Note 173 — FIRST SECTION.

The usual derivation of the word lupanar (brothel) is from Lupa, the wife of Faustulus (Livy, I. 4.); thus Lactantius, Divin. Instit., bk. I. 20 sqq., says, fuit enim Faustuli uxor et, propter vulgati corporis vilitatem, Lupa inter pastores, id est meretrix, nuncupata est, unde etiam lupanar dicitur. (For she was the wife of Faustulus, and because of the easy rate at which her person was held at the disposal of all, was called among the shepherds Lupa, (she-wolf), that is harlot, whence also Lupanar—a brothel—is so called). Comp. Isidore, bk. XVIII. etymol. 42. Jerome, in Eusebius’ Chronicle. However it is a fruitless effort to try and connect lupar and lupanar with lupus, the wolf. If we are not mistaken, the root-word is the Greek λῦμα, filth, and so, shameless person; from this comes lupa, just as from λῦμαρ was formed lupar, the oldest form for lupanar, which has maintained itself in the adjective luparius, and in lupariae in Rufus and A. Victor as synonyms of lupanar. Indeed Lactantius speaks of the hetaerae Leaena and Cedrenus as γυναῖκας λυκαίνας.