Talk:Cloacina

Cloacina in modern literature?
Perhaps it would be useful to say something about the metaphorical or euphemistic use of Cloacina's name in 18th-19th century literature, for instance,


 * He undertook to prove that poverty was a blessing to a nation; that oatmeal was preferable to wheat-flour; and that the worship of Cloacina, in temples which admitted both sexes, and every rank of votaries promiscuously, was a filthy species of idolatry that outraged every idea of delicacy and decorum. -- The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett


 * Next day we put up at a wretched place called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with  an excellent supper; and among other delicacies, with a dish of  green pease. Provence is a pleasant country, well cultivated; but  the inns are not so good here as in Languedoc, and few of them  are provided with a certain convenience which an English  traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find are  generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much  exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them  without hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we  found the Temple of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the  servant-maid told me her mistress had caused it to be made on  purpose for the English travellers; but now she was very sorry  for what she had done, as all the French who frequented her  house, instead of using the seat, left their offerings on the  floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned three or four times  a day. -- Travels through France and Italy by Tobias Smollett


 * But about two o'clock in the morning I had, contrary to my usual habit, to get up and offer sacrifice to Cloacina. -- The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, translated by Arthur Machen


 * The place where we were confined was called a chamber; it rather resembled the temple of Cloacina. -- The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck, Vol. II, translated by Thomas Holcroft

--Jim Henry (talk) 00:09, 16 September 2010 (UTC)