A gender-nonconforming veteran of the sex trade

Myrinus was a poet of the Garland of Philip, so, of the later first century BC or earlier first century AD; four of his epigrams make it into the Anthology.

Here is the Greek:

τὴν μαλακὴν Παφίης Στατύλλιον ἀνδρόγυνον δρῦν 
ἕλκειν εἰς Ἀίδην ἡνίκ᾽ ἔμελλε χρόνος, 
τἀκ κόκκου βαφθέντα καὶ ὑσγίνοιο θέριστρα, 
καὶ τοὺς ναρδολιπεῖς ἀλλοτρίους πλοκάμους, [p. 436] 
φαικάδα τ᾽ εὐτάρσοισιν ἐπ᾽ ἀστραγάλοισι γελῶσαν, 
καὶ τὴν γρυτοδόκην κοιτίδα, παμβακίδων, 
αὐλούς θ᾽ ἡδὺ πνέοντας ἑταιρείοις ἐνὶ κώμοις, 
δῶρα Πριηπείων θῆκεν ἐπὶ προθύρων.

Δρῦς in the first line means tree, commonly an oak. It is the dry- in Dryad, wood-nymph, and is cognate with δόρυ, the word for a spear, called that because it is made of wood. We might think calling someone an 'oak' implies physical strength and solidity, but this is not the only place where it is used figuratively for a man who is old and worn-out.

I dithered over μαλακὴν Παφίης. The Greek μαλακός means soft, gentle, feeble; in an erotic context it implies taking a passive role, within the default ancient paradigm that made sex an asymmetric relation of  pleasure-taking penetration by the socially more powerful partner(s). I toyed with having the second line end 'bottoming in bed' before deciding it wouldn't sit well with a notional inscriptional context, or with the delicate euphemism of 'the Paphian' (a title of Aphrodite).

This is part of a wider, open question about what sort of tone we decide to read into, and pass on from, Myrinus' original. Typically it's read as contemptuous satire, but I prefer to see the poet expressing fascination and guarded respect for Statyllius' abilities and determinedly nonconformist life. Line by line, that preference helped shape my choices as a translator, little decisions (not 'greasy', but slick and conditioned) that add up. 

6.254 (on YouTube)

MYRINUS

Statyllius the androgyne was old,

Worn to a stump by sensuality:

Passage of time was soon to haul him off

To Hades. Summer dresses, scarlet-dyed;

The wigs of human hair, kept slick with nard;

The haughty slippers from his well-turned feet;

His garderobe of cottons; and his pipes,

That breathed so sweetly for companions

In late-night antics — these he set aside,

Upon the threshold of Priapus’ shrine.

I've read that Tony Harrison made a version of this poem, and I'm trying to track it down; if it was at all like his covers of Martial in U.S. Martial (1981) he will not have gone for nuance. Harrison also did a Palladas: Poems (1975) that I've yet to see.