Translation of poem by Martial from Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sour

Translation of poem by Martial from Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook (2005) by Marguerite Johnson and Terry Ryan, page 132.Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis, c. AD 40–c. 104] was a Roman satirist. In this verse he mocks a woman for, in his view, acting like a man: getting drunk, gorging herself on food, working out and engaging in rough sports, and fucking both young men and women with a strap-on dildo. His final insult is to suggest that she believes that performing cunnilingus makes her more masculine, when Romans thought that giving a woman oral sex effeminized a man.The poet’s attitudes about sex were typical of his culture. Romans thought of sexuality not in terms of sexual orientation (they had no concepts like “heterosexuality” and “homosexuality”) but in terms of tendencies to active or passive behavior. Masculinity was seen as active and powerful whereas femininity was defined as passive, receptive, and inferior.  A man could penetrate another man and retain his masculinity and honor, but to be penetrated was to be subjugated and defiled, made to be like a woman, prostitute, or slave. Misogyny, therefore, went hand in hand with prejudice against men who did not conform to gender norms, including the stricture against a free man, a Roman citizen, being anally penetrated.Martial refers to Philaenis as a “tribad,” which according to Wikipedia “means “a woman or intersex individual who actively penetrated another person (male or female) through use of the clitoris or a dildo… . Because penetration was viewed as ‘male-defined’ sexuality, a tribas was considered the most vulgar lesbian. The Greeks and Romans recognized same-sex attraction, but as any sexual act was believed to require that one of the partners be ‘phallic’ and that therefore sexual activity between women was impossible without this feature, mythology popularly associated lesbians with either having enlarged clitorises or as incapable of enjoying sexual activity without the substitution of a phallus. This appears in Greek and Latin satires as early as the late first century” (Tribadism).A man who liked being penetrated was categorized as a pathicus, regardless of who he wanted to penetrate him (a woman or a man); he might also have been called a cinaedus. According to Wikipedia, “pathicus and cinaedus are often not distinguished in usage by Latin writers, but cinaedus may be a more general term for a male not in conformity with the role of vir, a ‘real man,’ while pathicus specifically denotes an adult male who takes the sexually receptive role. A pathicus was not a ‘homosexual’ as such. His sexuality was not defined by the gender of the person using him as a receptacle for sex, but rather his desire to be so used. Because in Roman culture a man who penetrates another adult male almost always expresses contempt or revenge, the pathicus might be seen as more akin to the sexual masochist in his experience of pleasure. He might be penetrated orally or anally by a man or by a woman with a dildo, but showed no desire for penetrating nor having his own penis stimulated. He might also be dominated by a woman who compels him to perform cunnilingus.” The cinaedus was also stereotyped and disparaged: “Cinaedus is a derogatory word denoting a male who was gender-deviant; his choice of sex acts, or preference in sexual partner, was secondary to his perceived deficiencies as a ‘man" (vir)… . Although in some contexts cinaedus may denote an anally passive man and is the most frequent word for a male who allowed himself to be penetrated anally, a man called cinaedus might also have sex with and be considered highly attractive to women. Cinaedus is not equivalent to the English vulgarism ‘faggot’ except that both words can be used to deride a male considered deficient in manhood or with androgynous characteristics whom women may find sexually alluring” (Homosexuality in Ancient Rome). Roman literature, mostly written by men and reflecting the culture’s rigid gender definitions, features many disparaging references to “passive” men who like to be anally penetrated. Martial’s verse about Philaenis is unusual in focusing on an “active” woman who engages in disapproved behaviors, beginning with her anal penetration of young males (Romans thought of adolescent boys as the epitome of beauty and desire). Philaenis’s offense, in Martial’s view, is that she does not fulfill the expectation that a woman should be a pathica–the female equivalent of pathicum–that she should be soft, passive, and desirous of being penetrated. Despite Martial’s prejudice, however, his poem documents that in Roman times there were women who liked to penetrate men, as well as men who were eager to be penetrated by women, despite the risk of social disapproval and sanction. Along with literary references to dildos and actual dildos from Roman times that have survived to the present day (including double-ended dildos), this poem suggests that women fucked men up the ass in ancient times and that both women and men enjoyed the activity.For more on this history, see the article “Still Before Sexuality: ‘Greek” Androgyny, the Roman Imperial Politics of Masculinity and the Roman Invention of the Tribas“ by Diana M. Swancutt , in Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses (2007), edited by Todd C. Penner and Caroline Vander Stichele. Martial’s poem 7.67 was also translated by Gillian Spraggs, who refers to Philaenis as a “bulldyke” rather than by the Latin term tribas. Spragg’s version can be found at http://www.gillianspraggs.com/translations/philaenis.html Here is the original in Latin: Pedicat pueros tribas Philaenis et tentigine saevior mariti undenas dolat in die puellas. Harpasto quoque subligata ludit, et flavescit haphe, gravesque draucis halteras facili rotat lacerto, et putri lutulenta de palaestra uncti verbere vapulat magistri: Nec cenat prius aut recumbit ante, quam septem vomuit meros deunces; ad quos fas sibi tunc putat redire, cum coloephia sedecim comedit. Post haec omnia cum libidinatur, non fellat – putat hoc parum virile –, sed plane medias vorat puellas. Di mentem tibi dent tuam, Philaeni, cunnum lingere quae putas virile. -- source link
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