Herodotus’s enigmatic Scythian theleia nousos/morbus femininus and its Hippocratic interpretation interested many early modern authors. Its seeming dimension of transgender identification invited various medico-psychological and psychiatric reflections, culminating in nosologist de Sauvages’ tentative 1731 term, melancholia Scytharum. This article identifies pertinent discussions and what turn out to have been entangled, tentative psychologizations in late-seventeenth through mid-nineteenth-century mental medicine: of ‘effeminacy of manners’ (mollities animi such as observed in London’s Beaux and mollies) and male homosexuality (amour antiphysique/grec); of the mental masculinity of some women (viragines, Amazones); of ubiquitous attributions of impotence to sorcery (anaphrodisia magica); and lastly, of transfeminine persons encountered throughout the New World and increasingly beyond.

希罗多德神秘的斯基泰人theleia nousos/morbus femininus及其希波克拉底的解释引起了许多早期现代作家的兴趣。它表面上的跨性别认同维度引发了各种医学心理和精神病学反思，最终在疾病分类学家 de Sauvages 于 1731 年提出的暂定术语“ melancholia Scytharum”中达到顶峰。本文指出了相关的讨论，以及 17 世纪末到 19 世纪中叶精神医学中相互纠缠的、尝试性的心理分析：“举止女性化”（如在伦敦的 Beaux 和 mollies 中观察到的mollities animi ）和男性同性恋。 （爱情反体/grec）；一些女性（处女、亚马逊）的精神男子气概；普遍将阳痿归因于巫术（anaphrodisia magica）；最后，是关于在整个新世界以及越来越多的地方遇到的跨性别女性。