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Headword: *diesplekwme/nh|
Adler number: delta,964
Translated headword: her who has been fucked
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
Aristophanes in Plutus [says]:[1] "I would not have anything to do[2] with her after she has been fucked by thirteen thousand years".[3] They apply [the verb] ple/kein to the matter of having intercourse, not as with primary reference to its meaning, but by creating a word through the imitation of a sound;[4] similarly with many other figurative terms, and especially the ones which imply directness of speech.
Greek Original:
*diesplekwme/nh|: *)aristofa/nhs *plou/tw|: ou)k a)\n dialexqei/hn diesplekwme/nh| u(po\ muri/wn e)tw=n te kai\ trisxili/wn. to\ ple/kein e)pi\ tou= sunousia/zein ta/ttousin, ou)x w(s prohgoume/nws tou= shmainome/nou, a)ll' o(moi/ws polloi=s sumbolikoi=s o)nomatopoiou=ntes, kai\ ma/lista e)n oi(=s to\ eu)qurhmonei=n e)ni/statai.
Notes:
The headword is the perfect middle participle, in the feminine dative singular, of the verb diaspleko/w; cf. also spleko/w in Aristophanes, Lysistrata 152 (pi 1722). It can also be written pl- or spekl-; cf. Pollux 5.93. For the violent vulgarity of the term (reflected in translation here) see J. Henderson, The Maculate Muse (New Haven 1975) 154 #214.
[1] Aristophanes, Plutus [Wealth] 1082-1083 (web address 1), with comment from the scholia there; copied to pi 1723. A young man urged to resume a relationship (cf. line 1081) with an old woman is finding an excuse to discard her.
[2] The verb diale/gesqai, literally meaning "converse with" can also have a sexual meaning; likewise other verbs such as su/neimi, suggi/gnomai etc. Cf. Hyperides fr.171 Jensen and Plutarch, Solon 20.3.
[3] If this text is to be retained, 'years' comes unexpectedly (para\ prosdoki/an). The audience may well have expected "thirteen thousand men" or the like, and some scholars would emend e)tw=n to produce this: au)tw=n or te tw=nde; see e.g. O'Neill's translation at web address 1). Arguably mockery of the woman's age is more likely (but in that case [DW] adopt Kuster's a)po/ for u(po/). The poet is probably playing with a metaphorical sense of the word, as "ravaged" or "ruined". Similar use of a sexual-related word first by Suetonius, Caesar 51 aurum...effutuisti "you did squander away the riches".
[4] cf. the scholion Ravennas on the verses, which reads to\ sple/kwma instead of to\ ple/kein and adds: to\n h)=xon de\ le/gei to\n gino/menon e)n th=| sunousi/a|; "it means the sound made in the act". The Suda seems to imply a confusion with ple/kw, probably due to the meaning of "twine".
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: comedy; daily life; definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; gender and sexuality; imagery; poetry; women
Translated by: Antonella Ippolito on 2 May 2005@17:39:26.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (modified headword and translation; augmented and modified notes; added a keyword) on 3 May 2005@07:03:12.
David Whitehead (x-ref) on 8 August 2010@06:39:24.
Catharine Roth (added keyword, upgraded link) on 8 August 2010@18:40:48.
David Whitehead (another x-ref) on 21 September 2011@13:06:31.
Catharine Roth (betacode cosmetics) on 21 September 2011@15:34:33.
David Whitehead on 9 July 2012@06:28:29.
David Whitehead (coding) on 8 November 2015@05:06:37.

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