Philaenis was said to have written a sex manual containing descriptions of various sexual positions.[1][2][3][4] This red-figure kylix painting from c. 480–470 BC depicts a man having sexual intercourse with a hetaira, a kind of ancient Greek prostitute.
Philaenis of Samos[a] was supposedly the author of a famous ancient sex manual. According to a surviving fragment of a treatise which claims to have been written by her, she was from Samos, and her father was called Ocymenes. However, many modern scholars consider "Philaenis" a fictional character whose persona may have been adopted by a variety of erotic writers. 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. Aeschrion instead insists that the treatise was written by the Athenian sophist Polycrates. The reputed writings of Philaenis were well known throughout classical antiquity and scholars believe that they may have influenced Ovid's Ars Amatoria.
In later times, Philaenis was remembered for her reputation of licentiousness. 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. The fourth-century AD Pseudo-Lucianic dialogue Erōtes references Philaenis using a strap-on dildo to have sex with women. 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. In 1972, three brief fragments of a treatise claiming to have been written by Philaenis were published, which had been previously discovered at Oxyrhynchus as part of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
^Boehringer 2014, p. 374.
^Vessey 1976, pp. 76–82.
^Montserrat 2011, p. 113.
^Plant 2004, p. 45.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Amatoria. In later times, Philaenis was remembered for her reputation of licentiousness. A fictional character named Philaenis appears in the Epigrams of...
about it by Philaenis and Archestratus and the other writers of such stuff; and in book VII he says: one is therefore not to study Philaenis, or the Gastronomy...
erotic author (in a tradition that included two other women writers, Philaenis and Elephantis): she wrote a book about sexual positions. Photius, Bibliotheca...
Cyrene, who shared a border with the Carthaginian empire at the Altars of Philaeni. Ptolemy was also the first Egyptian ruler to enter into formal relations...
Lazzat Un Nisa List of Indian inventions and discoveries Mlecchita vikalpa Philaenis The Perfumed Garden Song of Songs Sengupta cites only on the 300/400 BCE...
a lesbian. ipsārum tribadum tribas, Philaeni rēctē, quam futuis, vocās amīcam ("Lesbian of all lesbians, Philaenis, you are right to call the woman you...
critical attention. In the early 17th century, John Donne wrote "Sapho to Philaenis", returning to the idea of Sappho as a hypersexual lover of women. The...
Epigraphik. 12: 183–195. JSTOR 20180553. Vessey, D. W. Thomson (1976). "Philaenis". Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire. 1: 76–82. Smith, Philip (1869)...
of philosophy Melissus of Samos, philosopher Nicaenetus of Samos, poet Philaenis (4th-3rd century BC), courtesan and writer Polycrates (6th century BC)...
of a sex manual written in the fourth century BC that is attributed to Philaenis of Samos have survived. Modern scholars generally regard it as a work...
published between AD 86 and 103, satirized a female athlete he named Philaenis, who played ball in a bikini-like garb quite bluntly, making her drink...
champions were brothers, called Philaeni, and the border was marked by two pillars called the "Altars of the Philaeni". The African territorial boundary...
preserved some choliambic verses of his, in which he defends the Samian Philaenis, claiming that the popular sex manual attributed to her was really written...
tophet rituals. Josephine Crawley Quinn has proposed that myth of the Philaeni brothers in Libya had its roots in Punic myth and Carolina López-Ruiz has...
homosexuality. He cites historical examples of lesbianism, such as Sappho, Philaenis, and the Book of Romans. 1683: The Kingdom of Denmark criminalizes "relations...
a lavish night ceremony in the presence of Mussolini, the Arch of the Philaeni near Ra's Lanuf was inaugurated, marking the border between Tripolitania...
composers and the generation of Szymanowski. Statkowski's two operas were Philaenis (or Filenis) (1897, first performed in 1904) and Maria (1903-4, first...
Robert Starer (1924–2001): Apollonia Roman Statkowski (1859–1925): Maria, Philaenis Agostino Steffani (1653–1728): Henrico Leone Walter Steffens (born 1934):...
near Ra's Lanuf, and the modern Italian commemorative arch featuring the Philaeni stood here before its destruction in 1973. On 3 April 1941 there was a...
half of the first century, along with Lucius Saenius Faustus. Umbricia Philaenis, inurned in a cinerarium from Clusium in Etruria, dating from the first...
work was apparently similar to the pornographic sex-manual attributed to Philaenis. The work was probably written in prose, as Botrys' earlier paignia had...
II. 1, University Library, Bologna c.1538? Apologia Lysiae Pauli Riccii Philaeni Siculi nomine haereseos detenti Hercule II Duce III foeliciter imperante...
Global Information