One of the tough things about reconstructing epigraphic landscapes, is that so much of it is now gone. Whether it be graffiti , painted inscriptions, or just waxen etchings, most of the inscriptions that populated the ancient world are now lost. Today I want to explore just a bit of this ephemeral epigraphic landscape, and hopefully clarify some points about interpreting ancient sources. He taught at the catechetical school in Alexandria, where he taught both large and small classes.
Alexandria was a large city with around , inhabitants at this time. As such, Clement had the chance to observe a great deal of daily life and culture, even if he did not partake in many of the sensual pleasures of the city.
The Paedagogus was written by Clement in order to instruct Christians on an ethical lifestyle, and the work incorporates a number of the things Clement saw on the streets.
In one portion, he notes that women put erotic scenes on the bottom of their sandals, so as to imprint obscene suggestions as they walked along 2. A number of secondary works have mistranslated and indeed misrepresented poor Clement e. Younger, Sex in the Ancient World from A-Z, as saying that there were inscriptions on the bottom of these sandals, but that is not actually what the Greek says.
There is a ceramic-vessel shaped like a shoe from the Louvre drawing and a surviving lamp exemplum from Mainz. Something else that usually bothers me about this reference is that scholars tend to refer to those that wore these sandals as female, when in reality, it should be kept in mind that both men and women were prostitutes in antiquity, and thus both women and men would I would argue want to advertise their services via epigraphic footwear.
