Editing Sex toy (section)

==In literature==

Dildos are mentioned several times in [[Aristophanes]]' comedy of 411 BCE, ''[[Lysistrata]]''.

:LYSISTRATA
:And so, girls, when fucking time comes […] not the faintest whiff of it anywhere, right? From the time those Milesians betrayed us, we can't even find our eight-fingered leather dildos. At least they'd serve as a sort of flesh-replacement for our poor cunts […]  So, then! Would you like me to find some mechanism by which we could end this war?<ref>
{{cite web
  | title = Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Translated by George Theodoridis
  | year = 2000
  | url = http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Greek/Lysistrata.htm
  | access-date = 2008-12-18}}
</ref>

[[Herodas]]' short comic play, ''[[Herodas#Mime VI|Mime VI]]'', written in the 3rd century BCE, is about a woman called Metro, anxious to discover from a friend where she recently acquired a dildo.

:METRO
:I beg you, don't lie,
:dear Corrioto: who was the man who stitched for you this bright red dildo?<ref>{{cite book | title= Sexuality in Greek and Roman society and literature | last1=  Johnson | first1= Marguerite | last2=Ryan | first2=Terry | year= 2005 | publisher= Routledge| isbn= 0-674-01379-4 |page=176}}</ref>

She eventually discovers the maker to be a man called Kerdon, who hides his trade by the front of being a cobbler, and leaves to seek him out. Metro and Kerdon are main characters in the next play in the sequence, ''Mime VII'', when she visits his shop.

=== Talmud ===

The Talmud's [[Avodah Zarah]] Tractate records the interpretation which [[Rav Yosef bar Hiyya]]  gave to the Biblical reference of King [[Asa of Judah]] having "deposed his grandmother [[Maakah]] from her position as Queen Mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of [[Asherah]]. Asa cut it down and burned it in the [[Kidron Valley]]" ( Kings 15:13, 2 Chronicles 15:16). According to Rav Yosef, Maakah had installed "the likeness of a male organ" on her Asherah image "and she would engage in sexual activity with it daily".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Avodah Zarah 44a:5 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Avodah_Zarah.44a.5?lang=en&lookup=likeness%20of%20a%20male%20organ,%20and%20she%20would%20engage%20in%20sexual%20activity%20with%20it%20daily&namedEntity=maacah-(ambiguous)&namedEntityText=Maacah&with=Lexicon&lang2=en |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref>

=== Early modern period ===
In the early 1590s, the English playwright [[Thomas Nashe]] wrote a poem known as ''The Choise of Valentines'', ''Nashe's Dildo'' or ''The Merrie Ballad of Nashe his Dildo''. This was not printed at the time, due to its obscenity<ref name="coulthart">{{cite web | url=http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2011/02/14/the-choise-of-valentines-or-the-merie-ballad-of-nash-his-dildo/ | title=The Choise of Valentines, Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo | publisher=www.johncoulthart.com | date=Feb 14, 2011 | access-date=July 10, 2011 | author=Coulthart, John}}</ref> but it was still widely circulated and made Nashe's name notorious.<ref name="Haynes" /> The poem describes a visit to a brothel by a man called "Tomalin"; he is searching for his sweetheart, Francis, who has become a prostitute. The only way he can see her is to hire her. However, she resorts to using a glass dildo as he finds himself unable to perform sexually to her satisfaction.<ref>{{cite book | title=Madams - Bawds & Brothel-Keepers of London | publisher=The History Press Ltd | author=Linnane, Fergus | year=2005 | pages=16 | isbn=0-7509-3306-2}}</ref>

Dildos are humorously mentioned in Act IV, scene iv of Shakespeare's ''[[The Winter's Tale]]''. This play and [[Ben Jonson]]'s play ''[[The Alchemist (play)|The Alchemist]]'' (1610) are typically cited as the first use of the word in publication (Nashe's ''Merrie Ballad'' was not published until 1899).<ref name="coulthart" />

In 1673, the parliament of the United-Kingdom refused the marriage between the presumed heir of the [[Throne of England|throne]], [[James of York]], and the [[Catholic]] [[Maria d'Este|Maria d'Este of Modena]]. The same year, [[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester|John Wilmot]], the seventeenth-century English [[libertine]], published the poem ''Signor Dildo'' parodying the situation, stating the coming of Maria d'Este would provoke a great import of dildoes; the poem among other things states:<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-10-15 |title=Rochester, "Signor Dildo" |url=http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/dildo.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031015210425/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/dildo.html |archive-date=15 October 2003 |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pritchard |first=R. E. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LejkDwAAQBAJ&dq=You+ladies+all+of+merry+England+Who+have+been+to+kiss+the+Duchess%27s+hand%2C+Pray%2C+did+you+not+lately+observe+in+the+show&pg=PA67 |title=Passion For Living: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester |date=2012-04-26 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=978-0-7188-4066-2 |pages=67 |language=en |chapter=IV. Ambiguous Love}}</ref>

:You ladies all of merry England
:Who have been to kiss the Duchess's hand,
:Pray, did you not lately observe in the show
:A noble Italian called Signor Dildo?

This ballad was subsequently added to by other authors, and became so popular that ''Signor'' became a term for a dildo.<ref name="wilson" /> In the epilogue to ''[[The Mistaken Husband]]'' (1674), by [[John Dryden]], an actress complains:

:To act with young boys is loving without men.
:What will not poor forsaken women try?
:When man's not near, the Signior must supply.<ref name="wilson">{{cite book | title= Court satires of the Restorationd | last=  Wilson | first= John | year= 1976 | publisher=  Ohio State University Press| isbn= 978-0-8142-0249-4 |page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0dXpt-fAcJMC&pg=PA14}}</ref>

Many other works of bawdy and satirical English literature of the period deal with the subject. ''[[Dildoides|Dildoides: A Burlesque Poem]]'' (London, 1706), attributed to [[Samuel Butler (poet)|Samuel Butler]], is a mock lament to a collection of dildos that had been seized and publicly burnt by the authorities. Examples of anonymous works include ''The Bauble, a tale'' (London, 1721) and ''Monsieur Thing's Origin: or Seignor D---o's Adventures in London'' (London, 1722).<ref>Wagner (1987), p.53</ref> In 1746, [[Henry Fielding]] wrote ''The Female Husband: or the surprising history of Mrs Mary, alias Mr. George Hamilton'', in which a woman posing as a man uses a dildo. This was a fictionalized account of the story of [[Mary Hamilton (bigamist)|Mary Hamilton]].<ref>Wagner (1987), p.54</ref>

Dildos are obliquely referred to in [[Saul Bellow]]'s novel ''[[The Adventures of Augie March]]'' (1953): "he had brought me along to a bachelor's stag where two naked acrobatic girls did stunts with false tools".<ref>Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March  New York: Penguin, 1953, 2001 . p. 252</ref> A dildo called ''Steely Dan III from Yokohama'' appears in the [[William S. Burroughs]] novel ''[[The Naked Lunch]]'' (1959).<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.steelydan.com/mojo.html|title= The Return of Steely Dan|access-date=December 15, 2006|work= [[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo Magazine]]|date=October 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html|title= Official Steely Dan FAQ|access-date= January 18, 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120127050212/http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html|archive-date= January 27, 2012|url-status= dead}}</ref> The rock band [[Steely Dan]] took their name from it.