The Latin Sexual Vocabulary by J. N. Adams (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 363 typographical errors which are likely to confuse a reader, the quality of the printing is poor, with unevenly spaced letters and wavering lines, particularly in the footnotes. HARVARD UNIVERSITY RUTH SCODEL J. N. ADAMS. The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Pp. ~Ioth. U.S. $27.50. ISBN 0-8018-2968-2. The author has set out "to describe and classify the varieties of language used in Latin to refer to sexual parts of the body, sexual acts and excretion" (p. 1) . Such a text has long been needed. Although much has been written in recent years on this subject, no ready compilation of these findings has been available to those not actively pursuing the subject. Professor Adams has arranged the contents of his book around metaphors and euphemisms that denote Mentula (ch. 2), Female Genitalia (ch.3), Culus (ch.4), and Sexual Acts (ch.5). There are introductory and concluding chapters, and an appendix on "The Vocabulary Relating to Bodi Iy Functions". The indices of Latin, Greek and General Terms, particularly in a reference text such as this, would be even more useful if they were more complete (conspicuous omissions are paedico and tribades, which receive considerable discussion on pages 123-5 and 121-2 respectively). This text will be beneficial for more advanced Latin readers, but it does have some sev€re limitations. Its present format does not allow one simply to refer to a section dealing with any given term, as one would with a dictionary. The sections overlap, and later discussions presume that previous sections have been read, yet the text does not lend itsel f to continuous reading. The style of the prose is uneven, often resembling a series of phi lological notes, sometimes breaking off into general discussions at unexpected places (~., p. 12). Again, Professor Adams does not consistently present 364 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS his evidence: in some sections he cites the Latin under discussion, but often he gives only the references, so that his discussion is difficult to follow unless one has ready access to those references. It would seem reasonable to provide an additional appendix of phrases cited, by author, since this book will be used primarily as a reference text. Some of the terminology will be confusing. What is a "calque"? Professor Adams uses it repeatedly, apparently to mean the literal translation of a euphemism from one language to another. If jargon must be used, it should at least be explained, particularly in a text intended to clarify formerly inaccessible terminology. Finally, there is a tendency here dogmatically to reject opposing interpretations, often without even a countervailing argument (e.g., p. 100, n.1). Clearly this book should not be used before the reader is relatively advanced, and then with the caveat that some of the material in it is uneven. In spite of these reservations, however, it is a good beginning in a field that has been too long unattended. It should therefore prove beneficial to teachers and advanced students of Latin. BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PATRICIA A. JOHNSTON ~~i~;:O,D.B~f~~~~:~~rd~~ctl~'s 1~8~~bl iCp~~ t~~,MOl00r.rap~~po:r,sal ~.sJ: $12.95. ISBN 0-85616-012-0. This volume (to all intents and purposes, MacQueenls doctoral dissertation) is intended as a foray into Sallustiana (" not. .. my final word", p. vii) and claims to herald "a new, though not unprecedented direction in Sallustian scholarship" (p.5). It comes with an apology for having devoted more than one-fourth of the text to a survey of the secondary literature (pp. 8-36), a topic which ought to have been more economically discussed, as (~.) in Earl1s introduction to his Political Thought of Sallust. It is MacQueen's contention that ...