FOOTNOTES - THE Metamorphoses Of Venus
4.Ovid,Art of Love, I., 435, 36: “To fully expose the ungodly wiles of harlots, ten mouths, and as many tongues to boot would not suffice.”Aloysia Sigaea: “The body in sacrificing to Venus can take as many postures as there are ways in which it can bend and curve. It is equally impossible to enumerate all these, as it is to say which is best fitted to give pleasure. Each acts in this respect according to his own caprice, according to place, time, and so on, choosing the one he prefers. Love is not identical for each and all.” (Dialogue VI.)
4.Ovid,Art of Love, I., 435, 36: “To fully expose the ungodly wiles of harlots, ten mouths, and as many tongues to boot would not suffice.”
Aloysia Sigaea: “The body in sacrificing to Venus can take as many postures as there are ways in which it can bend and curve. It is equally impossible to enumerate all these, as it is to say which is best fitted to give pleasure. Each acts in this respect according to his own caprice, according to place, time, and so on, choosing the one he prefers. Love is not identical for each and all.” (Dialogue VI.)
5.Suidas underAstyanassa: “Astyanassa, maid of Helen the wife of Menelaus, who was the first to invent the different positions in the act of love. She wrote “Of Erotic Postures”; and was followed and imitated by Philaenis and Elephantine, who carried further the series of suchlike obscenities.”
5.Suidas underAstyanassa: “Astyanassa, maid of Helen the wife of Menelaus, who was the first to invent the different positions in the act of love. She wrote “Of Erotic Postures”; and was followed and imitated by Philaenis and Elephantine, who carried further the series of suchlike obscenities.”
6.Priapeia, LXIII: “To her a certain girl (I very nearly gave her name) is wont to come with her paramour; and if she fails to discover as many postures as Philaenis describes, she goes away again still itching with desire.”Philaenis has found a champion of her good name in Aeschrion, who wrote an epitaph for her that is still extant inAthenaeus, bk. VIII. ch. 13: The last lines read: “I was not lustful for men nor a gad-about; but Polycrates, by race an Athenian, a mill clapper of talk, a foul-tongued sophist, wrote—what he wrote; I know nought of it all.”Her works were familiar to Timarchus in Lucian (Apophras, p. 158,—vol. VII., of Works of Lucian, edit. J. P. Schmid): “Tell me where you find these words and expressions,—in what books? is it in the volumes of Philaenis, that are always in your hands?”
6.Priapeia, LXIII: “To her a certain girl (I very nearly gave her name) is wont to come with her paramour; and if she fails to discover as many postures as Philaenis describes, she goes away again still itching with desire.”
Philaenis has found a champion of her good name in Aeschrion, who wrote an epitaph for her that is still extant inAthenaeus, bk. VIII. ch. 13: The last lines read: “I was not lustful for men nor a gad-about; but Polycrates, by race an Athenian, a mill clapper of talk, a foul-tongued sophist, wrote—what he wrote; I know nought of it all.”
Her works were familiar to Timarchus in Lucian (Apophras, p. 158,—vol. VII., of Works of Lucian, edit. J. P. Schmid): “Tell me where you find these words and expressions,—in what books? is it in the volumes of Philaenis, that are always in your hands?”
7.Suetonius,Tiberius, ch. 43: “He decorated his various and variously arranged sleeping-chambers with pictures and bas-reliefs of the most licentious character, and furnished them with the works of Philaenis, that no one in performing should want a model of the posture required.”Priapeia, III: “Taking pictures from the licentious treatises of Elephantis, Lalagé presents them an offering to the stiff-standing god, and begs you prove if she performs agreeably to the pictured postures.”It would seem then that artists depicted the postures described by Elephantis, she herself possibly setting the example. Paintings of the sort Lalagé dedicates to Priapus, and asks her lover to have her and see if she is a docile pupil in faithfully imitating all the modes of connection depicted in them. No doubt such representations of licentious postures, taken from the works of Elephantis or Philaenis or elsewhere stimulated the ingenuity of Artists to work out in emulation these enticingmotifsto the highest degree of finish.Ovidalludes to such works of art in hisArt of Love, II., 680: “They unite in Love in a thousand postures; no picture could suggest any fresh ones ...”; as also the author of an ancient Epigram quoted byJoseph Scaligerin his Commentary on thePriapeia, III.; “And when she has thrown herself into every posture in imitation of the seductive pictures, she may go: but let the picture be left hanging over my bed.” Nothing was commoner with the Romans than to decorate the wall and partitions of rooms with licentious paintings, as may be gathered from Propertius II., vi, 27 sqq.: “The hand that first painted filthy pictures, and exposed foul sights in an honest home, corrupted the pure eyes of young maids, and chose to make them accomplices of his own lubricity. In old days our walls were not daubed with fancies of this vile sort, when never a partition was adorned with a vicious subject.”
7.Suetonius,Tiberius, ch. 43: “He decorated his various and variously arranged sleeping-chambers with pictures and bas-reliefs of the most licentious character, and furnished them with the works of Philaenis, that no one in performing should want a model of the posture required.”
Priapeia, III: “Taking pictures from the licentious treatises of Elephantis, Lalagé presents them an offering to the stiff-standing god, and begs you prove if she performs agreeably to the pictured postures.”
It would seem then that artists depicted the postures described by Elephantis, she herself possibly setting the example. Paintings of the sort Lalagé dedicates to Priapus, and asks her lover to have her and see if she is a docile pupil in faithfully imitating all the modes of connection depicted in them. No doubt such representations of licentious postures, taken from the works of Elephantis or Philaenis or elsewhere stimulated the ingenuity of Artists to work out in emulation these enticingmotifsto the highest degree of finish.Ovidalludes to such works of art in hisArt of Love, II., 680: “They unite in Love in a thousand postures; no picture could suggest any fresh ones ...”; as also the author of an ancient Epigram quoted byJoseph Scaligerin his Commentary on thePriapeia, III.; “And when she has thrown herself into every posture in imitation of the seductive pictures, she may go: but let the picture be left hanging over my bed.” Nothing was commoner with the Romans than to decorate the wall and partitions of rooms with licentious paintings, as may be gathered from Propertius II., vi, 27 sqq.: “The hand that first painted filthy pictures, and exposed foul sights in an honest home, corrupted the pure eyes of young maids, and chose to make them accomplices of his own lubricity. In old days our walls were not daubed with fancies of this vile sort, when never a partition was adorned with a vicious subject.”
8.Suidas: “Paxamus wrote theDodecatechnon; the subject is the obscene postures.” But I think he has no good reason to connect with this the epithetDodecamechanosgiven to a certain Cyrené. The said wanton damsel seems to have practised rather than described the twelve postures of Venus.SuidasunderDodecamechanon: “There was a famoushetaera, Cyrené by name, further known asDodecamechanos, because she practised twelve different postures in making love.”Aristophanessays in theFrogs, 1361-63: “Do you dare to criticize my songs, you that modulate your cadences on the twelve-fold postures of Cyrené?” Her name occurs also in theThesmophoriazusae(104), but merely her name. (Our invariable rule is to quote from Burmann’s edition of Aristophanes.) I am doubtful as to whether Musaeus should be counted among writers on the Erotic postures. Martial, XII., 97 recommends Instantius Rufus to read his (Musaeus’) books, as being of the most advanced lasciviousness, vying with those of the Sybarites in obscenity and full of the most suggestive and spicy wit; warning him at the same time to have his girl ready to hand, if he did not want his hands to perform the wedding-march and consummate the marriage without a woman at all.
8.Suidas: “Paxamus wrote theDodecatechnon; the subject is the obscene postures.” But I think he has no good reason to connect with this the epithetDodecamechanosgiven to a certain Cyrené. The said wanton damsel seems to have practised rather than described the twelve postures of Venus.SuidasunderDodecamechanon: “There was a famoushetaera, Cyrené by name, further known asDodecamechanos, because she practised twelve different postures in making love.”
Aristophanessays in theFrogs, 1361-63: “Do you dare to criticize my songs, you that modulate your cadences on the twelve-fold postures of Cyrené?” Her name occurs also in theThesmophoriazusae(104), but merely her name. (Our invariable rule is to quote from Burmann’s edition of Aristophanes.) I am doubtful as to whether Musaeus should be counted among writers on the Erotic postures. Martial, XII., 97 recommends Instantius Rufus to read his (Musaeus’) books, as being of the most advanced lasciviousness, vying with those of the Sybarites in obscenity and full of the most suggestive and spicy wit; warning him at the same time to have his girl ready to hand, if he did not want his hands to perform the wedding-march and consummate the marriage without a woman at all.
9.Athenaeus, XIV., 13: “Also the Ionic dialect has to show the poems of Sotades and the “Ionic” poems preceding his, those of Alexander the Aetolian, and Pyres of Miletus, and Alexis, and others of the same class. The last mentioned is known as the Cinaedologue. But in thisgenrethe most eminent writer is Sotades, of Maroneia, as is stated by Carystius of Pergamus in his work on Sotades, and by Apollonius, Sotades’ son, who also wrote a work on his father’s poems. “His end was a miserable one. Having assailed Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, with witticisms too independent for the sensitive ears of princes, the king caused him to be enclosed in a leaden casket, and thrown into the sea.”
9.Athenaeus, XIV., 13: “Also the Ionic dialect has to show the poems of Sotades and the “Ionic” poems preceding his, those of Alexander the Aetolian, and Pyres of Miletus, and Alexis, and others of the same class. The last mentioned is known as the Cinaedologue. But in thisgenrethe most eminent writer is Sotades, of Maroneia, as is stated by Carystius of Pergamus in his work on Sotades, and by Apollonius, Sotades’ son, who also wrote a work on his father’s poems. “His end was a miserable one. Having assailed Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, with witticisms too independent for the sensitive ears of princes, the king caused him to be enclosed in a leaden casket, and thrown into the sea.”
10.Who were these “maids of Didymus.” Nobody knows. Failing any more plausible supposition, it may very well be conjectured that among the four thousand works written according to Seneca (Letter LXXX.-VIII.) by the Grammarian Didymus, there was one on the postures of lascivious girls, worthy to be named side by side with the treatises of Elephantis. Undoubtedly a man who devoted himself to such subtile questions as whether Anacreon was more libertine than drunkard, whether Sappho was a public woman or not, was quite likely to discuss the Erotic postures.
10.Who were these “maids of Didymus.” Nobody knows. Failing any more plausible supposition, it may very well be conjectured that among the four thousand works written according to Seneca (Letter LXXX.-VIII.) by the Grammarian Didymus, there was one on the postures of lascivious girls, worthy to be named side by side with the treatises of Elephantis. Undoubtedly a man who devoted himself to such subtile questions as whether Anacreon was more libertine than drunkard, whether Sappho was a public woman or not, was quite likely to discuss the Erotic postures.
11.SeeBayle’sDictionary, article:Pierre Arétin; also Murr’sJournal zur Kunstgeschichte(Year-Book of the History of Art), vol. XIV., pp. 1-72.
11.SeeBayle’sDictionary, article:Pierre Arétin; also Murr’sJournal zur Kunstgeschichte(Year-Book of the History of Art), vol. XIV., pp. 1-72.
12.Pierre Bayle, in his Dictionary, underPierre Arétin: “There is aDialogue between Maddalena and Giulia, entitledLa Puttana Errante(The wandering whore), in which are exhaustively treatedi diversi congiungimenti(the different modes of intercourse), to the number of thirty-five. Aretino, though the book has always been printed under his name, disowns it, declaring it to be the work of one of his pupils named Veniero.”Brunet, Manual du Libraire (Book dealer’s Handbook). “ThePuttana errante, a little book, very rare, quite worthy of Aretino in view of the obscenities it contains, but which has been erroneously attributed to him. Lorenzo Veniero, a Venetian nobleman, is the real author. He published it to avenge himself on a Venetian courtesan named Angela, whom he designates under the insulting name of Zaffetta, that is to say, in the Venetian dialect, daughter of a police-spy.”[Bayle,Forbergand many other writers have confused thePuttana errante, a poem by Lorenzo Veniero and a burlesque parody of the Romances of chivalry, with theDialogue between Maddalena and Giulia, a prose work to which the Elzevirs gave the title properly belonging to the poem. Neither one nor the other is the work of Pietro Aretino. See note at end of vol. VI. of theDialogues du divin Pietro Aretino(Dialogues of the divine Pietro Aretino), Paris, Liseux, 1879, 3 vols. 18°, and London, 1880, 3 vols. 18°. [Note of French Translation of Forberg,Manuel d’Erotologie classique, Paris, Liseux, 1882.]]
12.Pierre Bayle, in his Dictionary, underPierre Arétin: “There is aDialogue between Maddalena and Giulia, entitledLa Puttana Errante(The wandering whore), in which are exhaustively treatedi diversi congiungimenti(the different modes of intercourse), to the number of thirty-five. Aretino, though the book has always been printed under his name, disowns it, declaring it to be the work of one of his pupils named Veniero.”Brunet, Manual du Libraire (Book dealer’s Handbook). “ThePuttana errante, a little book, very rare, quite worthy of Aretino in view of the obscenities it contains, but which has been erroneously attributed to him. Lorenzo Veniero, a Venetian nobleman, is the real author. He published it to avenge himself on a Venetian courtesan named Angela, whom he designates under the insulting name of Zaffetta, that is to say, in the Venetian dialect, daughter of a police-spy.”
[Bayle,Forbergand many other writers have confused thePuttana errante, a poem by Lorenzo Veniero and a burlesque parody of the Romances of chivalry, with theDialogue between Maddalena and Giulia, a prose work to which the Elzevirs gave the title properly belonging to the poem. Neither one nor the other is the work of Pietro Aretino. See note at end of vol. VI. of theDialogues du divin Pietro Aretino(Dialogues of the divine Pietro Aretino), Paris, Liseux, 1879, 3 vols. 18°, and London, 1880, 3 vols. 18°. [Note of French Translation of Forberg,Manuel d’Erotologie classique, Paris, Liseux, 1882.]]