LHMP #457 Blackmore 1999 The Poets of Sodom

This article discusses genres of poetry that reference homosexuality, especially “songs of scorn and malediction,” though these are sometimes more teasing in tone than slanderous. The article discusses 36 poems, of which 3 make brief passing references to the potential female same-sex encounters of prostitutes in military camps.

A soldadeira (camp prostitute) has an older female companion “a que quer ben, e ela lhi quer mal (whom she loves but who doesn’t love her)”. Dona Ourana (a prostitute) is warned off of sex with women (not quoted). Maria Leve (another prostitute), it is suggested, prefers living among young women.

A fourth poem has a more extensive reference in which the poetic speaker addresses a woman named Mari’ Mateu, comparing their shared desire for cunts in a teasing and relatively neutral way that is unambiguously sexual.

E foi Deus já de conos avondar aqui outros, que o non an mester,

E ar feze-os muito desejar a min e ti, pero que ch’ és molher.

Mari’ Mateu, Mari’ Mateu, tan desojosa ch és de cono com’ eu!

(And it was God who made cunts in abundance here, for there is no lack, and Who also made both ou and I want them even though you’re a woman. Mary Matthew, Mary Matthew, as desirous of cunt as I!)