A seduction most foul

I was struck this week by the apparent double entendre put forth by Prudentius in his depiction of the decapitation of Holofernes by the steadfast Judith.  As the story involves Judith seducing the lecherous general, making him drunk through copious amounts of wine before finally doing him in, I see that the imagery here can both reflect the actual execution of Holofernes as well as his sexual arousal.  As we have seen before, "head" (here cervix) may be used as a stand-in for the male genitals, so perhaps when she is decapitating the general, she is also figuratively emasculating him and spurning his arousal.  Perhaps even the blood that moistens the floor may be symbolic of his failed sexual activity and its eventual climax.  This imagery is picked up in the next line with the phrase sprevit gemmantemque torum since while gemmo can mean to be covered in gems, it can also mean "to put forth buds" and likewise torum can also mean any bulge or muscular mass, perhaps representing the male erection.  Thus, while she spurns his decorated couch, she may also be spurning the activity that takes place within in.  Thus, I think it was Prudentius aim to make the general as sexually voracious and licentious as possible in stark contrast with the stern Judith

Just a final interesting note:  The phrase "de lampade Christi" or "light of Christ" seems to be the Latin equivalent of the Greek phrase ΦΩΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ.   As luck would have it, at my excavations in Romanian, we actually found part of a oil lamp with part of this Greek phrase on it!!!  I can bring in a picture of it into class.