Elephantis () (fl. late 1st century BC) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
poet and physician renowned in the classical world as the author of a notorious
sex manual
Sex manuals are books which explain how to perform sexual practices; they also commonly feature advice on birth control, and sometimes on safe sex and sexual relationships.
Early sex manuals
In the Graeco-Roman era, a sex manual was written ...
.
Due to the popularity of courtesans taking animal names in classical times, it is likely Elephantis is two or more persons of the same name.
[ None of her works have survived, though they are referenced in other ancient texts.
]
Works
According to Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...
in ''The Twelve Caesars
''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'' or ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 Roman Emperor, emperors of the Roma ...
'', the Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
Emperor Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...
took a complete set of her works with him when he retreated to his resort on Capri
Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...
.
One of the poems in the ''Priapeia
The ''Priapeia'' (or ''Carmina Priapea'') is a collection of eighty (in some editions ninety-five) anonymous short Latin poems in various meters on subjects pertaining to the phallus, phallic god Priapus. They are believed to date from the 1st c ...
'' refers to her books:
:
("Lalage dedicates a votive offering to the God of the erect penis, bringing shameless pictures from the books of Elephantis, and begs him to try and imitate with her the variety of intercourse of the figures in the illustrations.")[Trans. L.C. Smithers and R.F. Burton, ''Priapea sive diversorum poetarum in Priapum lusus, or, Sportive Epigrams on Priapus'' (1890).]
And an epigram by the Roman poet Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...
, which Smithers and Burton included in their collection of poems concerning Priapus
In Greek mythology, Priapus (; ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He becam ...
, reads:
:
("Such verses as neither the daughters of Didymus know, nor the debauched books of Elephantis, in which are set out new forms of lovemaking.")sexual positions
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes.
Sex, SEX or sexual may also refer to:
*Sexual intercourse, a sexual activity
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Sex'' (1920 f ...
.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
references her performance as a midwife, and Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...
notes her ability to cure baldness.[
She also wrote a manual about cosmetics and another about abortives.][Galen 12.416 and Pliny 28.81 cited in ]
Notes
References
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{{Authority control
Greek erotica writers
1st-century BC women writers
Ancient Greek women poets
Women erotica writers
1st-century BC Greek poets
1st-century BC Greek physicians
1st-century BC Greek women
Ancient Greek women physicians
Greek midwives