On 2008-01-18 19:59, Patrick Ryan wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Piotr Gasiorowski <mailto:gpiotr@...>
>
> OK. A lesson in anatomy:
>
> "The portion [of the uterus] projecting into the vagina is referred to
> as the portio vaginalis or ectocervix. On average, the ectocervix is 3
> cm long and 2.5 cm wide. It has a convex, elliptical surface and is
> divided into anterior and posterior lips." [Wikipedia]
>
> Can you visualise it now?
>
> ***
>
> Perfectly. I just cannot 'visualize' a 'penis' or 'clitoris'.
You should read what the ancients wrote about human anatomy and
reproduction. One widespread belief was that women too emitted semen and
that their genitalia were analogous to the male ones, but "inverted". In
Europe, even some 18th-c. medical experts with scholastic inclinations
followed Aristotle and Galen in regarding female organs as distorted
forms of their alleged male counterparts: testicles --> ovaries (Galen
used the same word, <orkHis>, for both), penis --> cervix (rather than
the clitoris), scrotum --> uterus. Acccording to many Indian as well as
Greek authorities, female semen was secreted in the cervix, hence the
identification of the part of female anatomy containing the uteral
orifice (i.e., the ectocervix) with the penis and the use of the same
Skt. word <gr.dá-> for both. To distinguish it from the male "thing", a
compound was employed, <sárdi-gr.di-> 'the [internal] penis of the vagina'.
Piotr