OF SPINTRIAN POSTURES
IN the sundry kinds of voluptuous enjoyment which we have studied so
far, there are almost always only two persons in action. It happens,
nevertheless, that more than two, three or even more, may enjoy
themselves together; this is what we call after Tiberius, the spintrian
kind. Suetonius, _Tiberius_, ch. 43:
“In his retreat at Capri he had a _sellaria_, the scene of his
secret debaucheries, in which chosen groups of young girls and
worn-out voluptuaries, the inventors of monstrous conjunctions,
called by him _spintries_, formed a triple chain, surrendered
themselves to mutual defilements in his presence, so as to reanimate
by this spectacle his languishing desires.”
This _sellaria_, by the etymology of the word, was evidently a room
furnished with seats; those who prostituted each other on these seats
were called “_sellarii_,” from the place, and “_spintriae_,” from the
chain they formed. Spinter, according to Festus, p. 443, signified, “a
kind of bracelet worn by women on the upper part of the left arm.” The
word is probably a corruption of _sphincter_, the Greek **** from ****,
“I clasp,” as for instance, a band surrounding the arm. Tacitus,
_Annals_, VI., ch. 1:
“Then there were invented names never known before, as for instance,
_sellarii_ and _spintriae_, names taken from the turpitude of the
place or from the complicated infamies undergone.”
Spintries then are those who, linked like the rings of a bracelet, thus
accomplish the pleasures of Venus. Three can link themselves thus, two
and two, in such a way that while the middle one is a fornicator or a
pedicon, in front is a woman or a cinede, behind a pedicon. Such was the
chain formed by those Ausonius (_Epigram_ CXXIX.) describes[138]:
“Three in one bed; two submit to the infamous act, two perform
it.—Four there are, I suppose.—Wrong! to the outermost ones give a
villainy apiece; count the man in the middle twice, for he both acts
and submits.”
Do you want to see the one in the middle working a woman? Plate XL. of
the _Monuments de la Vie Privée des douze Césars_ shows you an example.
Do you wish to see the middle one pedicating? Look at plate XXVII.
There is, however, no need that the middle actor should fornicate or
pedicate. He may be placed between his two companions in such a way that
while he is enduring the assault of a pederast behind, he may in front
irrumate, suck a member or lick a vulva. Hostius whose mind was so
fertile in inventing obscenities that he was held up as an example to
future ages, has tried all these postures and even added fresh
variations. Seneca (_Nat. Quaest._, I., 16) has inveighed against him
more vehemently than is perhaps fit for a philosopher. It seems to me as
though some secret voluptuousness has been acting here on the sense of
this rigid guardian of virtue; he says:
“I will tell you here a story which will show you that lust will not
disdain any artifice which is calculated to rouse desires, and to
stimulate its own fury. The lasciviousness of Hostius was of the
extremest kind. It was this rich miser, this slave of a hundred
million sesterces, whose death, when he had been assassinated by his
slaves, Augustus would not avenge, although he would not say that
they were right to kill him. His lewdness was not contented with one
sex; he was as passionate for men as for women. He had mirrors made
which magnified the reflections so much that a finger appeared as
big as an arm. These mirrors were placed in such a manner that when
he had a man under him he could watch every movement of his
accomplice, and enjoy as it were the fictitious size of his member.
He chose his men carefully, the measuring tape in hand, and still
had to deceive his insatiable passion. It would be too outrageous to
report everything which this monster, that ought to have been torn
into pieces, dared to say and do with his mouth; when surrounded on
all sides by his mirrors he was the spectator of his own turpitudes,
and those secret infamies which every man would deny, if accused of
them, of such he took his fill not with his mouth only, but also
with eyes. And, by Hercules, generally speaking crimes shun their
own reflection; men who are bare of every feeling of honor and
exposed to every insult, still have some sense of shame, and do not
appear as they are. But he feasted his eyes on unheard of and
unknown infamies, and, not content to see simply how he dishonored
himself, he surrounded himself with mirrors, for the sake of
multiplying and grouping his lubricities. As he could not see
unaided everything distinctly when, pedicated by one man, he had his
head between the thighs of another, he saw by his mirrors what he
was doing and how. He saw the lewd work of his mouth, and watched
himself absorbing men by every orifice. Sometimes placed between a
man and a woman, playing both ways the passive part, he was able to
see the greatest abominations. Darkness was not for him! So far from
being afraid of the light of day, he wanted it for his monstrous
copulations, and was proud to have them illuminated by it. Nay,
more, he even wanted to be painted in these attitudes. Even
prostitutes have a certain reserve, and those that abandon
themselves to the outrages of all, veil to some extent their poor
complaisances, and the very brothel keeps some relics of decency;
but this monster turned his obscenities into a spectacle for
himself.
“Yes,” he said, “I submit myself to a man and a woman at the same
time; but nevertheless with the organs which are left free to me I
am still able to commit a worse ignominy. All my limbs are polluted;
then shall my eyes also take part in my enjoyments, they shall be
witnesses and judges. What I cannot see in a natural way let me see
by the help of art, so that I may not be ignorant of what I am
doing. No matter to me that Nature has provided man with such
insignificant organs of voluptuousness, the same nature which has
furnished animals so well; I find means to deceive my passion, and
to satisfy myself. Where is the harm, if I try to imitate nature? I
will have mirrors which shall reflect images of incredible
dimensions. If I could, I would make these images real; as I cannot,
I must be satisfied with phantoms. Let me see these objects of
obscenity larger than they are in reality, and surprise myself by
the sight of them!”
Plate XXI. of the _Monuments de la Vie Privée des douze Césars_ shows
the picture of Tiberius in a very strange spintrian posture, which,
however, is not without charm; the emperor, half reclining on his back,
licks one girl’s privates who is kneeling over him, while he offers his
penis to be sucked by another.
There are also arrangements where more than three can join, making thus
a longer chain. Let a man put his member into a woman while both of them
are being pedicated at the same time, and you have four people forming a
triple chain, like those of Tiberius in the passage of Suetonius quoted
above. Suppose then another pedicon on each end, and then you have a
group of five, forming a quadruple interweaving. Martial, XII., 43:
“There are to be found novel figures of Love, such as the
impassioned fornicator may try, such as experienced libertines
perform and keep the secret of; how five can copulate in a group,
how more still may be connected in a chain.”
Look at Plate XXXVI. of the _Monuments de la Vie privée des douze
Césars_, with a group of five copulators artistically diversified. Nero,
lying face downwards, enters one girl who is on her back, at the same
time licking the privates of another who is standing; he himself is
being pedicated, while the girl standing also submits her behind to a
pedicon. That such a chain may be extended infinitely, is self evident.
FOOTNOTES - OF SPINTRIAN POSTURES
-----
Footnote 138:
Translation by Ausonius of a Greek Epigram of Strata, to be found in
Brunck’s _Analecta_, II., 380.
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ENUMERATION
OF THE
EROTIC POSTURES
1. The man face downwards taking between his thighs the woman, who lies
on her back with her legs stretched out straight.
2. The man face downwards taken between her thighs by the woman, who
lies on her back with the legs apart.
3. The woman lying on her back taking only one leg of her cavalier
between her thighs.
4. The woman lying on her back with her feet crossed over the loins of
the man.
5. The woman lying on her back with one of her legs stretched out, and
the other over the man’s loins.
6. The woman lying on her back with the cavalier mounted on her with his
back towards her face.
7. The woman lying on her back, with the cavalier mounted athwart her.
8. The man lying with the woman half couched on her side with the legs
stretched out.
9. The man lying with the woman half couched on her side, one leg
stretched out, the other one over the man’s loins.
10. The woman half couched, the man mounted with his back to her.
11. The man on his knees, the woman on her back with her legs open.
12. The woman on her back with her legs resting on the man’s loins, who
is kneeling.
13. The woman on her back, one leg stretched out, the other one resting
on the loins of the man, who is kneeling.
14. The woman on her back with her legs on the shoulders of the man, who
is kneeling.
15. The woman on her back with one leg resting on the loins of the man,
who is on his knees, and the other one on his shoulder.
17. The man kneeling gets into the woman, who is in a sitting position
with her thighs open.
18. The woman sitting with one leg stretched out, and the other resting
on the loins of the man, who is kneeling.
19. The woman sitting, with her two legs resting on the loins of the
kneeling man.
20. The woman sitting with one leg stretched out, and the other on the
shoulder of her cavalier on his knees.
21. The woman sitting with her two legs on the shoulders of her cavalier
on his knees.
22. The woman sitting, one of her legs on the shoulder of the man on his
knees, the other one stretched out.
23. The man on his knees, the woman with her back to him.
24. The man on his back, the woman facing him.
25. The man on his back with the woman turning her back to him.
26. The man on his back, the woman athwart him.
27. The man on his back, with the woman lifted up.
28. The man sitting with the woman facing him.
29. The man sitting, the woman facing him, with her legs in the air.
30. The man sitting with the woman turning her back upon him.
31. Man and woman standing.
32. Man and woman standing, with one leg of man or the woman lifted up.
33. The man standing, with the woman on her back, her legs open.
34. The woman lying on her back, with her legs lifted on the loins of
the man, who is standing.
35. The woman lying on her back, one leg stretched out and the other
lifted on the loins of the man, who is standing.
36. The woman on her back, with her two legs on the shoulders of the
man, who is standing.
37. The woman on her back, one leg stretched out and the other one on
the shoulder of the man, who is standing.
38. The woman on her back, with one of her legs on the shoulder of the
man, who is standing, the other over his loins.
39. The man standing, the woman half lying on her side.
40. The man standing, getting into the woman who is sitting with her
legs open.
41. The man standing, getting into the woman sitting with her legs in
the air.
42. The man standing, the woman sitting with one leg stretched out and
the other one lifted up.
43. The man standing and the woman lifted up.
44. The woman lifted up, with her legs on the shoulders of the man, who
is standing.
45. The man standing, the woman on her knees, with her back towards him.
46. The man standing, the woman crouching down, with her back towards
him.
47. The man standing, the woman with her back towards him, the lower
part of the body elevated, and the upper part resting on the bed.
48. The man standing, the woman turning her back to him with the lower
part of the body artificially raised.
49. A man lying down and being pedicated.
50. A man pedicated standing.
51. A man on his knees being pedicated.
52. A man pedicated crouching down.
53. Irrumator lying down.
54. Irrumator sitting.
55. Irrumator standing.
56. Irrumator kneeling.
57. Irrumator crouching.
58. Cunnilingue lying down.
59. Cunnilingue sitting.
60. Cunnilingue standing.
61. Cunnilingue kneeling.
62. Cunnilingue crouching.
63. Fellatrix and cunnilingue.
64. Masturbator.
65. The helping hand.
66. A third hand helping.
67. The finger helping.
68. The assistance of a leathern _godemiche_.
69. Coitus with a male animal.
70. Coitus with a female animal.
71. Tribad at work on a woman.
72. Tribad pedicating.
73. Three spintries: a fornicator pedicated.
74. Three spintries: a pederast pedicated.
75. Three spintries: a fellator being pedicated.
76. Three spintries: a fellator entering a woman.
77. Three spintries: a fellator pedicating.
78. Three spintries: a fellator irrumating.
79. Three spintries: a fellatrix entered by a man.
80. Three spintries: a fellatrix pedicated.
81. Three spintries: a fellatrix offers her vulva for licking.
82. Three spintries: a cunnilingue fornicating.
83. Three spintries: a cunnilingue pedicating.
84. Three spintries: a cunnilingue irrumates.
85. Three spintries: a cunnilingue being pedicated.
86. Three spintries: a female cunnilingue is entered by a man.
87. Three spintries: a female cunnilingue is pedicated.
88. Four spintries forming a double chain.
89. Four spintries forming a triple chain.
90. Group of five copulators.
THE END
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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
○ There are numerous places where text is missing (marked with
“*”) and unresolved page references (see p. ?) which are not
corrected.
○ Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent
only when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores
(_italics_).