The Works of Apuleius (Golden Ass, God of Socrates, Florida, On the Doctrines of Plato)

On hearing this, wretch that I was, I felt myself streaming with cold perspiration, and my heart began to throb with such agitation that the bedstead, shaken by the violence of my palpitations, moved up and down upon my back.

"Well, sister," said the worthy Panthia, "shall we hack him to pieces at once, after the fashion of the BacchanalsWorshippers of Bacchus known for frenzied, violent behavior., or shall we bind his limbs and castrate him?"

To this, Meroë replied—for I perceived from the circumstances, as well as from the narrative of Socrates, how well that name fitted herOriginal: Et tu sic Meroë: non quod sic atra colore, / Ut quæ Niliaca nascitur in Meroë; / Infusum sed quod vinum non diluis undis, / Potare immixtum sueta merumque merum. Translation: "And you are named Meroë, not because you are of a swarthy complexion like one born in Meroë, the island of the Nile, but because you do not dilute your wine with water, but are used to drink it unmixed and concentrated."—"Rather let him live, if only that he may cover with a little earth the body of this wretched creature." Then, moving the head of Socrates to one side, she plunged the whole sword into his throat up to the hilt on the left side, carefully receiving the flowing blood into a small leathern bottle placed under it, so that not a drop was anywhere to be seen. All this I witnessed with my own eyes; and, what is more, the worthy Meroë, that she might not—I suppose—omit any due observance in the sacrifice of the victim, thrust her right hand through the wound into the very entrails and, groping among them, drew forth the heart of my unhappy companion. His windpipe being severed by the thrust, he emitted through the wound an indistinct gurgling noise and poured forth his spirit with his bubbling blood. Panthia then stopped the gaping wound with the sponge, exclaiming, "Beware, O sea-born sponge, how you pass through a river."

When she had said this, they lifted my bed from the ground and, squatting astride over my face, urinated until they had entirely drenched me with their most filthy contents.