The Instructor 2.10.85
Summary: The hyena does not change sex or have both sexes; its supposed female organ is only a fleshy growth, a mark of its lust.
Greek text · Stählin 1:209
αὖθις οὖν συνεξομοιούμενον τῷ περιέχοντι καὶ τῷ ἦρι συγχαλώμενον ἐλευθεροῦται μὲν τῆς στενοχωρίας τὸ πνεῦμα φερόμενον διʼ εὐρυχώρων τῶν τέως μεμυκότων [ἀρτηριῶν]· οὐ μινυρίζει δὲ ἔτι τὸ μέλος τὸ μεμαραμμένον, ἀνθεῖ δὲ ἤδη λιγυρὸν καὶ χεῖται πλατύτερον τὸ φθέγμα αὐτῶν, καὶ ἤδη γίνεται τῆς φωνῆς τῶν ὀρνέων ἔαρ ἡ ᾠδή. Οὔκουν οὐδὲ τὴν ὕαιναν μεταβάλλειν τὴν φύσιν πιστευτέον ποτέ· οὐδὲ γὰρ αἰδοῖα ἔχει τὸ αὐτὸ ζῷον ἅμα ἄμφω, ἄρρενος καὶ θήλεος, καθὼς ὑπειλήφασί τινες, ἑρμαφροδίτους τερατολογοῦντες καὶ τρίτην ταύτην μεταξὺ θηλείας καὶ ἄρρενος ἀνδρόγυνον καινοτομοῦντες φύσιν. ἀπατῶνται δὲ εὖ μάλα τὸ φιλότεχνον τῆς παμμήτορος καὶ γενεσιουργοῦ φύσεως μὴ νοήσαντες· ἐπεὶ γάρ ἐστι τοῦτο λαγνίστατον τὸ ζῷον ἡ ὕαινα, ὑπὸ τὴν κέρκον πρὸ τοῦ πόρου τῆς περιττώσεως πέφυκεν αὐτῇ ἐξοχή τις σαρκικὴ παραπλησία τῷ σχήματι αἰδοίῳ θηλυκῷ· πόρον δὲ οὐδένα ἔχει τοῦτο τῆς σαρκὸς τὸ σχῆμα, εἴς τι χρειῶδες ἀπολήγοντα ἢ εἰς μήτραν ἢ εἰς ἀπευθυσμένον λέγω· μόνην δὲ ἄρα κοιλότητα ἔχει πολλήν, ᾗ τὴν λαγνείαν ὑποδέχεται τὴν κενήν, ὅταν ἀποστραφῶσι περὶ τὴν ἀποκύησιν ἀσχολούμενοι τῆς ἀποτέξεως οἱ
English · Claude translation
When it becomes like the surrounding air again and is relaxed in spring, the breath is freed from confinement, carried through the widened arteries that were before closed; the song no longer warbles faintly withered, but already blooms clear, and their voice pours out more fully, and the song of the birds becomes the springtime of their voice. So neither must we ever believe that the hyena changes its nature. Nor does the same animal have both organs, male and female, as some have supposed, telling tales of hermaphrodites and inventing this third, man-woman nature between female and male. They are much mistaken, not understanding the artistry of nature, mother and creator of all. Since the hyena is a very lustful animal, it has under the tail, in front of the passage for excrement, a fleshy growth resembling in shape the female organ. This formation of flesh has no passage leading to anything useful, either to a womb or to the rectum; it has only a large cavity, which receives the empty lust when the
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Clement's natural history follows Aristotle (Generation of Animals 3.6), who also denied that the hyena is hermaphrodite. The sentence continues in the next section.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (iota subscript missing): καὶ τῶ ἦρι → καὶ τῷ ἦρι.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.85 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/85/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.85 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/85/).
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