ἄγονοι, διὰ τὸ πηρωθῆναι περὶ τὸν
τόπον τὸν γόνιμον· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες γίνονται ἄνηβοι
ἐκ γενετῆς. Μεταβάλλουσι δὲ καὶ τὰς ἕξεις καὶ τὰ ἄρρενα
25 καὶ τὰ θήλεα περί τε τὸ ὑγιεινότερα εἶναι καὶ νοσερώτερα,
καὶ περὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἰσχνότητα καὶ παχύτητα καὶ
εὐτροφίαν· μετὰ γὰρ τὴν ἥβην οἱ μὲν ἐξ ἰσχνῶν παχύνονται
καὶ ὑγιεινότεροι γίνονται, οἱ δὲ τοὐναντίον· ὁμοίως δὲ
τοῦτο συμβαίνει καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν παρθένων. Ὅσοι μὲν γὰρ παῖδες
30 ἢ ὅσαι παρθένοι περιττωματικὰ τὰ σώματα εἶχον, συναποκρινομένων
τῶν τοιούτων τοῖς μὲν ἐν τῷ σπέρματι ταῖς δ'
ἐν τοῖς καταμηνίοις ὑγιεινότερα τὰ σώματα γίνεται καὶ εὐτραφέστερα,
1There is another discharge, a white one, by the way, which occurs in girls even at a very early age, more especially if their diet be largely of a fluid nature; and this malady causes arrest of growth and loss of flesh. In the majority of cases 5the catamenia are noticed by the time the breasts have grown to the height of two fingers' breadth. In girls, too, about this time the voice changes to a deeper note; for while in general the woman's voice is higher than the man's, so also the voices of girls are pitched in a higher key than the elder women's, 10just as the boy's are higher than the men's; and the girls' voices are shriller than the boys', and a maid's flute is tuned sharper than a lad's.
Girls of this age have much need of surveillance. For then in particular they feel a natural impulse to make usage of the sexual faculties that are developing 15in them; so that unless they guard against any further impulse beyond that inevitable one which their bodily development of itself supplies, even in the case of those who abstain altogether from passionate indulgence, they contract habits which are apt to continue into later life. For girls who give way to 20wantonness grow more and more wanton; and the same is true of boys, unless they be safeguarded from one temptation and another; for the passages become dilated and set up a local flux or running, and besides this the recollection of pleasure associated with former indulgence creates a longing for its 25repetition.
Some men are congenitally impotent owing to structural defect; and in like manner women also may suffer from congenital incapacity. Both men and women are liable to constitutional change, growing healthier or more sickly, or altering in the way of leanness, stoutness, and vigour; thus, after puberty 30some lads who were thin before grow stout and healthy, and the converse also happens; and the same is equally true of girls.
Girls of this age have much need of surveillance. For then in particular they feel a natural impulse to make usage of the sexual faculties that are developing 15in them; so that unless they guard against any further impulse beyond that inevitable one which their bodily development of itself supplies, even in the case of those who abstain altogether from passionate indulgence, they contract habits which are apt to continue into later life. For girls who give way to 20wantonness grow more and more wanton; and the same is true of boys, unless they be safeguarded from one temptation and another; for the passages become dilated and set up a local flux or running, and besides this the recollection of pleasure associated with former indulgence creates a longing for its 25repetition.
Some men are congenitally impotent owing to structural defect; and in like manner women also may suffer from congenital incapacity. Both men and women are liable to constitutional change, growing healthier or more sickly, or altering in the way of leanness, stoutness, and vigour; thus, after puberty 30some lads who were thin before grow stout and healthy, and the converse also happens; and the same is equally true of girls.
582a
1 ἐξιόντων τῶν ἐμποδιζόντων τὴν ὑγίειαν καὶ
τὴν τροφήν· ὅσοι δὲ τοὐναντίον, ἰσχνότερα καὶ νοσακερώτερα
τὰ σώματα γίνεται· ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῶν καλῶς
ἐχόντων ἡ ἀπόκρισις γίνεται τοῖς μὲν ἐν τῷ σπέρματι ταῖς
5 δ' ἐν τοῖς καταμηνίοις. Ἔτι δὲ ταῖς γε παρθένοις καὶ τὰ
περὶ τοὺς μαστοὺς γίνεται διαφερόντως ἑτέραις πρὸς ἑτέρας·
αἱ μὲν γὰρ πάμπαν μεγάλους ἔχουσιν, αἱ δὲ μικρούς. Ὡς
ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ δὲ συμβαίνει τοῦτο, ὅσαι ἂν παῖδες οὖσαι περιττωματικαὶ
ὦσιν· μελλόντων γὰρ καὶ οὔπω γινομένων τῶν
10 γυναικείων, ὅσῳ ἂν πλείων ἡ ὑγρότης ᾖ, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον
ἀναγκάζει αἴρεσθαι ἄνω, ἕως ἂν καταρραγῇ· ὥστε τότε λαβόντες
ὄγκον οἱ μαστοὶ διαμένουσι καὶ εἰς τὸ ὕστερον. Καὶ
τῶν ἀρρένων δ' ἐπιδηλότεροι γίνονται καὶ γυναικικώτεροι οἱ
μαστοί, καὶ νεωτέροις καὶ πρεσβυτέροις οὖσι, τοῖς ὑγροῖς καὶ
15 λείοις καὶ μὴ φλεβώδεσι, καὶ τούτων μᾶλλον τοῖς μέλασιν
ἢ λευκοῖς. Μέχρι μὲν οὖν τῶν τρὶς ἑπτὰ ἐτῶν τὸ μὲν πρῶτον
ἄγονα τὰ σπέρματά ἐστιν· ἔπειτα γόνιμα μὲν μικρὰ δὲ
καὶ ἀτελῆ γεννῶσι καὶ οἱ νέοι καὶ αἱ νέαι, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐπὶ
τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων τῶν πλείστων. Συλλαμβάνουσι μὲν οὖν αἱ
20 νέαι θᾶττον· ἐὰν δὲ συλλάβωσιν, ἐν τοῖς τόκοις πονοῦσι
μᾶλλον. Καὶ τὰ σώματα δ' αὐτῶν ἀτελέστερα γίνεται ὡς
ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ καὶ γηράσκει θᾶττον, τῶν τ' ἀφροδισιαστικῶν
ἀρρένων καὶ τῶν γυναικῶν τῶν τοῖς τόκοις χρωμένων πλείοσιν·
δοκεῖ γὰρ οὐδ' ἡ αὔξησις ἔτι γίνεσθαι μετὰ τοὺς τρεῖς
25 τόκους. Καθίστανται δὲ καὶ σωφρονίζονται μᾶλλον ὅσαι τῶν
γυναικῶν ἀκόλαστοι πρὸς τὴν ὁμιλίαν εἰσὶ τὴν τῶν ἀφροδισίων,
ὅταν τοῖς τόκοις χρήσωνται πολλοῖς. Μετὰ δὲ τὰ τρὶς
ἑπτὰ ἔτη αἱ μὲν γυναῖκες πρὸς τὰς τεκνοποιΐας ἤδη εὐκαίρως
ἔχουσιν, οἱ δ' ἄνδρες ἔτι ἔχουσιν ἐπίδοσιν. Ἔστι δὲ τὰ μὲν
30 λεπτὰ τῶν σπερμάτων ἄγονα, τὰ δὲ χαλαζώδη γόνιμα
καὶ ἀρρενογόνα μᾶλλον· τὰ δὲ λεπτὰ καὶ μὴ θρομβώδη
θηλυγόνα. Καὶ γενείου δὲ τρίχωσις συμβαίνει τοῖς ἄρρεσι
περὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν ταύτην.
1For when in boy or girl the body is loaded with superfluous matter, then, when such superfluities are got rid of in the spermatic or catamenial discharge, their bodies improve in health and condition owing to the removal of what had acted as an impediment to health and proper nutrition; but in such as are of opposite 5habit their bodies become emaciated and out of health, for then the spermatic discharge in the one case and the catamenial flow in the other take place at the cost of natural healthy conditions.
Furthermore, in the case of maidens the condition of the breasts is diverse in different individuals, for they are sometimes quite big and sometimes little; and as a general rule their size depends 10on whether or not the body was burthened in childhood with superfluous material. For when the signs of womanhood are nigh but not come, the more there be of moisture the more will it cause the breasts to swell, even to the bursting point; and the result is that the breasts remain during after-life of the bulk that they then acquired. And among men, the breasts grow more conspicuous and more 15like to those of women, both in young men and old, when the individual temperament is moist and sleek and the reverse of sinewy, and all the more among the dark-complexioned than the fair.
At the outset and till the age of one and twenty the spermatic discharge is devoid of fecundity; afterwards it becomes fertile, but young men and women produce undersized and imperfect progeny, as is the 20case also with the common run of animals. Young women conceive readily, but, having conceived, their labour in childbed is apt to be difficult.
The frame fails of reaching its full development and ages quickly in men of intemperate lusts and in women who become mothers of many children; for it appears to be the case that growth ceases when the woman has given birth to three children. Women of 25a lascivious disposition grow more sedate and virtuous after they have borne several children.
After the age of twenty-one women are fully ripe for child-bearing, but men go on increasing in vigour. When the spermatic fluid is of a thin consistency it is infertile; when granular it is fertile and likely to produce male children, but when thin and unclotted it is apt to produce female offspring. 30And it is about this time of life that in men the beard makes its appearance.
Furthermore, in the case of maidens the condition of the breasts is diverse in different individuals, for they are sometimes quite big and sometimes little; and as a general rule their size depends 10on whether or not the body was burthened in childhood with superfluous material. For when the signs of womanhood are nigh but not come, the more there be of moisture the more will it cause the breasts to swell, even to the bursting point; and the result is that the breasts remain during after-life of the bulk that they then acquired. And among men, the breasts grow more conspicuous and more 15like to those of women, both in young men and old, when the individual temperament is moist and sleek and the reverse of sinewy, and all the more among the dark-complexioned than the fair.
At the outset and till the age of one and twenty the spermatic discharge is devoid of fecundity; afterwards it becomes fertile, but young men and women produce undersized and imperfect progeny, as is the 20case also with the common run of animals. Young women conceive readily, but, having conceived, their labour in childbed is apt to be difficult.
The frame fails of reaching its full development and ages quickly in men of intemperate lusts and in women who become mothers of many children; for it appears to be the case that growth ceases when the woman has given birth to three children. Women of 25a lascivious disposition grow more sedate and virtuous after they have borne several children.
After the age of twenty-one women are fully ripe for child-bearing, but men go on increasing in vigour. When the spermatic fluid is of a thin consistency it is infertile; when granular it is fertile and likely to produce male children, but when thin and unclotted it is apt to produce female offspring. 30And it is about this time of life that in men the beard makes its appearance.
Book 7,Chapter 2 (582a34–583a13)
Ἡ δὲ τῶν γυναικείων ὁρμὴ γίνεται περὶ φθίνοντας τοὺς
35 μῆνας· διό φασί τινες τῶν σοφιζομένων καὶ τὴν σελήνην εἶναι
The onset of the catamenia in women takes place towards the end of the month; and on this account the wiseacres assert that the moon is feminine, because the discharge in women and the waning of the moon happen at one and the same time, and after the wane and the discharge both one and the other grow whole again.
582b
1 θῆλυ, ὅτι ἅμα συμβαίνει ταῖς μὲν ἡ κάθαρσις τῇ δ'
ἡ φθίσις, καὶ μετὰ τὴν κάθαρσιν καὶ τὴν φθίσιν ἡ πλήρωσις
ἀμφοῖν. Καὶ ταῖς μὲν συνεχῶς καθ' ἕκαστον ὀλιγάκις τὰ
καταμήνια φοιτᾷ, παρὰ δὲ μῆνα τρίτον ταῖς πλείσταις.
5 Ὅσαις μὲν οὖν ὀλίγον χρόνον γίνεται, δύο ἢ τρεῖς ἡμέρας,
ἀπαλλάττουσι ῥᾷον, ὅσαις δὲ πολλάς, χαλεπώτερον. Πονοῦσι
γὰρ τὰς ἡμέρας ταύτας· ταῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀθρόα ἡ κάθαρσις
γίνεται ταῖς δὲ κατ' ὀλίγον, τὸ δὲ σῶμα βαρύνεται
πάσαις, ἕως ἂν ἐξέλθῃ. Πολλαῖς δὲ καὶ ὅταν ὁρμᾷ τὰ
10 καταμήνια καὶ μέλλῃ ῥήγνυσθαι, πνιγμοὶ γίνονται καὶ ψόφος
ἐν ταῖς ὑστέραις, ἕως ἂν ῥαγῇ. Φύσει μὲν οὖν ἡ σύλληψις
γίνεται μετὰ τὴν τούτων ἀπαλλαγὴν ταῖς γυναιξίν· καὶ
ὅσαις μὴ γίνεται ταῦτα, ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ἄτεκνοι διατελοῦσιν.
Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ μὴ γινομένων τούτων ἔνιαι συλλαμβάνουσιν,
15 ὅσαις συναθροίζεται ἰκμὰς τοσαύτη ὅση ταῖς γειναμέναις
ὑπολείπεται μετὰ τὴν κάθαρσιν, ἀλλὰ μὴ ὥστε
καὶ θύραζε ἐξιέναι. Καὶ γινομένων ἔτι ἔνιαι συλλαμβάνουσιν·
ὕστερον δ' οὐ συλλαμβάνουσιν, ὅσαις εὐθὺς μετὰ τὴν κάθαρσιν
αἱ ὑστέραι συμμύουσιν. Γίνεται δ' ἐνίαις καὶ κυούσαις διὰ
20 τέλους τὰ γυναικεῖα· συμβαίνει μέντοι ταύταις φαῦλα τίκτειν,
καὶ ἢ μὴ σώζεσθαι εἰς αὔξην ἢ ἀσθενῆ τὰ ἔκγονα
γίνεσθαι. Πολλαῖς δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸ δεῖσθαι τῆς συνουσίας ἢ
διὰ τὴν νεότητα καὶ τὴν ἡλικίαν, ἢ διὰ τὸ χρόνον ἀπέχεσθαι
πολύν, καταβαίνουσιν αἱ ὑστέραι κάτω, καὶ τὰ γυναικεῖα
25 γίνεται πολλάκις τρὶς τοῦ μηνός, ἕως ἂν συλλάβωσιν·
τότε δ' ἀπέρχονται πάλιν εἰς τὸν ἄνω τόπον τὸν οἰκεῖον.
Ἐνίοτε δὲ κἂν συμβῇ <εὖ> ἔχουσα, τύχῃ δ' ὑγρὰ οὖσα, ἀποφυσᾷ
τοῦ σπέρματος τὸ ὑγρότερον. Πάντων δὲ τῶν ζῴων, ὥσπερ
εἴρηται καὶ πρότερον, ταῖς γυναιξὶ μᾶλλον τῶν ἄλλων θηλειῶν
30 ἡ κάθαρσις γίνεται πλείστη. Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ μὴ ζῳοτοκοῦσιν
οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον ἐπισημαίνει διὰ τὸ τὴν περίττωσιν ταύτην
τρέπεσθαι εἰς τὸ σῶμα (μείζω τε γὰρ ἔνια τῶν ἀρρένων
ἐστί, καὶ ἔτι τοῖς μὲν εἰς φολίδας τοῖς δ' εἰς λεπίδας τοῖς
δ' εἰς τὸ τῶν πτερῶν ἀναλίσκεται πλῆθος), τοῖς δὲ πεζοῖς
35 καὶ ζῳοτόκοις εἴς τε τὰς τρίχας καὶ τὸ σῶμα (λεῖον γὰρ
1(In some women the catamenia occur regularly but sparsely every month, and more abundantly every third month.) With those in whom the ailment lasts but a little while, two days or three, recovery is easy; but where the duration is longer, the ailment is more troublesome. For women are ailing 5during these days; and sometimes the discharge is sudden and sometimes gradual, but in all cases alike there is bodily distress until the attack be over. In many cases at the commencement of the attack, when the discharge is about to appear, there occur spasms and rumbling noises within the womb until such time as the discharge manifests itself.
Under natural 10conditions it is after recovery from these symptoms that conception takes place in women, and women in whom the signs do not manifest themselves for the most part remain childless. But the rule is not without exception, for some conceive in spite of the absence of these symptoms; and these are cases in which a secretion accumulates, not in such a way as actually to 15issue forth, but in amount equal to the residuum left in the case of child-bearing women after the normal discharge has taken place. And some conceive while the signs are on but not afterwards, those namely in whom the womb closes up immediately after the discharge. In some cases the menses persist during pregnancy up to the very last; but the result in these cases 20is that the offspring are poor, and either fail to survive or grow up weakly.
In many cases, owing to excessive desire, arising either from youthful impetuosity or from lengthened abstinence, prolapsion of the womb takes place and the catamenia appear repeatedly, thrice in the month, until conception occurs; and then the womb withdraws upwards again to its proper 25place...
As we have remarked above, the discharge is wont to be more abundant in women than in the females of any other animals. In creatures that do not bring forth their young alive nothing of the sort manifests itself, this particular superfluity being converted into bodily substance; and by the way, in such animals the females are sometimes larger than the males; 30and moreover, the material is used up sometimes for scutes and sometimes for scales, and sometimes for the abundant covering of feathers, whereas in the vivipara possessed of limbs it is turned into hair and into bodily substance (for man alone among them is smooth-skinned), and into urine, for this excretion is in the majority of such animals thick and copious.
Under natural 10conditions it is after recovery from these symptoms that conception takes place in women, and women in whom the signs do not manifest themselves for the most part remain childless. But the rule is not without exception, for some conceive in spite of the absence of these symptoms; and these are cases in which a secretion accumulates, not in such a way as actually to 15issue forth, but in amount equal to the residuum left in the case of child-bearing women after the normal discharge has taken place. And some conceive while the signs are on but not afterwards, those namely in whom the womb closes up immediately after the discharge. In some cases the menses persist during pregnancy up to the very last; but the result in these cases 20is that the offspring are poor, and either fail to survive or grow up weakly.
In many cases, owing to excessive desire, arising either from youthful impetuosity or from lengthened abstinence, prolapsion of the womb takes place and the catamenia appear repeatedly, thrice in the month, until conception occurs; and then the womb withdraws upwards again to its proper 25place...
As we have remarked above, the discharge is wont to be more abundant in women than in the females of any other animals. In creatures that do not bring forth their young alive nothing of the sort manifests itself, this particular superfluity being converted into bodily substance; and by the way, in such animals the females are sometimes larger than the males; 30and moreover, the material is used up sometimes for scutes and sometimes for scales, and sometimes for the abundant covering of feathers, whereas in the vivipara possessed of limbs it is turned into hair and into bodily substance (for man alone among them is smooth-skinned), and into urine, for this excretion is in the majority of such animals thick and copious.
583a
1 ἄνθρωπός ἐστι μόνον) καὶ εἰς τὰ οὖρα (παχεῖαν γὰρ τὰ
πλεῖστα καὶ πολλὴν τὰ τοιαῦτα ποιεῖται τὴν ἔκκρισιν)· ταῖς
δὲ γυναιξὶν ἀντὶ τούτων τρέπεται τὸ περίττωμα εἰς τὴν κάθαρσιν.
Ὁμοίως δ' ἔχει τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀρρένων· πλεῖστον
5 γὰρ ὡς κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος ἀφίησι σπέρμα τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων
ἄνθρωπος (διὸ καὶ λειότατον τῶν ζῴων ἐστὶν ἄνθρωπος), καὶ
αὐτῶν δ' οἱ ὑγρότεροι τὰς φύσεις καὶ μὴ πολύσαρκοι λίαν,
καὶ οἱ λευκότεροι δὲ τῶν μελάνων. Καὶ ἐπὶ γυναικῶν δὲ τὸν
αὐτὸν τρόπον· ταῖς γὰρ εὐσάρκοις πορεύεται εἰς τὴν τροφὴν
10 τοῦ σώματος τὸ πολὺ τῆς ἐκκρίσεως. Καὶ ἐν ταῖς ὁμιλίαις
δὲ τῶν ἀφροδισίων αἱ λευκότεραι τὴν φύσιν ἐξικμάζουσι
μᾶλλον τῶν μελαινῶν. Ποιεῖ δὲ τῆς τροφῆς τὰ ὑγρὰ καὶ
δριμέα τοιαύτην τὴν ὁμιλίαν μᾶλλον.
1Only in the case of women is the superfluity turned into a discharge instead of being utilized in these other ways.
There is something similar to be remarked of men: for in proportion to his size man emits more seminal fluid than any other animal (for which reason man 5is the smoothest of animals), especially such men as are of a moist habit and not over corpulent, and fair men in greater degree than dark. It is likewise with women; for in the stout, great part of the excretion goes to nourish the body. In the act of intercourse, women of a fair complexion discharge a more plentiful secretion than 10the dark; and furthermore, a watery and pungent diet conduces to this phenomenon.
There is something similar to be remarked of men: for in proportion to his size man emits more seminal fluid than any other animal (for which reason man 5is the smoothest of animals), especially such men as are of a moist habit and not over corpulent, and fair men in greater degree than dark. It is likewise with women; for in the stout, great part of the excretion goes to nourish the body. In the act of intercourse, women of a fair complexion discharge a more plentiful secretion than 10the dark; and furthermore, a watery and pungent diet conduces to this phenomenon.
Book 7,Chapter 3 (583a14–583b28)
Γίνεται δὲ σημεῖον τοῦ συνειληφέναι ταῖς γυναιξίν, ὅταν
15 εὐθὺς γένηται μετὰ τὴν ὁμιλίαν ὁ τόπος ξηρός. Ἂν μὲν οὖν
λεῖα τὰ χείλη ᾖ τοῦ στόματος, οὐ θέλει συλλαμβάνειν (ἀπολισθαίνει
γάρ), οὐδ' ἂν παχέα· ἂν δ' ἁπτομένῳ τῷ δακτύλῳ
τραχύτερα ᾖ καὶ ἀντέχηται, καὶ ἐὰν λεπτὰ τὰ χείλη,
τότε εὐκαίρως ἔχει πρὸς τὴν σύλληψιν. Πρὸς μὲν οὖν τὸ
20 συλλαμβάνειν τοιαύτας δεῖ κατασκευάζειν τὰς ὑστέρας,
πρὸς δὲ τὸ μὴ συλλαμβάνειν τοὐναντίον· ἐὰν γὰρ ᾖ λεῖα τὰ
χείλη, οὐ συλλαμβάνει· διὸ ἔνιοι τῆς μήτρας πρὸς ὃ πίπτει
τὸ σπέρμα, ἀλείφουσιν ἐλαίῳ κεδρίνῳ ἢ ψιμυθίῳ ἢ
λιβανωτῷ, διέντες ἐλαίῳ. Ἐὰν δὲ ἑπτὰ ἐμμείνῃ ἡμέρας,
25 φανερὸν ὅτι εἴληπται· αἱ γὰρ καλούμεναι ἐκρύσεις ἐν ταύταις
γίνονται ταῖς ἡμέραις. Αἱ δὲ καθάρσεις φοιτῶσι ταῖς
πλείσταις ἐπί τινα χρόνον συνειληφυίαις, ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν θηλειῶν
τριάκονθ' ἡμέρας μάλιστα, περὶ δὲ τετταράκοντα ἐπὶ
τῶν ἀρρένων. Καὶ μετὰ τοὺς τόκους δ' αἱ καθάρσεις βούλονται
30 τὸν αὐτὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀποδιδόναι τούτων, οὐ μὴν ἐξακριβοῦσί
γε πάσαις ὁμοίως. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν σύλληψιν καὶ τὰς ἡμέρας
τὰς εἰρημένας οὐκέτι κατὰ φύσιν, ἀλλ' εἰς τοὺς μαστοὺς τρέπεται
καὶ γίνεται γάλα. Ἐπισημαίνει δὲ τὸ πρῶτον μικρόν
τε καὶ ἀραχνιῶδες τὸ γάλα ἐν τοῖς μαστοῖς. Ὅταν δὲ συλλάβωσιν,
35 αἴσθησις μάλιστα ἐγγίνεται ἔν τε ταῖς λαγόσιν
It is a sign of conception in women when the place is dry immediately after intercourse. If the lips of the orifice be smooth conception is difficult, for the matter slips off; and if they be thick it is also difficult. But if on digital examination the 15lips feel somewhat rough and adherent, and if they be likewise thin, then the chances are in favour of conception. Accordingly, if conception be desired, we must bring the parts into such a condition as we have just described; but if on the contrary we want to avoid conception then we must bring about a contrary disposition. Wherefore, 20since if the parts be smooth conception is prevented, some anoint that part of the womb on which the seed falls with oil of cedar, or with ointment of lead or with frankincense, commingled with olive oil. If the seed remain within for seven days then it is certain that conception has taken place; for it is during that period that what 25is known as effluxion takes place.
In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after conception has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in the case of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child. After parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld for an equal number of 30days, but not in all cases with equal exactitude. After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are past, the discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its way to the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk in the breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or interspersed with little threads.
In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after conception has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in the case of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child. After parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld for an equal number of 30days, but not in all cases with equal exactitude. After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are past, the discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its way to the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk in the breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or interspersed with little threads.
583b
1 (ἐνίαις γὰρ γίνονται πληρέστεραι εὐθύς· μᾶλλον δ' ἐπιδήλως
τοῦτο συμβαίνει ταῖς ἰσχναῖς) καὶ ἐν τοῖς βουβῶσιν.
Ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τῶν ἀρρένων ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ ἐν τῷ δεξιῷ μᾶλλον
περὶ τὰς τετταράκοντα γίνεται ἡ κίνησις, τῶν δὲ θηλειῶν ἐν τῷ
5 ἀριστερῷ περὶ ἐνενήκονθ' ἡμέρας. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' ἀκρίβειάν γε
τούτων οὐδεμίαν ὑποληπτέον· πολλαῖς γὰρ θηλυτοκούσαις ἡ
κίνησις ἐν τῷ δεξιῷ γίνεται, καὶ ταῖς ἐν τῷ ἀριστερῷ ἄρρεν·
ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πάντα διαφέρει ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ
τῷ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον. Περὶ δὲ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον καὶ σχίζεται
10 τὸ κύημα· τὸν δ' ἔμπροσθεν ἄναρθρον συνέστηκε κρεῶδες.
Καλοῦνται δ' ἐκρύσεις μὲν αἱ μέχρι τῶν ἑπτὰ ἡμερῶν διαφθοραί,
ἐκτρωσμοὶ δ' αἱ μέχρι τῶν τετταράκοντα· καὶ
πλεῖστα διαφθείρεται τῶν κυημάτων ἐν ταύταις ταῖς ἡμέραις.
Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἄρρεν ὅταν ἐξέλθῃ τετταρακοσταῖον, ἐὰν μὲν
15 εἰς ἄλλο τι ἀφῇ τις, διαχεῖταί τε καὶ ἀφανίζεται, ἐὰν
δ' εἰς ψυχρὸν ὕδωρ, συνίσταται οἷον ἐν ὑμένι· τούτου δὲ διακνισθέντος
φαίνεται τὸ ἔμβρυον τὸ μέγεθος ἡλίκον μύρμηξ
τῶν μεγάλων, τά τε μέλη δῆλα, τά τε ἄλλα πάντα καὶ
τὸ αἰδοῖον, καὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων
20 μέγιστοι. Τὸ δὲ θῆλυ, ὅ τι μὲν ἂν διαφθαρῇ ἐντὸς τῶν τριῶν
μηνῶν, ἀδιάρθρωτον ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ φαίνεται· ὅ τι δ' ἂν
ἐπιλάβῃ τοῦ τετάρτου μηνός, γίνεται ἐσχισμένον καὶ διὰ
ταχέων λαμβάνει τὴν ἄλλην διάρθρωσιν. Τέως μὲν οὖν πᾶσαν
τὴν τελείωσιν τῶν μορίων βραδύτερον ἀπολαμβάνει τὸ
25 θῆλυ τοῦ ἄρρενος, καὶ δεκάμηνα γίνεται μᾶλλον τῶν ἀρρένων·
ὅταν δὲ γένηται, θᾶττον τὰ θήλεα τῶν ἀρρένων καὶ
νεότητα καὶ ἀκμὴν λαμβάνει καὶ γῆρας, καὶ μᾶλλον αἱ
πλείοσι χρώμεναι τόκοις, ὥσπερ εἴρηται πρότερον.
1And when conception has taken place, there is apt to be a sort of feeling in the region of the flanks, which in some cases quickly swell up a little, especially in thin persons, and also in the groin.
In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs on the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, 5but if the child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the ninetieth day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an accurate statement of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which the movement is manifested on the right-hand side though a female child be coming, and on the left-hand side though the infant be a male. And in short, these and all suchlike phenomena are usually subject to 10differences that may be summed up as differences of degree.
About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct parts, it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without distinction of parts.
What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within the first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and the greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of 15these forty days.
In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if it be placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane, but if it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If the membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one of the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, including the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other 20animals are of great size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during the first three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated; if however it reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and quickly attains further differentiation. In short, while within the womb, the female infant accomplishes the whole development of its parts more slowly than the male, and more frequently than the 25man-child takes ten months to come to perfection. But after birth, the females pass more quickly than the males through youth and maturity and age; and this is especially true of those that bear many children, as indeed I have already said.
In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs on the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, 5but if the child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the ninetieth day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an accurate statement of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which the movement is manifested on the right-hand side though a female child be coming, and on the left-hand side though the infant be a male. And in short, these and all suchlike phenomena are usually subject to 10differences that may be summed up as differences of degree.
About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct parts, it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without distinction of parts.
What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within the first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and the greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of 15these forty days.
In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if it be placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane, but if it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If the membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one of the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, including the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other 20animals are of great size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during the first three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated; if however it reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and quickly attains further differentiation. In short, while within the womb, the female infant accomplishes the whole development of its parts more slowly than the male, and more frequently than the 25man-child takes ten months to come to perfection. But after birth, the females pass more quickly than the males through youth and maturity and age; and this is especially true of those that bear many children, as indeed I have already said.
Book 7,Chapter 4 (583b29–585a28)
Ὅταν δὲ συλλάβῃ ἡ ὑστέρα τὸ σπέρμα, εὐθὺς συμμύει
30 ταῖς πολλαῖς, μέχρι γένωνται ἑπτὰ μῆνες· τῷ δ' ὀγδόῳ
χάσκουσιν· καὶ τὸ ἔμβρυον, ἐὰν ᾖ γόνιμον, προκαταβαίνει
τῷ ὀγδόῳ μηνί. Τὰ δὲ μὴ γόνιμα ἀλλ' ἀποπεπνιγμένα
ὀκτάμηνα ἐν τοῖς τόκοις οὐκ ἐκφέρουσιν ὀκτάμηναι αἱ
γυναῖκες, οὔτε προκαταβαίνει κάτω τὰ ἔμβρυα τῷ ὀγδόῳ
35 μηνί, οὔθ' αἱ ὑστέραι ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ χάσκουσιν· ἀλλὰ
When the womb has conceived the seed, straightway in the majority of cases it closes up until seven months are fulfilled; but in the eighth month it opens, and the embryo, if 30it be fertile, descends in the eighth month. But such embryos as are not fertile but are devoid of breath at eight months old, their mothers do not bring into the world by parturition at eight months, neither does the embryo descend within the womb at that period nor does the womb open. And it is a sign that the embryo is not capable of life if it be formed without the above-named circumstances taking place.
584a
1 σημεῖον ὅτι οὐ γόνιμον, ἐὰν γένηται μὴ συμπεσόντων
τῶν εἰρημένων. Μετὰ δὲ τὰς συλλήψεις αἱ γυναῖκες βαρύνονται
τὸ σῶμα πᾶν, καὶ σκότοι πρὸ τῶν ὀμμάτων καὶ ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ
γίνονται πόνοι. Ταῦτα δὲ ταῖς μὲν θᾶττον καὶ σχεδὸν
5 δεκαταίαις γίνεται, ταῖς δὲ βραδύτερον, ὅπως ἂν τύχωσιν
οὖσαι τῷ περιττωματικαὶ εἶναι μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον. Ἔτι δὲ
ναυτίαι καὶ ἔμετοι λαμβάνουσι τὰς πλείστας, καὶ μάλιστα
τὰς τοιαύτας, ὅταν αἵ τε καθάρσεις στῶσι καὶ μήπω εἰς
τοὺς μαστοὺς τετραμμέναι ὦσιν. Ἔνιαι μὲν οὖν ἀρχόμεναι μᾶλλον
10 πονοῦσι τῶν γυναικῶν, ἔνιαι δ' ὕστερον, ἤδη τοῦ κυήματος
ἔχοντος αὔξησιν μᾶλλον· πολλαῖς δὲ καὶ πολλάκις καὶ
στραγγουρίαι γίνονται τὸ τελευταῖον. Ὡς μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ
ῥᾷον ἀπαλλάττουσιν αἱ τὰ ἄρρενα κύουσαι καὶ μᾶλλον μετ'
εὐχροίας διατελοῦσιν, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν θηλειῶν τοὐναντίον· ἀχρούςτεραί
15 τε γὰρ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ, καὶ βαρύτερον διάγουσι, καὶ
πολλαῖς περὶ τὰ σκέλη οἰδήματα καὶ ἐπάρσεις γίνονται τῆς
σαρκός· οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' ἐνίαις γίνεται καὶ τἀναντία τούτων. Εἰώθασι
δὲ ταῖς κυούσαις ἐπιθυμίαι γίνεσθαι παντοδαπαὶ
καὶ μεταβάλλειν ὀξέως, ὃ καλοῦσί τινες κισσᾶν· καὶ ἐπὶ
20 τῶν θηλειῶν ὀξύτεραι μὲν αἱ ἐπιθυμίαι, παραγινομένων δὲ
ἧττον δύνανται ἀπολαύειν. Ὀλίγαις δέ τισι συμβαίνει βέλτιον
ἔχειν τὸ σῶμα κυούσαις. Μάλιστα δ' ἀσῶνται, ὅταν
ἄρχωνται τὰ παιδία τρίχας ποιεῖν. Αἱ δὲ τρίχες ταῖς μὲν
κυούσαις αἱ μὲν συγγενεῖς γίνονται ἐλάττους καὶ ῥέουσιν, ἐν
25 οἷς δὲ μὴ εἰώθασιν ἔχειν τρίχας, ταῦτα δασύνεται μᾶλλον.
Καὶ κίνησιν δὲ παρέχεται ἐν τῷ σώματι μᾶλλον ὡς
ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ τὸ ἄρρεν τοῦ θήλεος, καὶ τίκτεται θᾶττον, τὰ
δὲ θήλεα βραδύτερον. Καὶ ὁ πόνος ἐπὶ μὲν τοῖς θήλεσι συνεχὴς
καὶ νωθρότερος, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖς ἄρρεσιν ὀξὺς μέν, πολλῷ
30 δὲ χαλεπώτερος. Αἱ δὲ πλησιάζουσαι πρὸ τῶν τόκων τοῖς
ἀνδράσι θᾶττον τίκτουσιν. Δοκοῦσι δ' ὠδίνειν αἱ γυναῖκες ἐνίοτε
οὐ γινομένης ὠδῖνος, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ τὴν κεφαλὴν στρέφειν τὸ
ἔμβρυον φαίνεται ὠδῖνος ἀρχὴ τοῦτο γίνεσθαι. Τὰ μὲν οὖν
ἄλλα ζῷα μοναχῶς ποιεῖται τὴν τοῦ τόκου τελείωσιν· εἷς
35 γὰρ ὥρισται τοῦ τόκου χρόνος πᾶσιν· ἀνθρώπῳ δὲ πολλοὶ
μόνῳ τῶν ζῴων· καὶ γὰρ ἑπτάμηνα καὶ ὀκτάμηνα καὶ ἐννεάμηνα
γίνεται, καὶ δεκάμηνα τὸ πλεῖστον· ἔνιαι δ' ἐπιλαμβάνουσι
1After conception women are prone to a feeling of heaviness in all parts of their bodies, and for instance they experience a sensation of darkness in front of the eyes and suffer also from headache. These symptoms appear sooner or later, sometimes as early as the tenth day, according as the patient be more 5or less burthened with superfluous humours. Nausea also and sickness affect the most of women, and especially such as those that we have just now mentioned, after the menstrual discharge has ceased and before it is yet turned in the direction of the breasts.
Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their pregnancy and some at a later period when the embryo has had 10time to grow; and in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from strangury towards the end of their time. As a general rule women who are pregnant of a male child escape comparatively easily and retain a comparatively healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose infant is a female; for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer more pain, and in many cases they are 15subject to swellings of the legs and eruptions on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to exceptions.
Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to rapid changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness'; and with the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute, and they are less contented when they have got what they desired.
In a certain 20few cases the patient feels unusually well during pregnancy. The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is beginning to grow.
In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow thin and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts of the body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a man-child is more prone to movement within its mother's 25womb than a female child, and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of female children is apt to be protracted and sluggish, while in the case of male children it is acute and by a long way more difficult. Women who have connexion with their husbands shortly before childbirth are delivered all the more quickly. Occasionally women seem to be in the pains of labour 30though labour has not in fact commenced, what seemed like the commencement of labour being really the result of the foetus turning its head.
Now all other animals bring the time of pregnancy to an end in a uniform way; in other words, one single term of pregnancy is defined for each of them. But in the case of mankind alone of all animals the times are diverse; for pregnancy may 35be of seven months' duration, or of eight months or of nine, and still more commonly of ten months, while some few women go even into the eleventh month.
Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their pregnancy and some at a later period when the embryo has had 10time to grow; and in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from strangury towards the end of their time. As a general rule women who are pregnant of a male child escape comparatively easily and retain a comparatively healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose infant is a female; for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer more pain, and in many cases they are 15subject to swellings of the legs and eruptions on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to exceptions.
Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to rapid changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness'; and with the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute, and they are less contented when they have got what they desired.
In a certain 20few cases the patient feels unusually well during pregnancy. The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is beginning to grow.
In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow thin and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts of the body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a man-child is more prone to movement within its mother's 25womb than a female child, and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of female children is apt to be protracted and sluggish, while in the case of male children it is acute and by a long way more difficult. Women who have connexion with their husbands shortly before childbirth are delivered all the more quickly. Occasionally women seem to be in the pains of labour 30though labour has not in fact commenced, what seemed like the commencement of labour being really the result of the foetus turning its head.
Now all other animals bring the time of pregnancy to an end in a uniform way; in other words, one single term of pregnancy is defined for each of them. But in the case of mankind alone of all animals the times are diverse; for pregnancy may 35be of seven months' duration, or of eight months or of nine, and still more commonly of ten months, while some few women go even into the eleventh month.
584b
1 καὶ τοῦ ἑνδεκάτου μηνός. Ὅσα μὲν οὖν γίνεται πρότερα
τῶν ἑπτὰ μηνῶν, οὐδὲν οὐδαμῇ δύναται ζῆν· τὰ δ' ἑπτάμηνα
γόνιμα γίνεται πρῶτον, ἀσθενῆ δὲ τὰ πολλά (διὸ καὶ
σπαργανοῦσιν ἐρίοις αὐτά), πολλὰ δὲ καὶ τῶν πόρων ἐνίους
5 ἔχοντα ἀσχίστους, οἷον ὤτων καὶ μυκτήρων· ἀλλ' ἐπαυξανομένοις
διαρθροῦται, καὶ βιοῦσι πολλὰ καὶ τῶν τοιούτων. Τὰ δ'
ὀκτάμηνα περὶ μὲν Αἴγυπτον καὶ ἐν ἐνίοις τόποις, ὅπου εὐέκφοροι
αἱ γυναῖκες καὶ φέρουσί τε πολλὰ ῥᾳδίως καὶ τίκτουσι,
καὶ γενόμενα δύναται ζῆν, κἂν τερατώδη γένηται, ἐνταῦθα
10 μὲν ζῇ τὰ ὀκτάμηνα καὶ ἐκτρέφεται, ἐν δὲ τοῖς περὶ
τὴν Ἑλλάδα τόποις ὀλίγα πάμπαν σώζεται, τὰ δὲ πολλὰ
ἀπόλλυται· καὶ διὰ τὴν ὑπόληψιν, κἂν σωθῇ τι, νομίζουσιν
οὐκ ὀκτάμηνον εἶναι τὸ γεγενημένον, ἀλλὰ λαθεῖν ἑαυτὰς
αἱ γυναῖκες συλλαβοῦσαι πρότερον. Πονοῦσι δ' αἱ γυναῖκες
15 μάλιστα τὸν μῆνα τὸν τέταρτον καὶ τὸν ὄγδοον, καὶ ἐὰν
διαφθείρωσι τετάρτῳ ἢ ὀγδόῳ μηνί, διαφθείρονται καὶ αὐταὶ
ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ, ὥστ' οὐ μόνον τὰ ὀκτάμηνα οὐ ζῇ,
ἀλλὰ καὶ διαφθειρομένων αἱ τίκτουσαι κινδυνεύουσιν. Τὸν αὐτὸν
δὲ τρόπον δοκεῖ λανθάνειν καὶ ὅσα φαίνεται τίκτεσθαι
20 πολυχρονιώτερα τῶν ἕνδεκα μηνῶν· καὶ γὰρ τούτων ἡ τῆς
συλλήψεως ἀρχὴ λανθάνει τὰς γυναῖκας· πολλάκις γὰρ
πνευματικῶν γενομένων ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ὑστερῶν, μετὰ ταῦτα
πλησιάσασαι καὶ συλλαβοῦσαι ἐκείνην οἴονται τὴν ἀρχὴν
εἶναι τῆς συλλήψεως, δι' ἣν ἐχρήσαντο τοῖς σημείοις
25 ὁμοίοις.
Τὸ δὲ δὴ πλῆθος τῶν τόκων τῆς τελειώσεως παρὰ
τἆλλα ζῷα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ταύτην ἔχει τὴν διαφοράν· καὶ
τῶν μὲν μονοτόκων ὄντων τῶν δὲ πολυτόκων, ἐπαμφοτερίζει
τὸ γένος τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πλεῖστον καὶ παρὰ
30 τοῖς πλείστοις ἓν τίκτουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ
πολλαχοῦ δίδυμα, οἷον καὶ περὶ Αἴγυπτον. Τίκτουσι δὲ καὶ
τρία καὶ τέτταρα, περὶ ἐνίους μὲν καὶ σφόδρα τόπους, ὥσπερ
εἴρηται πρότερον. Πλεῖστα δὲ τίκτεται πέντε τὸν ἀριθμόν·
ἤδη γὰρ ὦπται τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ πλειόνων συμβεβηκός. Μία δέ
35 τις ἐν τέτταρσι τόκοις ἔτεκεν εἴκοσιν· ἀνὰ πέντε γὰρ ἔτεκε,
καὶ τὰ πολλὰ αὐτῶν ἐξετράφη. Ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖς ἄλλοις
ζῴοις, κἂν ᾖ τὰ δίδυμα ἄρρεν καὶ θῆλυ, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐκτρέφεται
1Children that come into the world before seven months can under no circumstances survive. The seven-months' children are the earliest that are capable of life, and most of them are weakly-for which reason, by the way, it is customary to swaddle them in wool,-and many of them are born with some of the orifices of the body 5imperforate, for instance the ears or the nostrils. But as they get bigger they become more perfectly developed, and many of them grow up.
In Egypt, and in some other places where the women are fruitful and are wont to bear and bring forth many children without difficulty, and where the children when born are capable of living even if they be born subject to deformity, in these places the eight-months' 10children live and are brought up, but in Greece it is only a few of them that survive while most perish. And this being the general experience, when such a child does happen to survive the mother is apt to think that it was not an eight months' child after all, but that she had conceived at an earlier period without being aware of it.
Women suffer most pain about the fourth and the eighth months, and 15if the foetus perishes in the fourth or in the eighth month the mother also succumbs as a general rule; so that not only do the eight-months' children not live, but when they die their mothers are in great danger of their own lives. In like manner children that are apparently born at a later term than eleven months are held to be in doubtful case; inasmuch as with them also the beginning of conception 20may have escaped the notice of the mother. What I mean to say is that often the womb gets filled with wind, and then when at a later period connexion and conception take place, they think that the former circumstance was the beginning of conception from the similarity of the symptoms that they experienced.
Such then are the differences between mankind and other animals in regard to the many various 25modes of completion of the term of pregnancy. Furthermore, some animals produce one and some produce many at a birth, but the human species does sometimes the one and sometimes the other. As a general rule and among most nations the women bear one child a birth; but frequently and in many lands they bear twins, as for instance in Egypt especially. Sometimes women bring forth three and even four children, 30and especially in certain parts of the world, as has already been stated. The largest number ever brought forth is five, and such an occurrence has been witnessed on several occasions. There was once upon a time a certain women who had twenty children at four births; each time she had five, and most of them grew up.
Now among other animals, if a pair of twins happen to be male and female they have as 35good a chance of surviving as though both had been males or both females; but among mankind very few twins survive if one happen to be a boy and the other a girl.
In Egypt, and in some other places where the women are fruitful and are wont to bear and bring forth many children without difficulty, and where the children when born are capable of living even if they be born subject to deformity, in these places the eight-months' 10children live and are brought up, but in Greece it is only a few of them that survive while most perish. And this being the general experience, when such a child does happen to survive the mother is apt to think that it was not an eight months' child after all, but that she had conceived at an earlier period without being aware of it.
Women suffer most pain about the fourth and the eighth months, and 15if the foetus perishes in the fourth or in the eighth month the mother also succumbs as a general rule; so that not only do the eight-months' children not live, but when they die their mothers are in great danger of their own lives. In like manner children that are apparently born at a later term than eleven months are held to be in doubtful case; inasmuch as with them also the beginning of conception 20may have escaped the notice of the mother. What I mean to say is that often the womb gets filled with wind, and then when at a later period connexion and conception take place, they think that the former circumstance was the beginning of conception from the similarity of the symptoms that they experienced.
Such then are the differences between mankind and other animals in regard to the many various 25modes of completion of the term of pregnancy. Furthermore, some animals produce one and some produce many at a birth, but the human species does sometimes the one and sometimes the other. As a general rule and among most nations the women bear one child a birth; but frequently and in many lands they bear twins, as for instance in Egypt especially. Sometimes women bring forth three and even four children, 30and especially in certain parts of the world, as has already been stated. The largest number ever brought forth is five, and such an occurrence has been witnessed on several occasions. There was once upon a time a certain women who had twenty children at four births; each time she had five, and most of them grew up.
Now among other animals, if a pair of twins happen to be male and female they have as 35good a chance of surviving as though both had been males or both females; but among mankind very few twins survive if one happen to be a boy and the other a girl.
585a
1 γενόμενα καὶ σώζεται τῶν ἀρρένων ἢ θηλειῶν· ἐν
δὲ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὀλίγα σώζεται τῶν διδύμων, ἐὰν ᾖ τὸ μὲν
θῆλυ τὸ δ' ἄρρεν. Δέχεται δ' ὀχείαν κύοντα μάλιστα τῶν
ζῴων γυνὴ καὶ ἵππος· τὰ δ' ἄλλα ὅταν πληρωθῇ, φεύγει
5 τοὺς ἄρρενας, ὅσα μὴ πέφυκεν ἐπικυΐσκεσθαι, καθάπερ δασύπους.
Ἀλλ' ἵππος μὲν ἂν συλλάβῃ τὸ πρῶτον, οὐκ ἐπικυΐσκεται
πάλιν, ἀλλ' ἓν τίκτει μόνον ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ· ἐπ'
ἀνθρώπῳ δ' ὀλίγα μέν, γέγονε δέ ποτε. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ὕστερον
πολλῷ χρόνῳ συλληφθέντα οὐδὲν λαμβάνει τέλος, ἀλλὰ
10 πόνον παρασχόντα συνδιαφθείρει τὸ προϋπάρχον (ἤδη γὰρ
συνέβη γενομένης διαφθορᾶς καὶ δώδεκα ἐκπεσεῖν τὰ ἐπικυηθέντα)·
ἐὰν δ' ἐγγὺς ἡ σύλληψις ἐγένετο, τὸ ἐπικυηθὲν
ἐξήνεγκαν, καὶ τίκτουσιν ὥσπερ δίδυμα γόνῳ, καθάπερ
καὶ τὸν Ἰφικλέα καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα μυθολογοῦσιν. Γέγονε
15 γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο φανερόν· μοιχευομένη γάρ τις τὸ μὲν τῶν
τέκνων τῷ ἀνδρὶ ἐοικὸς ἔτεκε, τὸ δὲ τῷ μοιχῷ. Ἤδη δὲ καὶ
δίδυμα κύουσά τις ἐπεκύησε τρίτον, γενομένου δὲ τοῦ χρόνου
τοῦ καθήκοντος τὰ μὲν τελεόγονα τῷ χρόνῳ ἔτεκε, τὸ δὲ
πεντάμηνον· καὶ τοῦτ' ἀπέθανεν εὐθύς. Καὶ ἑτέρᾳ δέ τινι συνέβη
20 τεκούσῃ πρῶτον μὲν ἑπτάμηνον, ὕστερον δὲ δύο τελεόμηνα
τεκεῖν· καὶ τούτων τὸ μὲν ἐτελεύτησε, τὰ δ' ἐβίωσεν.
Καὶ ἐκτιτρώσκουσαι δέ τινες συνέλαβον ἅμα, καὶ τὸ μὲν
ἐξέβαλον τὸ δ' ἔτεκον. Ταῖς δὲ πλείσταις, ἐὰν συγγένωνται
κύουσαι μετὰ τὸν ὄγδοον μῆνα, περίπλεων μυξώδους τὸ
25 παιδίον ἐξέρχεται γλισχρότητος. Καὶ τῶν ἐδεσμάτων δὲ
τῶν προσφερομένων περίπλεων φαίνεται πολλάκις. Καὶ τῶν
ἁλὶ δαψιλεστέρῳ χρησαμένων οὐκ ἔχοντα γίνεται τὰ παιδία
ὄνυχας.
1Of all animals the woman and the mare are most inclined to receive the commerce of the male during pregnancy; while all other animals when they are pregnant avoid the male, save those in which the phenomenon of superfoetation occurs, such as the hare. Unlike that animal, the mare after once conceiving cannot be rendered pregnant 5again, but brings forth one foal only, at least as a general rule; in the human species cases of superfoetation are rare, but they do happen now and then.
An embryo conceived some considerable time after a previous conception does not come to perfection, but gives rise to pain and causes the destruction of the earlier embryo; and, by the way, a case has been known to occur where owing to this destructive 10influence no less than twelve embryos conceived by superfoetation have been discharged. But if the second conception take place at a short interval, then the mother bears that which was later conceived, and brings forth the two children like actual twins, as happened, according to the legend, in the case of Iphicles and Hercules. The following also is a striking example: a certain woman, having committed 15adultery, brought forth the one child resembling her husband and the other resembling the adulterous lover.
The case has also occurred where a woman, being pregnant of twins, has subsequently conceived a third child; and in course of time she brought forth the twins perfect and at full term, but the third a five-months' child; and this last died there and then. And in another case it happened that the woman was 20first delivered of a seven-months' child, and then of two which were of full term; and of these the first died and the other two survived.
Some also have been known to conceive while about to miscarry, and they have lost the one child and been delivered of the other.
If women while going with child cohabit after the eighth month the child is in most cases born covered over with a slimy fluid. Often also the 25child is found to be replete with food of which the mother had partaken.
An embryo conceived some considerable time after a previous conception does not come to perfection, but gives rise to pain and causes the destruction of the earlier embryo; and, by the way, a case has been known to occur where owing to this destructive 10influence no less than twelve embryos conceived by superfoetation have been discharged. But if the second conception take place at a short interval, then the mother bears that which was later conceived, and brings forth the two children like actual twins, as happened, according to the legend, in the case of Iphicles and Hercules. The following also is a striking example: a certain woman, having committed 15adultery, brought forth the one child resembling her husband and the other resembling the adulterous lover.
The case has also occurred where a woman, being pregnant of twins, has subsequently conceived a third child; and in course of time she brought forth the twins perfect and at full term, but the third a five-months' child; and this last died there and then. And in another case it happened that the woman was 20first delivered of a seven-months' child, and then of two which were of full term; and of these the first died and the other two survived.
Some also have been known to conceive while about to miscarry, and they have lost the one child and been delivered of the other.
If women while going with child cohabit after the eighth month the child is in most cases born covered over with a slimy fluid. Often also the 25child is found to be replete with food of which the mother had partaken.
Book 7,Chapter 5 (585a29–585b4)
Τὸ δὲ γάλα τὸ γινόμενον πρότερον τῶν ἑπτὰ μηνῶν
30 ἄχρηστόν ἐστιν· ἀλλ' ἅμα τά τε παιδία γόνιμα καὶ τὸ γάλα
χρήσιμον. Τὸ δὲ πρῶτον καὶ ἁλμυρόν, ὥσπερ τοῖς προβάτοις.
Μάλιστα δ' ἐν ταῖς κυήσεσι τοῦ οἴνου αἰσθάνονται αἱ
πλεῖσται· διαλύονταί τε γάρ, ἐὰν πίωσι, καὶ ἀδυνατοῦσιν.
Ἀρχὴ δὲ ταῖς γυναιξὶ τοῦ τεκνοῦσθαι καὶ τοῖς ἄρρεσι τοῦ τεκνοῦν,
35 καὶ παῦλα ἀμφοτέροις, τοῖς μὲν ἡ τοῦ σπέρματος πρόεσις
ταῖς δ' ἡ τῶν καταμηνίων, πλὴν οὔτ' ἀρχομένων γόνιμα
When women have partaken of salt in overabundance their children are apt to be born destitute of nails.
Milk that is produced earlier than the seventh month is unfit for use; but as soon as the child is fit to live the milk is fit to use. The first of the milk is saltish, as it is likewise with sheep. Most women are sensibly affected 30by wine during pregnancy, for if they partake of it they grow relaxed and debilitated.
The beginning of child-bearing in women and of the capacity to procreate in men, and the cessation of these functions in both cases, coincide in the one case with the emission of seed and in the other with the discharge of the catamenia: with this qualification that there is a lack of fertility at the commencement of these 35symptoms, and again towards their close when the emissions become scanty and weak.
Milk that is produced earlier than the seventh month is unfit for use; but as soon as the child is fit to live the milk is fit to use. The first of the milk is saltish, as it is likewise with sheep. Most women are sensibly affected 30by wine during pregnancy, for if they partake of it they grow relaxed and debilitated.
The beginning of child-bearing in women and of the capacity to procreate in men, and the cessation of these functions in both cases, coincide in the one case with the emission of seed and in the other with the discharge of the catamenia: with this qualification that there is a lack of fertility at the commencement of these 35symptoms, and again towards their close when the emissions become scanty and weak.
585b
1 εὐθὺς οὔτ' ἔτι ὀλίγων γινομένων καὶ ἀσθενῶν. Ἡλικία
δὲ τῆς μὲν ἀρχῆς εἴρηται· παύεται δὲ ταῖς γυναιξὶ ταῖς μὲν
πλείσταις τὰ καταμήνια περὶ τετταράκοντα ἔτη, αἷς δ' ἂν
ὑπερβάλῃ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον, διαμένει μέχρι τῶν πεντήκοντα
5 ἐτῶν, καὶ ἤδη τινὲς ἔτεκον· πλείω δὲ χρόνον οὐδεμία.
1The age at which the sexual powers begin has been related already. As for their end, the menstrual discharges ceases in most women about their fortieth year; but with those in whom it goes on longer it lasts even to the fiftieth year, and women of that age have been known to bear children. But beyond that age there is no 5case on record.
Book 7,Chapter 6 (585b5–586a14)
Οἱ δ' ἄνδρες
οἱ μὲν πλεῖστοι γεννῶσι μέχρι ἑξήκοντα ἐτῶν, ὅταν δ' ὑπερβάλῃ
ταῦτα, μέχρι ἑβδομήκοντα· καὶ ἤδη τινὲς γεγεννήκασιν
ἑβδομήκοντα ἐτῶν ὄντες. Συμβαίνει δὲ πολλοῖς καὶ
πολλαῖς γυναιξὶ καὶ ἀνδράσι μετ' ἀλλήλων μὲν συνεζευγμένοις
10 μὴ δύνασθαι τεκνοποιεῖσθαι, διαζευχθεῖσι δέ. Τὸ δ'
αὐτὸ συμβαίνει καὶ περὶ ἀρρενογονίας καὶ θηλυγονίας· ἐνίοτε
γὰρ καὶ γυναῖκες καὶ ἄνδρες μετ' ἀλλήλων μὲν ὄντες
θηλυγόνοι εἰσὶν ἢ ἀρρενογόνοι, διεζευγμένοι δὲ γίνονται τοὐναντίον.
Καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν δὲ μεταβάλλουσιν· νέοι μὲν
15 ὄντες μετ' ἀλλήλων θήλεα γεννῶσι, πρεσβύτεροι δ' ἄρρενα·
τοῖς δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων συμβαίνει τοὐναντίον. Καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ γεννᾶν
δ' ὅλως τὸ αὐτό· νέοις μὲν οὖσιν οὐδὲν γίνεται, πρεσβυτέροις
δέ· οἱ δὲ τὸ πρῶτον, ὕστερον δὲ γεννῶσιν οὐδέν. Εἰσὶ δὲ
καὶ τῶν γυναικῶν τινὲς αἳ μόλις μὲν συλλαμβάνουσιν, ἐὰν
20 δὲ συλλάβωσιν, ἐκφέρουσιν· αἱ δὲ τοὐναντίον συλλαμβάνουσι
μὲν ῥᾳδίως, οὐ δύνανται δ' ἐκφέρειν. Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἄνδρες θηλυγόνοι
καὶ γυναῖκες ἀρρενογόνοι, οἷον καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους
μυθολογεῖται, ὃς ἐν δύο καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα τέκνοις θυγατέρα
μίαν ἐγέννησεν. Αἱ δὲ μὴ δυνάμεναι συλλαμβάνειν
25 ἐὰν ἢ διὰ θεραπείαν συλλάβωσιν ἢ δι' ἄλλην τινὰ σύμπτωσιν,
ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ θηλυτοκοῦσι μᾶλλον ἢ ἀρρενοτοκοῦσιν.
Πολλοῖς δὲ συμβαίνει καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν δυναμένοις γεννᾶν ὕστερον
μὴ δύνασθαι, καὶ πάλιν καθίστασθαι εἰς αὐτό. Γίνονται
δὲ καὶ ἐξ ἀναπήρων ἀνάπηροι, οἷον ἐκ χωλῶν χωλοὶ καὶ
30 τυφλῶν τυφλοί, καὶ ὅλως τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ἐοικότες πολλάκις,
καὶ σημεῖα ἔχοντες συγγενῆ, οἷον φύματα καὶ οὐλάς.
Ἤδη δ' ἀπέδωκε τῶν τοιούτων τι καὶ διὰ τριῶν, οἷον
ἔχοντός τινος στίγμα ἐν τῷ βραχίονι ὁ μὲν υἱὸς οὐκ ἐγένετο
ὁ δ' υἱιδοῦς ἔχων ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τόπῳ συγκεχυμένον μέλαν.
35 Ὀλίγα μὲν οὖν γίνεται τὰ τοιαῦτα, τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα γίνεται
ὁλόκληρα ἐκ κολοβῶν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἀποτέτακται τούτων. Καὶ
Men in most cases continue to be sexually competent until they are sixty years old, and if that limit be overpassed then until seventy years; and men have been actually known to procreate children at seventy years of age. With many men and many women it so happens that they are unable to produce children to one another, while they are able to do so in union with other individuals. 10The same thing happens with regard to the production of male and female offspring; for sometimes men and women in union with one another produce male children or female, as the case may be, but children of the opposite sex when otherwise mated. And they are apt to change in this respect with advancing age: for sometimes a husband and wife while they are young produce female children and in later life 15male children; and in other cases the very contrary occurs. And just the same thing is true in regard to the generative faculty: for some while young are childless, but have children when they grow older; and some have children to begin with, and later on no more.
There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if they do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again conceive 20readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth. Furthermore, some men and some women produce female offspring and some male, as for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his two and seventy children is said to have begotten but one girl. Those women who are unable to conceive, save with the help of medical treatment or some other adventitious circumstance, are as a general rule apt to 25bear female children rather than male.
It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually competent and afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their former powers.
From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and blind from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit anything that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar marks, such as pimples or 30scars. Such things have been known to be handed down through three generations; for instance, a certain man had a mark on his arm which his son did not possess, but his grandson had it in the same spot though not very distinct.
Such cases, however, are few; for the children of cripples are mostly sound, and there is no hard and fast rule regarding them. While children mostly resemble their parents 35or their ancestors, it sometimes happens that no such resemblance is to be traced.
There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if they do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again conceive 20readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth. Furthermore, some men and some women produce female offspring and some male, as for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his two and seventy children is said to have begotten but one girl. Those women who are unable to conceive, save with the help of medical treatment or some other adventitious circumstance, are as a general rule apt to 25bear female children rather than male.
It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually competent and afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their former powers.
From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and blind from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit anything that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar marks, such as pimples or 30scars. Such things have been known to be handed down through three generations; for instance, a certain man had a mark on his arm which his son did not possess, but his grandson had it in the same spot though not very distinct.
Such cases, however, are few; for the children of cripples are mostly sound, and there is no hard and fast rule regarding them. While children mostly resemble their parents 35or their ancestors, it sometimes happens that no such resemblance is to be traced.
586a
1 ἐοικότες δὲ τοῖς γεννήσασιν ἢ τοῖς ἄνωθεν γονεῦσιν, ὁτὲ
δ' οὐδὲν οὐδενί. Ἀποδίδωσι δὲ καὶ διὰ πλειόνων γενῶν, οἷον ἐν
Σικελίᾳ ἡ τῷ Αἰθίοπι μοιχευθεῖσα· ἡ μὲν γὰρ θυγάτηρ
ἐγένετο οὐκ Αἰθίοψ, τὸ δ' ἐκ ταύτης. Καὶ ὡς μὲν ἐπὶ τὸ
5 πολὺ τὰ θήλεα ἔοικε τῇ μητρὶ μᾶλλον, τὰ δ' ἄρρενα τῷ
πατρί· γίνεται δὲ καὶ τοὐναντίον, τὰ μὲν θήλεα τῷ πατρί,
τὰ δ' ἄρρενα τῇ μητρί. Καὶ κατὰ μέρη δὲ γίνονται ἐοικότα
ἄττα [μέρη] ἑκατέρῳ. Τὰ δὲ δίδυμα ἤδη μὲν ἐγένετο καὶ
οὐκ ἐοικότα ἀλλήλοις, τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ
10 ἐοικότα, ἐπεὶ καὶ μετὰ τὸν τόκον τις ἑβδομαία συγγενομένη
καὶ συλλαβοῦσα ἔτεκε τὸ ὕστερον τῷ προτέρῳ ἐοικός, ὥςπερ
δίδυμον. Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες ἐοικότα αὑταῖς γεννῶσαι,
αἱ δὲ τῷ ἀνδρί, ὥσπερ ἡ ἐν Φαρσάλῳ ἵππος ἡ Δικαία
καλουμένη.
1But parents may pass on resemblance after several generations, as in the case of the woman in Elis, who committed adultery with a negro; in this case it was not the woman's own daughter but the daughter's child that was a blackamoor.
As a rule the daughters have a tendency to take after 5the mother, and the boys after the father; but sometimes it is the other way, the boys taking after the mother and the girls after the father. And they may resemble both parents in particular features.
There have been known cases of twins that had no resemblance to one another, but they are alike as a general rule. There was once upon a time a woman who had 10intercourse with her husband a week after giving birth to a child and she conceived and bore a second child as like the first as any twin. Some women have a tendency to produce children that take after themselves, and others children that take after the husband; and this latter case is like that of the celebrated mare in Pharsalus, that got the name of the 15Honest Wife.
As a rule the daughters have a tendency to take after 5the mother, and the boys after the father; but sometimes it is the other way, the boys taking after the mother and the girls after the father. And they may resemble both parents in particular features.
There have been known cases of twins that had no resemblance to one another, but they are alike as a general rule. There was once upon a time a woman who had 10intercourse with her husband a week after giving birth to a child and she conceived and bore a second child as like the first as any twin. Some women have a tendency to produce children that take after themselves, and others children that take after the husband; and this latter case is like that of the celebrated mare in Pharsalus, that got the name of the 15Honest Wife.
Book 7,Chapter 7 (586a15–30)
15 Ἐν δὲ τῇ τοῦ σπέρματος ἐξόδῳ πρῶτον μὲν ἡγεῖται
πνεῦμα (δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ ἡ ἔξοδος ὅτι γίνεται ὑπὸ πνεύματος·
οὐδὲν γὰρ ῥιπτεῖται πόρρω ἄνευ βίας πνευματικῆς)·
ὅταν δὲ λάβηται τὸ σπέρμα τῆς ὑστέρας καὶ ἐγχρονισθῇ,
ὑμὴν περιίσταται. Φαίνεται γάρ, ὅταν πρὶν διαρθρωθῆναι ἐξέλθῃ,
20 οἷον ᾠὸν ἐν ὑμένι περιεχόμενον ἀφαιρεθέντος τοῦ
ὀστράκου· ὁ δ' ὑμὴν φλεβῶν μεστός. Πάντα δὲ τὰ πλωτὰ καὶ
πτηνὰ καὶ πεζά, εἴτε ζῳοτοκεῖται ἢ ᾠοτοκεῖται, ὁμοίως γίνεται·
πλὴν τὸν ὀμφαλὸν τὰ μὲν πρὸς τὴν ὑστέραν ἔχει τὰ
ζῳοτοκούμενα, τὰ δὲ πρὸς τῷ ᾠῷ, τὰ δ' ἀμφοτέρως, οἷον
25 ἐπὶ γένους τινὸς ἰχθύων. Καὶ τὰ μὲν περιέχουσιν οἷον ὑμένες,
τὰ δὲ χόρια· καὶ πρῶτον μὲν τοῦ ἐσχάτου ἐντὸς γίνεται τὸ
ζῷον, εἶθ' ὑμὴν περὶ τοῦτον ἄλλος, τὸ μὲν πλεῖστον προςπεφυκὼς
τῇ μήτρᾳ, τῇ δ' ἀφεστὼς καὶ ὕδωρ ἔχων. Μεταξὺ
δ' ὑγρότης ὑδατώδης ἢ αἱματώδης, ὁ καλούμενος ὑπὸ τῶν
30 γυναικῶν πρόφορος.
In the emission of sperm there is a preliminary discharge of air, and the outflow is manifestly caused by a blast of air; for nothing is cast to a distance save by pneumatic pressure. After the seed reaches the womb and remains there for a while, a membrane forms around it; for when it happens to escape before it is distinctly formed, it looks 20like an egg enveloped in its membrane after removal of the eggshell; and the membrane is full of veins.
All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon dry land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg, develop in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached to the womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have 25it attached to the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain sort of fishes. And in some cases membranous envelopes surround the egg, and in other cases the chorion surrounds it. And first of all the animal develops within the innermost envelope, and then another membrane appears around the former one, which latter is for the most part attached to 30the womb, but is in part separated from it and contains fluid. In between is a watery or sanguineous fluid, which the women folk call the forewaters.
All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon dry land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg, develop in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached to the womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have 25it attached to the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain sort of fishes. And in some cases membranous envelopes surround the egg, and in other cases the chorion surrounds it. And first of all the animal develops within the innermost envelope, and then another membrane appears around the former one, which latter is for the most part attached to 30the womb, but is in part separated from it and contains fluid. In between is a watery or sanguineous fluid, which the women folk call the forewaters.
Book 7,Chapter 8 (586a31–586b26)
Αὔξεται δὲ τὰ ζῷα πάντα, ὅσα ἔχει ὀμφαλόν, διὰ
τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ. Ὁ δ' ὀμφαλός, ὅσα μὲν κοτυληδόνας ἔχει,
πρὸς τῇ κοτυληδόνι προσπέφυκεν, ὅσα δὲ λείαν ἔχει τὴν
ὑστέραν, πρὸς τῇ ὑστέρᾳ ἐπὶ φλεβός. Σχῆμα δ' ἔχει ἐν τῇ
35 ὑστέρᾳ τὰ μὲν τετράποδα πάντα ἐκτεταμένα, καὶ τὰ ἄποδα
All animals, or all such as have a navel, grow by the navel. And the navel is attached to the cotyledon in all such as possess cotyledons, and to the womb itself by a vein in all such as have the womb smooth.
586b
1 πλάγια, οἷον ἰχθύς, τὰ δὲ δίποδα συγκεκαμμένα, οἷον
ὄρνις· καὶ ἄνθρωπος συγκεκαμμένος ῥῖνα μὲν μεταξὺ τῶν γονάτων
ἔχει, ὀφθαλμοὺς δ' ἐπὶ τοῖς γόνασιν, ὦτα δ' ἐκτός. Ἔχει
δ' ὁμοίως πάντα τὰ ζῷα τὴν κεφαλὴν ἄνω τὸ πρῶτον· αὐξανόμενα
5 δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἔξοδον ὁρμῶντα κάτω περιάγεται,
καὶ ἡ γένεσίς ἐστιν ἡ κατὰ φύσιν ἐπὶ κεφαλήν· συγκεκαμμένα
δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ πόδας γίνεται παρὰ φύσιν. Τὰ δὲ
τῶν τετραπόδων ἔχει καὶ περιττώματα, ὅταν ἤδη τέλεια ᾖ,
καὶ ὑγρὸν καὶ σφυράδας, τὰς μὲν ἐν τῷ ἐσχάτῳ τοῦ ἐντέρου,
10 ἐν δὲ τῇ κύστει οὖρον. Τοῖς δ' ἔχουσι κοτυληδόνας ἐν
τῇ μήτρᾳ τῶν ζῴων ἀεὶ ἐλάττους γίνονται αἱ κοτυληδόνες αὐξανομένου
τοῦ ἐμβρύου, καὶ τέλος ἀφανίζονται. Ὁ δ' ὀμφαλός
ἐστι κέλυφος περὶ φλέβας, ὧν ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐκ τῆς ὑστέρας
ἐστί, τοῖς μὲν ἔχουσι τὰς κοτυληδόνας ἐκ τῶν κοτυληδόνων,
15 τοῖς δὲ μὴ ἔχουσιν ἀπὸ φλεβός. Εἰσὶ δὲ τοῖς μὲν μείζοσιν,
οἷον τοῖς τῶν βοῶν ἐμβρύοις, τέτταρες αἱ φλέβες, τοῖς δ'
ἐλάττοσι δύο, τοῖς δὲ πάμπαν μικροῖς, οἷον ὄρνισι, μία
φλέψ. Τείνουσι δ' εἰς τὰ ἔμβρυα αἱ μὲν δύο διὰ τοῦ ἥπατος,
ᾗ αἱ καλούμεναι πύλαι εἰσί, πρὸς τὴν φλέβα τὴν μεγάλην,
20 αἱ δὲ δύο πρὸς τὴν ἀορτήν, ᾗ σχίζεται καὶ γίνεται
ἡ ἀορτὴ δύο ἐκ μιᾶς. Εἰσὶ δὲ περὶ τὴν συζυγίαν ἑκατέραν
τῶν φλεβῶν ὑμένες, περὶ δὲ τοὺς ὑμένας ὁ ὀμφαλὸς
οἷον ἔλυτρον. Αὐξανομένων δ' ἀεὶ μᾶλλον συμπίπτουσιν αὗται
αἱ φλέβες. Τὸ δ' ἔμβρυον ἁδρυνόμενον εἴς τε τὰ κοῖλα
25 ἔρχεται, καὶ ἐνταῦθα δῆλόν ἐστι κινούμενον, καὶ ἐνίοτε κυλινδεῖται
περὶ τὸ αἰδοῖον.
1And as regards their shape within the womb, the four-footed animals all lie stretched out, and the footless animals lie on their sides, as for instance fishes; but two-legged animals lie in a bent position, as for instance birds; and human embryos lie bent, with nose between the knees and eyes upon the 5knees, and the ears free at the sides.
All animals alike have the head upwards to begin with; but as they grow and approach the term of egress from the womb they turn downwards, and birth in the natural course of things takes place in all animals head foremost; but in abnormal cases it may take place in a bent position, or feet foremost.
The young of quadrupeds when they are near their 10full time contain excrements, both liquid and in the form of solid lumps, the latter in the lower part of the bowel and the urine in the bladder.
In those animals that have cotyledons in the womb the cotyledons grow less as the embryo grows bigger, and at length they disappear altogether. The navel-string is a sheath wrapped about blood-vessels which have their origin in the womb, 15from the cotyledons in those animals which possess them and from a blood-vessel in those which do not. In the larger animals, such as the embryos of oxen, the vessels are four in number, and in smaller animals two; in the very little ones, such as fowls, one vessel only.
Of the four vessels that run into the embryo, two pass through the liver where the so-called gates or 'portae' 20are, running in the direction of the great vein, and the other two run in the direction of the aorta towards the point where it divides and becomes two vessels instead of one. Around each pair of blood-vessels are membranes, and surrounding these membranes is the navel-string itself, after the manner of a sheath. And as the embryo grows, the veins themselves tend more and more to 25dwindle in size. And also as the embryo matures it comes down into the hollow of the womb and is observed to move here, and sometimes rolls over in the vicinity of the groin.
All animals alike have the head upwards to begin with; but as they grow and approach the term of egress from the womb they turn downwards, and birth in the natural course of things takes place in all animals head foremost; but in abnormal cases it may take place in a bent position, or feet foremost.
The young of quadrupeds when they are near their 10full time contain excrements, both liquid and in the form of solid lumps, the latter in the lower part of the bowel and the urine in the bladder.
In those animals that have cotyledons in the womb the cotyledons grow less as the embryo grows bigger, and at length they disappear altogether. The navel-string is a sheath wrapped about blood-vessels which have their origin in the womb, 15from the cotyledons in those animals which possess them and from a blood-vessel in those which do not. In the larger animals, such as the embryos of oxen, the vessels are four in number, and in smaller animals two; in the very little ones, such as fowls, one vessel only.
Of the four vessels that run into the embryo, two pass through the liver where the so-called gates or 'portae' 20are, running in the direction of the great vein, and the other two run in the direction of the aorta towards the point where it divides and becomes two vessels instead of one. Around each pair of blood-vessels are membranes, and surrounding these membranes is the navel-string itself, after the manner of a sheath. And as the embryo grows, the veins themselves tend more and more to 25dwindle in size. And also as the embryo matures it comes down into the hollow of the womb and is observed to move here, and sometimes rolls over in the vicinity of the groin.
Book 7,Chapter 9 (586b27–587a8)
Ὅταν δ' ὠδίνωσιν αἱ γυναῖκες, εἰς πολλὰ μὲν καὶ
ἄλλα ἀποστηρίζονται αὐταῖς οἱ πόνοι, ταῖς δὲ πλείσταις εἰς
ὁπότερον ἂν τύχῃ τῶν μηρῶν. Ὅσαις δ' ἂν περὶ τὴν κοιλίαν
30 σφοδρότατοι γένωνται πόνοι, αὗται τάχιστα τίκτουσιν· καὶ
ὅσαι μὲν τὴν ὀσφὺν προαλγοῦσι, μόλις τίκτουσιν, ὅσαι δὲ
τὸ ἦτρον, ταχύ. Ἂν μὲν οὖν ἀρρενοτοκῇ, προέρχονται οἱ ἰχῶρες
ὑδαρεῖς ὕπωχροι, ἐὰν δὲ θηλυτοκῇ, αἱματώδεις, ὑγροὶ
δὲ καὶ οὗτοι· ἐνίαις μέντοι συμβαίνει περὶ τὰς ὠδῖνας καὶ
35 οὐδέτερα τούτων. Τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἄλλοις ζῴοις οὐκ ἐπίπονοι γίνονται
When women are in labour, their pains determine towards many divers parts of the body, and in most cases to one or other of the thighs. Those are the quickest to be delivered who experience severe pains in 30the region of the belly; and parturition is difficult in those who begin by suffering pain in the loins, and speedy when the pain is abdominal. If the child about to be born be a male, the preliminary flood is watery and pale in colour, but if a girl it is tinged with blood, though still watery. In some cases of labour these latter phenomena do not occur, either one way or the other.
587a
1 οἱ τόκοι, ἀλλὰ μετριωτέρως ἐπίδηλά ἐστιν ἐνοχλούμενα
ὑπὸ τῆς ὠδῖνος· ταῖς δὲ γυναιξὶ συμβαίνουσιν οἱ πόνοι
ἰσχυρότεροι, καὶ μάλιστα ταῖς ἑδραίαις καὶ ὅσαι μὴ εὔπλευροι
μηδὲ δύνανται τὸ πνεῦμα κατέχειν. Δυστοκοῦσι δὲ μᾶλλον
5 καὶ ἐὰν μεταξὺ ἀποπνεύσωσιν ἀποβιαζόμεναι τῷ πνεύματι.
Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν ὕδρωψ ἐξέρχεται κινουμένου τοῦ ἐμβρύου καὶ
ῥηγνυμένων τῶν ὑμένων, ἔπειτα τὸ ἔμβρυον, στρεφομένων
μὲν τῶν ὑστερῶν, καὶ τοῦ ὑστέρου τὰ ἔσω ἐκτὸς ἴσχοντος.
1In other animals parturition is unaccompanied by pain, and the dam is plainly seen to suffer but moderate inconvenience. In women, however, the pains are more severe, and this is especially the case in persons of sedentary habits, and in those who are weak-chested and short of breath. Labour is apt to 5be especially difficult if during the process the woman while exerting force with her breath fails to hold it in.
First of all, when the embryo starts to move and the membranes burst, there issues forth the watery flood; then afterwards comes the embryo, while the womb everts and the afterbirth comes out from within.
First of all, when the embryo starts to move and the membranes burst, there issues forth the watery flood; then afterwards comes the embryo, while the womb everts and the afterbirth comes out from within.
Book 7,Chapter 10 (587a9–587b18)
Καὶ τῆς μαίας ἡ ὀμφαλοτομία μέρος ἐστὶν οὐκ ἀστόχου διανοίας·
10 οὐ γὰρ μόνον περὶ τὰς δυστοκίας τῶν γυναικῶν τῇ
εὐχερείᾳ δύνασθαι δεῖ βοηθεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τὰ συμβαίνοντα
ἀγχίνουν εἶναι καὶ περὶ τὴν τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ ἀπόδεσιν
τοῖς παιδίοις. Ἐὰν μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὸ ὕστερον συνεκπέσῃ, ἐρίῳ
ἀποδεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑστέρου ὁ ὀμφαλός, καὶ ἀποτέμνεται
15 ἄνωθεν· ᾗ δ' ἂν ἀποδεθῇ, συμφύεται, τὸ δὲ συνεχὲς ἀποπίπτει.
Ἐὰν δὲ λυθῇ τὸ ἅμμα, ἀποθνήσκει τοῦ αἵματος ἐκρυέντος
τὸ ἔμβρυον. Ἐὰν δὲ μὴ συνεξέλθῃ εὐθὺς τὸ ὕστερον, ἔξω
ὄντος αὐτοῦ τοῦ παιδίου, ἔσω ἀποτέμνεται ἀποδεθέντος τοῦ
ὀμφαλοῦ. Πολλάκις δ' ἔδοξε τεθνεὸς τίκτεσθαι τὸ παιδίον,
20 ὅταν ἀσθενικοῦ ὄντος, πρὶν ἀποδεθῆναι τὸν ὀμφαλόν, τὸ αἷμα
ἔξω εἰς τὸν ὀμφαλὸν καὶ τὸ πέριξ τύχῃ ἐξερρυηκός· ἀλλὰ
τεχνικαί τινες ἤδη τῶν μαιῶν γενόμεναι ἀπέθλιψαν εἴσω ἐκ
τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ, καὶ εὐθὺς τὸ παιδίον, ὥσπερ ἔξαιμον γενόμενον
πρότερον, πάλιν ἀνεβίωσεν. Γίνεται δέ, καθάπερ ἐλέχθη
25 πρότερον, κατὰ φύσιν ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν καὶ τἆλλα ζῷα, τὰ
δὲ παιδία καὶ τὰς χεῖρας παρατεταμένα παρὰ τὰς πλευράς.
Ἐξελθόντα δ' εὐθὺς φθέγγεται, καὶ προσάγει πρὸς τὸ
στόμα τὰς χεῖρας. Ἀφίησι δὲ καὶ περιττώματα τὰ μὲν εὐθὺς
τὰ δὲ διὰ ταχέων, πάντα δ' ἐν ἡμέρᾳ· καὶ τοῦτο
30 πλέον ἢ τοῦ παιδὸς κατὰ μέγεθος· ὃ καλοῦσιν αἱ
γυναῖκες μηκώνιον. Χρῶμα δὲ τούτου αἱματῶδες καὶ σφόδρα
μέλαν, καὶ πιττῶδες, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ἤδη γαλακτῶδες·
σπᾷ γὰρ εὐθὺς καὶ τὸν μαστόν. Πρὶν δ' ἐξελθεῖν οὐ φθέγγεται
τὸ παιδίον, κἂν δυστοκούσης τὴν κεφαλὴν μὲν ὑπερέχῃ,
35 τὸ δ' ὅλον σῶμα ἔχῃ ἐντός. Ὅσαις δ' ἂν ἐν ταῖς ἀποκαθάρσεσι
The cutting of the navel-string, which is the nurse's duty, 10is a matter calling for no little care and skill. For not only in cases of difficult labour must she be able to render assistance with skilful hand, but she must also have her wits about her in all contingencies, and especially in the operation of tying the cord. For if the afterbirth have come away, the navel is ligatured off from the afterbirth with a woollen thread and is 15then cut above the ligature; and at the place where it has been tied it heals up, and the remaining portion drops off. (If the ligature come loose the child dies from loss of blood.) But if the afterbirth has not yet come away, but remains after the child itself is extruded, it is cut away within after the ligaturing of the cord.
It often happens that the child appears to have 20been born dead when it is merely weak, and when before the umbilical cord has been ligatured, the blood has run out into the cord and its surroundings. But experienced midwives have been known to squeeze back the blood into the child's body from the cord, and immediately the child that a moment before was bloodless came back to life again.
It is the natural rule, as we have 25mentioned above, for all animals to come into the world head foremost, and children, moreover, have their hands stretched out by their sides. And the child gives a cry and puts its hands up to its mouth as soon as it issues forth.
Moreover the child voids excrement sometimes at once, sometimes a little later, but in all cases during the first day; and this excrement is unduly 30copious in comparison with the size of the child; it is what the midwives call the meconium or 'poppy-juice'. In colour it resembles blood, extremely dark and pitch-like, but later on it becomes milky, for the child takes at once to the breast. Before birth the child makes no sound, even though in difficult labour it put forth its head while the rest of the body remains within.
It often happens that the child appears to have 20been born dead when it is merely weak, and when before the umbilical cord has been ligatured, the blood has run out into the cord and its surroundings. But experienced midwives have been known to squeeze back the blood into the child's body from the cord, and immediately the child that a moment before was bloodless came back to life again.
It is the natural rule, as we have 25mentioned above, for all animals to come into the world head foremost, and children, moreover, have their hands stretched out by their sides. And the child gives a cry and puts its hands up to its mouth as soon as it issues forth.
Moreover the child voids excrement sometimes at once, sometimes a little later, but in all cases during the first day; and this excrement is unduly 30copious in comparison with the size of the child; it is what the midwives call the meconium or 'poppy-juice'. In colour it resembles blood, extremely dark and pitch-like, but later on it becomes milky, for the child takes at once to the breast. Before birth the child makes no sound, even though in difficult labour it put forth its head while the rest of the body remains within.
587b
1 προεξορμήσωσιν οἱ καθαρμοί, δυσαπαλλακτότεραι
γίνονται τῶν ἐμβρύων. Ἐὰν δ' αἱ καθάρσεις μετὰ τὸν
τόκον ἐλάττους γένωνται, καὶ ὅσων μόνον αἱ πρῶται, καὶ μὴ
διατελέσωσιν εἰς τὰς τετταράκοντα, ἰσχύουσί τε μᾶλλον αἱ
5 γυναῖκες καὶ συλλαμβάνουσι θᾶττον. Τὰ δὲ παιδία ὅταν
γένωνται, τῶν τετταράκοντα ἡμερῶν ἐγρηγορότα μὲν οὔτε
γελᾷ οὔτε δακρύει, νύκτωρ δ' ἐνίοτε ἄμφω· οὐδὲ κνιζόμενα
τὰ πολλὰ αἰσθάνεται, τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον καθεύδει τοῦ χρόνου.
Αὐξανόμενον δ' ἀεὶ εἰς τὸ ἐγρηγορέναι μεταβάλλει μᾶλλον·
10 καὶ ἐνυπνιαζόμενον δῆλον μὲν γίνεται, μνημονεύει δ'
ὀψὲ τὰς φαντασίας. Τοῖς μὲν οὖν ἄλλοις ζῴοις οὐδεμία διαφορὰ
τῶν ὀστῶν, ἀλλὰ πάντα τετελεσμένα γίνεται· τοῖς δὲ
παιδίοις τὸ βρέγμα λεπτόν, καὶ ὀψὲ πήγνυται. Καὶ τὰ
μὲν ἔχοντα γίνεται ὀδόντας, τὰ δὲ παιδία ἑβδόμῳ μηνὶ
15 ἄρχονται ὀδοντοφυεῖν· φύει δὲ πρῶτον τοὺς προσθίους, καὶ
τὰ μὲν τοὺς ἄνωθεν πρότερον, τὰ δὲ τοὺς κάτωθεν. Πάντα
δὲ θᾶττον φύουσιν, ὅσων αἱ τίτθαι θερμότερον ἔχουσι τὸ
γάλα.
1In cases where flooding takes place rather before its time, it is apt to be followed by difficult parturition. But if discharge take place after birth in small quantity, and in cases where it only takes place at the beginning and does not continue till the fortieth day, then in such cases women make a better 5recovery and are the sooner ready to conceive again.
Until the child is forty days old it neither laughs nor weeps during waking hours, but of nights it sometimes does both; and for the most part it does not even notice being tickled, but passes most of its time in sleep. As it keeps on growing, it gets more and more wakeful; and moreover it shows signs of dreaming, though it is 10long afterwards before it remembers what it dreams.
In other animals there is no contrasting difference between one bone and another, but all are properly formed; but in children the front part of the head is soft and late of ossifying. And by the way, some animals are born with teeth, but children begin to cut their teeth in the seventh month; and the front teeth are the first to come 15through, sometimes the upper and sometimes the lower ones. And the warmer the nurses' milk so much the quicker are the children's teeth to come.
Until the child is forty days old it neither laughs nor weeps during waking hours, but of nights it sometimes does both; and for the most part it does not even notice being tickled, but passes most of its time in sleep. As it keeps on growing, it gets more and more wakeful; and moreover it shows signs of dreaming, though it is 10long afterwards before it remembers what it dreams.
In other animals there is no contrasting difference between one bone and another, but all are properly formed; but in children the front part of the head is soft and late of ossifying. And by the way, some animals are born with teeth, but children begin to cut their teeth in the seventh month; and the front teeth are the first to come 15through, sometimes the upper and sometimes the lower ones. And the warmer the nurses' milk so much the quicker are the children's teeth to come.
Book 7,Chapter 11 (587b19–588a2)
Μετὰ δὲ τοὺς τόκους καὶ τὰς καθάρσεις ταῖς γυναιξὶ
20 τὸ γάλα πληθύνεται, καὶ ἐνίαις ῥεῖ οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὰς θηλὰς
ἀλλὰ πολλαχῇ τοῦ μαστοῦ, ἐνίαις δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὰς
μασχάλας· καὶ διαμένουσιν εἰς τὸν ὕστερον χρόνον στραγγαλίδες,
ὅταν μὴ ἐκπεφθῇ μηδὲ ἐξέλθῃ ὑγρότης, ἀλλὰ πληρωθῇ·
ἅπας γὰρ ὁ μαστὸς σομφός ἐστιν οὕτως, ὥστε κἂν ἐν
25 τῷ πόματι λάβωσι τρίχα, πόνος ἐγγίνεται ἐν τοῖς μαστοῖς
(ὃ καλοῦσι τριχιᾶν), ἕως ἂν ἢ αὐτομάτη ἐξέλθῃ θλιβομένη
ἢ μετὰ τοῦ γάλακτος ἐκθηλασθῇ. Τὸ δὲ γάλα ἔχουσιν ἕως
ἂν πάλιν συλλάβωσιν· τότε δὲ παύεται καὶ σβέννυται
ὁμοίως ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ζῳοτόκων καὶ τετραπόδων.
30 Τοῦ γάλακτος δ' ἐξιόντος οὐ γίνονται αἱ καθάρσεις
ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ, ἐπεὶ ἤδη τισὶ θηλαζομέναις ἐγένετο κάθαρσις.
Ὅλως δ' ἅμα πολλαχῇ οὐ συμβαίνει ἡ ὁρμὴ τῆς ὑγρότητος,
οἷον ταῖς ἐχούσαις αἱμορροΐδας χείρους αἱ καθάρσεις ἐπιγίνονται.
Ἐνίαις δὲ καὶ διὰ τῶν ἰξιῶν, ὅταν ἀπὸ τῆς ὀσφύος
35 ἐκκριθῇ, πρὶν ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὰς ὑστέρας. Καὶ ὅσαις δ' ἂν μὴ
After parturition and the cleasing flood the milk comes in plenty, and in some women it flows not only from the nipples but at divers parts of the breasts, and in some cases even from the armpits. And for some time afterwards there continue 20to be certain indurated parts of the breast called strangalides, or 'knots', which occur when it so happens that the moisture is not concocted, or when it finds no outlet but accumulates within. For the whole breast is so spongy that if a woman in drinking happen to swallow a hair, she gets a pain in her breast, which ailment is called 'trichia'; and the pain lasts till the hair 25either find its own way out or be sucked out with the milk. Women continue to have milk until their next conception; and then the milk stops coming and goes dry, alike in the human species and in the quadrupedal vivipara. So long as there is a flow of milk the menstrual purgations do not take place, at least as a general rule, though the discharge has been known to occur during the 30period of suckling. For, speaking generally, a determination of moisture does not take place at one and the same time in several directions; as for instance the menstrual purgations tend to be scanty in persons suffering from haemorrhoids. And in some women the like happens owing to their suffering from varices, when the fluids issue from the pelvic region before entering into the womb.
588a
1 γινομένων τῶν καθάρσεων αἷμα συμπέσῃ ἐμέσαι, οὐδὲν
βλάπτονται.
1And patients who during suppression of the menses happen to vomit blood are no whit the worse.
Book 7,Chapter 12 (588a3–12)
Εἴωθε δὲ τὰ παιδία τὰ πλεῖστα σπασμὸς ἐπιλαμβάνειν,
καὶ μᾶλλον τὰ εὐτραφέστερα καὶ γάλακτι χρώμενα
5 πλείονι ἢ παχυτέρῳ καὶ τίτθαις εὐσάρκοις. Βλαβερὸν δὲ
πρὸς τὸ πάθος καὶ ὁ οἶνος ὁ μέλας μᾶλλον τοῦ λευκοῦ, καὶ
ὁ μὴ ὑδαρής, καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν φυσωδῶν, καὶ ἐὰν ἡ κοιλία
στῇ. Τὰ πλεῖστα δ' ἀναιρεῖται πρὸ τῆς ἑβδόμης· διὸ καὶ
τὰ ὀνόματα τότε τίθενται, ὡς πιστεύοντες ἤδη μᾶλλον τῇ
10 σωτηρίᾳ. Καὶ ἐν ταῖς πανσελήνοις δὲ μᾶλλον πονοῦσιν. Ἐπικίνδυνον
δὲ καὶ ὅσοις τῶν παιδίων οἱ σπασμοὶ ἐκ τοῦ νώτου
ἄρχονται.
Children are very commonly subject to convulsions, more especially such of them as are more than ordinarily well-nourished on rich or unusually plentiful milk from a stout nurse. Wine is bad for infants, in that it tends to excite 5this malady, and red wine is worse than white, especially when taken undiluted; and most things that tend to induce flatulency are also bad, and constipation too is prejudicial. The majority of deaths in infancy occur before the child is a week old, hence it is customary to name the child at that age, from a belief that it has now a better chance of survival. This malady is worst at the full of the 10moon; and by the way, it is a dangerous symptom when the spasms begin in the child's back.
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