Note 29 — Second Part.
Reading edition
Virgil, Aen. VI. 494., says of Deiphobus, Helen’s paramour:
Atque hic Priamiden laniatum corpora toto Deiphobum vidit, lacerum crudeliter ora, Ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere naris.
(And now Deiphobus he sees, the glorious Priam’s son;
But all his body mangled sore, his face all evilly hacked, His face and hands; yea, and his head laid waste, the ear lobes lacked, And nostrils cropped unto the root by wicked wound and grim. William Morris’s translation).
Martial, bk. III. Epigr. 85.,
Quis tibi persuasit nares abscindere moecho? Non hac peccatum est parte, marite, tibi Stulte, quid egisti? nihil hic tua perdidit uxor, Cum sit salva sui mentula Deiphobi.
(Who persuaded you to crop the adulterer’s nostrils? ’Twas not with this part the offence was done you, sir husband! Foolish man, what have you done? in this your wife has lost naught, so long as her Deiphobus’member is safe and sound). Martial, bk. II. Epigr. 83.,
Foedasti miserum, marite, moechum: Et se, qui fuerant prius, requirunt Trunci naribus auribusque vultus. Credis te satis esse vindicatum? Erras! Iste potest et irrumare!
(You have mutilated, husband, the unhappy adulterer: and his face cropped of nose and ears asks itself what it was like before. Think you your revenge is complete? Nay! you are mistaken; the fellow can still irrumate!)—a passage that might very well be made to prove our point.