Page:The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922), vol. 2.djvu/155

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PROSTITUTION
 

Copæ—Bar maids.

Delicatæ—Kept mistresses.

Famosæ—Soiled doves from respectable families.

Doris—Harlots of great beauty. They wore no clothing.

Lupæ—She wolves. Some authorities affirm that this name was given them because of a peculiar wolf-like cry they uttered, and others assert that the generic was bestowed upon them because their rapacity rivalled that of the wolf. Servius, however, in his commentary on Virgil, has assigned a much more improper and filthy reason for the name; he alludes to the manner in which the wolf who mothered Romulus and Remus licked their bodies with her tongue, and this hint is sufficient to confirm him in his belief that the lupe were not less skilled in lingual gymnastics. See Lemaire’s Virgil, vol. vi, p. 521; commentary of Servius on Æneid, lib. viii, 631.

Ælicariæ—Bakers’ girls.

Noctiluæ—Night walkers.

Blitidæ—A very low class deriving their name from a cheap drink sold in the dens they frequented.

Forariæ—Country girls who frequented the roads.

Gallinæ—Thieving prostitutes, because after the manner of hens, prostitutes take anything and scatter everything.

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