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A leather penis, which the women of Miletos used to use, just as tribades[1] and obscene people[2] [do]; and widowed women also used them. Aristophanes [writes]: "I haven't even seen an eight-finger dildo, which would at least [give] us leathery comfort."[3] From the proverb, "fig-wood comfort." Applied to feeble people/things.[4]

Ὄλισβος: αἰδοῖον δερμάτινον, ᾧ ἐχρῶντο αἱ Μιλήσιαι γυναῖκες, ὡς τριβάδες καὶ αἰσχρουργοί: ἐχρῶντο δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ αἱ χῆραι γυναῖκες. Ἀριστοφάνης: οὐκ εἶδον οὐδ' ὄλισβον ὀκταδάκτυλον, ὃς ἂν ἡμῖν σκυτίνη 'πικουρία. παρὰ τὴν παροιμίαν, συκίνη ἐπικουρία. ἐπὶ τῶν ἀσθενῶν.

Aristophanes, Lysistrata 109-110, with comment from the scholia there.
[1] Lesbians; cf. epsilon 3273.
[2] This noun has no grammatical feminine, but again presumably women are meant.
[3] An "eight-finger" (c.12 cm.) length is "considerably smaller than the dildoes pictured on vases. Perhaps Lys. means that even tiny dildoes are unavailable!" (J. Henderson, Aristophanes Lysistrata, edited with introduction and commentary (Oxford 1987) 81).
[4] cf. Apostolius 15.81 (and sigma 1324).

J. Henderson, The Maculate Muse (New Haven 1975) 221-222
E. Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus (New York 1985) plates 72-80

David Whitehead (modified translation; added notes and bibliography) on 20 September 2000@06:42:39.
David Whitehead (tweaked translation; rearranged and augmented notes; added more keywords and bibliography) on 31 October 2005@09:25:50.
David Whitehead (x-refs; more keywords; tweaks) on 14 October 2009@08:28:50.

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