Callipygian

Maybe you’ve already guessed by the picture? A saucy one, this and yet another thing we have to thank the Greek language for. From the Greek kalli (beauty) and pyge (buttocks) the word is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “of, pertaining to, or having well shaped or finely developed buttocks”.

The name is generally applied to a particular type of statuette – Venus Kallypigos – originally found in the excavations in Rome, of a woman lifting her dress to reveal bare buttocks and looking over her shoulder at them in a highly appreciative manner. There is a cast of the original statuette in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris – the original being kept in the Louvre.

On Sicily, in the town of Syracuse, there was once a cult that revolved around the beautiful backside. The story goes that there was a farmer who had two beautiful daughters. They got into a bit of a squabble about who had the most beautiful bottom, so obviously the only thing to do was to go out in the street and flash them about a bit to gauge public opinion. They happened to flash the son of a wealthy Syracusian, who opted for the older girl’s bum – but then strangely went home and told his brother. His brother found the girls and they again showed their bottoms – and, as luck would have it – he fancied the younger one. Their father brought the girls to Syracuse and they married his sons. With their new spending power, the girls formed a temple to Aphrodite the Beautiful-buttocked.

This is the reason you see a female bottom illustrating the story. The term can, of course, be applied to men’s bottoms but that doesn’t usually happen. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.