Aristophanes in
Plutus [says]:[1] "I would not have anything to do[2] with her after she has been fucked by thirteen thousand years".[3] They apply [the verb]
ple/kein to the matter of having intercourse, not as with primary reference to its meaning, but by creating a word through the imitation of a sound;[4] similarly with many other figurative terms, and especially the ones which imply directness of speech.
*diesplekwme/nh|: *)aristofa/nhs *plou/tw|: ou)k a)\n dialexqei/hn diesplekwme/nh| u(po\ muri/wn e)tw=n te kai\ trisxili/wn. to\ ple/kein e)pi\ tou= sunousia/zein ta/ttousin, ou)x w(s prohgoume/nws tou= shmainome/nou, a)ll' o(moi/ws polloi=s sumbolikoi=s o)nomatopoiou=ntes, kai\ ma/lista e)n oi(=s to\ eu)qurhmonei=n e)ni/statai.
The headword is the perfect middle participle, in the feminine dative singular, of the verb
diaspleko/w; cf. also
spleko/w in
Aristophanes,
Lysistrata 152 (
pi 1722). It can also be written
pl- or
spekl-; cf.
Pollux 5.93. For the violent vulgarity of the term (reflected in translation here) see J. Henderson,
The Maculate Muse (New Haven 1975) 154 #214.
[1]
Aristophanes,
Plutus [
Wealth] 1082-1083 (web address 1), with comment from the
scholia there; copied to
pi 1723. A young man urged to resume a relationship (cf. line 1081) with an old woman is finding an excuse to discard her.
[2] The verb
diale/gesqai, literally meaning "converse with" can also have a sexual meaning; likewise other verbs such as
su/neimi,
suggi/gnomai etc. Cf.
Hyperides fr.171 Jensen and
Plutarch,
Solon 20.3.
[3] If this text is to be retained, 'years' comes unexpectedly (
para\ prosdoki/an). The audience may well have expected "thirteen thousand men" or the like, and some scholars would emend
e)tw=n to produce this:
au)tw=n or
te tw=nde; see e.g. O'Neill's translation at web address 1). Arguably mockery of the woman's age is more likely (but in that case [DW] adopt Kuster's
a)po/ for
u(po/). The poet is probably playing with a metaphorical sense of the word, as "ravaged" or "ruined". Similar use of a sexual-related word first by
Suetonius,
Caesar 51
aurum...effutuisti "you did squander away the riches".
[4] cf. the
scholion Ravennas on the verses, which reads
to\ sple/kwma instead of
to\ ple/kein and adds:
to\n h)=xon de\ le/gei to\n gino/menon e)n th=| sunousi/a|; "it means the sound made in the act". The Suda seems to imply a confusion with
ple/kw, probably due to the meaning of "twine".
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