[LCC] Roman sexual terms in the news

[Terrence Lockyer]

Listmembers may be interested in a spate of articles on British 
news websites dealing with sexual terms in ancient Roman 
literature, and specifically in the Roman poet Catullus (and I 
ask those who know Latin and the Catullan text linked below to 
bear with me if I preface the links with some basic explanation, 
as I am submitting this post to two lists with different 
demographics).

What distinguishes these pieces from the usual kind of reporting 
on such matters is that several of them have been written by well 
qualified classicists, and in a couple of cases the comments to 
these pieces have also shown a more than usual level of knowledge 
and sophistication.

The background is explained briefly by this BBC report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8375511.stm

In sum, it appears that a London financier being prosecuted on 
another matter had replied to a passage of biblical Latin on the 
theme of "love your enemy" with a text message containing the 
Latin "irrumabo vos et pedicabo vos" - literally, "I will thrust 
my penis into your mouths and bugger you", but also as far as we 
can tell used as general insults in the way "fuck you" or "bugger 
off" are in English.  The point at issue is what exactly might be 
meant by sending such a text, and that is what has been discussed 
in the better coverage.

The line itself is a slight misquote of a very famous short poem 
of Catullus, no. 16, which is widely regarded as programmatic for 
the obscene vocabulary of his short poems, and is on-line in 
Latin at

http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/l16.htm

and

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/catullus.shtml#16

and in Guy Lee's English translation at

http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e16.htm

Also worth mentioning for good notes and a very felicitous 
version of the final line, and despite the limitations on 
literalness imposed by its period, is Walter Kelly's 1854 prose 
version in Bohn's Libraries, available on-line from a 1910 
printing at

http://www.archive.org/stream/poemsofcatullust00catuuoft#page/n33/mode/1up

The best comments, both by the original poster and by those 
responding, come from Mary Beard (Professor of Classics at 
Cambridge) in her blog:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2009/11/pedicabo-ego-vos-et-irrumabo-what-was-catullus-on-about.html

and from the Guardian's classically educated senior arts writer 
Charlotte Higgins at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/nov/24/catullus-mark-lowe?showallcomments=true

Beard also links to a PDF scan of a theoretically sophisticated 
analysis of the poem on pp. 476-89 of

 - Daniel L. Selden, "Ceveat lector:  Catullus and the Rhetoric 
of Performance", pp. 461-512 in Ralph Hexter and Daniel Selden 
(edd.), Innovations of Antiquity (New York and London : Routledge 
1992) [NOTE:  It is "ceveat" - Selden is making a pun.]

There is also a decent but less focussed piece for the Daily Mail 
(yes, I know) by Tom Holland (whose name the site sadly 
misspells), author of some well regarded popular works on ancient 
history:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230656/Sexus-Maximus-The-poet-Romans-blush.html

and this in the Evening Standard explaining the Greek angle:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23774607-the-ancient-greeks-were-the-true-masters-of-obscenity.do

Rather less good is a piece for the Telegraph by Harry Mount (who 
makes some basic factual errors, as about Vergilian metre 
["iambic hexameters" being an invention of Mount's own fancy] and 
the source of the maxim "oderint dum metuant" ["Let them hate, so 
long as they fear", found in Cicero, Philippics 1.14 / 34, 
quoting the early tragedian L. Accius], and also puts forward the 
curious argument that something is not offensive if the target 
doesn't understand it!):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6649756/Mark-Lowe-is-right-The-Romans-said-it-better.html

In conclusion, some listmembers might also be interested in a 
less serious take on all this by British satirical news site The 
Daily Mash:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/city-boss-to-be-irrumaboed-in-prison-200911242251/


Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail:  lockyert [at] mweb.co.za