El proceso de mortificación (la anulación relativa del yo)

Sexual Humour

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I i fe I 0 Sexual humour is much less well attested in the fragments of Crat­ inus than in those of Eupolis, but several interesting indications of his technique in the use of such humour survive. Cratinus’ liking for proverbs, for coined words and for such verbal devices as puns and double

entendre quite often colours his sexual humour, and he shows a fondness H

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for ri di cubing passive homosexual s. He coins words like Iwvokuo-oS i

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(’'Ionian™ arsed”) to describe a pathic,he calls catamites ('’grip-' g

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pers”), he distorts the proverb racTovri KygroS into gvSovrt

TfpwK-roS (or fvfovr/ S’rTgtoxrcS )* in an

attack upon someone for submission to pedi cation. In the last words of

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Fr. 273 a woman^is said to dedicate the last drops of her vine not to the Corinthian <^£vcS ,like Sthcjieboea to Bdl erophon, but to the Corinth-

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ian 7rfoC «By a neat Trpotfiokuwv substitution the passage tidily

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and dim a.cti call y combines reference to the alleged drunkenness of wo™ • 1 I men and to the ravenous sexual appetites that Old Comedy claims for

them. The para-oracle in Fr. 5-6 epitomises these supposedly insatiable I lusts in its prediction (or direction?) that lustfbl women will use t

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OAir^ot (perhaps because their men will not be available ?). Fr.l83 is a light and amusing double entendre from Hurivq ,in which Cratinus’ passion for Mendaean vine is translated into sexual terns. Cratinus’ neglected wife Comedy complains that if the old man catches sight of a newly matured Mendaean wine he sets off in eager pursuit of it, exclaim- .

ing, OljiA <*7T‘vAo$ ^cr/ Atc'KoS * '

The words ‘yrr'oXoS and XzvkoS are chosen because they help to sustain z z tiie double seise,being capable of describing both a fair-skinned pers™ ,

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on (’’soft” and "fair") and also a. tempting wine(’’mild, smooth” and

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’’dear”,perhaps:LSJ are utterly mistaken in giving a "bad « l

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sense” here, viz, "weak”). The sex of the oivitf’Koi Is taken- to he male •

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■a i ■41

■ "W 114

by Meineke(ll 117)> followed by Lesky.Edmonds seems to take the sex

to be female(l p.87)scf. his footnote^I.inguistically,it is easier to see tile ’’nice young vine" as male,but one v.ould have expected Cratinus’ g

infidelities all to be represented as heterosexual. For the passage to

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refer to a girl, the fact that the diminutive oivi<r»<o$ is masculine would have to be a misleading coincidence. Probably we sliould accept

„ •(/ Meindce’s view that Cratinus is here represented as lusting after a

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boy,but I am reluctant to do so.It may not be irrelevant,however, to note that the Souda’s article on Cratinus says that he was not only

but also ttcoSikwV , though some have doiied that that infonii ation should be taken at face value. Both. Meineke’^and Edmonds’1 are in—

■b - £-\ dined to take that view. At any rate, the question, "Will it stand three? refers in one sense to adding three parts of water to the vine and in the other to three acts of intercourse?In Fr. j$9 the coinage

("mele-faced woman") suggests that the character of the person so descr-3; ibed was belied by his outwardly masculine appearance( so the glosses of b

Eustathius 1571« and Hsch., s. v. 4)jin Fr. 3^3 "the coin­ age is taken by Bergk'Jto denote a woman able to put up with

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whatever censure was levelled against her by the villagers,pethaps on ■S the grounds of her sexual morals.In Fr. Ill Edm( 109fQ there would seen to be double entendre. The scholion on Theocritus 11.10 cites the passage., to illustrate the obscene sense of poSov (for which cf. Pherecr. 108.29, j

i fbr instance), and it is likely that all four foodstuffs listed are in double entendre, if any one of them i s. For pojA* (o f breasts) cf. , forinst^ anee,Pherecr.loc. cit. 1. 29 or Ar.Lys.155 J for cQA'vcy (of the pud- ?| endum muliebre) cf.Pherecr.i3i* 4, Cora. Adesp.ll^, and Schol. Theocr.loc. j

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cit.; does not appear to be attested in an erotic sense

el s evh ere.

Cratinus, then, quite often employs verbal devices in the examples *■351

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passages of sexual humour is that the derision of passive homosexuality

is particularly prominent in them,more so than in the surviving work of any other Old Comedian.In Aristophanes, for in stance, heterosexual jokes outnumber homosexual jokes by roughly four to one. The preference for

heterosexual jokes is rather less marked in Eupolis(partly by rea.son of

his fondness for sexual slanders against individual s), but in the frag­ ments of Cratinus the number o.f passages making fun of homosexuality

(predominantly passive homosexuality) is approximately equal to the

number of passages with heterosexual referoice. The passages in the latter category are Ers. IllEdm, 241, 273, 279, 5)2,333^3^1E,peril. ^3,prob. 53 and j 97, while in the former category are Frs. 4-.. p rob. 10,151« 265( Schol. Ar. Vesp. 1 II87), 4Q.2,4L9, 446, and (active nole)l52 and prob.l83,i. e. 7-10 ex­

amples in one case and 8-10 in the other. In addition there is a myst­ erious reference in Fr. 195 to the notorious patiiic Clisthoies. The title of Cratinus’ is probably an indication that that play 5 contained some substantial attacks on soft living and effeminacy ( it i s, however, po s si hl e that the play primarily derided shirkers of milit- 3 ary service,if one compares tire title of Eupolis’ ^urpi-Tturoi q ; yvvyi and Ar. Nu. 691-2): Er.98 seeas to be the words of the chorus

listr-i

ing the flowers with which they garland then selves. The theory that the

chorus of AporTrc'T'tdLS was really meant to represait effeminate or cowardly males is,however, precariously founded: there is no positive indication that the chorus were not genuinely fsuale. Against this subst-d

•3 antial evidoice for the ridicule of homosexuality and effeminacy in plays

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of Cratinus must.be set not only those fragments in which humour is d I extracted from heterosexual behaviour,but also the potoitial for hetero-« .1 sexual humour in such plays as (the bizarre attempts of leus

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to have his way with Nemesis), (Dionysus and

Helen),and Huriv^ (the marital infidelities of Cratinus and his recalls to faithftilness to Comedy) .It nevertheless seems that Cratinus quite | frequently made passive homosexuality and effeminacy the targets of his<

«5 cii tidnu.

The fragments of Eupolis are particularly lich in sexual humour. > /,

His /IutoAukoS was, to judge from our fragments, a particularly obscoie i

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play. The athlete Autolycus was evidently derided as a cat.amite(i. e. of Catlias) and colled Eutresian(Fr. 56), a pun possibly anticipated by Teleclides( cf. Fr. 57),hinting the soise ”well-pi erced”(£^ + Tcrp»}<r6v< i. e. frequently subjected to p edication. Not only Autolycus, but also bo th­ in, s parents, Hho di a and Lycon, were the targets of abuse, and it has bear

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plausibly conjectured that the referoice in Fr. 42 is to a brothel run t v » > \

by each: o?Kotr<rt S’ gvOcyS * av ~rp»eriv KnXiS

yf 'i

£^(t07 Ek^o-ToS _-J

17.

Frs. 47 and 50 refer to sexual intercourse,in language similar to that -$]

later employed by Aristophanes in Lys. 229-3X Aristophanes has

h Otf rtpoS ToV opo«f>oV «fV»rT£V<^J ~TtO I liptfiKor f S

while the Eupolis passages are respectively j]

er/<rAr| Sa KtoX^vas tvQu -rovpo^cnf

and <*rv£K.c*S /<<?/ /^S'sXupioS ~rc e'KfXoS .

Fr. 44 reveals that in the second version of the play there was a scene

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where Leogoras, the profligate father of An do ci des, complained. of having squandered his patrimony on the courtesan Myrxhin a, whil e the assert­ ions that Eupolis makes about Ehodia elsewhere ( cf. Fr. 21.5 in partic­ ular) make it likely that she was represented as sexually abandoned in Au 7"oAuro5 also.It is possible that loth Fr. 62( Aprp ortri or ,lack of buyers) and Fr. 48( eXXtjxsvi©* 3owv«ri ?Tp»v £‘o*£ Sa/? }

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a ’’you must hand over your harbour-dues before you go in”) refer to

pro st­

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xtution,but not demonstrable.In the latter case the sense would be tliati

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payment must be rac.de before admission to the brothd: the ’’harbour”

would be the prostitute’s vagina. For the imagery —in a. much more el­ evated setting— cf. Soph.0. T. 1208 ff:

£ < >/

e,VTC$ r| jjfcfcrsy

TTeyiSj J<«r» TTXTp'i 7T£if£/V‘.

There is a considerable likelihood that Fr. 52 is intended to suggest cunnilin c.tu s:

£Tn C*S (^£°rS ^-trc^63\/ p>ioV CCS JAOybi^oV trpi^e^.

—S TVoXkwV Aorr4<5h>v *robs TTtpAci^^S,

The reference to ’’having licked the edges of many dishes” may veil draw’ on the same imagery as Ar. Ec d. 846-7< vhere the point is made more dear­ ly: JfyueVcS S',£V vW$ rrTTriK^v' <r7-oX*jV £)(4*3V

tZjV yirVeriKWV' ^icykorOcv/pEt 'rpv^Aicy,

The intexpretation is assisted by Eustathius’ observation(1539*33) >

TO yuvrr* KgJOV* <Yl cToVcV Ts. Aiy'LT’Vl fc.'Yl ^OlpoS /<<v

( cf. Taillardat,hes Iraages d1 Ari stophan e, para. 116). Ano ther seen e o f obscene humour, excretory in this case and not sexual,is intimated by

Frs. 45, 45A and 46, where chamber-pots are being emptied. The overall impression is that obscaiity, above all sexual obscenity, was a very

strong dement of the humour of AutdAukoS .

/AuToAifKos ■ vzas apparently Eupolis’ most obscene play,but there are many indications that he generously onployed sexual humour else­ where in his com edies, of tai in abuse of individuals?In Fr.llOB Edm (92. 23sq. Austin}, for example,he associates some demagogue with male .1 prosti tution. There are doubts about the precise restoration of the ! passage, and. there have been several differoit reconstructions of the !

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sense,but I understand lines 25~7 of Austin’s text to have one of the 7] following senses,depending on whether one reads TiS (van Leeuvoij or tvvtS (Wilamowitz) at the end. of 1. 26:

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(a) (with Ti$ co'/ ) "And he wouldn’t even be speaking Attic Greek,if | • *•’ he were not ashamed before his friends at being one of the non-politio- :

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al male prostitutes and not one of the haughty kind,but he’d have to -< Z1 hang(or bowjhis head and go into the brothel-...’’

(X remove the comma after in Austin. N tv<r<yviv probably contrasts with the pretentiousness of 1.24 Austin.)

(b) (with T<Va-S ) "And he vouldn’t even be speaking Attic Greek,if he were not ashamed before his friends,non-political male prostitutes &

and not the haughty kind,but he’d have to hang his head, and go into the: brothel... ’’

I prefer the former sense, with its contrast betweoi the type of TTopvcs| the demagogue had pretensions to be and the lower type that he really

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wa.s.For such a reflection on the character of pqTepeS cf. Eup. Fr.llo, where an appeal is addressed to Miltiades and Pericles not to permit

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AO votyASVor to lUl e the dty, /m Tel'S Ctyvp&iV f.A/<OVrSf|

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T*jv' err p*r~rrjY lory, .For a similar attitude to pqre/ȣ$ cf.Plato

l86,Ar. Bed.Iliff,Eg. 42^ff. We learn from Aeschines I..21 (and passim) that a citizoi who had prostituted his person was debarred by law from

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holding certain public offices or speaking in debate, an. important fact? to rononber in interpreting such allegations in Old Comedy. Those vho beat their fathers, shirked military service or threw away their shields- were similarly not entitled to be heard in public debate(Aescbin.I. 23 f), which enables us to see greater point in Aristophanes’ gibes against C_-~S Cleonymus for this last offoice( cf. also Eupolis Fr.lOQ Austin).Moi vho 1 had squandered their patrimonies were also debarred( Aeschin.I 2P):cf. ? A in that light Eup. Fr. 44 and .Fr.77 onploys a simple but none­

theless amusing double entendre to hint that some musician is not only

versatile as a dancer but also as a catamite : 5

Kc^XeoS U£V «

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K«vf Si»rdy»-\Asi s Tpiyvxjv'ois

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K<JT/KiV£l Tv«S /<O^60V-*lS

TiGuS ^vto crKtXq*1 <

Hie situation in Fr.158 is somewhat obscure: .;

7MKy$i4s«7* £K tzov' yz/v'q-iK^v £^/rtc. —(6) ri AqpslSs

oltk 01 KqS ' 'Trjv' <r£wrt>v yvyuv4<r£/S S4^t4-p7V3 |

Alcibiades is bidden leave tiie women, but the first speaker is told that)' he is talking nonsense and it is suggested that he go home and give his 1

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own wife some exercise. Mein eke takes it that the man is warned that Ale ibiades will demonstrate his virility on the speaker's wife unless the

speaker( A) exercises her himseLf.He does not explicitly identify ' B' with Alcibiades, but Kock and Edmonds do so, otherwise following Mein dee's lead. Botlie supposes that a slave is ' B’, impudently replying to ’A’, who has ) bidden Alcibiades quit his banquet with flatterers and prostitutes.Koch p and Edmonds take 'A' fs words to be an allusion to Alci siades* homo sex-.;; ual wrays in youth(Pherecr.l55 may have such a point). The words seen to >

be a parody of a formula used. of a boy attaining the status of £'^7/3oS

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or of an ephebus achieving fbll man's statu s( so Schweighauser, following

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hints in Xen. Cyr.l. .2.8 and Tereice Andr. 51), and. the diction of <5«i^o.p-ror may well be intended to counterbalance the language of the first sp eak er(^/4<*p is normally a word associated with high poetry, but it is found also in legalistic language: cf. Den. 25. 53?'where it appears J in a quoted law). Cl early, the interpretation of the fragment is uncertain]

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but I may add a further suggestion of what the situation may be. The pj women in question are perhaps the yz/Vq-TAes of Fr.l6l, the

*» present in Callia.s' house in KoAm«$ ( cf. Fr.169). Vie are told by Maximus of Tyre (20.~/z cf. Edmonds I p. 370)that at Callias’ symposia, as ± portrayed by Eupolxs, t^s koA4K£i<»s 7c <v<9Aoz f<^‘ s7^'/5*1 ,4

orAX*vi v"»rtt£.iv«=ji /<«v< *'Sfa^7rc>£ti}£<£'»S tqSov'^i t j[ reward for playing the Sj flatterer, then, was '.Athonaeus cites our fragment(l^)in order; to show/ that Alcibiades w/as TtooJ yw«4$ :he says nothing

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about any homosexual allegation here.I vender whether the situation is that some guests or flatterers of CaLlias are being permitted to enjoy the in tum(offstage) and that the first speaker is telling Ale- ibiades that his time is up, as it were, and that it is the speaker’s turn

to daim his due. A3- ci blade c, the no to rious , refuses to leave and tells the man to get away home and exercise his own wife,if he must have sex. By this interpretation tfX^vrcv gains in point. The metaphor ’’exercise one’s wife” is paralleled in A sd epi ades in the Palatine

Anthology V 203( v.Mdneke II p. 495)‘The idea is similar to the imagery ,i

of the sexual games in Pax 894ff.If ray theory of the significance of

Fr.158 is correct, there would be a substantial dement of sexual humour in at least one scene of koXanets. For the reputation of Callias himself

as a vomaniser cf. ,for exam pi e, Ra. 432-434.

Fr. 206 is of special interest in that it represents a supposed member of the audience as having sexual designs on one of the cities

which comprised the chorus in floAsiS:

o ‘thA'ivoS ovtdS irpoS txutijv

Oiffc <V7ToX'/?><<i>£<S £JS cvrrciKI°rV' TlVor'

The motif is similar to that of such passages as Pax 883ff> where Ariphn- ades is said to be eager for Theoria to come his way:

1. £J<£|Vot?» V£Lf £1 . Q * T« Of*

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ciyaV rr«tp' orirroV avri^oAtov'. ♦ otXX’ co yutcAt

\ Y \ } > 1

~rcV ^tvyueV orVr»]S 7rpoo'Tr£«r^J>V £xX<>^-£.r<v 1 .

Both passages exploit a common technique of making sexual jokes about female p ersoni fi cation s. In the Eupolis passage there is a tranda.ti.on of what may be designs upon the wealth of allied cities into sexual

terms. Phil inus is told to take his eyes off the city and direct his attrition towards some colony, seen,it would appear, a.s a more legit­ imate source of gain. Cf. Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes,p.ll8, for

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From the sane play comes Fr. 233, where the following observation is ma.de of Cyzicus by some character:

5 C ~ cf\ k*Z k J . t 5 Zy

oA>|v' -r^v' -rev' kno'OoV £kKof.ily£iv.

The city is seen as a place where, during his period of garrison-duty there,the speaker was able to purchase the sexual services of ransn, boy or greybeard for a trifling sum and spend all day enjoying a woman’.',

favours. The addition of yf^vrq. is,of course, comic hyperbole to emphas­ ize the availability of whatever form of sex was desired. The phrase ~rcv tc-ierOov eKKop^n v* makes a pun comparable to that in Ar.

Fr, 266:

ttov^e^ cj<rTUfti

kX'vr^{iiov'«>

to be capable of derivation

2(o ’ f y

Kock end LSI take the verb £KKopi4,£iv' to be capable of derivation

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