All translators have rendered “contus” by “pole,” notwithstanding the
fact that the word is used in a very different sense in Priapeia, x, 3:
“traiectus conto sic extendere pedali,” and contrary to the tradition
which lay behind the gift of an apple or the acceptance of one. The
truth of this may be established by many passages in the ancient writers.
In the “Clouds” of Aristophanes, Just Discourse, in prescribing the rules
and proprieties which should in govern the education and conduct of the
healthy young man says:
“You shall rise up from your seat upon your elders’ approach; you shall
never be pert to your parents or do any other unseemly act under the
pretence of remodelling the image of Modesty. You will not rush off to
the dancing-girl’s house, lest while you gaze upon her charms, some whore
should pelt you with an apple and ruin your reputation.”
“This were gracious to me as in the story old to the maiden fleet of foot
was the apple golden fashioned which unloosed her girdle long-time girt.”
Catullus ii.
“I send thee these verses recast from Battiades, lest thou shouldst
credit thy words by chance have slipped from my mind, given o’er to the
wandering winds, as it was with that apple, sent as furtive love token by
the wooer, which out-leaped from the virgin’s chaste bosom: for, placed
by the hapless girl ‘neath her soft vestment, and forgotten--when she
starts at her mother’s approach, out ‘tis shaken: and down it rolls
headlong to the ground, whilst a tell-tale flush mantles the cheek of the
distressed girl.” Catullus 1xv.
“But I know what is going on, and I intend presently to tell my master;
for I do not want to show myself less grateful than the dogs which bark
in defence of those who feed and take care of them. An adulterer is
laying siege to the household--a young man from Elis, one of the Olympian
fascinators; he sends neatly folded notes every day to our master’s wife,
together with faded bouquets and half-eaten apples.” Alciphron, iii, 62.
The words are put into the mouth of a rapacious parasite who feels that
the security of his position in the house is about to be shaken.
“I didn’t mind your kissing Cymbalium half-a-dozen times, you only
disgraced yourself; but--to be always winking at Pyrallis, never to drink
without lifting the cup to her, and then to whisper to the boy, when you
handed it to him, not to fill it for anyone but her--that was too much!
And then--to bite a piece off an apple, and when you saw that Duphilus
was busy talking to Thraso, to lean forward and throw it right into her
lap, without caring whether I saw it or not; and she kissed it and put it
into her bosom under her girdle! It was scandalous! Why do you treat me
like this?” Lucian, Dial. Hetairae, 12. These words are spoken by
another apostle of direct speech; a jealous prostitute who is furiously
angry with her lover, and in no mood to mince matters in the slightest.
Aristxnetus, xxv, furnishes yet another excellent illustration.
The prostitute Philanis, in writing to a friend of the same ancient
profession, accuses her sister of alienating her lover’s affections.
I avail myself of Sheridan’s masterly version.
PHILANIS TO PETALA.
As yesterday I went to dine
With Pamphilus, a swain of mine,
I took my sister, little heeding
The net I for myself was spreading
Though many circumstances led
To prove she’d mischief in her head.
For first her dress in every part
Was studied with the nicest art
Deck’d out with necklaces and rings,
And twenty other foolish things;
And she had curl’d and bound her hair
With more than ordinary care
And then, to show her youth the more,
A light, transparent robe she wore--
From head to heel she seemed t’admire
In raptures all her fine attire:
And often turn’d aside to view
If others gazed with rapture too.
At dinner, grown more bold and free,
She parted Pamphilus and me;
For veering round unheard, unseen,
She slily drew her chair between.
Then with alluring, am’rous smiles
And nods and other wanton wiles,
The unsuspecting youth insnared,
And rivall’d me in his regard.--
Next she affectedly would sip
The liquor that had touched his lip.
He, whose whole thoughts to love incline,
And heated with th’ enliv’ning wine,
With interest repaid her glances,
And answer’d all her kind advances.
Thus sip they from the goblet’s brink
Each other’s kisses while they drink;
Which with the sparkling wine combin’d,
Quick passage to the heart did find.
Then Pamphilus an apple broke,
And at her bosom aim’d the stroke,
While she the fragment kiss’d and press’d,
And hid it wanton in her breast.
But I, be sure, was in amaze,
To see my sister’s artful ways:
“These are returns,” I said, “quite fit
To me, who nursed you when a chit.
For shame, lay by this envious art;
Is this to act a sister’s part?”
But vain were words, entreaties vain,
The crafty witch secured my swain.
By heavens, my sister does me wrong;
But oh! she shall not triumph long.
Well Venus knows I’m not in fault
‘Twas she who gave the first assault
And since our peace her treach’ry broke,
Let me return her stroke for stroke.
She’ll quickly feel, and to her cost,
Not all their fire my eyes have lost
And soon with grief shall she resign
Six of her swains for one of mine.”
The myth of Cydippe and Acontius is still another example, as is the
legend of Atalanta and Hippomenes or Meilanion, to which Suetonius
(Tiberius, chap. 44) has furnished such an unexpected climax. The
emperor Theodosius ordered the assassination of a gallant who had given
the queen an apple. As beliefs of this type are an integral part of the
character of the lower orders, I am certain that the passage in Petronius
is not devoid of sarcasm; and if such is the case, “contus” cannot be
rendered “pole.” The etymology of the word contumely is doubtful but I
am of the opinion that the derivation suggested here is not unsound. A
recondite rendering of “contus” would surely give a sharper point to the
joke and furnish the riddle with the sting of an epigram.