Gassy After Sex and Consuming Souls

Two notes from Hippocrates’ Epidemics

 6.294

“There are those who get gassy when they have sex, like Damnagoras did. And others fart during sex.”

Ἔστιν οἷσιν ὅταν ἀφροδισιάζωσι φυσᾶται ἡ γαστήρ, ὡς Δαμναγόρᾳ, οἷσι δ᾿ ἐν τούτῳ ψόφος.

6.317

“A person’s soul keeps growing until death. When the soul grows feverish because of a sickness, it consumes the body.”

Ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴ φύεται μέχρι θανάτου· ἢν δὲ ἐκπυρωθῇ ἅμα τῇ νούσῳ καὶ ἡ ψυχή, τὸ σῶμα φέρβεται

Detail of the Maastricht Book of Hours (BL Stowe MS17)

One thought on “Gassy After Sex and Consuming Souls

  1. The science isn’t great but the translator’s confusion of “like” and “as” is rather more embarrassing in the 21st Century.

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