Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

PROSE

(“ pirouette’) occurs only once in Aristophanes,! while the name fdratos is more frequent. The word is explained by a passage from Eupolis, in which it is used as synonymous with zpwxrés (“bum”). It also existed as a proper name, and Plutarch wrote of an effeminate flute-player “ Batalos ’’, ridiculed by Aristophanes in a comedy. More harmless are ma8orimns (“ogler of boys ” and upporimns (“ ogler of boys with golden curls ”’”), also frequent in comedy.

A droll nickname for pedophils was dAdyoris, the first meaning of which is a kind of fish. The satirical transference of the name is thus explained by Athenzus (vil, 281): these fish, which are pale yellow in appearance, and in some places purplecoloured, “were always caught in pairs, one swimming behind the tail of the other.”’ Since then one always follows the other, some old writers have transferred the name of these fishes to those who are immoderate and perverted in sensuality. The joke becomes still more effective from the fact that the word, in Homer and later writers, is of frequent occurrence, and is a distinguished epithet of men. In a clever but untranslatable epigram of Straton, in which terms from the theory of music are used in an obscene sense, the pzdophil meaning of the word dAgnor7s is also alluded to (Anth. Pal., xii, 187).

3. ‘TRIFLES AND SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS

Phanias of Eresus has told the following story : ~ In Heraclea, a city of lower Italy, a boy named Hipparinus, handsome to look at and of noble family, was loved by Antileon, who in spite of many efforts could not win his favour. In the gymnasia he was always by his side, saying again and again how much he loved him, and protesting

* Peace, 864, where the reference is to the “‘twirls and contortions ”’

of the sons of Carcinus (three of whom were dancers). D'rpop (Awy is here used instead of waiéSwy.

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