The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter/Contumelia
CHAPTER 56. Contumelia—Contus and Melon (malum).
All translators have rendered “contus” by “pole,” notwithstanding the fact that the word is used in a very different sense in Priapeia, x, 3: “traiectus conto sic extendere pedali,” and contrary to the tradition which lay behind the gift of an apple or the acceptance of one. The truth of this may be established by many passages in the ancient writers.
In the “Clouds” of Aristophanes, Just Discourse, in prescribing the rules and proprieties which should govern the education and conduct of the healthy young man says:
“You shall rise up from your seat upon your elders’ approach; you shall never be pert to your parents or do any other unseemly act under the pretence of remodelling the image of Modesty. You will not rush off to the dancing-girl’s house, lest while you gaze upon her charms, some whore should pelt you with an apple and ruin your reputation.”
“This were gracious to me as in the story old to the maiden fleet of foot was the apple golden-fashioned which unloosed her girdle long-time girt.” Catullus ii.
“I send thee these verses recast from Battiades, lest thou shouldst credit thy words by chance have slipped from my mind, given o’er to the wandering winds, as it was with that apple, sent as furtive love token by the wooer, which out-leaped from the virgin’s chaste bosom: for, placed by the hapless girl ’neath her soft vestment, and forgotten—when she starts at her mother’s approach, out ’tis shaken: and down it rolls headlong to the ground, whilst a tell-tale flush mantles the cheek of the distressed girl.” Catullus lxv.
“But I know what is going on, and I intend presently to tell my master; for I do not want to show myself less grateful than the dogs which bark in defence of those who feed and take care of them. An adulterer is laying siege to the household—a young man from Elis, one of the Olympian fascinators; he sends neatly folded notes every day to our master’s wife, together with faded bouquets and half-eaten apples.” Alciphron, iii, 62. The words are put into the mouth of a rapacious parasite who feels that the security of his position in the house is about to be shaken.
“I didn’t mind your kissing Cymbalium half-a-dozen times, you only disgraced yourself; but—to be always winking at Pyrallis, never to drink without lifting the cup to her, and then to whisper to the boy, when you handed it to him, not to fill it for anyone but her—that was too much! And then—to bite a piece off an apple, and when you saw that Duphilus was busy talking to Thraso, to lean forward and throw it right into her lap, without caring whether I saw it or not; and she kissed it and put it into her bosom under her girdle! It was scandalous! Why do you treat me like this?” Lucian, Dial. Hetairæ, 12. These words are spoken by another apostle of direct speech; a jealous prostitute who is furiously angry with her lover, and in no mood to mince matters in the slightest.
Aristænetus, xxv, furnishes yet another excellent illustration. The prostitute Philanis, in writing to a friend of the same ancient profession, accuses her sister of alienating her lover’s affections. I avail myself of Sheridan’s masterly version.
PHILANIS TO PETALA.
With Pamphilus, a swain of mine,
I took my sister, little heeding
The net I for myself was spreading:
Though many circumstances led
To prove she’d mischief in her head.
For first her dress in every part
Was studied with the nicest art:
Deck’d out with necklaces and rings,
And twenty other foolish things;
And she had curl’d and bound her hair
With more than ordinary care:
And then, to show her youth the more,
A light, transparent robe she wore—
From head to heel she seemed t’admire
In raptures all her fine attire:
And often turn’d aside to view
If others gazed with rapture too.—
At dinner, grown more bold and free,
She parted Pamphilus and me;
For veering round unheard, unseen,
She slily drew her chair between.
Then with alluring, am’rous smiles
And nods and other wanton wiles,
The unsuspecting youth insnared,
And rivall’d me in his regard.—
Next she affectedly would sip
The liquor that had touched his lip.
He, whose whole thoughts to love incline,
And heated with th’ enliv’ning wine,
With interest repaid her glances,
And answer’d all her kind advances.
Thus sip they from the goblet’s brink
Each other’s kisses while they drink;
Which with the sparkling wine combin’d,
Quick passage to the heart did find.
Then Pamphilus an apple broke,
And at her bosom aim’d the stroke;
While she the fragment kiss’d and press’d,
And hid 1t wanton in her breast.
But I, be sure, was in amaze,
To see my sister’s artful ways:
“These are returns,” I said, “quite fit
To me, who nursed you when a chit.
For shame, lay by this envious art;—
Is this to act a sister’s part?”
But vain were words, entreaties vain,
The crafty witch secured my swain.—
By heavens, my sister does me wrong;
But oh! she shall not triumph long.
Well Venus knows I’m not in fault—
’Twas she who gave the first assault:
And since our peace her treach’ry broke,
Let me return her stroke for stroke.
She’ll quickly feel, and to her cost,
Not all their fire my eyes have lost—
And soon with grief shall she resign
Six of her swains for one of mine.”
The myth of Cydippe and Acontius is still another example, as is the legend of Atalanta and Hippomenes or Meilanion, to which Suetonius (Tiberius, chap. 44) has furnished such an unexpected climax. The emperor Theodosius ordered the assassination of a gallant who had given the queen an apple. As beliefs of this type are an integral part of the character of the lower orders, I am certain that the passage in Petronius is not devoid of sarcasm; and if such is the case, “contus” cannot be rendered “pole.” The etymology of the word contumely is doubtful but I am of the opinion that the derivation suggested here is not unsound. A recondite rendering of “contus” would surely give a sharper point to the joke and furnish the riddle with the sting of an epigram.