Women, whose clitoris is too prominent, are thus prevented from having intercourse with men, so that when they are seized with amorous designs they cannot well find any other way of satisfying their desires than by playing tribadism. (Venette IV., ii, 4.) Footnote 121: Pyrrha and Methymna are towns in Lesbos. Pomponius Mela, II., 7: “In the Troad is Lesbos, and in Lesbos there were formerly five cities, viz.: Antissa, Pyrrha, Eresos, Methymna, Mytilene.” Footnote 122: Not innocently, or rather, “not without crime”; some read “which I loved not without crime” others, “which I loved here without crime,” but the difference is not great. If you prefer “which I loved here,” the excuse itself is a confession. All we want is the admission that the tribad-tastes of Sappho are no modern invention, but originated, how we know not, and prevailed in very early times. The love of woman for woman was never known under any other name than the notorious one of tribadism. Footnote 123: See whether it is with good reason or no that the succeeding epigram, no. 69, calls Philaenis the tribad of tribads. Footnote 124: To make yourselves quite sure about what the author means by androgynic loves, look at the passage as a whole: “Come, you man of the new age, you lawgiver of unknown amours, if you open out new ways to the lubricity of men, you may grant to the women equal license. Let them cohabit together as the men do; let woman lie with woman, and simulate with their lascivious organs conjunctions, sterile though they be, as man lies with man! Let the word one hears so very rarely, and which I am ashamed to pronounce, let the lubricity of our tribads triumph without blushing.” Observe in the first place how tribads were seldom spoken of, and that they kept themselves in the dark; in the second place how the immoderate clitoris of the tribad is said to simulate lascivious organs in conjunction. Seneca, _Controversia Secunda_, in a similar sense, calls such a monstrosity *****, an _artificial man_; lastly the epithet “sterile” is applied to the clitoris, and points to the dry unproductiveness of the tribadic coitus. Footnote 125: Instead of “pedicating boys,” Martial might have said, if the metre had allowed it, “entering boys.” Seneca’s expression (Letter XCV), “_viros ineunt_,” which was a source of great trouble to the great Justus Lipsius, signifies nothing else: “The women will contest for the crown of lubricity with the men. May the gods confound them! one of their refined lubricities reverses the laws of Nature: they have connection with men!” There you have in plain words the turpitude which Justus Lipsius considered worthy of the infernal regions: tribads pedicating. Footnote 126: