There’s a reason they were classics

The Loeb Classical Library has been restoring the naughty bits in a wide variety of classic Greek and Roman texts.

As things loosened in the 1960’s, the Loeb began updating its collection. George P. Goold, an Englishman who became editor in 1973, was determined to use more accurate language, as with this old passage from Catullus: “Tis you I fear, you and your passions, so fatal to the young, both good and bad alike.” In Mr. Goold’s translation, it became: “Tis you I fear, you and your penis, so ready to molest good boys and bad alike.”