[53]
as when Caelius1
speaks of the “Clytemnestra who sold her favours
for a farthing, who was a Coan in the dining-room
and a Nolan in her bedroom.” For although we
know the answers, and although they were better
known at the time when the words were uttered,
[p. 333]
they are riddles for all that; and other riddles are,
after all, intelligible if you can get someone to explain
them.
1 The references are to the licentious character of Clodia. Coa was probably intended to suggest coitus, while nola is best derived from nolle, and is to be regarded as the opposite of coa.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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