Sotades (; 3rd century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. Sotades was born in

Maroneia Maroneia () is a village and a former municipality in Rhodope regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Maroneia-Sapes, of which it is a municipal unit. The munic ...

, either the one in

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

, or in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). The city was at that time a remarkable center of learning, with a great deal of artistic and literary activity, including epic poetry and the Great Library. Only a few genuine fragments of his work have been preserved; those in

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; ; 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia (Roman province), Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containing two books each. The tw ...

are generally considered spurious.

Ennius Quintus Ennius (; ) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce (ancient ''Calabria'', today Salento), a town ...

translated some poems of this kind, included in his book of satires under the name of Sota. He had a son named

Apollonius Apollonius () is a masculine given name which may refer to: People Ancient world Artists * Apollonius of Athens (sculptor) (fl. 1st century BC) * Apollonius of Tralles (fl. 2nd century BC), sculptor * Apollonius (satyr sculptor) * Apo ...

. He has been credited with the invention of the palindrome. Sotades was the chief representative of the writers of

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

and even

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

poems, called "kinaidoi" (), composed in the

Ionic dialect Ionic or Ionian Greek () was a subdialect of the Eastern or Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek. The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central ...

and in the

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

named after him. One of his poems attacked Ptolemy II Philadelphus's marriage to his own sister

Arsinoe II Arsinoë II (, 316 BC – between 270 and 268 BC) was Queen consort of Thrace, Anatolia, and Macedonia by her first and second marriage, to king Lysimachus and king Ptolemy Keraunos respectively, and then Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egy ...

, from which came the infamous line: "You're sticking your prick in an unholy hole." For this, Sotades was imprisoned, but he escaped to the city of Caunus, where he was afterwards captured by the admiral Patroclus, shut up in a leaden chest, and thrown into the sea. British Orientalist and explorer Sir

Richard Francis Burton Captain (British Army and Royal Marines), Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG, Royal Geographical Society#Fellowship, FRGS, (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, army officer, orien ...

(1821–1890) hypothesised the existence of a " Sotadic zone". He asserted that there exists a geographic zone in which

pederasty Pederasty or paederasty () is a sexual relationship between an adult man and an adolescent boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan. In most countries today, ...

is prevalent and celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants, and named it after Sotades.

References

External links

* from the Wiki Classical Dictionary * from Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1867) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sotades Ancient Thracian Greeks Erotic poetry Greek erotica writers Greek male writers Obscenity Palindromists Pederasty in ancient Greece Pornography 3rd-century BC Greek poets People from the Ptolemaic Kingdom People from Maroneia

See also

References

External links