Since Dominic Montserrat’s Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt, (Montserrat 1996), where the culture of sex and the sexual history of Graeco-Roman Egypt were discussed, only intriguing trifles of this issue appeared1. However, all these fragments have to do with the general idea of sexual behavior (e.g. prostitution, marriage, homosexuality etc.), and do not concern the description of certain sexual acts (e.g. coitus, fellatio, cunnilingus, etc.)2.
In this article, I will focus on an epigram of Palladas, who was living in Alexandria in the first half of the fourth century AD, where he was a professional schoolteacher (γραμματικός). He was known for his scoptic epigrams on a variety of subjects, in skillfully expressed language, and smart ideas. A number of his epigrams related to women, but they did touch on traditional matters, such as virginity, marriage, motherhood, etc. The poet focused on womanhood, stressing particularly two features, women’s guile and envy. These specific feminine characteristics were the main reason that aroused anger in men, and, therefore, he described them using words and phrases such as χόλος, “annoyance” (AP 11.381) ὀργὴ τοῦ Διός, “the wrath of Zeus” (AP 9.165, 1), κακὴν σφαλερήν τε ... ὄλεθρον “wicked and treacherous... perdition” (AP 9.166.1-2). Consequently, in his epigrams he rebuked both mortal women (even female figures such as Penelope and Helen) and goddesses (e.g. Hera), and furnished corroborating evidence for this view based on ancient literature. Arguably, his epigrams might not have been only misogynistic stereotypes of the type that we find in literature, but may be based on personal experience, and his treatment of women may be due to situations which are inextricably linked to his experiences3.
Since Homer was the main source for those concerned with primary education, the epigrammatist Palladas exploited words or verses of the Homeric epics in 17 out of his 168 epigrams in order to refer to situations or examples which were familiar to all his readers4. In modern literary studies, Palladas’ epigrams with Homeric passages are merely listed without further comment, or are discussed in the general framework of all epigrams of the Palatine Anthology with Homeric quotations, or in connection with the expression of Palladas’ misogynism. In addition, some of the ideas expressed in these epigrams are regarded as Palladas’ “rationalistic interpretation” which aimed at the “desacralisation of Homer”5.
In the epigram AP 9.395, Palladas cited two well-known verses from the Odyssey, καπνὸν ἀποθρῴσκοντα, “smoke curling up” (1.58) and ὡς οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος, “nothing is sweeter than a man’s fatherland” (9.34):
“Ὡς οὐδὲν γλύκιον ἧς πατρίδος”, εἶπεν Ὀδυσσεύς6.
ἐν γὰρ τοῖς Κίρκης7 ἔκχυτον οὐκ ἔφαγεν,
οὗ μόνον εἰ καὶ καπνὸν ἀποθρῴσκοντ’ ἐνόησεν8,
εἶπεν ἂν οἰμώζειν καὶ δέκα Πηνελόπαις9.
“Odysseus said: “nothing is sweeter than a man’s fatherland”,
for in Circe’s isle he never ate cheese-cake.
If he had seen even the smoke curling up from that,
he would have sent ten Penelopes to the deuce”
(transl. Guichard, loc. cit.)”.
The poet used the Homeric Odysseus to remind us that the hero never tasted what Circe offered him. Even if he had simply tasted it, he would never have returned to his own Penelope. However, in the Odyssey we read (Hom. Od. 10, 287-308 and 316-323) that Odysseus tasted Circe’s potion, but because of the antidote (μῶλυ) he had taken on Hermes’ advice, this drink had no effect on him. Furthermore, Homer says that Odysseus “drank this mixture to the bottom” (see Hom. Od. 10.318 αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δῶκέν τε καὶ ἔκπιον), and, hence, the poet did not use any form of the verb ἐσθίω. On the other hand, in Horace, Epist. 1.2.23-25, it is stated that Ulysses did not drink any of the potion, because he was not foolish and greedy as his comrades were, and if he had drunk it, he would have become brutish, mindless, a prisoner of a prostitute mistress, like a miserable dog or a pig who loves to be in the mire. Palladas seems to be consistent with Horace’s version. To this scenario one could also add the view which was expressed by Palladas in his epigram AP 10.50, in which he states that Homer’s story of Odysseus’ men being turned into into pigs or wolves does not apply. Palladas spoke in favor of an explanation that Circe was ἑταίρα... πανοῦργος, “cunning courtesan”, who just transformed τοὺς δελεασθέντας into πτωχοτάτους, “and made them who took her bait poorest of the poor”. However, Odysseus was ἔμφρων, “having his wits”, and managed to escape by means of his own φάρμακον ἀντίπαλον, “a counter-charm”, without mentioning Hermes’ antidote). It is very probable that this alternative scenario, i.e. what would have happened if Odysseus had not tasted Circe’s drink, was a working hypothesis on rhetoric exercises (ἠθοποιῖαι) in schools of rhetoric of the Roman and Byzantine periods, and Palladas exploited this practice10.
Perhaps this scenario is a satisfactory interpretation of the reason why Palladas composed the epigram, and there is no need for further discussion. However, there is an issue arising from the use of the word ἔκχυτον, which was Circe’s potion. LSJ s.v. ἔκχυτος II cites this specific passage of Palladas, with the comment that it is of dubious sense. In Homer’s Odyssey, Circe is said to have offered κυκεῶνα (see Hom. Od. 10.290 and 316), which was prepared to make people forget their homeland. She stirred cheese, wheat flour, honey and wine, and added κακὰ φάρμακα, “evil drugs” (Hom. Od. 10.213), or λυγρὰ φάρμακα, “baneful drugs” (Hom. Od. 10.234-236 ἐν δέ σφιν τυρόν τε καὶ ἄλφιτα καὶ μέλι χλωρὸν | οἴνῳ Πραμνείῳ ἐκύκα· ἀνέμισγε δὲ σίτῳ | φάρμακα λύγρ’, ἵνα πάγχυ λαθοίατο πατρίδος αἴης, “and made for them a potion of cheese and barley meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine; but in the food she mixed baneful drugs, that they might utterly forget their native land” (tranlation A.T. Murray, Loeb 1919)11).What Circe offered to Odysseus and his men was qualified as πότος by Heracleitus (paradoxographer of the fourth century BC), in his work Περὶ ἀπίστων 16 ταύτην (i.e. τὴν Κίρκην) ὁ μῦθος παρ<αδ>έδωκε ποτῷ μεταμορφοῦσαν ἀνθρώπους, and as κυκεὼν by another Heracleitus (of first century AD) in his work Ὁμηρικά Προβλήματα 72,2 ὁ δὲ Κίρκης κυκεὼν ἡδονῆς ἐστὶν ἀγγεῖον, ὃ πίνοντες οἱ ἀκόλαστοι διὰ τῆς ἐφημέρου πλησμονῆς συῶν ἀθλιώτερον βίον ζῶσι. Therefore, it seems that Palladas was the only poet who used the specific word ἔκχυτον to denote Circe’s potion.
In this connection, we should also consider that when Odysseus arrived at Circe’s island, he clambered to the top of a cliff, and in the distance saw a palace rising in the midst of a grove of lofty trees. A wisp of smoke went curling up from the chimney and he decided to go there12. However, no ancient source refers to Circe as preparing the potion over a blazing fire in the kitchen, which would produce smoke. The smoke was an indication of an inhabited place when the hero arrived in an unknown area. Similar smoke was seen by Odysseus when he arrived at the land of Laestrygones, Hom. Od. 10.99 καπνὸν δ᾽ οἶον ὁρῶμεν ἀπὸ χθονὸς ἀίσσοντα, “smoke alone we saw springing up from the land” (translation by A.T. Murray, Loeb 1919), as well as when he approached the Cyclops’ island, Hom. Od. 9.166-167 Κυκλώπων δ᾽ ἐς γαῖαν ἐλεύσσομεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντων, | καπνόν τ᾽ αὐτῶν τε φθογγὴν ὀίων τε καὶ αἰγῶν, “and we looked across to the land of the Cyclopes, who dwelt close at hand, and marked the smoke, and the voice of men, and of the sheep, and of the goats” (translation by A.T. Murray, Loeb 1919).
It is also obvious that whoever read Palladas’ epigram would understand the word in the way it was interpreted in the title of the epigram, as an adjective attributed to the noun ποτόν (“drink”) or in the way explained in a lemma, εἶδος βρώματος (“kind of food”). However, the need of the ancient people who copied the epigram to explain the word, sometimes as a drink, other times as food, means that its meaning was not sufficiently clear and that it was not used in such a way in the everyday speech or in the literary tradition. It is very probable that Palladas wanted to add to this word another semantic use. LSJ s.v. ἔκχυτος (I1 και 2) translates the adjective as “poured forth, unconfined, outstretched” and “immoderate”13, and s.v. ἔκχυσις as “outflow, pouring out”. Neither word (ἔκχυτος – ἔκχυσις), nor all words that derive from the verb ἐκχέω can be related to any kind of food. It is intriguing to assume that behind the innovative use of the words ἔφαγεν and ἔκχυτον Palladas hid a pun regarding a certain sexual activity.
First, considering the verb ἔφαγεν, ancient authors often used the words πλακοῦς, πόπανα, ζωμός etc., as vehicles of sexual innuendo14. In Aristophanes, Pax 1355-57 ὦ χαίρετε χαίρετ᾽ ἄνδρες, κἂν ξυνέπησθέ μοι πλακοῦντας ἔδεσθε, “hail, hail, my friends. All who come with me shall have cakes galore” (translation by O’Neill, 1938), the noun πλακοῦντας is the object of the verb ἐσθίω (also used by Palladas) and denotes the woman’s genitalia15. This sexual activity implies cunnilingus, or at least some kind of kiss on the woman’s genitalia16. The large number of allusions to cunnilingus indicate that this activity was a regular (mostly private and not in groups) pleasure for both men and women, although it seems to have been considered demeaning for the person who performed it17.
Then, considering the noun ἔκχυτον, it might imply the secretions emitted during the female orgasm or even a female ejaculation. A variety of scientific terms were used for these secretions or dew during the sexual experience18. Hippocrates in his treatise On Generation 4, was the first to speak about something that is released during the female orgasm, by using the verb μεθίημι (see μεθίει δὲ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος)19. More specifically, he supported the idea that “in the case of women, it is my contention that when during intercourse the vagina is rubbed and the womb is disturbed, an irritation is set up in the womb which produces pleasure and heat in the rest of the body. A woman also releases something from her body, sometimes into the womb, which then becomes moist, and sometimes externally as well, if the womb is open wider than normal. Once intercourse has begun, she experiences pleasure throughout the whole time, until the man ejaculates [NB: I prefer to translate “until the man releases her”]. If her desire for intercourse is excited, she emits before the man and for the remainder of the time she does not feel pleasure to the same extent; but if she is not in a state of excitement, then her pleasure terminates along with that of the man. What happens is like this: if into boiling water you pour another quantity of water which is cold, the water stops boiling. In the same way, the man’s sperm arriving in the womb extinguishes both the heat and the pleasure of the woman. Both the pleasure and the heat reach their peak simultaneously with the arrival of the sperm in the womb, and then they cease. If, for example, you pour wine on a flame, first of all the flame flares up and increases for a short period when you pour the wine on, then it dies away. In the same way the woman’s heat flares up in response to the man’s sperm, and then dies away”20 (translation by I.M. Lonie, Berlin – New York 1981). Then, Aristotle discussed the same subject in his treatise On the Generation of Animals 727b-728a21 in the context of the question about the female semen, pointing out that the vaginal secretions (ὑγρὰν ἀπόκρισιν, ἡ ὑγρασία, ἔστι γὰρ τῶν ὑστερῶν ἔκκρισις) are not semen22, and that a woman’s ejaculation exceeds that of a man. However, although it is certain that both Hippocrates and Aristotle spoke about vaginal secretions during intercourse, it is not certain if they implied a female ejaculation23. On the other hand, in Galenus’ treatise On semen, 2.1, 25-26, he seems to support the idea of the existence of female semen based on the desire of women for sexual intercourse. Galenus compared the expulsion of fluids out of the vulva during the sexual tensions or at the moment of the orgasm of a woman with the act of urination, which similarity is actually the most indicative and characteristic feature of the female ejaculation: “exactly as it has been seen even now for a woman who suffered from hysterical diseases, plenty and very thick semen was discharged first to the uterus, and thence to the outside. Since she was a widow for a long time, she had accumulated it so much and of that quantity and quality. Then, some tensions seized her in her loins and hands and feet, so that she seemed to have some convulsions, and during these tensions the semen was discharged, and she was saying that she had a pleasure like that during sexual intercourse. This semen was now thick and in a large quantity, because it was not evacuated for a long time. In other women, however, this semen, in smaller quantities and as a liquid, appears to spill out from these wombs, from exactly the same place where she urinates” (my translation)24. It is more likely, if we base our interpretation of his last phrasing and observation “from exactly the same place where she urinates” that Galenus refers to the phenomenon of squirting/gushing and not to the one of the female ejaculation25. In this context, the participle ἐκχυθέν was used for the fluid, and it reminds us of Palladas’ ἔκχυτον, since both derive from the passive aorist of ἐκχέω. This interpretation is in accordance with the general conception concerning the female enhanced sexual delights. Certainly, this conception is also reflected in the Hippocratic description (see above, and text in footnote 20): metaphorically, the smoke billows from Circe’s vagina, because there is a heat in the woman’s uterus such as in boiling water, ὕδωρ ζέον26. This heat, ἡ θέρμη, flares up, ἐξαΐσσει (cf. ἀποθρῴσκοντα) like a flame, φλόγα, flares up, ἐξαΐσσειν τὴν φλόγα, when wine is poured on it, οἶνον ἐπιχέει. The use of the verbs is also noticeable: wine is the male sperm which arrives (ἐπί + χέω) in the uterus, while flame is the hot female emissions coming from inside the uterus (ἐκ + χέω) to respond to the man’s ejaculation.
Therefore, apparently, in some ancient scientific treatises the two different phenomena of the female ejaculation and of squirting/gushing had been observed and there was an attempt to explain it. Palladas was not the only epigrammatist who made a creative and innovative use of it, by making a subtle use of the text of Homer. Female ejaculation or squirting/gushing were also hinted at by the ancient epigram poets. Friedrich Karl Forberg in his De figuris Veneris, Coburgo 1824, which was translated as Manual of Classical Erotology, Manchester 1884, 163-193, in chapter V concerning cunnilingus, mentioned the epigram lxxv in the Analecta of Brunch, vol. III (= AP 11.220 (an anonymous epigrammatist):
Ἀλφειοῦ στόμα φεῦγε· φιλεῖ κόλπους Ἀρεθούσης
πρηνὴς ἐμπίπτων ἁλμυρὸν ἐς πέλαγος,
“avoid Alpheus’ mouth, he loves Arethusa’s bosom, plunging head-first into the salty sea”27. Forberg noticed the ambiguity of the words mouth, bosom (bay), head-first, salt sea that they may refer to the Alpheius River in Arcadia and the Arethusa Spring in Sicily, but also to “the mouth of a cunnilingue, that goes and plunges into the vulva of a woman”, and in pp. 173-174, footnote 13 cited a similar joke which was quoted in Aloisia Sigea’ book, Dialogue. Furthermore in p. 198, footnote 29 of the chapter VI, where he presented the tribads (lesbians), again consulted Aloisia Sigea’s book, who described a female ejaculation: a woman says that “I sometimes water his too libertine hands with an abundant dew from my pleasure grounds” and “he filled my womb with his fecundating dew, and I also shed the rivulet of white liquid”. In this note he referred to another epigram from the Analecta of Brunck, Vol. I (= AP 5.55) of Dioskorides (not of Sosipater), where after the coitus of a couple the man says (ll. 7-8):
μέχρις ἀπεσπείσθη λευκὸν μένος ἀμφοτέροισιν,
καὶ Δωρὶς παρέτοις ἐξεχύθη μέλεσι.
“until the white liquor ran over with both of them, and Doris unwound her wearied limbs” (“donec effusum est album robur ambobus et Doris solutis jacuit membris” (translation by W.R. Paton, Loeb 1916)). The Dioscorides epigram may be related to Archilochus’ fr.196a, 34 (West), for λευκὸν μένος (“white power”, for the sperm) of the man. Apparently Dioscorides, unlike Archilochus, attributes the white sperm to both the man and the woman (ἀμφοτέροισιν) and we may translate l. 8 accordingly “she poured herself out with wearied limbs” to underline that fact.
However, there are some allusions in the ancient Greek epigrams that, although the verbal dexterity in such a genre makes it difficult to guarantee that some images of the vaginal area could hint at a pun for an intense female moisture, I would like to propose this interpretation, which might be correct, strengthened by the fact that concealed sexual jokes are common in the epigrams28. In the epigram AP 11.329 of Nicarchus, an old woman is shared between three men, and one of them gets “to dwell in her grey sea” (an implication for the vagina), the other one gets the hateful dank Hades (an implication for the woman’s rear), and the third the heaven (an implication for the woman’s mouth). A grey sea suggests, of course, the vaginal area, but it can also be indicative of the large amount of water present there. If this image of a possible female ejaculation is not persuasive, we could refer to another epigram, AP 5.60, of Rufinus, where a girl takes her bath, and the breasts are wet, and her buttocks are more supple than water (ὕδατος ὑγροτέρῳ). In the third couplet of the epigram, the text describes another part of her body:
τὸν δ᾽ ὑπεροιδαίνοντα κατέσκεπε πεπταμένη χεὶρ
οὐχ ὅλον Εὐρώταν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσον ἠδύνατο.
Her hand tried to cover her over-swollen (ὑπεροιδαίνοντα) Eurotas River, but not all, only as much she could. In an article by Regina Höschele and David Konstan (Höschele and Konstan 2005), the authors also having cited Nicarchus’ epigram as a comparable example, wonder what Rufinus had described in his epigram as a river. After their thorough and convincing discussion, they conclude that “what she hides, however, is a part that is dank in another, and for the poet, less appealing way – and this too lies hidden in the river’s name”. In antiquity Eurotas was considered a well-watered river, abounding in water, (e.g. Euripides, IT 399 εὔυδρον), and, also, it was described either as a fair-flowing river (e.g. Theognis, Eleg. 1. 1088 καλλιρόωι ποταμῶι, Euripides, Hecuba 650 εὔροον), or as having swirling tides (e.g. Euripides, Troades 210 δίναν γ᾽ Εὐρώτα). Of course, as already has been observed, behind the name Εὐρώτας one could see a pun originating from the adjective εὐρύς, “wide, broad” or the noun εὐρώς, “mould, dank decay” or the verb εὐρωτιάω, “become mouldy, decay”, but I find it intriguing to suggest that the “salty or grey sea” and “river” of a woman in all these epigrams were an abundant dew or the intense flows of the female secretions, or even a female ejaculation or squirting. The girl’s hand in Rufinus’ epigram was placed in front of the vaginal area to avoid it from being seen.
If this implication is right, all these texts above could help to place the Palladas’ epigram further in a context of literary texts which allude to male ejaculation and female ejaculation/squirting and support the interpretation I propose. We could infer that ἔκχυτον in Palladas’ epigram was not the Homeric Circe’s potion in a cup from where Odysseus drank, but the juices poured out from the Palladian Circe’s vagina29, when this latter Circe had sexual desires and excitement. On the one hand, one may assume that this sexual joke can apply to the original Odysseus and Circe, since there is nothing in the epigram that points to the present, and no actual contemporary figure can be adduced. On the other hand, however, it seems also plausible that the Homeric heroes were revived in Palladas’ epigrams as caricatures through which he presented contemporaneous figures of his city, Alexandria. Therefore, issues of the Homeric epics became part of the reality of Palladas, but, since the figures were hidden behind the Homeric expressions, they were not immediately recognizable. In particular, the epigrammatist might have projected some common characteristics of Homeric women onto contemporary women, at times humorously and at times scathingly. In such a case Palladas’ epigram seems to have been inspired by a special woman in fourth-century AD Egypt.
We may also assume that this Circe might have been a hetaera, if we take into account Palladas’ epigram 10.50 (see above), or a lonely woman, or a widow (cf. Galenus’ text about the case of a widow, and, also, the fact that Circe lived alone). In the ancient literary texts we find some parallel situations. A similar example of an allusion to the Homeric fable, with a reference to a contemporary “Circe” whose victims were Philonides and his friends/parasites, was provided by Aristophanes, Plutus 302-315, when Karion sings to the chorus that “Circe of Corinth, whose potent philtres compelled the companions of Philonides like swine to swallow (cf. l. 305 ἐσθίειν) balls of dung, which she herself had kneaded with her hands” (translation by O’Neill, Loeb 1938), followed by the corresponding chorus’ answer. This “Circe” might have been the hetaera Lais30. Moreover, Circe was presented as hetaera in Heraclitus, paradoxographer of the fourth century AD, De incred. 16 ἦν δὲ ἑταίρα, “she was a prostitute”, a lecherous one, as she κατακηλοῦσα τοὺς ξένους τὸ πρῶτον ἀρεσκείᾳ παντοδαπῇ... κατεῖχε ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ἀλογίστως φερομένους πρὸς τὰς ἡδονάς, “who bewitched her clients at first with every sort of willingness to please... she controlled them through their lust, as they were mindlessly carried along in their pleasures” (translation by J. Stern 2003); Herodian, Part. p. 65 (Boissonade) Κίρκη, ὄνομα γυναικὸς πόρνης, “Circe, the name of a female whore”. Themistius, in fourth century Constantinople, in his Oratio 27 (340b) pointed out that there is not one Circe, but many, all around us and they call men and try to seduce them: εἰ μὴ ἔχεις πολὺ τὸ ἀλεξιφάρμακον τοῦτο, ἀντὶ μιᾶς σοι Κίρκης πολλαὶ τὸν κυκεῶνα κεράσουσι, καὶ αὗται οὐ πόρρωθεν ἀπῳκισμέναι, ὥστε πολλῇ πλάνῃ παραγενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ ξυνοῦσαι συνεχῶς καὶ περιέπουσαι κύκλῳ καὶ καλοῦσαι πρὸς ἑαυτάς, “if you do not have a full supply of this remedy, not one but many Circes will mix up a potion for you, not Circes who live so far away that one has to go a great distance to reach them, but Circes who are continuously with you and surround you and summon you to themselves” (translation by R.J. Penella 2000). The heat generated in this Palladas’ Circe was so intense and she felt such a surge of erotic excitement that it was like smoke that billowed (cf. l. 2 καπνὸν ἀποθρῴσκοντα) from her body’s secretions31, and that this signal was easily understood even from far away (cf. l. 2 ἐνόησεν), and, thus, that the man who had already tasted her secretions, however clever and wise he was, would never want to return to his own “Penelope” or other “Penelopes”32.
To sum up, the quip about Palladas’ Circe and his pun on the ἔκχυτον are not immediately intelligible. This paper specifically argues that (1) Circe’s ἔκχυτον suggests her vaginal “juices”, which might be intense in the form of a female ejaculation or squirting/gushing, that (2) the “smoke curling up” suggests her sexual heat, and that (3) ἔφαγεν suggests cunnilingus. Furthermore, the aim of the poet was to refer neither to Circes’ magic nor to Penelope’s patience, nor to Odysseus’ adventures during his wanderings. It is proposed that the Homeric heroes who appear in Palladas’ epigram were caricatures of contemporaneous figures of his Alexandria. The Homeric quotations work as a springboard to describe a Circe of his city, probably a warm and seductive woman, probably a prostitute. The Homeric Odysseus is a man who would never return to his Penelope, if he had tasted the potion prepared by Palladas’ Alexandrian Circe. Although Palladas presented an erotic image of a woman in his epigram, this does not necessarily mean that his attitude towards women’s nature fluctuated between deprecation and approval. Whichever his(?) “Penelope” is, she is still an expression of his ideals, biases and experiences, and Palladas undoubtedly uses his epigram to refer to female sexual arousal which could fascinate men.