Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

RELIGION AND EROTIC

is sympathetic to Apollo, and further that a special kind of prophecy was associated with this delicate little creature (Pausanias, vi, 2, 4; Cicero, Div.,1, 20, 39 (Galeotz)). But why in the world should the god want to kill it? An unprejudiced examination will explain the motive to be that Apollo, the light and sun-god, with his warm beams, symbolized by the dart, entices the lizard from its hiding-place, in order to enjoy its brisk and gracious movements.

But I conjecture that the motive has also an erotic foundation. The Greek word for lizard means also especially the male member,’ and by preference that of a boy or young man. Now we have an epigram of Martial, which runs: ‘‘ Spare the lizard creeping towards you; it desires to fade away in your fingers.” This is not far from the idea that the images of the lizard-killing Apollo are a symbol for the god who is the friend of boys, who does not desire to kill the little animal, but rather entices it out to play with it, until it perishes from desire and love under his coaxing finger.

It has been already mentioned that the cult of the maiden Artemis did not lack the erotic undertone. The Greeks imagined this goddess as maidenly, of severe beauty, of tall figure and prominent stature, so that she is always the most beautiful and tallest among her nymphs. She was always thought of as hunting or otherwise in rapid movement, lightly clad, with dress tucked up high, sometimes on horseback or in a car drawn by deer. In many places in Greece maidens on their marriage dedicated to her the maiden chiton or girdle, whence her name “‘ girdle-looser ”’ ; and it was to her that after their confinement married women dedicated their girdle and garment. As Artemis herself is a goddess of severe modesty, so all chaste young men and maidens are her especial favourites, which is

1 Often in Anth. Pal., e.g. xii, 3, 207, 242; cf. Martial, xiv, 172, Ad te reptanti, puer insidiose, lacerte parce ; cupit digitis illa perire tuis, where perire = to pass away in love, to be madly in love.

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