Aristophanes mocks similarly those, of whom he says, in verse 60 of the same play, that “They are aboard their barks.” “They are mounted on their chargers.” For —— signifies both a ship and a horse. Plango in Asclepiades, Brunck’s _Analecta_, vol. I., 217, affects the same figure. “When she in horsemanship vanquished the ardent Philaenis, whilst her Hesperian coursers foamed under her reins.” Yet more expert in this kind of amorous riding than Philaenis herself, this ardent votary of pleasure thanks Venus in this epigram, that she has been able so to exhaust certain Hesperian gallants, whom she had mounted, that they had left her with wanton members all drooping, and feeling no desire left in them. To bestride men was also the favourite pastime of Lysidicé, who was never tired in the service of Venus, of whom the following epigram of Asclepiades treats: “Many a horse has she ridden beneath her, yet never galled her thigh with all her nimble movements.” Courtesans consecrated to Venus a whip, a bit, a spur, in order to signify, that with their clients they like best to pose themselves in that way, and that they preferred riding themselves to being ridden,—nothing more. It is the same when in Apuleius, Fotis satiated her Lucius with the pleasures of the undulating Venus: “Saying this she leaped upon the couch and, seated upon me backwards, plying her hips, vibrating her lithe spine lasciviously, she satiated me with the delights of the undulating Venus, till both of us exhausted, powerless and with useless limbs, sunk down, exhaling our souls in mutual embraces” (_Metamorph._, II., ch. II). The next figure,—the man lying supine and the woman turning her back to him, is executed by Rangoni with Ottavia, under the direction of Tullia: RANGONI: Look how stiff I stand! But I want to try the bliss in a new way. TULLIA: In a new way? No! I swear by my wanton soul you shall not. You shall not take a new way. RANGONI: It was a slip of the tongue; I meant to say a new posture. TULLIA: And what sort of one? I have an idea ... what they call the horse of Hector. Lie down on your back, Rangoni; let your puissant spear stand firm to the enemy, who is to be pierced, Well done! OTTAVIA: What must I do, Tullia? TULLIA: Clip Rangoni between your thighs, mounting him a-straddle. His cutlass as he lies should meet your sheath poised over it. Why! you’ve taken the position admirably. Excellent! RANGONI: Oh! what a back, worthy of Venus! Oh! the ivory sides! Oh! the inviting buttocks! TULLIA: No naughty words! He who praises the buttocks, slanders the vulva! You know better, Ottavia! Her greedy vulva has swallowed your bristling member whole, Rangoni. OTTAVIA: Quick, Rangoni, it is coming!... quick, quick, help me! RANGONI: I am coming, Ottavia,—I am come! Are you?—Are you, darling!