Note 8 — THE Metamorphoses of Venus

Suidas: “Paxamus wrote the Dodecatechnon; the subject is the obscene postures.” But I think he has no good reason to connect with this the epithet Dodecamechanos given to a certain Cyrené. The said wanton damsel seems to have practised rather than described the twelve postures of Venus. Suidas under Dodecamechanon: “There was a famous hetaera, Cyrené by name, further known as Dodecamechanos, because she practised twelve different postures in making love.”

Aristophanes says in the Frogs, 1361-63: “Do you dare to criticize my songs, you that modulate your cadences on the twelve-fold postures of Cyrené?” Her name occurs also in the Thesmophoriazusae (104), but merely her name. (Our invariable rule is to quote from Burmann’s edition of Aristophanes.) I am doubtful as to whether Musaeus should be counted among writers on the Erotic postures. Martial, XII., 97 recommends Instantius Rufus to read his (Musaeus’) books, as being of the most advanced lasciviousness, vying with those of the Sybarites in obscenity and full of the most suggestive and spicy wit; warning him at the same time to have his girl ready to hand, if he did not want his hands to perform the wedding-march and consummate the marriage without a woman at all.