Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)

137 PLATO: Republic, Book v. 138 PLUTARCH

: Lycurgos, 25. 139 The word "eugeneas

" was first used by THEOGNIS, Greek poet, of Megara, ca. 548 B. C. who saw how important selection would be if carefully applied for the improvement of mankind, Following is the passage of his poem, in a translation, which I found in footnote 13, p. 43. of DARWIN's The Descent of Man (1922) 1. c. Cf. also SMALL WOOD (1929): Eugenics ca. 590. B. C. Human Biology, 1:142. "With kine and horses, Kyrnus! we proceed By reasonable rules, and choose a breed For profit and increase, at any price; Of a sound stock, without defect or vice. But, in the daily matches that we make, The price is everything: for money's sake, Men marry

: women are in marriage give The churl or ruffian, that in wealth has thriven, May match his offspring with the proudest race: Thus everything is mixed, noble and base! If then in outward manner, form, and mind You find us a degraded, motley kind. Wonder no more, my friend! the cause is plain, And to lament the consequence is vain." 140 STOBAEUS, lxxxviii

: 14: "neither man nor any other living creature could be good unless those who were to give him birth were good.

.. men do not know how to bear children, and so the race degenerates, the worse ever mingling with the better.

.. To me it seems that this is an indictment of man's ignorance of his own life". 141 EURIPIDES: Electra. The usurper mates Electra this way so that no avenger may arise. (Cf. ZIRKIE, C. The knowledge of heredity before 1900, In DUNN, L. C. (1951): Genetics in the 20th century, N. Y.) 142 ROPER, Á. G. (1913): Ancient Eugenics. Oxford, p. 6. See also PLUTARCH: LYCURGOS. The father in Sparta was obliged to carry the newborn to the elders of the tribe who viewed the infant, and if they found it stout and well made, they gave order for its rearing.

.. but if they found it puny and ill-shaped, they ordered it to be taken to what was called the Apothetea, a short of chasm at the foot of Mount Taygetus, as thinking it neither for the good of the child itself nor for the public interest that it should be brought up. The women also bathed the newborn children with wine to prove the temper and complexion of their bodies... (thinking that) epileptic and weakly children faint and waste away upon their being thus bathed.

.. 143 Creta had an almost similar setup. Cf. ARISTOTELE

: Politics, II; 10. 144 For details see PLUTARCH: Lycurgos. The legislator introduced state-regulated physical exercise for girls so that "the fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth". He ordered public processions of naked girls for incitement to marriage, Children were considered the property of the commonwealth. Cf. SCHILLER, F.

: Die Gesetzgebung des Lykurgos and Solon, (q. by VERSCHUER) who considers such an idea absolutely condemnable since it takes man as means and not as the goal. 145 ARISTOTLE: Politics. Cf. also XENOPHON: Reipub. Lac., 1:10; V:9: "...These measure with regard to child-bearing, opposed as they were to the customs of the rest of Greece, produced a race excelling in size and strength. Not easily would one find people healthier or more physically useful than the Spartans." 146 ARISTOPHANES

: Lysistrate, where Lampito represents the beauty of the Spartans. 147 SEXTUS EMPIRICUS

: Pyrrhon., Hypot. Ill: 24, q. by ROPER 1. c. SOLON was ordered to reform the Athenian laws in 594 B. C. 148 PLUTARCH: Solon, xxii. 149 Cf. TĦEILHABER, 1. c. footnote 123. 7. 150 SCOTT, G. R. (1960): Curious customs of Sex and Marriage, 140. N. Y. 151 Cf. WARMINGTON, 1. c. footnote 102, 38:—In many cases the overpopulation was artificial. The real cause of poverty and famine was concentration of land in the ruling aristocratic classes 55