“We get masturbation from the Romans. Not the act so much - though they’ve left us with a rich visual record of how, exactly, a cock might be stroked - but the term: masturbor and masturbator, both from Martial in his Epigrams, 85-103 AD. No one knows the word’s derivatives. In the eighteenth century, it was believed that it derived from manus (hand) and stuprare (defile), but by then masturbation was considered to be an act of self-abuse. Martial, however, used the term in reference to the gods, and masturbation did not carry the same moral weight then as it does now. Other writers during Martial’s time preferred descriptive words, like frico (to rub), tracto (to handle), and contrecto (to caress). Or, better, “Thy hand serves as the mistress of thy pleasure” (Veneri servit amica manus - Martial, Epigram 33). Because that, ultimately, is what masturbation was for the Greeks and the Romans: a sexual stand-in.”

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Masturbation in Classical Antiquity. By Christina Voss in the new Release issue of FGT.

August 07, 2009, 8:03pm