Σπόριον occurs in a discussion of why Roman children with unknown fathers are called spurii. Plutarch argues in favour of another explanation, that the abbreviation of the praenomen Spurius is Sp., which he interprets as an acronym of “σίνε πάτρε οἷον ἄνευ πατρός”, “sine
patre, that is without a father” (Quaest. Rom. 288E). The other explanation is added despite
Plutarch finding it ἀτοπώτερος ‘quite absurd’. It starts with a Sabine gloss: τοὺς Σαβίνους φασὶ τὸ τῆς γυναικὸς αἰδοῖον ὀνομάζειν σπόριον They say that the Sabines call a woman’s genitals spurium.
Plut. Quaest. Rom. 288F
von Planta 1892:329; Untermann 2000:631-632.
612
L&S s.v. regius; cf. OLD s.v. regius 6.
613
See Taylor 1960:63 on the distribution of tribal names in the Sabine territory.
Because of this, Plutarch explains, children of unwed mothers were called spurii in mockery. This gloss is not included in Mommsen, von Planta or Conway, possibly because of its meaning. In L&S, OLD and Negri, as well as in Babbitt’s translation, it is rendered only as
pudenda. 615
In his discussion of spurius ‘illegitimate child’, Isidorus mention spurium, which he ascribes to the ueteres:
muliebrem naturam ueteres spurium uocabant
The ancients called the woman’s natural parts spurium.
Isid. Etym. IX.5.24
Spurium is also used to denote a marine animal, although which type is unclear. Apuleius 616
makes a joke about this in the only attestation of spurium meaning ‘vulva’. 617
posse dicitis ad res uenerias sumpta de mari spuria et fascina propter nominum similitudinem
You could say holias [spuria] and pricklebacks [fascina] taken from the sea can help with sex because of the similarity of their names 618
Apul. Apol. 35 This indicates that this was a genuine word, something that aligns the gloss more with Latin words such as cascus and februm, which are given Sabine origins. Perhaps Plutarch’s Sabine glossing is a way to soften the blow of the word.
The etymology reported by Plutarch and Isidorus, where σπόριον/spurium is the origin of the adjective spurius, is unlikely. Instead, σπόριον must be a substantivised form of the adjective. Spurius may well share a root with spurcus ‘dirty, unclean, impure’; both *spur-ko- and *spur-io- are likely formations. A connection, through cognacy or loan, between spurius and 619
Greek σπείρω ‘sow, beget’ and σπορά ‘sowing of seed’ and therefore ‘offspring’, is difficult to
L&S s.v. spurium; Babbit 1936:155; OLD s.v. spurium; Negri 1993:204. Spurium is included in Negri
615
1992:255, but is not translated and the passage is not quoted.
See L&S s.v. spurium; OLD s.v. spurium. Jones 2017:95 n.83 suggests that it is a kind of salmon.
616
As with many modern English words, there appears to be some vagueness in ancient words for
617
women’s genitals, encompassing both the vagina and vulva (Braun and Kitzinger 2001:154-155; cf. Adams 1981:235 for parallel ancient examples).
Jones 2017:95.
618
WH s.v. spurcus; EM s.v. spurius.
explain. A Latin loan of σπορά would be rendered as *spora, which leaves the -u- 620
unexplained. The semantics make a shared descent unlikely, as *spur- seen in Latin has meanings of social impurity, while the Greek words relate to sowing.
A popular suggestion is that the origin of spurius is Etruscan, backed up by the Etruscan name spurinas (e.g. ET Cr 1.101), Spurinna (CIL VI.26708, XI.1847). There are 621
many other names in spur- attested, the above-mentioned praenomen Spurius (CIL VI.2476), Etruscan śpuri (e.g. ET Pe 1.399), Spurinus, Spurilius, Spurianus, Spurennius, and in Oscan
Spuriíeís (II Pompei 4/ST Po 36). Onomastics is often of limited usefulness when seeking 622
to pin down a word’s origin, as the peoples of Italy to a large extent share an onomastic system (cf. §4.7.1). While the suffix -(n)na seems to be genuinely Etruscan, it has been used with Latin stems, e.g. sociennus ‘partner’ (Plaut. Aulularia 659), Dossennus, a hump-backed character from the Atellan farces (cf. dorsum ‘back’). Thus spur- is not guaranteed to be an Etruscan root. The similar-looking Etruscan genitive śpural ‘city’ (e.g. ET Liber Linteus V.23) has been suggested as a parallel, but the semantics are unclear. It was previously thought to mean ‘foreigner’, meaning spurius could be rendered as ‘another’s child’. Considering that śpural in fact means ‘city’, it is not a likely origin of spurcus ‘unclean’, spurius ‘illegitimate’ and spurium ‘vulva’. 623
Sexual vocabulary often works along different lines than other semantic fields due to societal taboos. It is not entirely clear where σπόριον/spurium falls on the scale of formality, which is going to impact the semantics. Adams suggests that, in addition to ‘vulva’, spurium meant ‘sex-worker’, in particular Etruscan women working in Rome, as eugium was used for Greek sex-workers as well as for ‘vulva’. Cross-linguistically, it is not uncommon for words 624
to mean both ‘vulva’ and ‘woman’, particularly as sexual objects. Eugium is often connected 625
to εὔγειος ‘fertile’. A contributing factor may be the exclamation euge, Greek εὖγε, 626
expressing joy and admiration, cf. English hoo-haa, chuff. Eugium in the meaning ‘sex-worker’ 627
L&S s.v. spurius.
620
EM s.v. spurius; WH s.v. spurius; Adams 1982:97; Hadas-Lebel 2004:153.
621
See Schulze [1904] 1991:94-95.
622
See Breyer 1993:386 on the incorrect translation of Etruscan śpural. Alessio 1976:388 suggests
623
spurium should mean ‘uterus’ rather than ‘vulva’, from Etruscan śpural ‘city’ and influenced on Greek
μητρόπολις. While the shift from inner to outer sexual organs is common (cf. Clackson 2004:88), the connection to ‘city’ is unlikely.
Adams 1982:97. The more common scortum shows the same variation (Adams 1983:322).
624
Adams 1983:322; Braun and Kitzinger 2001:152; Hughes 2015:113.
625
EM s.v. eugium; Pisani 1942/1945:243; Montiel 2014:109.
626
Braun and Kitzinger 2001:149 categorise these under “nonsense” words, but the connection to
627
is likely a pars pro toto, like the derogatory modern English term a piece of ass.
However, there are no indications that σπόριον/spurium ever meant ‘sex-worker’. The inference made by Adams appears to come from the way that the mothers of extramarital children are usually maligned. This can be seen in Germanic words, e.g. German Hurenkind (often used as a translation of spurius), Swedish horunge. Although the implication that someone’s mother being promiscuous and/or for hire is a common form of abuse, it is on the extreme end of a spectrum on which extramarital sex is placed. The words for ‘illegitimate child’ above should be seen not only in relation to German Hure and Swedish hora ‘whore’, but also German huren ‘to fornicate’ and Swedish hor ‘extramarital sex’.
With no clear reason to see σπόριον/spurium as meaning ‘sex-worker’, we should instead explore the semantics of words for ‘vulva’. The adjective spurius ‘false, of illegitimate birth’ could take on a more general meaning of ‘impure’. Thus spurium may mean ‘the impure thing’, cf. English naughty bits, naughty place. Another possibility is that σπόριον/spurium is connected to one of the many personal names based on spurius, making it a term similar to English fanny, percy. The fact this word is a neuter would speak against this. However, the plural of spurium is identical to the feminine name Sp[uria] (CIL XII.4143). Several Latin words for 628
‘vulva’, e.g. eugium, scortum, are neuter, which may have led to a back-formation of spurium.
4.7 Suetonius’ De Vitis Caesarum