Tumulus meretricis.

The courtesan’s tomb

Quis tumulus? cuia urna? Ephyraeae est Laidos,[1] & non
Erubuit tantum perdere Parca[2] decus?
Nulla fuit tum forma, illam iam carpserat aetas,
  Link to an image of this page  [c7r p45]Iam speculum Veneri cauta dicarat[3] anus.
Quid sculptus sibi vult aries[4], quem parte leaena
Unguibus apprensum posteriore tenet?
Non aliter captos quòd & ipsa teneret amantes,
Vir gregis est aries, clune tenetur amans.

What tomb, whose urn is this? - It belongs to Lais of Ephyre. - Ah, was not the goddess of Fate ashamed to destroy such loveliness? - She had no beauty then. Age had already worn it away. She had become an old woman and had already wisely dedicated her mirror to Venus. - What’s the meaning of the ram carved there, which a lioness holds tight, gripping its hind-quarters with her claws? - It is there because she too would hold her captive lovers in just this way. The male of the flock is the ram. The lover is held by the buttocks.

Laïs ex Corinthia meretrix insignis mirae
pulchritudinis ac venustatis, ob id per totam
Graeciam celebris, quae neminem admittebat,
nisi tantum solveret, quantum ipsa peteret,
postulabat autem ingentem pecuniae sum-
mam, hanc Demosthenes Rhetor clam adie-
rat, utque sibi sui copiam faceret rogaverat, il-
la statim 40. sestertia (quae summa ut Budaeus
computat, mille ferè Gallicos coronatos fa-
ciet) petiit. Expavit autem Demosthenes,
mox terga volvens inquit, Ego poenitere tan-
ti non emo. ut eleganter Aulus Gellius lib. 1 cap. 8.
Eius sepulcrum hîc expressum, cui insculptus
est Aries (amatorem referens) quem sequens
Leaena (meretricem significans) unguibus à
tergo comprehendit. Sic etenim meretrices
quavis Leaena ferociores, miseros amantes
etiam laniando captos tenent. De Laïde au-
tem, eius monumento, & huiuscemodi pictu-
ria, similimè recenset Leonicus de varia histo-
ria lib 1. cap. 81.