#athenaios

Around about the time Gnathainion was on the verge of retiring and no longer acting as a courtesan, on account of the pleasure she took in an actor - one Andronikos - there was a particularly handsome coppersmith in Athens. When Andronikos had gone abroad, after Gnathainion had borne him a son, the smith would not stop pestering her to name her price. He kept on pursuing her; and after spending a huge quantity of gold, she agreed.

Being nothing more than a rude mechanical, when he was later sitting in a shoe-maker’s with some fellows, he idly gossiped about Gnathainion, telling them that they’d never had sex in any other way than her riding on top of him over and over again, five times.

Later, Andronikos got wind of what had happened. Recently arrived back from Corinth, he flew into a rage, and cursed Gnathainion bitterly while he was drunk. He said, “I wasn’t ever worth, in your eyes, trying this position with – but common bastards can enjoy it?”

Then Gnathainion said to him, “I didn’t want to embrace him, the pig, covered in ashes from head to foot. But after I’d taken so much gold from him, I allowed him to approach, and decided on something cunning: I’d embrace only the tip of his body - and, as far as it stuck out, it was still his very smallest part.”

(Athenaios, Professors at Dinner 581c-f; my translation)

“ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις χαλκοτύπος σφόδρ᾽ εὐφυής, καταλελυκυίας τῆς

Γναθαινίου σχεδὸν οὐκέτι θ᾽ ἑταιρεῖν ὑπομενούσης διὰ τό πως τὸν Ἀνδρόνικον ἡδέως αὐτῆς ἔχειν τὸν ὑποκριτὴν τότε δ᾽ ὄντος ἐν ἀποδημίᾳ, ἐξ οὗ γεγονὸς ἦν ἄρρεν αὐτῷ παιδίον, οὐχ ὑπομένουσαν τὴν Γναθαίνιον λαβεῖν μίσθωμα, λιπαρῶν δὲ καὶ προσκείμενος πολὺ δαπανήσας ἔσχεν αὐτὴν χρυσίον.

ἀνάγωγος ὢν δὲ καὶ βάναυσος παντελῶς ἐν σκυτοτομείῳ μετά τινων καθήμενος κατεσχόλαζε τῆς Γναθαινίου λέγων, ἑτέρῳ τρόπῳ μὲν συγγεγενῆσθαι μηδενί, ἑξῆς καθιππάσθαι δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς πεντάκις.

μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ ἀκούσας Ἀνδρόνικος τὸ γεγονὸς. ἐκ τῆς Κορίνθου προσφάτως ἀφιγμένος ὀργιζόμενος πικρῶς τε λοιδορούμενος παρὰ τὸν πότον ταῦτ᾽ ἔλεγε τῇ Γναθαινίῳ, αὐτὸν μὲν ἀξιοῦντα μὴ τετευχέναι τούτου παρ᾽ αὐτῆς μηδέποτε τοῦ σχήματος, ἐν τῷδε δ᾽ ἑτέρους ἐντρυφᾶν μαστιγίας.

ἔπειτεν εἰπεῖν φασι τὴν Γναθαίνιον ‘ περιλαμβάνειν γὰρ οὐκ ἐδοκίμαζον, τάλαν, ἄνθρωπον ἄχρι τοῦ στόματος ἠσβολωμένον διὰ τοῦθ᾽ ὑπέμεινα πολὺ λαβοῦσα χρυσίον, ἐφιλοσόφησά θ᾽, ἵν᾽ ἄκρον ὡς μάλιστα καὶ ἐλάχιστον αὐτοῦ περιλάβω τοῦ σώματος.’