The Drumming of a Deviant Beat

Abstract

This chapter explores the significance of the cinaedus in Roman literature, where he is portrayed as both a type of deviant in terms of his gender and sexual behavior as well as a kind of performer, who is noted for his use of percussive instruments, signature verse-meter (the Sotadean), and a dance involving a shimmying of the buttocks. It uses the metaphor of beating—as a form of punishment for sexual transgressions, as a means of corporal tenderization, and as a mode of sonic agency—to analyze the overlapping and sometimes contradictory valences associated with this figure in various Latin sources (Plautus, Catullus, Petronius, and Martial among others) from the third century BCE to the second century CE.