[Marion Shore]

Greetings classical scholars:

Perhaps someone can help me with this. I've written a faux translation of a fictional text, purportedly from the Ancient Greek. What I'm looking for is a Greek word you might translate as "Cialis"-- some kind of aphrodisiac, maybe,or whatever the equivalent of a male-enhancing drug might have been. I want to put the original word in a footnote. Obviously, this is a light piece, so suggestions don't have to be too scholarly!

Marion

[Stephen Collington]

Hi Marion,

Surely there must be something in Aristophanes that's on point. He's one-stop shopping for crazy Greek nonce terms.

Anyway, off the top of my head . . .

Anastasis™ ?

Steve C.

p.s. Yes, that would offend some.

p.p.s. Editing back: of course Aphrodisiac is itself a Greek word. Depending on your metrical requirements, you might do something with Aphrodisiacialis. (Or just Aphrodicialis, for short.)

VERY curious what you're going to do with this!



[This message has been edited by Stephen Collington (edited February 14, 2008).]

[Roy Hamilton]

Marion,

Why not go for the obvious and try a play on, "priapism." The possibilities are endless, well at least for four hours or more. lol

Roy

[A. E. Stallings]

There's hippomanes, a love philtre/aphrodisiac, which shows up in the Georgics but also I think the Argonautica (Medea gives it to Jason).

[Stephen Collington]

Hi Marion,

Another thought:

Viagora ?

Or is that too subtle?

Steve C.

[Chris Childers]

You might get some play out of the iunx:

The gender division isn't absolute. The iunx is said to have been a small, sexually rapacious bird which Greek men would tie on a wheel and then torture, in the hopes of filling the objects of their lust with burning, irresistible passion. In Theocritus second Idyll, a woman uses a iunx as a magical object for an agoge spell. She repeatedly chants:

Iunx, bring my man home.