Hi Guys.
I'm a writer of fiction looking to hear about how a person in ancient Rome or Greece would have expressed displeasure/pain.
If you slammed your hand in the door or cut your finger open today, you might say "shit," "fuck," etc.
What would the romans have said after experiencing pain or extreme vexation?
Can you give me some sentences they may have used?
Thanks!
It's more "popular history" rather than say a journal article, but I recently finished "Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing" and you might find it useful.
Roman profanity was very genitally based, so for once, the Spartacus TV show is accurate in one regard, with all the "Jupiter's cock" and such.
As a famous example of a very dirty Roman poem, Catullus 16 has such gems as:
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi
which translates into modern English as:
I’ll push your shit in and stuff your face--
Aurelius, you cocksucker; Furius, you little bitch--