[25] Perhaps the word was σαπερδίς, which in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. VIII. 30., signifies a certain fish, for in Athenaeus, Deipnos. p. 591., σαπέρδιον (the diminutive) is the nick-name of a hetaera, and when Diogenes (Diogenes Laertius, VI. 2. 6.) made a scholar wear a σαπέρδης, the latter threw it away (ὑπ’ αἰδοῦς ῥίψας), (having cast it from him in disgust). Note at the same time that the word Sarapis also occurs in Plautus (Paenulus V. 5. 30 sqq.), where Anthemonides says:
Ligula, i in malam crucem
Tune hic amator audes esse, hallex viri?
Aut contrectare, quod mares homines amant?
Deglupta maena, Sarapis sementium,
Mastruga, ἃλς ἀγορᾶς ἅμα; tum autem plenior.
Allii ulpicique, quam Romani remiges.
(Thou mannikin, go to and be crucified! Dost dare to play the lover here, thou Tom Thumb of a man? or to meddle with what male men love? Skinned sprat, Sarapis of the corn-crops, sheepskin, common salt of the market; and yet reeking worse of garlic and leek than Roman bargees!). To restore this undoubtedly corrupt text is beyond our powers, but this much at any rate results from the passage as a whole that Sarapis or Sarrapis here too signifies a vicious man. Anthemonides certainly takes Hanno, to whom this speech is addressed, for a cinaedus, for he says later on: “nam te cinaedum esse arbitror magis quam virum” (but I reckon you to be a cinaedus rather than a man), and he had previously said: “Quis hic homo est cum tunicis longis, quasi puer cauponius?” (Who is this fellow with the long tunics, like a waiter at a cookshop?) and “Sane genus hoc muliebrosum est tunicis demissitiis.” (Surely this is a womanish sort, with his trailing tunics). Similarly Turnebus, Adversar. bk. X. ch. 24., mentions the fact that Hesychius explains σάραπις by περσικὸς χιτὼν (a Persian tunic). However he prefers to read, instead of Sarrapis, arra pisa ementium, (pledge of such as buy at the price of one pea) in reference to the vice of Bacchus, “obscoenum et mollem virum, qui pro arra dari possit vilis mercimonii.” (a foul and deboshed man, fit only to be given as pledge at the value of any cheap commodity).
[26] Comp. the passage of Lucian quoted on p. 229 above. Suetonius, Tiberius ch. 44., “Majore adhuc et turpiore infamia flagravit, vox ut referri audirive, nedum credi, fas sit. Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos pisciculos vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur ac luderent, lingua et morsu sensim appetentes, atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini seu papillae admoveret; pronior sane ad id genus libidinis et natura et aetate. Quare Parrhasii quoque tabulam, in qua Meleagro Atalanta ore morigeratur, legatam sibi sub conditione, ut si argumento offenderetur, decies pro ea sestertium acciperet, non modo praetulit, sed et in cubiculo dedicavit.” (He was guilty of a yet more flagrant and abominable villainy, so much so it hardly admits of being related or listened to, let alone believed, to this effect. He arranged that boys of tender years, whom he called his little fishes, should move about between his thighs, as he swam, and play there making darts at him with tongue and mouth and biting him softly; also infants of somewhat stronger growth, but still not yet weaned, he would put to his member as if to their mothers’teat, being indeed both by natural disposition and time of life more apt to this form of indulgence. So when a picture of Parrhasius, in which Atalanta is represented gratifying Meleager with her mouth, was willed to him with the stipulation that, if he objected to the subject, he should have a million serterces instead, not only did he choose the painting, but actually enshrined it in his bed-chamber). Theophrastus, Charact. ch. 11., ὁ δὲ βδελυρὸς τοιοῦτος, οἵος ὑπαντήσας γυναιξὶν ἐλευθέραις ἀνασυράμενος δεῖξαι τὸ αἰδοῖον. (But he was such a filthy wretch, that on meeting free women he would pull up his clothes and show his private parts.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Excerpt. de Legat. ch. 9. says of the Tarentine Philonis, ἀνασυράμενος τὴν ἀναβολὴν καὶ σχηματίσας ἑαυτὸν ὡς αἴσχιστον ὀφθῆναι, τὴν οὐ λέγεσθαι πρέπουσαν ἀκαθαρσίαν κατὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐσθῆτος τοῦ πρεσβευτοῦ κατεσκέδασε. (raising his mantle and throwing himself into the most disgusting posture to be exposed in, he bespattered the Ambassador’s sacred robe with the unspeakable filth).—Galen, Exhortat. ad artes ch. 6., ἀνασυράμενοι προσουροῦσι. (lifting up their clothes, they make water over it).—Lucian, Cataplus 13., καὶ σὺ δὲ ὦ Ἑρμῆ; σύρετ’αὐτὸν εἴσω τοῦ ποδός. (You too, Hermes? drag ye him within your leg). Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. p. 13, mentions an Ἀφροδίτη περιβασίη Aphrodité protectress,—or otherwise, Aphrodité that stretches the legs apart), known also to Hesychius, and explained by some Commentators as “stretching the legs apart”. In Suidas σαίρειν is explained by hiare (to gape open); and the Lexicographers give σάραβος as meaning γυναικεῖον αἰδοῖον (a woman’s privates) and the word is found in Dio Chrysostom, De regno IV. 75., as the name of a Tavern-keeper,—also if we are not mistaken, in Plato. σάρων too Hesychius explains by γυναικεῖον (woman’s parts). He also has ἀρρενώπες (masculine-looking), which some interpret by Androgyne (man-woman) or fellator. The reading ἀγράπους occurring, we might also read γυρόπους (crook-footed); Suidas under word γραῦς (old woman) cites: ἡ γρῆϋς, ἡ χερνῆτις, ἡ γυρὴ πόδας. (the old woman, the spinster, the crooked of feet).
[27] Catullus, Carm. 35. 64.,