Sporus - in Fiction

In Fiction

  • In 1735, Alexander Pope wrote a satirical poem that mocked the courtier Lord Hervey, who had been accused of homosexuality a few years earlier. He scoffs at using so strong weapon as satire upon a weak and effeminate target like Sporus, "that mere white curd of ass's milk", and in a famous line Pope poses the rhetorical question: "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?"
  • Sporus is the main character in the 2001 historical novel Moi, Sporus, prêtre et putain (English: I, Sporus, priest and whore) by Cristina Rodríguez.

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