1. Сначала о "post coitum omne animal triste". С удивлением узнал о том, что этот афоризм не прослеживается в античность (вопреки нередко встречающимся ложным аттрибуциям). Нашёл отличное письмо (англ., рекомендую) в рассылку Classics-L, в котором рассказывается о цитировании этого афоризма у Фрейда и Кинси (автора знаменитого Kinsey Report о сексе), и о возможных античных источниках этого афоризма (включая вопрос из "Проблем" псевдо-Аристотеля, но не тот, который я описал в предыдущей записи). См. также небольшое дополнение к этому письму (исправляющее неправильную форму афоризма в самом письме). Далее, письмо цитирует статью: Justin Glenn, "Omne Animal Post Coitum Triste: A Note and a Query," in "American Notes and Queries" 21 (1982): 49-51. Я прочитал эту статью, она тоже очень интересна и содержит ещё несколько возможных источников и цитат. Выкладываю её в публичный доступ на случай, если кому-то интересно: glenn.pdf (114kb, 3 страницы).
Update: Заменил неправильно выложенный вначале файл glenn.pdf на правильную статью.
Update 2011: архивы рассылки Classics-L за те годы, кажется, не найти теперь. archive.org выдал копию этого письма:
>>From dlupher@ups.edu Thu Mar 26 10:42:40 1998 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id KAA06250 for ; Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:42:40 -0800 Received: from mail.ups.edu (mail.ups.edu [192.124.98.111]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with SMTP id KAA13253 for ; Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:42:32 -0800 Received: by mail.ups.edu; id AB08911; Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:41:15 -0800 Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:44:04 -0800 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: dlupher@ups.edu (David Lupher) Subject: Re: Request [quasi-salacious] James Baron passed along a query from a colleague in medieval French literature who had asked: >>Greetings from France. I should like to ask your help in identifying the >>source (author and, if possible, precise reference) of a Latin phrase: >> Post coitum animal triste. This was in fact the subject of a pretty extensive thread on this list in early May of 1997. The initatiator of the thread was yours truly, but like Jim Baron I was acting as front man for someone else. At the same time I submitted the same query to FICINO, a Ren./Ref. list. I'll attempt to summarize briefly what emerged. (By the way, did not a French (?) movie with the title "Post Coitum" just open in New York?) - To cut to the chase, there is no author to whom the exact phrase cited above can be attributed with confidence. It is apparently post-classical, but it has classical antecedents, as we shall see. - The mot often appears in the expanded form "post coitum animal triste praeter gallum mulieremque." - The only actual piece of scholarship which those of us rooting about here were able to turn up was a short note by Justin Glenn of Florida State Univ., "Omne Animal Post Coitum Triste: A Note and a Query," in "American Notes and Queries" 21 (1982): 49-51. I wouldn't mind hearing of other studies if anyone on the list happens to have come across one (or written one!). Glenn focused mainly on the modern career of the phrase. He noted that it has achieved its present renown through having been cited by Freud, who claimed that "this quotation has not been traced"; Havelock Ellis, who referred to it as anonymous; and Alfred C. Kinsey, who attributed it to Galen. Glenn inconclusively concluded, largely on the basis of the Kinsey passage, that "it is entirely possible...that this quotation is derived ultimately from Galen, but this has yet to be confirmed." - I couldn't find anything in what little Galen I could survey (more Loeb Galens, PLEASE!), nor did anyone on Classics or FICINO supply a Galenic passage. - Glenn also cited Pseudo-Aristotle "Problems" Bk 4, 877b on the intriguing question, "Why do young men, when first they begin to have sexual intercourse, hate those with whom they have associated when the act is over?" He also cited Pliny, Hist. Nat. 10.83.171: "homini tantum primi coitus paenitentia, augurium scilicet vitae a paenitenda origine" ("Man is the only animal whose first experience of mating is accompanied by regret; this is indeed an augury for a life derived from a regrettable origin."). But it will be noted that both of these passages refer to negative feelings after one's *first* act of intercourse. Neither implies that such feelings recur after subsequent acts. Also, the Pliny passage specifically limits this "paenitentia" to human beings--- no "omne animal" here! - PETER GREEN wrote: "The latest edition of the ODQ flatly says "post- classical" and leaves it at that. But the notion is surely very close to the hendecasyllables ascribed to Petronius: Foeda est in coitu et brevis voluptas Et taedet Veneris statim peractae." (I wonder if this was one of the lamented PMG's "salacious" postings? In passing, I'd recommend Ben Jonson's translation of the Petronius. It begins "Doing a filthy pleasure is, and short; / And done, we straight repent us of the sport...") - BRIAN OGILVIE wrote: "The closest approximation to this sentiment of which I am aware is Aristotle, De generatione animalium 1.18, 725b5, b15, talking about the nature of semen as a very potent residue: For the exhaustion consequent on the loss of even a very little of the semen is conspicuous because the body is deprived of the ultimate gain drawn from the nutriment"; "But still in most men and as a general rule the result of intercourse is exhaustion and weakness rather than relief." (Quoting from Arthur Platt's Oxford translation. "Exhaustion and weakness" translate 'eklusis' and 'adunamia.') It's not quite the same sentiment, but perhaps served as the source of the later notion---if the sadness was due to the feeling of impotence subsequent to the loss of this precious bodily fluid...." [That last phrase in Brian's contribution will indicate to the initiated that there had been a reference---by yours truly and Alice Radin---to Gen. Ripper of "Dr. Strangelove" fame. Alice also quoted Julius Caesar De bell. gall. 6.21 on the Germans' belief that the later a youth has sex the taller and tougher he will be.] ROBERT KNAPP (a early modernist at Reed, not the Berkeley expert on Rmn. Spain) wrote on the FICINO list: "Chadwyck-Healy's PL turns up one hit on the proverb, in Joannes Murmellius and Rodulphus Agricola's commentary on Boethius, Book III, Prose VII: 'Tristes vero esse] Voluptati moerorem succedere cum norunt omnes, tum maxime libidinosi: nam, teste philosopho, omne animal a coitu triste est. Seneca Lucilio: Voluptates praecipue exstirpa, inter res vilisimas habe, quae latronum more in hoc nos amplectuntur, ut strangulent. Aristotelis, teste Valerio Maximo, utilissimum est praeceptum, ut voluptates abeuntes consideremus, quas quidem sic ostendendo [Co.. 1014B] minuit; fessas enim poenitentiaeque plenas animis nostris subjicit, quominus cupide repetantur.' But this only takes us to the late 15th century." [True, but the passage does explicitly attribute the key phrase to Aristotle--- "teste philosopho."] - EDWIN RABBIE on the FICINO list made the shortest contribution to the twin threads, but perhaps it is the closest to hitting the bull's- eye: "Latin translation of Ps.-Aristotle, Problems 955 a 23." [In English the translation of this passage would be: "After sexual intercourse most men are rather depressed, but those who emit much waste product with the semen are more cheerful." I don't have the med. Latin trans. of Aristotle within reach. Also, it will be noted that "Aristotle" was talking specifically about men, not "omnia animalia." But I humbly suspect that this is about as close as we're going to get.] I trust that this replay of one of the list's "greatest hits" will not be deemed unduly salacious. David Lupher Classics Program Univ. of Puget Sound