Monday 9 December 2019

Another oldie: Martial 1.90 (NSFW)

A translation I first posted in 2015.

I never used to see you in company with men, Bassa; the gossip never gave you a lover. Instead you were always surrounded by women, a mob of them. They did everything for you; no man got close. And so, I admit, I took you for a Lucretia: but — shock, horror — Bassa, youre a fucker. You dare set cunt to cunt, and your mega-clit fakes manliness. You've invented a crime against nature worthy of a Theban riddle: Theres no man here — and yet, adultery.’
(Lucretia is famous from the exemplary early Roman history of Livy as preferring death to sexual dishonour; Thebes was terrorised by the Sphinx till Oedipus answered its riddle.)

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