Aristophanes, Wasps 1372-5. Philokleon is trying to fool Bdelykleon that a girl piper is a sacred torch. Modern editors emend "marked", unintelligible of a torch, to "split", ἐσχισμένην . An actual torch would be made of split wood bound together, and the girl-torch has a split at the genitals; the "black bit" (= pubic hair, qua wick) and "pitch" (= vaginal secretion) make further reference to this. See J.Henderson, The Maculate Muse (New Haven 1975) pp.145-6.