Aristotle was the main sex educator in antiquity and remained as the provider of basic source material for many centuries afterwards. His philosophical and scientific literary output was so enormous that it has been speculated that many of the works attributed to Aristotle were in fact written by his pupils.

Aristotelian treatises on animals, childbirth, etc. continued to circulate well into the nineteenth century, even when it could be shown that a fair portion of what was said in the name of Aristotle was little short of absurdity.

At the same time a number of Greek insights were preserved over the centuries. Aristotle describes the persistence of sexual prowess to high ages and points out that acquired characteristics are not normally transmitted. Sometimes - as with the little edition of The Masterpiece of Aristotle from the nineteenth- century - authors without any particular merit tried to borrow authority from the Master.