[61]. Eustathius, p. 741, is very ambiguous: “Lesbianize,—to commit a shameful action.”
[62]. I do not quite know whether the following passage from the Thesmophoriazusae (915-917) refers to this or no:
“Now, unhappy girl, you long for pleasure after the Ionian mode. Besides I think you are a Labda, as is the way of the Lesbians.”
A fellatrix seems to have borne the name of Labda, by reason of the first letter of the word Lesbianize: but the passage stands quite isolated, for in that of Varro, preserved by Nonius, and referring to the annotation of Scaliger on the Priapeia LXXVIII., where we find:
“Depsistis, decite. Labdae.”
The reading is doubtful, and the sense not clear. The verse of Ausonius, Epigr. 128:
“When he puts his tongue in, then he is a Labda,” has nothing to do with this question, as we shall show later on.
[63]. I do not know whether the nickname of Rododaphné (rose-laurel), given to Timarchus in Syria (ibid., ch. 27), does not mean cunnilingue, as by rose is understood the female parts, while the laurel leafs means the licking tongue. This surname had no doubt for Lucian an obscene sense which he would not disclose: “In Syria they call you Rododaphné, why? I should blush to say it.”
[64]. Here is the preceding sentence, “which will better elucidate Galen’s meaning: To drink sweat, urine or menses is an abominable and detestable practice; human excrements still more so, in spite of what Xenocrates has written about their beneficial action when applied in lieu of ointment about the mouth or throat, or when swallowed. He has also spoken of the absorption through the mouth of ear-wax. I myself could not make up my mind to eat of them, though it were to cure my sickness right off. Of all abominable things the most abominable, I think, are human excrements.”
[65]. Tacitus, Annals, XI., 26.