Male Reproduction System : The Classical World

Introduction

The male reproductive system is the means of enabling the “groom” to marry the “bride.” “Gamein” is the Greek word for “to marry” (hence monogamy, bigamy, polygamy, etc.), and in medical terminology, a gamete is a mature male or female reproductive cell, a spermatozoon or an ovum.

The term penis for the male organ that ejects, or injects, spermatozoa into the female receptacle or vagina was not standardized until the 17th century. It is the Latin word for tail, and is related to the Latin word for hanging (as in pendulous trees and pendulum). Prior to that time there were many Latin metaphorical expressions for the male organ, such as clava (club), radix (root), virga (rod), vomer (plough), and especially gladius (sword). In comedies there were several instances of the male wanting to put his sword into its sheath (vagina). One part of this particular word play was made official: the vagina!

The male’s major external organs are the scrotum and the penis. The scrotum is a musculocutaneous sac divided into two parts by the scrotal septum, with each part containing one of the two oval-shaped male gonads, the testes, or testicles, which develop sperm and the hormone testosterone. The penis, the male sex organ, is composed of erectile tissue surrounded by skin. It is the semen transporter (semen being the sperm plus other fluids that nourish and protect the sperm) with an acorn-shaped tip (the glans penis) protected by foreskin (preputium or prepuce), which is often removed by cutting around it (circumcision). It has to be erect to function properly (only at the right time, of course, – hence the warning to users of Cialis of the dangers of Priapism), for putting it totally inside the vagina in order to throw the semen even further (ejaculation).

On top of each testis is a coiled tubule, the epididymis (“the thing on top of the twin”), that stores the sperm until it needs to be carried to the vessel (the vas deferens) that transport it down to the urethra inside the spermatic cord. The cord contains nerves, arteries, veins and lymphatic tissues, which all contribute to the erectile process.

Since both urine and semen travel through the male urethra, a urethral sphincter keeps the urine in the bladder – just as the cardiac and pyloric sphincters control the passage of food into and out of the stomach. Dysfunction of the urethral sphincter would result in seminuria or spermaturia.