rushthatspeaks beat me to mentioning J.N. Adams. I'm not sure if The Latin Sexual Vocabulary is currently in print - it was out of print and a bit pricy when we had to buy it for class over a decade ago. Chapter Four deals entirely with culus, and apparently, Adams has written an entire article about the word culus: "'Culus, clunes and their synonyms in Latin" - In Glotta 59 (1981), pp. 231ff (yes, I did just type it from the reference in the bright orange book).
Adams summarizes culus as the basic and standard word for "arse"/"ass", so under that definition, it would work as an ablative of means, as it's translated in the Martial poem above.
Also, you are making me a bit nostalgic. Martial was one of the three main authors I focused on for my undergraduate thesis, along with Juvenal and the unknown author of the Corpus Priapea.
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regna
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Date: 2013-04-24 01:33 (UTC)Adams summarizes culus as the basic and standard word for "arse"/"ass", so under that definition, it would work as an ablative of means, as it's translated in the Martial poem above.
Also, you are making me a bit nostalgic. Martial was one of the three main authors I focused on for my undergraduate thesis, along with Juvenal and the unknown author of the Corpus Priapea.