The female hermaphrodite, pseudo-hermaphrodite or tribade had a six-inch
member (enlarged penile clitoris) or a prolapsed (popped out) vagina that
enabled her to rub another woman's vulva or to penetrate another woman's
vagina. The male penis was the model of a lesbian's member. Thus lesbians
became such exceptional freaks of nature that they could be dismissed and
forgotten.
Donoghue, Emma; "Passions Between Women: British lesbian culture 1668-1801",
pp. 27, 28
Were there male hermaphrodites? "Durcet is fifty-three years old, he is small,
short, fat, very thickset, with a pleasant and fresh face; he has very white
skin, and his whole body, especially his hips and buttocks, are absolutely
like a woman's; his butt is fresh, fat, firm and chubby, but excessively
agape, due to the habit of sodomy; his penis is extraordinarilly small...he
has breasts like a woman."
DiPiero, Thomas; Gill, Pat; (Eds.), "Illicit Sex: Identity Politics in Early
Modern Culture", p. 152
Ev'n her Despair adds Fuel to her Fire;
A Maid with Madness does a Maid desire.
Nor Cows for Cows consume with fruitless Fire,
Nor Mares, when hot, their Fellow-Mares desire ...
Her females Nature guards from Female Flame,
And joins two Sexes to preserve the Game.
Wou'd I were nothing, or not what I am!
Crete, fam'd for Monsters, wanted of her Store,
'Till my new Love produc'd one Monster more.
The latent parts, at length revel'd began
To shoot, and spread, and burnish into Man.
Ovid
One must remember that Ovid was considered a misogynist
as a consequence of his having been castrated.
Click images or captions to view pages
Seventeenth century (1666) clitoridectomy surgery of Soranos (1st/2nd C. AD), Fig. iv.
Return
Soranos, Paulus of Aegina in the 7th century in his treatise "Gynaikeia"
(gynecology) said an excessively large clitoris (nymphē,
Greek) is a symptom of turpitude, in fact they strive to have their own
flesh stimulated just like men and to obtain sexual intercourse, as it
were. Thus a clitoridectomy was used to maintain socially acceptable
behavior (tentigo or lust, or lecherousness of the tribas). See
"Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism",
by Bernadette J. Brooten, pp. 162-173, page before Part Two.
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