| | Posted on Sun Apr 12, 2009 19:54:21 | |
| | | Having a rhaphanus thrust up one's fundament was part of the Athenian punishment for adultery (see the Scholiast to Aristophanes Nubes 1083: houtô gar tous halontas moikhous hêikizon, rhaphanidas lambanontes eballon eis tous prôktous autôn, kai paratillontes autous thermên tephran epepasson, basanous hikanas ergazomenoi). But mullets? Was this common Roman practice? Or is Catullus having us on? Are the mugiles some kind of in joke? Likewise, Juvenal's stereotypical cuckolded husband (10: 317) moechos mugilis intrat, or is this merely an allusion to Catullus? | |
|
