Laudator Temporis Acti

A few days ago I borrowed from the local library a German English Visual Dictionary (London: DK, 2005). In the Inhalt/Contents there is a misprint: For Menshen read Menschen. Here is p. 12 of the book: Somehow the illustrator has managed to eliminate every vestige of eroticism from the naked man and woman. I knew some of the German words on this page, but not Brustwarze, which is now my favorite compound German noun. Brustwarze, i.e. breast wart — an evocative and colorful designation for nipple.

When I was a youngster, the older boys in the neighborhood gave me an English vocabulary lesson, which included coarse words for certain body parts usually hidden from sight. Delighted with this acquisition of knowledge, I marched up and down the street chanting these words in a loud voice, until my mother heard me and washed my mouth out with soap. I can still remember the taste. Ivory brand soap, it was.

The punishment didn't achieve the desired effect, however. Now that I'm an old man, approaching death, my interest in such words and the things they denote is undiminished. Thank God I haven't yet succumbed to the dismal fate of Sophocles (Plato, Republic 329 b-d; Cephalus speaking; tr. James Adams):

I remember hearing Sophocles the poet greeted by a fellow who asked, 'How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?' And he replied, 'Hush, man, most gladly have I escaped this thing you talk of, as if I had run away from a raging and savage beast of a master.' I thought it a good answer then and now I think so still more. For in very truth there comes to old age a great tranquillity in such matters and a blessed release. When the fierce tensions of the passions and desires relax, then is the word of Sophocles approved, and we are rid of many and mad masters.

Σοφοκλεῖ ποτε τῷ ποιητῇ παρεγενόμην ἐρωτωμένῳ ὑπό τινος· ‘πῶς,’ ἔφη, ‘ὦ Σοφόκλεις, ἔχεις πρὸς τἀφροδίσια; ἔτι οἷός τε εἶ γυναικὶ συγγίγνεσθαι’; καὶ ὅς, ‘εὐφήμει,’ ἔφη, ‘ὦ ἄνθρωπε· ἁσμενέστατα μέντοι αὐτὸ ἀπέφυγον, ὥσπερ λυττῶντά τινα καὶ ἄγριον δεσπότην ἀποδράς.’ εὖ οὖν μοι καὶ τότε ἔδοξεν ἐκεῖνος εἰπεῖν, καὶ νῦν οὐχ ἧττον. παντάπασι γὰρ τῶν γε τοιούτων ἐν τῷ γήρᾳ πολλὴ εἰρήνη γίγνεται καὶ ἐλευθερία· ἐπειδὰν αἱ ἐπιθυμίαι παύσωνται κατατείνουσαι καὶ χαλάσωσιν, παντάπασιν τὸ τοῦ Σοφοκλέους γίγνεται, δεσποτῶν πάνυ πολλῶν ἐστι καὶ μαινομένων ἀπηλλάχθαι.

Two of my favorite books for dipping into are Jeffrey Henderson, The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), and J.N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982; rpt. 1993), but oddly enough I can't find anything about nipples (apart from breasts) in these books. Does Greek even have a separate word for nipple apart from breast? Franco Montanari, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden: Brill, 1995), p. 941, s.v. θήλη, gives the definition "nipple, breast, bosom." Id., p. 2124, s.v. τιτθός: It seems from the latter entry in Montanari that if you want to specify the nipple in ancient Greek, you must say ἡ θηλὴ τοῦ τιτθοῦ. Douglas E. Gerber, "The Female Breast in Greek Erotic Literature," Arethusa 11.1/2 (Spring and Fall, 1978) 203-212, while very interesting, doesn't answer my question. Latin does have a separate word, papilla.

The following is not a photograph of me, because I don't have a beard: