Golden Ass, The

Sed angebar plane
non exili metu, reputans
quemadmodum
tantis tamque
magnis cruribus possem delicatam matronam
inscendere, vel tam lucida tamque tenera et lacte ac melle confecta
membra duris ungulis complecti, labiasque modicas ambrosio rore purpurantes
tam amplo ore tamque enormi et saxeis dentibus deformi saviari,
novissime quo pacto, quamquam ex uniguiculus
perpruriscens mulier
tam vastum genitale susciperet:
heu me qui dirupta nobili femina bestiis obiectus munus
instructurus sim mei domini! Molles interdum voculas et assidua
savia et dulces gannitus commorsicantibus oculis iterabat illa,
et in summa “Teneo te,” inquit “Teneo meum palumbulum,
meum passerem,” et cum dicto vanas fuisse cogitations
meas ineptumque monstrat metum: artissime namque
complexa totum me pror- sus, sed totum recepit.
Illa vero, quotiens ei parcens nates recellebam,
accedens totiens nisu rabido et spinam prehendens meam
appliciore nexu inhaerebat, ut Hercule etiam deesse mihi
aliquid ad supplendam eius libidinem crederem, nec Minotauri
matrem frustra delectatam putarem adultero mugiente.

But
nothing worried me so much,
as wondering how I could with such great legs
embrace so tender a woman, or how it was possible to
kiss her tender and soft honey-lips with
my enormous great mouth and stony teeth;
or how such a woman, even if she was lewd
to the ends of her fingertips, could manage
to take me on. “Alas,” thought I, “If I damage
so fine a lady, I shall be thrown out for the
wild beasts to eat.” But looking at me with
burning eyes, she redoubled her kisses
and caresses and moans, until at last, crying “Take me, Take me, my dove, my sparrow,”she showed me all my fears were in vain. She took me in fully, and showed that she had no doubts on that score. Indeed, the anxieties were soon on my side, and I began to comprehend what the Minotaur’s mother had in mind when she chose a four-legged lover.[*]

[Apuleius, The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses. ed. S. Gaselee. Loeb Classics. p. 510]

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[*] See >Zodiac.