Latin, Law, Suprema, inter Alia

I occasionally talk about superheroes with my homosexual friends and one of them would tease me with a question: Where did Wonder Woman creator get Suprema?  It’s a rhetorical question since he knows the answer, but he likes to ask nonetheless.

Wonder Woman, the world’s first successful female superhero, was initially named Suprema, the Wonder Woman.  Suprema was edited out (apparently), and the rest is herstory.

So, where did William Moulton Marston (Wonder Woman creator) get Suprema?

The short answer is: Latin, law, and his belief in the supremacy of women over men especially in matters of the heart.

Law and Latin

Marston is well-versed in the Classics – Greek and Latin. 

“The foundation of learning law is the usage of Latin - Latin phrases are commonly used in the legal world, and it pays to know them by heart.”¹

Marston is a lawyer, and law is a profession intimate with the ancient language.

Apart from Greek and Latin, he knew German because proficiency in the German language was a requirement for admission to the PhD program in psychology at Harvard University during his time.²

suprema is a Latin word that means highest, greatest, etc.  It is a superlative adjective.  Latin words are not capitalized except proper nouns.

Let us learn some Latin words.

When an adjective is used as a noun, it is called a substantive adjective. 

The case endings (-us -a -um and other adjective endings) indicate whether the adjective is male (e.g., masculine -us ending), female (feminine -a ending) or a thing (neuter -um ending).  In such cases, we supply a word like man/men, woman/women or thing/things in our translation.  Note that the singular feminine and the plural neuter have the same -a ending.

                   masculine           feminine              neuter

singular      -us                       -a                         -um

plural          -i                          -ae                       -a

laetus -a -um      happy

laetus as a noun (substantive): 

laetus                  happy man 

laeta                    happy woman

laetum                 happy thing

laeti                     happy men        

laetae                  happy women

laeta                    happy things

 

supremus -a -um                  supreme, highest, greatest, most super

formosus -a -um                   handsome, beautiful

candidus -a -um                   bright, clear, spotless

maximus -a -um                   largest, biggest

minimus -a -um                    smallest, least

mirus -a -um                         wonderful, amazing, remarkable

albus -a -um                         white, fair, pale

rectus -a -um                        right, proper, honest

 

supremus            supreme man

suprema              supreme woman

supremum           supreme thing

supremi               supreme men

supremae            supreme women

suprema              supreme things

 

formosus             handsome man

formosa               beautiful woman

formosum            handsome/beautiful thing

formosi                handsome men

formosae             beautiful women

formosa               handsome/beautiful things

 

candidus             spotless man

candida               spotless woman

candidum            spotless thing

candidi                spotless men

candidae             spotless women

candida               spotless things

 

maximus             largest man

maxima               largest woman

maximum            largest thing

maximi                largest men

maximae             largest women

maxima               largest things 

 

minimus              smallest man

minima                smallest woman

minimum             smallest thing

minimi                 smallest men

minimae              smallest women

minima                smallest things 

mirus                   wonderful man

mira                     wonderful woman

mirum                  wonderful thing

miri                      wonderful men

mirae                   wonderful women

mira                     wonderful things

 

albus                   white man

alba                     white woman

album                  white thing

albi                      white men

albae                   white women

alba                     white things 

 

rectus                  honest man

recta                    honest woman

rectum                 right thing

recti                     honest men

rectae                  honest women

recta                    right things 

 

Popular culture has produced the greatest women and men with feats beyond those of mere mortals. 

 

The appearance of a skyscraper-bounding supremus (Superman) in 1938 launched the comic book industry into the gazillion-dollar business that it is today.  Earlier known as Diana in 1937 and finally appearing in comics in 1941,³ Wonder Woman is the original suprema of comic book fandom. 

suprema is usually used in the legal profession in reference to the supremacy of the law.  You will be hard-pressed to find a law graduate who is not familiar with “salus populi suprema lex esto” (de legibus 3.3.8).  The statement means “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law.” 

 

The Spanish, and Filipino, word supremo is derived from the Latin supremus, just as superheroes with similar abilities and appearances that appeared after Superman’s and Wonder Woman’s introductions are derived from Superman and Wonder Woman. 

 

supremus, suprema or supremum also means other things and is commonly an idiomatic and legal expression attached to other words: 

 

                             supremus dies

literal translation  last day

meaning              day of one’s funeral 

 

                             suprema hora

literal                    last hour

meaning               death 

 

Both supremus dies and suprema hora mean the moment of death. 

 

                           suprema dona   

literal                   last gifts

meaning              funeral rites, offerings 

 

                             supremum supplicium

literal                    greatest punishment

meaning               death penalty 

 

Candida albicans is the scientific name of a common fungus that inhabits the human body.  It is a normal part of our microbial makeup.  It manifests as a disease when the body weakens for one reason or another.  Otherwise, it feeds off the body’s resources without consequence.  Candida is so named because its gross appearance on a growth medium looks bright and white like this:

 albicans is a Latin participle that means being white. 

 

adjective              rectus -a -um      right, proper, honest

e.g.                      rectus                  proper man

                            recta                    honest woman

                            rectum                 right thing 

 

noun                    rectum -i (neuter)                   virtue 

 

As you can see, rectum is not only a neuter adjective but is also a neuter noun that means virtue.  Whether used as an adjective or a noun, the meaning of rectum is positively notable.  Can we call a person who likes rectum or recta virtuous? 

 

I do not wish to post a photograph of the actual appearance of the human rectum. 

 

For lawyers like Marston, suprema – with its supreme variants – refers to legal matters, among other things.  For doctors (physicians), candida refers to a fungal infection and rectum to something sticky. 

 

Knowing the Classics also means Marston was aware of how ancient men of renown portrayed women as unworthy beings whose place is beneath that of men.  Cato the Elder has this to say about women: 

 

“Woman is a violent and uncontrolled animal, and it is no good giving her the reins and expecting her not to kick over the traces. No, you have got to keep the reins firmly in your own hands…  What they want is complete freedom—or, not to mince words, complete licence…  Suppose you allow them to acquire or to extort one right after another, and in the end to achieve complete equality with men, do you think you will find them bearable? Nonsense. Once they have achieved equality, they will be your masters” (Livy 34.2-3 [Balsdon 34]). 

 

In Marston’s world, women are indeed the masters, but they are not violent like uncontrolled animals; they are able leaders who create order, while men threaten peace. 

 

Supremacy of women 

 

Marston’s DISC theory was introduced in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People.  The DISC theory is still in use today. 

 

DISC stands for dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance.  These factors determine a personality type. 

 

A positive force for good induces submission without resorting to violence.  Wonder Woman’s kindness induces people to submit to her loving authority, just as she and the Amazons submit to their goddesses (Aphrodite and Athena).  Women, in Marston’s view, make good love leaders. 

 

Wonder Woman’s and the Amazons’ bracelets, called the bracelets of submission, symbolize their loving submission to Aphrodite.  In Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942), Aphrodite tells Queen Hippolyte to always wear the bracelets “to teach you the folly of submitting to men’s domination!”⁴ 

 

The lasso is also a symbol of this submission.  Queen Hippolyte tells Diana, “The magic lasso carries Aphrodite’s power to make men and women submit to your will!  Whoever you bind with that lasso must obey you!” (WW #1, Summer 1942).⁵ 

 

That the lasso can compel anyone bound by it to obey (comply) against their will makes the lasso a dominant force. 

 

Wonder Woman can be forceful (dominant) when she needs to be. 

 

In a much later issue, Wonder Woman #28 (Mar.-Apr. 1948), Queen Hippolyte says, “The only real happiness for anybody is to be found in obedience to loving authority.”⁶  Kindly note that Marston died in 1947, and some of his works were published posthumously. 

 

Inducing someone to submit through loving authority is better than compliance gained by dominance. 

 

For more on DISC, see Mara Wood’s “Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance: Throwing the DISC in Fact and Fiction.”⁷  Also, check Google for Web sites that offer personality tests based on the DISC theory.  There are quite a number.  Some offer free assessment.  The DISC sites ask questions and your answers will determine if you are dominant, etc. 

 

The word “supremacy” appears many times in Emotions of Normal People.  Here are a few examples: 

 

“an obstacle to the girl’s complete supremacy over the opposite sex.”⁸ 

 

“a camaraderie of supremacy over males.”⁹ 

 

“love supremacy throughout the entire duration of her love relationship with the male.”¹⁰ 

 

Wonder Woman is essentially the personification of the DISC theory and Marston’s BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) fetish.  But, before Wonder Woman, Marston laid his DISC on a real-life character through a historical novel: Julius Caesar. 

 

In Marston’s 1932 novel Venus with Us: A Tale of the Caesar, reprinted in 1953 as The Private Life of Julius Caesar (Venus with Us), Julius Caesar is characterized as a “super-man whose reserves of strength and power mysteriously placed him above the reach of pirate daggers.”¹¹ 

 

In his unpublished book written sometime after 1931, Marston also talked about “Men and Supermen.”¹² 

 

Marston describes a boy stimulated to “almost superhuman strength and aggressiveness”¹³ in his 1928 Emotions of Normal People. 

 

“That prefix ‘super’ was everywhere in 1933.”¹⁴  Marston was already talking about super stuff by 1928, years before the appearance of Superman, and likely even before 1928 (considering his track record). 

 

Venus with Us is filled with chains and whips.  Wonder Woman comics in the 1940s were criticized for their bondage scenes which pale in comparison with those from Venus with Us.  Julius Caesar's ancient Rome, which operated heavily upon the shoulders of slaves, is the perfect backdrop for Marston’s bondage rituals. 

 

Julius Caesar declares, “I have a notion it’s really rather good for people to be compelled to submit to others.”¹⁵  This is very DISC theory, and a notion repeated often in Wonder Woman comics. 

 

Another curious commodity in Venus with Us is the persistent presence of golden chains and leashes.  This clearly is a precursor to Wonder Woman’s golden lasso.  Imagine Wonder Woman binding you with the golden lasso and telling you, “Submit!” 

In Sensation Comics #6 (Jun 1942), Queen Hippolyte instructs her craftswomen to create a lasso out of her magic girdle which is made of fine chain links.  Metala presents the finished product, the golden lasso, to the queen.¹⁶  Metala is also a character in Venus with Us.  In the novel, Metala is a Vestal Virgin turned courtesan.

 

In Venus with Us, Marston calls hunter women as “Dianas”¹⁷ and tenacious women “Amazon.”¹⁸  With this, and a penchant for the Classics, it is not suprising that Marston started calling the future Wonder Woman “Diana” by 1937.³ 

 

Another thing of note in this “chains and whips” novel: a headstrong brunette (Gaia) and her love interest (Lugo Pompeius), a blue-eyed blond man.  These two are precursors of Diana Prince and Steve Trevor.  Marston likes to assign hair color to his characters, brunettes being the strong ones (like Wonder Woman). 

 

Why Suprema, the Wonder Woman?  Why not just Suprema or just Wonder Woman? 

 

Suprema, the Wonder Woman was named along the lines of Robin, the Boy Wonder; Roy, the Super-Boy; Sheena, Queen of the Jungle; Wambi, the Jungle Boy; Amazona, the Mighty Woman, et al.  This naming convention was common in the golden age of comics.  Sheena, Wambi and Amazona, in particular, were closer to Marston’s home. 

 

Sheena, Wambi and Amazona were characters featured by Fiction House, a publishing company where Olive Byrne’s brother, Jack Byrne, was editor.¹⁹  Olive Byrne is Marston’s former student who became his lifelong partner and the inspiration for Wonder Woman’s bracelets (Olive Byrne wore bracelets). 

 

Is the magic lasso a lie detector? 

 

No. 

 

The lasso is originally a lasso of compulsion but can also be used to extract the truth.  However, it is now considered as Marston’s symbol for the lie detector. 

 

In Wonder Woman #2 (Fall 1942), Wonder Woman tells Bost, a villain, “You are bound by my magic lasso and must obey me!  Tell me everything – the whole truth!”²⁰ 

 

In Wonder Woman #3 (Feb.-Mar. 1943), Wonder Woman uses a brain wave detector to extract the truth about the whereabouts of Baroness Paula von Gunther from the girls on Reform Island.²¹ 

 

In Wonder Woman #4 (Apr.-May 1943), Diana Prince, with Steve Trevor, uses a lie detector on Elva Dove, an army intelligence clerk Diana caught reading confidential papers.²² 

 

In Sensation Comics #3 (Mar. 1942), Diana Prince uses a blood pressure apparatus to detect if Lila Brown, Steve Trevor’s secretary, is lying.²³ 

 

In Sensation Comics #20 (Aug. 1943), Diana Prince gives Jane Gray a lie detector test.  On the following page, Diana tells Jane, “I shall make you tell the truth – while bound with this golden rope you must obey me!”²⁴  Diana is in her military uniform, not in her star-spangled Wonder Woman outfit, when she binds Jane with the lasso. 

 

If the lasso is a lie detector, why use a separate lie detector instead of just the lasso? 

 

The magic lasso is the golden chain in Venus with Us.  It is the golden chain in Hippolyte’s girdle.  It is the golden chain in Marston’s BDSM dreams.  It just so happens it can extract the truth out of a liar. 

 

Did Marston originally envision a man as his superhero? 

 

The canon of comic-book history reveals Marston was spurred by his wife Elizabeth Holloway to create a woman superhero instead of a man.  I shall never contest that.  I doubt very much though that Marston even thought of creating a male superhero in his meetings with publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines or consultations with his wife Sadie (Elizabeth). 

 

Sadie reads Sappho in Greek.²⁵  She is also a lawyer and a psychologist who helped Marston with his research. 

 

“Although Elizabeth is not listed as Marston’s collaborator in his early work, Lamb, Matte (1996), and others refer directly and indirectly to Elizabeth’s work on her husband’s deception research. She also appears in a picture taken in his polygraph laboratory in the 1920s.”²⁶ 

 

Marston loved women who had a hand, a big hand, in the creation of Wonder Woman, and he was loved by a family of mostly women.  “Marston’s fascination with women began with his mother.”²⁷  He was his mother’s boy.²⁸ 

 

Before Wonder Woman, as mentioned earlier, Marston already took a shot at a “super-man”: Julius Caesar.  Venus with Us did well enough to merit glaring reviews and a reprint, but did Julius Caesar’s golden lasso ensnare generations of fans the world over? 

 

Did Marston really invent the lie detector? 

 

Yes and no.  The modern polygraph is not a single person’s creation. 

 

"In 1915, William Marston, a student of Münsterberg, introduced the first 'lie detector'... This laid the groundwork for many procedures that are in use today.”²⁹  "The first" is arguable.  "Laid the groundwork" is correct.

 

“If the heart of the lie detector is taken to be the discontinuous technique of recording blood pressure then the credit is Marston’s”³⁰

 

“The modern polygraph developed from instruments designed in the United States between 1915 and 1938 by William Marston (also known as the creator of Wonder Woman, whose magic lasso could make all who were encircled in it tell the truth), John Larson and Leonarde Keeler, mainly for use in criminal investigation.”³¹

 

Marston has been hailed “the ‘father’ of modern polygraphy”³² possibly because he is considered its main proponent, especially for its use in the courtroom.³³

 

At the homefront 

 

Marston’s mother (Annie Dalton Marston) wrote Marston weekly (which Marston replied to letter after letter)³⁴ and became an honorary member of Marston’s “Sunday Five Club: debating, with her son and her four grandchildren, the order of the universe”³⁵  Marston dated his diary 24 December 1939 in documenting this membership.³⁶  The Club was inaugurated on 23 June 1935.³⁷  In Annie Dalton’s last visit to her son in 1944, she talked about the Club (in a letter sent thereafter) and registered her desire to try sending a message for the next session.³⁸  Sessions with kids every Sunday for at least 9 years: Marston must have been a devoted father. 

 

Annie Dalton’s weekly letters to Marston temporarily stopped between 1931 and 1934, and resumed in 1935³⁹ until her death in 1944. 

 

Marston also corresponded with Al Capp, creator of Li’l Abner, in 1939 (one of the letters was dated September 1939).⁴⁰

 

In the summer of 1939, the Marston family inaugurated their own family newspaper called Marston Chronicle.⁴¹  Summer in the Philippines usually commences in March when the temperatures begin to rise.  Summer in the United States generally refers to the months of June, July, and August. 

 

Marston also continued to write for magazines up to the 1940s even while writing the adventures of Wonder Woman.  Lepore documents this and even includes new material in the 2015 edition of her book.⁴²

 

The World’s Fair 

 

Marston featured his lie detector at the New York World’s Fair and consulted for the film industry.  In this, he is like his mentor Münsterberg.  Apart from the lie detector, he is also credited for making psychology a part of popular culture. 

 

“Münsterberg… and his student, William Marston, represented a ‘particular type of public psychologist—a group that would continue to shape the reputation of psychological knowledge throughout the century’ (Ward 2002, 147), who were, in fact, infamous for popularizing psychology in public settings.  Münsterberg not only wrote articles for the popular press but also consulted for the film industry and set up mental testing booths at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.”⁴³

 

“The popularization of psychology owes much to the concentrated efforts of such people as Jastrow, Muensterberg [sic], Bruce and Marston and to their ability to translate existing folk mediations on the mind and self into the new language of professional psychology.”⁴⁴

Marston’s son, Pete, helped in setting up the booth at the World’s Fair.⁴⁵

Marston also met Maxwell Charles Gaines (future Wonder Woman publisher) at the World’s Fair to talk about comic strips.⁴⁶  Marston’s meetings with Gaines^{3, 46} eventually led to the appearance of Wonder Woman in comic books. 

 

The New York World’s Fair opened on 30 April 1939⁴⁷ and closed on 27 October 1940⁴⁸  Marston’s participation is recorded (Box 1303, Folder 14) in the New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records.⁴⁹

 

Entonces 

 

Now that we have established the origins of Suprema and the whereabouts of Marston before and after 1939, I wonder what other questions my dear homosexual friend will fabricate next time.  H’m, something kinky perhaps?  I can only imagine, and wonder.  Cue in the theme song of the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series starring Lynda Carter. 

 

 

Notes 

 

¹The SS Team.  Law Made Easy! Latin Legal Terms.  Version 13.0.  SSPRQ Ltd, 2019.  Google Play Store, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ssproductions.legallatin. 

 

²Jill Lepore.  The Secret History of Wonder Woman.  New York: Vintage Books, 2015.  p. 59. 

 

³Trina Robbins.  The Great Women Superheroes.  Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1996.  pp. 3-4. 

 

⁴Charles Moulton (w), Harry G. Peter (a).  Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942), Wonder Woman Publishing Company [DC Comics].  p. 5A. 

 

⁵Moulton, Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942) p. 12A. 

 

⁶Moulton, Wonder Woman #28 (Mar.-Apr. 1948) p. 12-C. 

 

⁷Mara Wood.  “Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance: Throwing the DISC in Fact and Fiction.”  Wonder Woman Psychology: Lassoing the Truth.  Eds. Travis Langley and Mara Wood.  New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2017.  pp. 27-39. 

 

⁸William Moulton Marston.  Emotions of Normal People.  New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928.  p. 266. 

 

⁹Marston, Emotions p. 268. 

 

¹⁰Marston, Emotions p. 396. 

 

¹¹William Marston.  The Private Life of Julius Caesar (Venus with Us).  New York: Universal Publishing, 1953.  Rpt. of Venus with Us: A Tale of the Caesar.  New York: Sears Publishing Co., 1932.  p. 60. 

 

¹²Lepore p. 311. 

 

¹³Marston, Emotions p. 125. 

 

¹⁴Gerard Jones.  Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book.  New York: Basic Books, 2004.  p. 94. 

 

¹⁵Marston, Private Life p. 39. 

 

¹⁶Charles Moulton (w), Harry G. Peter (a).  Sensation Comics #6 (Jun 1942), J.R. Publishing Co. [DC Comics].  p. 6. 

 

¹⁷Marston, Private Life p. 128. 

 

¹⁸Marston, Private Life p. 129. 

 

¹⁹Robert Baytan.  “Wonder Woman’s Origins and Other Occurrences.”  5 Feb. 2017.  Web.  <https://robertbaytan.blogspot.com/2017/02/wonder-womans-origins-and-other.html>. 

 

²⁰Moulton, Wonder Woman #2 (Fall 1942) p. 6C. 

 

²¹Moulton, Wonder Woman #3 (Feb.-Mar. 1943) p. 4B. 

 

²²Moulton, Wonder Woman #4 (Apr.-May 1943) p. 2C. 

 

²³Moulton, Sensation Comics #3 (Mar. 1942) p. 4. 

 

²⁴Moulton, Sensation Comics #20 (Aug. 1943) p. 4. 

 

²⁵Lepore p. 22. 

 

²⁶National Research Council.  The Polygraph and Lie Detection.  Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph.  Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.  Washington, DC:  The National Academies Press, 2003.  p. 292. 

 

²⁷Lepore p. 304. 

 

²⁸Lepore p. 302. 

 

²⁹David Canter.  Forensic Psychology for Dummies.  West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2012.  p. 19. 

 

³⁰Geoffrey C. Bunn.  The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector.  Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.  p. 132. 

 

³¹Don Grubin.  “Polygraphy.”  The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.  p. 276. 

 

³²William G. Iacono and Christopher J. Patrick.  “Employing Polygraph Assessment.”  The Handbook of Forensic Psychology.  4th ed.  Eds. Irving B. Weiner and Randy K. Otto.  Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2013.  p. 647. 

 

³³Iacono and Patrick pp. 647-648. 

 

³⁴Lepore p. 304. 

 

³⁵Lepore p. 310. 

 

³⁶Lepore p. 415. 

 

³⁷Lepore p. 176. 

 

³⁸Lepore p. 316. 

 

³⁹Lepore p. 309.

 

⁴⁰Lepore pp. 415-416. 

 

⁴¹Lepore p. 177. 

 

⁴²Lepore pp. 299-321, 413-416. 

 

⁴³Melissa M. Littlefield.  The Lying Brain: Lie Detection in Science and Science Fiction.  Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2011.  p. 25. 

 

⁴⁴Steven C. Ward.  Modernizing the Mind: Psychological Knowledge and the Remaking of Society.  Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.  p. 154. 

 

⁴⁵Lepore p. 165. 

 

⁴⁶Jones p. 352. 

 

⁴⁷Jessica Weglein, et al.  New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940 Incorporated Records.  New York: The New York Public Library, Manuscript and Archives Division, 2008.  p. viii. 

 

⁴⁸Weglein p. ix. 

 

⁴⁹Weglein p. 428. 

 

 

Other references 

 

Cicero, de legibus 3.3.8. 

 

Balsdon, John Percy Vyvian Dacre.  Roman Women: Their History and Habits.  London: Bodley Head, 1962.  p. 34. 

 

 

Photographs 

(in order of appearance) 

 

Brandon Routh/Superman Photograph.  “Five Reasons Brandon Routh Deserved More Credit as Superman.”  By Tom Foster.  Movies.  TVOvermind, 25 Aug. 2017.  Web.  Accessed 25 June 2019.  <https://www.tvovermind.com/five-reasons-brandon-routh-deserved-credit-superman/>. 

 

Getty Images.  Lynda Carter/Wonder Woman Photograph.  “AOC as Wonder Woman? DC Comics Not Happy about Rival Publisher’s Illustration: Reports.”  By Dom Calicchio.  Entertainment.  Fox News, 19 May 2019.  Web.  Accessed 25 June 2019.  <https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/aoc-as-wonder-woman-dc-comics-not-happy-about-rival-publishers-illustration-reports>. 

 

CDC/Dr. William Kaplan.  Candida albicans Photograph.  “This Is a Plate Culture of the Fungus Candida albicans, Strain 7H10, Grown at 37°C.”  By Public Health Image Library.  Public Domain Picture.  Public Domain Files, 2 Dec. 2012.  Web.  Accessed 23 June 2019.  <http://www.publicdomainfiles.com/show_file.php?id=13544823014279>. 

 

 

Postscripts 

 

The h in Latin is not silent, so hora may sound like horror.  Latin’s daughter languages like Spanish and French have the habit of silencing the h.  Individual letters in Latin are always “loud.”  Letters in combination, however, may actually have a “muffled sound.”  Take the ph for example.  The ph in Latin may be pronounced individually or as f, e.g., Calphurnia. 

Calphurnia is the wife of Julius Caesar at the time of his assassination.  Calphurnia may be pronounced Calp (and) hurnia so as not to silence the h, or Calfurnia (sounds like California). 

 

=== 

 

I was hoping to see men get it on sexually with other men while reading Marston’s Wonder Woman comics and Venus with Us.  None.  Nada. 

 

There is a lot of lesbianism in both fictional worlds.  The female homosexuality in Wonder Woman comics is never declared homosexual or anything other than “loving submission” play, but the current is there, and the world endures stirrings within, the little jolts of love mingled with a pinch of lust. 

 

Sexuality as we know it today is not the same in ancient Rome.  Romans have their own rules.  Sex with other men is generally okay, but “the man” has to be the one penetrating and not being penetrated. 

 

In Venus with Us, Marston mentions the Queen of Bithynia in reference to the wife of King Nicomedes.  I had hoped for Marston to mention Julius Caesar’s alleged dalliance with the king, even just in passing.  Nada. 

 

In recorded history, though not necessarily reliable history, Roman emperors and people of note had male lovers.  Sulla, Julius Caesar’s adversary, had an actor named Metrobius for a lover according to Plutarch.  Mark Antony, Caesar’s ally, had a harem of women and men.  He also cross-dressed according to Cicero.  Emperor Commodus had his own harem of women and men, and cross-dressed as well.  Emperor Elagabalus is now said to be the first transgender from antiquity.  Neil Gaiman wrote a comic book about Elagabalus titled Being an Account of the Life and Death of the Emperor Heliogabalus.  Two books about Elagabalus stand out because of archaeological support: (1) The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction by Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado, and (2) The Crimes of Elagabalus by Martijn Icks. 

 

Hadrian is arguably the most famous gay emperor.  I like Hadrian likely because of his lover, Antinous of Bithynia.  Antinous is hot!  Sculptures of Antinous that survive from antiquity show a truly beautiful young man. 

 

Historically, Julius Caesar went to Bithynia to seek aid from King Nicomedes.  He stayed a little longer than was expected, so rumors cropped up that something went on between the two.  The bit about Caesar going to Bithynia was mentioned by Marston in Venus with Us but nothing more beyond that.  It is impossible for Marston not to know about the ancient scandal considering his knowledge of the Classics. 

 

A lot of fictional works have been written about the love affair between Hadrian and Antinous, the most famous of which is Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian. 

 

Julius Caesar’s love affairs have been written about as well, but these pertain mostly to women.  Possibly the only one – fan fiction from Web sites not included – that blatantly discloses Julius Caesar’s versatility by its very title is the novel Queen Julius Caesar by Martin Campbell.  The title suggests juicy stuff not found in history books.  It gives me an image of a queen in her royal garb but with the face of Ciaran Hinds as Julius Caesar.  Hinds played Julius Caesar in the historical drama series Rome so well that it is his face my memory conjures whenever Caesar is mentioned. Or, is it Marlon Brando I think of?  But Brando played Mark Antony, not Caesar, in the 1953 film Julius Caesar.  Imagine Brando in drag, with a collar attached to a golden lasso.  H’m.

 

In Emotions of Normal People, Marston says, “In general, it seems fair to summarize the passion emotion of the male sex as not evokable by other males, in the absence of genital organ stimulation” (316).  The statement is fair indeed in the context of the study detailed in the book. 

 

However, it appears to me that Marston’s findings regarding women lean towards sexual fluidity, but genital stimulation is required to evoke “passion emotion” of the male by another male. 

Marston is not known to be averse to male homosexuality.  Marston says, “There is every reason to believe that erotic relationships would continue unabated if everybody in the world belonged to the same sex” (qtd. in Lepore 311).  There is no corroborable record pointing to him being bisexual.  I guess he just never found the time or interest to include, in Wonder Woman comics or Venus with Us, passions between men.  No golden chain on reciprocal erections between men for Marston. 

 

The novel was originally published in 1932 and again, posthumously, in 1953.  In the context of American history, Marston’s publishers would have rejected his novel – or Wonder Woman stories – right away if he included male homosexuality.  Female-to-female sex was acceptable; male-to-male sex was not. 

 

Please note that the sex scenes in Venus with Us do not graphically describe genitals or the acts involved in sex like humping, etc.  The scenes mostly involve interaction between masters and slaves, hence the pervasive chains and whips.   The golden lasso of compulsion shines brightly like a dream.  Loving submission to authority is the vita convivii (life of the party). 

 

I imagine how Marston conducted his real-life “parties” is reflected in what Caesar tells Cleopatra in Venus with Us: “I have never yet become intimate with a woman whom I merely desired and did not love; nor have I ever touched a slave girl who did not implore me to be kind to her” (207). 

 

As far as “in the absence of genital organ stimulation” is concerned, I have encountered many men of the sort.  These men  never got attracted to the same sex and never thought they would ever respond to other men sexually.  But as physiology is not ensconced in bigotry and cultural bias, the body responds to touch, and genital stimulation from women or other men elicits a response, sometimes of the humongous kind. 

 

To know more about the colorful, genital lives of the ancient Romans or anyone that trips your fancy, visit the library of infinite possibilities – Google. 

 

Google is such a big gossip you’ll find most of what you need, and the ones you don’t need or even want.