Latin obscenity

Latin obscenity is the profane, indecent, or impolite vocabulary of Latin, and its uses. Words deemed obscene were described as obsc(a)ena (obscene, lewd, unfit for public use), or improba (improper, in poor taste, undignified). Documented obscenities occurred rarely in classical Latin literature, limited to certain types of writing such as epigrams, but they are commonly used in the graffiti written on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Among the documents of interest in this area is a letter written by Cicero in 45 BC to a friend called Paetus, in which he alludes to a number of obscene words without actually naming them.

Apart from graffiti, the writers who used obscene words most were Catullus and Martial in their shorter poems. Another source is the anonymous Priapeia, a collection of 95 epigrams supposedly written to adorn statues of the fertility god Priapus, whose wooden image was customarily set up to protect orchards against thieves. The earlier poems of Horace also contained some obscenities. However, the satirists Persius and Juvenal, although often describing obscene acts, did so without mentioning the obscene words.

Medical, especially veterinary, texts also use certain anatomical words that, outside of their technical context, might have been considered obscene.

Latin taboo words

Cicero's letter ad Fam. 9.22

In a letter to one of his friends, written about 45 BC, Cicero discusses a number of obscenities in Latin. It appears that the friend, Lucius Papirius Paetus, (whose letters to Cicero have not been preserved) had used the word mentula ("penis") in one of his letters. Cicero praises him for his forthrightness, which he says conforms to the teachings of the Stoic philosophers, but says that he himself prefers modesty (verēcundia).

In the letter Cicero alludes to a number of obscene words, without actually mentioning them. The words which he alludes to but avoids are: cūlus ("arsehole"), mentula ("penis"), cunnus ("cunt"), landīca ("clitoris"), and cōleī ("testicles"). He also objects to words which mean "to fuck", as well as to the Latin word bīnī "two" because for bilingual speakers it sounds like the Greek βινεῖ (bineî) ("he fucks or sodomises"), and also to two words for passing wind, vīssiō and pēdō. He does not object to using the word ānus, and says that pēnis, which in his day was obscene, was formerly just a euphemism meaning "tail".

Degrees of obscenity

There thus appear to have been various degrees of obscenity in Latin, with words for anything to do with sex in the most obscene category. These words are strictly avoided in most types of Latin literature; however, they are common in graffiti, and also in certain genres of poetry, such as the short poems known as epigrams, such as those written by Catullus and Martial. The poet Horace also used obscenities in his early poems, that is the Epodes and the first book of Satires, but later writers of satire such as Juvenal and Persius avoided the coarser words even when discussing obscene topics. There were, however, some occasions in public life, such as in triumphal processions, at weddings, and at certain festivals, where obscenities were traditionally allowed. The purpose of these was presumably twofold, first to ward off the evil eye or potential envy of the gods, and second to promote fertility.

Euphemistic expressions

A very common way of avoiding words for sexual acts was simply to omit the word in question. J.N. Adams collects numerous examples of this.^[1] For example, in Horace (Epodes 12.15):

Īnachiam ter nocte potes

("You are capable of [having sex with] Inachia three times in a night.")

Another way was to substitute the taboo word with a milder one or a metaphor, for example using clūnēs ("rump (of an animal)") for cūlus}} or testiculī}} for cōleī}}.

Sometimes the offending word was replaced by a pronoun such as istuc}} ("that") or an adverb such as illīc}} ("there"), as in Martial (11.104.16):

et quamvīs Ithacō stertente pudīca solēbat
illīc Pēnelopē semper habēre manum

("And when the Ithacan (Odysseus) was snoring, modest though she was,
Penelope always kept her hand there.")

Mentula: the penis

Mentula is the basic Latin word for penis. It is used 48 times in Martial, 26 times in the Priapeia, and 18 times in Pompeian inscriptions. Its status as a basic obscenity is confirmed by the Priapeia 29, in which mentula and cunnus are given as ideal examples of obscene words:

obscēnis, peream, Priāpe, sī nōn

ūtī mē pudet improbīsque verbīs

sed cum tū positō deus pudōre

ostendās mihi cōleōs patentēs

cum cunnō mihi mentula est vocanda

("May I die if it doesn't shame me

to use obscene and improper words;

but when you, Priapus, as a god, shamelessly

show me your balls hanging out,

it is appropriate for me to speak of cunts and cocks.")

Martial mocks a friend who despised effeminate clothing, explaining why he suspects that he is secretly homosexual:

rogābit unde suspicer virum mollem.

ūnā lavāmur: aspicit nihil sūrsum,

sed spectat oculīs dēvorantibus draucōs

nec ōtiosīs mentulās videt labrīs.

("He will ask why I suspect him to be a 'soft' man.

We go to the baths together. He never looks at anything above,

but examines the athletes with devouring eyes,

and looks at their dicks with constantly moving lips.")

A draucus (the word occurs only in Martial), according to Housman, was a man "who performs feats of strength in public".[8] Rabun Taylor disagrees and sees a draucus more as a kind of rent boy who hung around in the baths in search of patrons.

Mentula also frequently appears in the poetry of Catullus. He uses Mentula as a nickname for Mamurra, as if it were an ordinary name, as in his epigram 105:

Mentula cōnātur Pipleium scandere montem:

Mūsae furcillīs praecipitem ēiciunt.

("That prick tries to climb the Pimpleian mount (of poetry);

the Muses drive him out with pitchforks.")

(Pimpleia was a place in Pieria in northern Greece associated with the Muses (the nine goddesses of poetry and music).)

Etymology

The etymology of mentula is obscure, although outwardly it would appear to be a diminutive of mēns, gen. mentis, the "mind" (i.e.; "the little mind"). Cicero's letter 9:22 ad Familiares relates it to menta, a spearmint stalk. Tucker's Etymological Dictionary of Latin relates it to ēminēre, "to project outwards", mentum, "chin", and mōns, "a mountain", all of which suggest an Indo-European root *men-. Other hypotheses have also been suggested, though none generally accepted