Greek influence on Latin erotic vocabulary

Abstract

Among the thousands of Hellenisms that pervade the Latin language, many terms belong to the erotic‐sexual field. Among these, we distinguish borrowings proper, semantic calques (both of specific words and of sexual metaphors and images), and hybrid forms. We also focus on some ‘erotic’ examples of onomastic bilingualism, especially from Martial’s epigrams, and of code‐switching, paying particular attention to Pompeian inscriptions. We conclude by analyzing two separate passages from Martial and Juvenal, so as to treat the often discussed question whether Greek language was the ‘language of love’ in Rome.