Philtra
Friday, July 18, 2014
 |
| Linda Lorenzo |
Quite a few years ago, before the internet
was in full swing I purchased these 6 reference books at the Book Warehouse. They
are extremely useful for satisfying my curiosity and they have only one defect.
The print is so small that even my reading bifocals strain my eyes.
A couple of days ago I was leafing through
the Shakespeare volumes. Then I became curious at my pristine (virgin?) copy of
The Worsdworth Dictionary of Sex. It seems I had never perused it. In the Ps I
found between:
Philomeitrax in ancient Greece, is a mature man who loves boys
in their prime. The great tragedian Sophocles was called a philomeitrax, which
was considered a title of honour. (Meitrax, ‘beautiful.’)
and:
Phimoslotomy a surgical procedure for
relieving a condition of phimosis, or constriction of the foreskin.
Philtrum the vertical groove in the centre
of the upper lip. The term is derived from the Greek philtron, meaning ‘philter,
charm,’ referencing to the fact that this feature is usually considered
attractive. Plural philtra.
I immediately looked through my files to
find what I thought was a vertical line between the upper lip (dividing it) and
on the upper lip. It was to no avail. My reference books were failing. I went
to the obvious place the internet to find that either my reference dictionary
has it wrong or the internet has it right.
If indeed the philtrum is above the upper
lip then I have scores of beautiful women with this attractive feature. And
of course the philtrum is not limited to women but to men, too. It seems that
Cary Grant had an unusually nice one and so does Art Bergmann.
 |
| Art Bergmann |
