Philaenis
Two satirical Greek epigrams from the Palatine Anthology by the poets Aeschrion of Samos and Dioscorides purport to defend Philaenis's reputation by insisting that she did not write the treatise attributed to her.
A fictional character named Philaenis appears in the Epigrams of the Roman poet Martial as a masculine woman known for having sex with women.
The Christian writers Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Clement of Alexandria deplore the writings attributed to Philaenis as depraved and immoral.
It was through these later allusions that Philaenis was best known for most of modernity and she is referenced in works by the English authors Thomas Heywood and John Donne, who both characterized her as a sexual deviant.
[10][3][4] According to Ian Michael Plant, the name Philaenis – a diminutive of "philaina", the feminine form of the Greek word "philos", meaning "love"[11] – seems to have been commonly used by prostitutes in ancient Greece.
[9] Two poems in the Palatine Anthology – one by Aeschrion of Samos, the other by the third-century BC poet Dioscorides – purport to deny that Philaenis wrote the work attributed to her.
[14] In the epigram, Philaenis herself is portrayed as directly addressing a μάταιος ναύτης ("aimless sailor"), but the addressee is not explicitly identified as a ξένος ("foreigner").
[16] Dioscorides's poem likewise vehemently denies that Philaenis really wrote the treatise attributed to her,[5] but, unlike Aeschrion's, it does not attempt to suggest another individual as the author.
Although the book was formerly believed to have been a monograph on sexual positions,[18] the discovered fragments suggest that the scope of the work was much broader;[18] according to Edgar Lobel, it appears to have been rather "a systematic exposition of ars amatoria".
[8][4] This may be a result of the fact that, by the fourth century, when the work was probably written, Koine was starting to become the prevalent dialect in formerly Ionic-speaking areas of Greece.
[8] Alternatively, since "Philaenis" is likely to be a pseudonym for the true author, it is more probable that only a few Ionic forms were needed in order to lend superficial verisimilitude to the work.
[9] In one of these poems, narrated in the first-person by Priapus himself, the god lists his misfortunates:[9] There comes in addition to these things the sign of shamelessness, this obelisque erected by my lecherous limb.
[9] In the second century AD, the Christian apologist Justin Martyr references the writings of Philaenis as works that provide people with shameful education.
[29] The fourth-century AD Pseudo-Lucianic dialogue Erōtes cites Philaenis as an example of "tribadic licentiousness"[15][29] and claims that she used a strap-on dildo for the sake of "androgynous loves".
[30] In his Gynaikeion, or Nine Books of Various History Concerning Women (1624), the English author Thomas Heywood describes Philaenis as a "strumpet of Leucadia"[25] and credits her with having invented kataklysis (douching).
[25] Heywood omits reference to the lewd sexual activities Philaenis was accused of having performed because the Gynaikeion was written for a female audience and he believed such obscenities were inappropriate for women to read about.
