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The Plague of Lust, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Note 210 — FIRST SECTION.

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Prudentius, Symmach., I. 107.,

Scortator nimius, multaque libidine suetus Ruricolas vexare lupas, interque salicta, Et densas sepes obscoena cubilia inire,

(An inordinate fornicator, wont to vex the rustic harlots with multiplied lusts, and amidst the willow-plantations and thickset hedges to creep into foul lairs); where Barth, Advers., X. 2., for ruricolas (haunting the country, rustic) would read lustricolas (haunting wild dens),—those who prostituted themselves in wild-beasts’ dens, desert places. Hence also a brothel is called lustrum (den) and cellae lustrales (den-like chambers), and harlots’ hire aurum lustrale (den-money).—Credenus, De Romulo et Remo: ὁ τοίνυν πάππος Ἀμούλιος διὰ τὴν πορνείαν παροξυνθεὶς εἰς τὰς ὕλας αὐτοὺς ἐξέθετο, οὓς εὑροῦσα γυνὴ πρόβατα νέμουσα ἐν τῷ ὄρει ἀνεθρέψατο. Εἴθιστο δὲ τοῖς ἐγχωρίοις λυκαίνας τὰς τοιαύτας καλεῖν γυναῖκας διὰ τὸ ἐπίπαν ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι μετὰ λύκων διατρίβειν, διὸ καὶ τούτους ὑπὸ λυκαίνης ἀνατραφῆναι μυθολογεῖται. (So their grandfather Amulius exasperated by his wife’s adultery took the children into the woods and exposed them there; but his wife, as she was pasturing sheep, found them, and reared them on the mountain. Now it was the custom of the inhabitants of those parts to call women of this kind “she-wolves” (λυκαίνας) on account of their living entirely on the mountains with the wolves, whence also the tale is told that these babes were fostered by a she-wolf).

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