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)