The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 · the Elder Pliny
CHAP. 102.—THE KNEES AND THE HAMS.
In man the knee and the elbow bend contrary ways; the same is the case, too, with the bear and the ape, and it is for this reason that they are not so swift of foot as other animals. Those quadrupeds which are oviparous, such as the crocodile and the lizard, bend the knee of the fore-leg backwards, and that of the hind-leg forwards; their thighs are placed on them obliquely, in a similar manner to a man’s thumb; which is the case also with the multipede insects, the hind-legs only excepted of such as leap. Birds, like quadrupeds, have the joints of the wings bending forwards, but those of the legs backwards. CHAP. 103.—PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY TO WHICH CERTAIN RELIGIOUS IDEAS ARE ATTACHED.
In accordance with the usages of various nations, certain religious ideas have been attached to the knees. It is the knees that suppliants clasp, and it is to these that they extend their hands; it is the knees that they worship like so many altars, as it were; perhaps, because in them is centred the vital strength. For in the joint of either knee, the right as well as the left, there is on the fore-side of each a certain empty space, which bears a strong resemblance to a mouth, and through which, like the throat, if it is once pierced, the vital powers escape.[339] There are also certain religious ideas attached to other parts of the body, as is testified in raising the back of the right hand to the lips, and extending it as a token of good faith. It was the custom of the ancient Greeks, when in the act of supplication, to touch the chin. The seat of the memory lies in the lower part of the ear, which we touch when we summon a witness to depose upon memory to an arrest.[340] The seat, too, of Nemesis[341] lies behind the right ear, a goddess which has never yet found a Latin name, no, not in the Capitol even. It is to this part that we apply the finger next the little finger, after touching the mouth with it, when we silently ask pardon of the gods for having let slip an indiscreet word. Men only, in general, have varicose veins in the legs, women but very rarely. We are informed by Oppius, that C. Marius, who was seven times consul, was the only man ever known to be able to have them extracted in a standing position.
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