Women, in fact, are rarely cunnilingues, although there are examples. Martial only mentions one woman as belonging to that category; we shall come across her again in the next chapter.
FOOTNOTES - CUNNILINGUES
[102]. But Clodia was something more than a sister for Publius Clodius; this would appear from the spirited pleasantry of Cicero, Pro Coelio, ch. 13:
“If there had not arisen differences between me and that lady’s husband, ... brother, I would say; I always make that mistake.”
[103]. Gonzalvo of Cordova, according to Aloysia Sigaea (Dialogue VIII.), made similar jokes: “He also, I am sure, in spite of his age, was a great tongue-player (linguist). A pretty girl of some twenty years had to amuse him. When he wanted to put his tongue to her juste milieu, he declared he wanted to go to Liguria.” He could play with words upon the same matter, always implying the idea of a humid vulva, saying that he was going to Phœnicia, or to the Red Sea, or to the Salt Lake; you now understand what is meant by the Salt Lake or Salt Sea, into which Alpheus threw himself according to the epigram in the Anthology. Nearly related to this are the salgamas of Ausonius, of which we shall speak shortly, and the “onions swimming in putrid brine,” which the Bæticus of Martial, III., 77 devours. As it was said of the fellators that they “Phœnicized”, because they followed the example set by the Phœnicians, so probably the same word was applied to the cunnilingues as loving to swim in a certain sea of Phœnician red; and, in fact, this was the case. Hesychius: “Scylax, an Erotic posture, like that assumed by Phœnicizers.” The Phœnicians assumed a certain posture, called Scylax, or the dog. There could be nothing better for describing the depraved action of a cunnilingue than this canine epithet with regard to the posture taken for irrumating or fellation; dogs are cunnilingues as anybody knows, and have been so ever since their abominable adventure which their ambassadors met with (allusion to Phaedrus’ fable).
[104]. Ovid, Metamorphoses, III., 308-12:
“... Mortal woman could not survive the celestial fire; she was consumed by her spouse’s favours. The infant but half formed is torn from the mother’s womb, and, if we may believe the tale, is sown still immature in the father’s thigh, and there completes the period of gestation.”
[105]. This Castor is perhaps the same who, according to the statement of Ausonius (Epigram in Professoribus Burdegalensibus, XXII., 7) had published a book with the title Cunctis de Regibus ambiguis.
[106]. Pliny, Nat. Hist., XII., ch. 12: “The Costus-root has a burning taste and an exquisite smell; its berries are otherwise useless.”