To diddle or not to diddle?
Submitted by A.I. Watcher on March 3 2002 11:28:03
In reply to Let me refine what I was saying submitted by Heather on March 2 2002 23:41:31
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I don't actually know what diddle means either. ;-) Time for a tiny Latin lesson. A fellator is the Latin word for a man who would insert his penis into another man's mouth. An irrumator is the other guy - the guy who's sucking a penis. Obviously, the person taking the masculine role is the fellator. Yet we see many insults in the sources calling a person a fellator. It wasn't a very nice thing to say at all. Hence, I tend to disagree that among Republican Romans that it was just the passive role that caused disgrace. Another good word is pippina - it's the word for a prepubescent or sometimes adolescent penis. To call someone a "pippina lover or pippina sucker" was an insult that could lead to physical violence. All my reading leads me to believe that until sometime after the reign of Augustus, Romans were traditionally conservative when it came to sex - at least as a matter of lip service. Something happened after the Julio-Claudians or perhaps during their reigns, that changed society pretty dramatically. |
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