Laughter in Ancient Rome
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Dionysius II (tyrant of Syracuse), flatterers of, 151
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on Tarentines, 220n10
the dishonorable, laughter at, 125
dogs: anthropomorphization of, 47; laughter of, 24, 47; rictus of, 260n16
Domitian, Emperor: offense at jokes, 132
Domitius Ahenobarbus, 101
Domitius Marsus, on urbanitas, 124
Donatus, Aelius: commentary on The Eunuch, 12, 13, 221n30, 222n38, 223n47
donkeys: ancient varieties of, 266n100; fatal laughter at, 176–78, 179, 180; transformation into, 178
donkeys, dining, 266nn106,112; laughter at, 177, 178, 179–80, 265n91; reactions of, 267n113
double entendres: Cicero on, 117; Quintilian on, 99–100
Douglas, Mary, 42, 43, 230n72; “Do Dogs Laugh?,” 47; essay on jokes, 273n54; on Pygmy laughter, 45
dreams: interpretation of, 273n57; jokes on, 197; versus reality, 273n56; in Roman culture, 197–98
Dupont, F., 250n82
Du Quesnay, I. M. LeM., 241n52
Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose, 30, 34, 220n17, 225n26
effeminacy, jokes on, 106
Ekman, Paul, 233n18
Elagabalus, Emperor: banquets of, 149; jocularity of, 144, 154; laughter of, 77, 128; murder by scurrae, 154; pranks of, 128–29, 132, 142, 147, 148, 231n4
Elias, N., 234n29
elites, Roman: household jesters of, 145, 146, 256n66; laughter of, 4, 115, 129, 130, 154; participation in Saturnalia, 236n49; relationship with jesters, 155; self-fashioning by, 135, 146
emotion, facial expressions of, 75, 233n18
emperors, Roman: bad, 132; civilitas of, 130, 131; control of laughter, 134–35; interactions with subjects, 135–36, 140; jokes of, ix, 140–42, 252n3; toleration of joking, 130, 131; use of laughter, 129–35
Ennius, 133; “hahae” of, 16, 223n52; jokes about, 200, 270n23; puns on monkeys, 162
envoys, Roman: Tarentines’ laughter at, 4, 6, 220n10
epigrams, scoptic, 271n40, 273n56
ethnicity: in laughter, 45, 51–52, 89; in modern jokes, 191
eunuchs, in Roman comedy, 9
Eunus, slave revolt of, 152
Evanthius, on mime, 170
evil eye, averting of, 256n71
facetiae (wit), 228n48; Cicero on, 111, 113, 114; divisions of, 111. See also jokes, Roman; wit, Roman
facial gestures, universality of, 75
family life, jokes on, 198
Fantham, Elaine, 35, 167, 254n28, 263n59
Favor (mime actor), 146
Fellini, Federico: use of Apuleius, 182
feminism, laughter in writings of, 36–37, 228n52
Fescennine verses, 68, 238nn64,67
Festus, On the Meaning of Words, 172–73, 264n73
Fick-Michel, N., 266n101
figs, erotic associations of, 177, 265n95
Flamininus, Lucius Quinctius: joking by, 80–81; maiestas of, 79–81
flatterers. See parasites
Floridi, L., 271n40
Fontaine, Michael, 56, 195
food, relationship to deception, 148, 256n75
Fortunate Isles, springs of, 26, 224n9
Fowler, Don, 258n98
Fraenkel, Eduard, 90, 222n37, 243n72; on scurrilitas, 153
Frangoulidis, S., 222n39
Frazer, James: Golden Bough, 63
Freedberg, David, 233n18
Freud, Sigmund, 131; on the comic, 41; on displacement, 222n41; favorite joke of, 214, 276n6; on ideation, 230n66; Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, 12, 38, 39, 42, 229n61; on mechanism of laughter, 40; relief theory of, 38, 41; Wittgenstein’s critique of, 229n64
Freudenburg, K., 225n23
funerals, Roman: jesters at, 146
Gabba (court jester), 143, 255n49
Galen, 86; on apes and monkeys, 165–66; dissection of apes, 27, 224n14; on laughter, 27. Works: On Problematical Movements, 23; On the Usefulness of Parts of the Body, 165
Galli (priests), 9
games, Roman: theatrical performances within, 221n23
Gatrell, Vic, 61, 62, 229n64
gelan (laugh), 3; etymology of, 231n81; uses of, 239n12
geloion (joke), 76, 207; in Plutarch, 153
Gelon (laughing spring), 25–26
gelōs (laughter), 3; and risus, 48
gelotophyllis (laughter leaves), identity of, 25, 28–29, 224n8
Germans, ancient: laughter of, 52
Gibson, R., 259n8
giggling, 259nn5–6; Dio’s, 1–8, 43, 53, 128; women’s, 3, 157, 219n7
Gildenhard, Ingo, 241n49, 246n20, 249n61, 251n91
gods: anthropomorphic statues of, 175; laughter of, 136–37, 159, 169, 254n28
Godwin, John, 171
Goldhill, Simon, 223n48, 245n3
The Goodies, laughing to death at, 177
Gorgons, laughter of, 36, 57
Gospel of Jesus, laughter in, 228n45
Gowers, Emily, 68, 256n73; on Saturnalia, 236n49
Graf, F., 248n41
Grant, M. A., 248n46, 250n67
Greek language: Roman laughter in, 85–95; vocabulary for laughter, 6, 71, 76, 207
Greeks, Alexandrian: mocking of Jews, 141, 142, 254n44
Green, P., 258n93
Gruen, Erich, 211–12, 243n72
Guérin, C., 247n33, 249n56
Habinek, T., 267n124
Hadrian, Emperor: interactions with subjects, 135–36, 253n23
hahahae (interjection), 8; in The Eunuch, 9, 12, 14, 16, 90, 107
Hall, E., 262n50
Halliwell, Stephen, 73, 233n21; on agelasts, 265n89; on animal laughter, 253n27; on Democritus, 92; on giggling, 259n5; Greek Laughter, x, 88; on philosophy of laughter, 228n49; on self-reflexivity, 223n50; on Spartan laughter, 244n85; on Xenophon, 257n81
Hals, Frans: The Laughing Cavalier, 57
Hannibal, jokes of, 78
Harpaste (clown), 145, 256n67
Hassan, Margaret, 233n18
Heath, J. R., 266n109
Hekster, O., 221n22
Henderson, John, 252n107
Hercules: attack on Stymphalian birds, 219n1, 220n18; dramatic interpretation of, 170
Herodas, use of kichlizein, 219n8
herons, laughter of, 34, 227n43
Herzen, Alexander, 49, 65, 231n1
Hierokles, association with Philogelos, 188, 269n11
Hippocrates, fictional accounts of, 92–93
Hobbes, Thomas: Nietzsche on, 45; theory of superiority, 41. Works: The Elements of Law, 37; Leviathan, 41
Homer, use of meidiao, 73
Horace: on Democritus, 244n84; on Fescennine verses, 68, 238n64; on Greek culture, 87; on Sarmentus, 153, 255n48; Satires, 81, 153, 204; Saturnalia in, 64, 235n46; style of laughter, 68; use of ridere, 72
House of the Dioscuri (Pompeii), 261n34
House of the Tragic Poet (Pompeii), 234n25; CAVE CANEM mosaic, 58, 59
human-animal boundary: in The Golden Ass, 160, 167, 183; Roman laughter at, 159–60, 164–67, 174, 178, 259n11
humorlessness, Victorian, 67
Hunter, R. L., 262n52
Hutchinson, Gregory, 105
Hylas (pantomime actor), 79
identity: construction through wit, 247n29; jokes about, 199–200; proof of, 201, 273n67
Ik (mountain people), 231n79
imitation: aggressive forms of, 263n62; danger for orators, 250n80; Galen on, 165–66; monkeys’, 161–62, 163–64; observers’ perception of, 164–65; in Roman laughter, 58, 78, 160, 173, 174. See also mimicry
impersonation: in ancient theater, 170; in Roman laughter, 78
incongruity, laughter at, 28, 38, 40, 59, 81, 117, 175–76, 230n68, 241n50
invective, Roman, 41–42; Cicero’s use of, 120, 123; rhetoric of, 247n26
irridere (to laugh), 71
Isaac (the patriarch), laughter of, 233n22
Isidore, on spleen, 224n6
Isis, in The Golden Ass, 178
James,
P., 267n124
Janko, Richard, 31
Jerome, Saint: on Crassus the agelast, 176, 265n91; use of cachinnare, 266n98
jesters: Greek slaves, 152; as monkeys, 166. See also jokers
jesters, Roman: in elite households, 145, 146, 256n66; at imperial court, 142–47, 255n49, 256nn63–64; joke collections of, 193; at Vespasian’s funeral procession, 146, 256n72
Jesus, laughter of, 34, 81, 228n45
Jews, Alexandrian: delegation to Caligula, 140–42, 254n42; mockery of, 141, 142, 254n44
Joe Miller’s Jests, 212–13, 276n3
Johnson, Samuel: on laughter, 11, 222n36; and Philogelos joke, 186, 213, 268n5
jokebooks: Hellenistic, 204, 207; refinement of, 66; Renaissance, 275n2
jokebooks, Greek: evidence for, 203, 204, 274n74
jokebooks, Roman, 201–5; Cicero’s jokes in, 104; parasites’, 149–50, 193, 202–3, 205. See also Philogelos
jokers: as butt of jokes, 120, 125; consequences of jokes for, 107; vulnerability of, 76. See also jesters
jokers, Roman: cultural ideology surrounding, 129, 146–47; murder of, 253n12
jokes: abusive, 32; aggressive, 123; analysis of, 28; apotropaic, 146; Arabic, 212; commodification of, 205–8, 209; definition of, 205; emotional release through, 38–39; ethics of, 27; incomprehensible, 15; as intellectual devices, 197; Jewish, 213; nationalistic, 270n30; in Nicomachean Ethics, 32; old, 131, 213–14, 223n49; psychological aspects of, 197–98; reassuring, 247n28; social function of, 197; successful, 28; swapping of, 205; threesomes in, 186; unique properties of, 205; in wartime, 38, 101–2, 104, 229n60, 246n20. See also wit
jokes, ancient: ethnic preferences in, 89; Greek versus Roman, 206, 207; invention of, 205, 208–9, 212; lost points of, 195–96, 272n45; modern retelling of, 18–19; offensive to moderns, 195, 272n53; purchase of, 207. See also Philogelos; scholastikos jokes
jokes, Greek: anthologies of, 203–4; in The Eunuch, 89–91; Roman adaptation of, 89–91
jokes, Roman, x; attributed to Cicero, 104, 105; bad, 56, 186; bad-tempered, 116–17, 120; bequest to Western culture, 208, 212; on bodily peculiarities, 106, 120, 121, 231n4; Caesar’s soldiers’, 146, 231n4; Cicero’s, 78, 101–5, 124, 126–27, 153, 202, 212, 245n5, 246n14, 270n23, 275n2; commodification of, 208; in culinary economy, 148; deception in, 125–26; domestic anthropology of, 201; effect of rhetoric on, 208; on effeminacy, 106; Elagabalus’s, 77; emperors’, ix, 140–42, 252n3; of The Eunuch, 9–12, 14, 18, 176–77, 205, 222n37; at expense of friendship, 76, 240n27; failed, 125; famous persons in, 200; great men’s, 105; versus Greek jokes, 206, 207; histories of, 17; illumination of Roman culture, 196; inappropriate, 101–2, 123, 131, 231n4, 252n11; jokers as butt of, 120; mangled, 123; mimes’, 103; modern reconstruction of, 49, 54–56, 195, 212, 213, 232nn13,14, 272n49; objects of, 19; old, 13, 15, 78, 200; origins of, 208; practical, 77; Quintilian on, 54–56, 123–26, 232nn11,13; rhetoricians on, 28; of scurrae, 103, 118, 121, 124, 152; on the Senate, 131; sexual overtones in, 12, 271n40, 273n61; suggestibility for moderns, 212; on thieving slaves, 117, 123; tyrants’, 129, 130; vocabulary for, 76; women’s, 156. See also Macrobius, Saturnalia; Philogelos
joke writers, professional, 205
Jones, Christopher, 75
Joubert, Laurence, 229n64
Joyce, James: representation of laughter, 36, 228n50
Julia (daughter of Augustus): exile of, 156, 259n3; jokes of, 78, 156, 259n3; jokes on, 133
Juvenal, puns in, 258n88
Kant, Immanuel: on incongruity, 38
Kassel, Rudolf, 204
Kaster, Robert, 73–74; on smiling, 239n16
katagelaō (to laugh at), 150
Kerman, J. B., 273n54
Khlebnikov, Velimir, x
kichlizein (to giggle), 3, 259n5; erotics of, 219n8. See also giggling
Kidd, S., 222n34
Kindt, Julia, 175, 265n87
King, A., 261n32
Kirichenko, Alexander, 183, 264n64, 267n124; on actor et auctor, 268n129
kissing, ancient, 75, 240n23
kouroi, archaic smiles of, 57
Kristeva, Julia: on laughter of babies, 85, 242n62
Kroll, W. M., 249n65
Krostenko, B. A., 115, 247n29; on typology of wit, 250n67
Kurke, Leslie, 138, 254nn31,34
Kyme, jokes about, 191–92, 199, 201, 271n31
Laberius: Anna Peranna, 169, 263n57; Cicero’s joke at, 246n14; mimes of, 168
La Bua, G., 267n127
Laes, C., 256n63
Latin language: Roman laughter in, 70–73; smiles in, 73–76
the laughable, 5; Aristotle on, 32; categories of, 109–10, 112; cultural determinants of, 59; fault in, 32–33; Greek books on, 110; lost treatises on, 226n32; in On the Orator, 109–10; versus the ridiculous, 220n14; in Roman culture, 103; sources of, 117
laughers: Commodus’s execution of, 132; consequences of jokes for, 107; versus laughed at, 181, 184, 268n130; sense of inferiority, 41; sincerity of, 151
laughter: anti-totalitarian, 5, 30, 220n17; Aristotle on, 32–34, 40, 220n9, 227n40; of babies, 25, 35, 36, 83, 84, 85; bestial, 158, 159, 160; biblical, 238n68; biological origins of, 37; canine, 24, 47; canned, 230n72; carnivalesque, 60, 61–62, 223n48; causes of, 16, 24, 28–29, 33, 183, 222n36; changing patterns of, 48, 59–60, 65–69; children’s, 44, 230n75; Christian discourse of, x, 155; continuity in rituals of, 237n59; corrective, 40; and cultural discourse of laughter, 66; diachronic histories of, 65, 66, 67, 69; discursive complexity of, 58; disguised, 5; effect of social hierarchy on, 28; ethics of, 27; fatal, 14, 172–74, 176–78, 180, 265n92; feminist, 36–37, 228n52; Galen on, 23; gestures accompanying, 44; history of, 48, 49–50, 65, 208, 234n27; as human property, 29, 32, 33, 34, 46, 47, 137, 159, 227n44; interpretation of, 7, 17; inversionary, 60; isolating, 15; Jewish debates on, x; manifestations for audiences, 42; manifestations for laughers, 42; as marker of disruption, 44, 60, 67, 77, 116, 118, 142, 196–97; medieval, 61, 62, 233n22; metaphorical use of, 46; as metaphor of communication, 84; at mimicry, 112, 119, 160; misunderstanding of, 17; modern studies of, 29, 36–37; neuroscience of, 24, 29, 48, 212, 229n62; at oneself, 18, 19; organs responsible for, 25, 29; within and outside text, 180, 181; physical nature of, 16, 23, 27, 39, 47, 107, 116, 158, 222n42, 229n64; political aspects of, 7; practice/protocol of, 49–50, 66, 67, 231n2; prompted by ridicule, 33; proper and improper uses of, 44, 49, 230n75; proverbs about, 76; Pygmies’, 45–46; reassuring, 247n28; refinement of, 67–68; relationship to objects of laughter, 16, 76, 160, 170–72, 181, 184; relationship to power, x, 3–4, 6; in religious, 60; rhetoric of, 44; role of memory in, 15; Roman intellectuals on, ix; scientific discussions of, 46; self-reflexivity of, 223n50; shared, 15; social, 40, 229n62, 230n72, 247n29; social determinants of, 27–28, 43, 65; social regulation of, 43–44; at someone/thing, 7, 221n20; Soviet scholars on, 234n33; stifled, 2–3, 5, 6, 7; stimulation of, 224n17; in theological texts, 238n68; in time of trouble, 245n9; as unitary phenomenon, 42, 230n71; universal psychology of, 53, 61; written representations of, 11, 36, 222n35
laughter, ancient: Alexandrian, 51–52; caused by wounds, 26, 224n10; chemically induced, 52; at elderly women, 173; erotics of, 241n45; ethnic differences in, 51–52; between master and slave, 137–39; origin of, 111; Peripatetic school on, 110; philosophical tradition on, 110; visual images of, 49, 56–59, 162–63, 165, 166, 233n24
laughter, derisory, 5, 106; association with Aristotle, 29, 33, 227n40; Dio’s, 14; Quintilian on, 28, 37; Roman, 17; Tarentines’, 4, 6, 220n10; victims of, 37
laughter, English: early, 50, 59–60, 66; eighteenth-century, 66, 237nn58,62; vocabulary for, 71
laughter, French: royal versus revolutionary, 237n62
laughter, Greek: Demosthenes’ use of, 102, 103; modern comprehension of, 54; nuanced images of, 227n41; at Roman dress, 4; and Roman laughter, ix, 35, 69, 86, 88, 203, 207–8; Roman side of, 91–95; Spartan, 93–94, 244n85; terminology of, 239n14; vocabulary of, 6, 71, 76, 207
laugh
ter, nineteenth-century: modern comprehension of, 53
laughter, past, 50–56; changing registers of, 67; inherited conventions of, 54; modern comprehension of, 52–56; repeating patterns of, 67; Roman reflections on, 50; systematization of, 70
laughter, Roman: at abuse of power, 3–4, 220n10; across social hierarchies, 135–40; ancient authors on, 69; apotropaic, 58, 146, 234n25, 256n70; in art, 57–59; association with prostitutes, 80; Augustan, 69; Bakhtin and, 50; at bodily transgression, 51; Caligula’s coercing of, 6, 134; changes in, 68–69; circumstances of, 16; consequences of, 107; controlling, 133–34; control over, 43; in culinary economy, 148; cultural geography of, 191; in Declamationes, 79–81; derisive, 17; diachronic history of, 69; as diagnostic of villainy, 77; Dio’s accounts of, 1–8; discursive tropes of, 140; elites’, 4, 88, 89, 115; between emperors and subjects, 135–36, 140–42; emperors’ control of, 134–35; emperors’ use of, 129–35; excessive, 77; exclusionary/inclusionary, 17; facilitation of communications, 136; faked and real, 17; false certainties in, 83; flatterers’, 141, 150–51; geography of, 51; between gods and mortals, 136–37; in Greek, 85–95; and Greek laughter, ix, 35, 69, 86, 88, 203, 207–8; at human-animal boundary, 159–60, 164–67, 174, 178, 259n11; humiliating, 77; illusion in, 58; imitation in, 58, 78, 160, 173, 174; of imperial court, 129; impersonation in, 78; inappropriate, 51, 80; incongruity in, 81, 117, 241n50; in Latin language, 70–73; linguistic rules of, 82; in literature, 70–73, 136, 140, 157; in master-slave relations, 137–40; at mime, 160, 169–71; modern comprehension of, 4, 18, 52–56, 75, 211–12; nonelite, 87–88, 193; old-style, 68–69, 78, 237n63; policing functions of, 232n6; prohibitions concerning, 51, 123; protocols of, 51, 77, 82, 142; public, 100, 115, 241n46; at puns, 118; relationship to mimicry, 263n62; relationship to power, 3–4, 17, 77, 106, 128–29, 197, 220n10, 252n2; rhetorical uses of, 28, 54–55; ribald, 68; scripted, 8–17, 223n51; signals implied by, 81; slogans of, 76; social reality of, 140; sociolinguistic rules governing, 83; spontaneous, 4, 16, 39, 43, 127; through comparison, 252n9; transgressive, 241n46; truth and falsehood in, 125–26, 129; understanding of, 17–19, 70; and verbal jokes, 6; in Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 81–85; vocabulary in Latin, 71–73; written representations of, 11, 59, 222n35. See also jokes, Roman; wit, Roman
laughter, Roman oratorical, 19, 54, 99–100, 105–9; aggressive, 120–23; anxieties concerning, 124–25; backfiring of, 107–8, 118, 125; causes of, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115–19, 124, 170; Cicero’s use of, 95; the dishonorable in, 125; objects of, 116; in On the Orator, 28, 35, 107–8, 109–23, 212, 223n1, 225n23; questions concerning, 109, 111; relationship to mimicry, 119, 160, 167–72; risks of, 115–20; as Roman cultural product, 110–11; in Roman literature, 240n26; rules for, 112–13, 117, 120–21, 122. See also wit, Roman oratorical