Laughter in Ancient Rome

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Laughter in Ancient Rome Page 45

by Mary Beard


  laughter, Roman women’s, 157–60; and animal noise, 157, 158; braying, 158; Catullus on, 159–60, 171; gendered performance of, 259n5; in Petronius, 171–72

  laughter, scripted: causes of, 16, 223n53; in classical Latin literature, 16–17, 223n51; in The Eunuch, 8–11, 14, 16; in Greek comedy, 222n34; in Heauton Timorumenus, 16–17; in Joyce, 36, 228n50; in Roman comedy, 8–17

  laughter, uncontrollable, 16; Aristotle on, 220n9; Claudius’s, 133; death following, 177, 265n92; myth of, 43–44, 116, 133; of newsreaders, 43

  laughter culture: Bakhtin on, 60–62, 234n33; cross-cultural, 5; discourse of, 66; middle class and, 60, 66; natural/cultural binary of, 42–48

  laughter culture, European, 61; diversity in, 213; Roman influence on, 212, 213

  laughter culture, Roman, 4–5, 79; alternative traditions in, 157; elite, 129, 130, 154; geography of, 191; versus Greek, 207–8; Greek connections in, 85–95; nonelite, 87–88, 193; in oratory, 110–11; Plutarch in, 88; primates in, 160–61; women in, 3, 157, 159–60, 219n7

  “laughterhood,” Roman, x, 24, 95; bilingual, 89; changes in, 69; commodification of, 208; versus Greek, 203; role of mimes in, 167; Saturnalia in, 63

  laughter theories, 23–24; ancient, 24, 29, 37, 160; animals in, 160; Aristotle’s contributions to, 29; “classical,” 24, 29–36; Greek, 35, 110, 248n46; Hellenistic, 27; history of, 49; incongruity theory, 38, 40, 230n68; intellectual genealogies of, 41; laboratory-based, 38; modern, 36–42, 226n31, 229n63; oversimplification of, 37, 40; Pliny the Elder’s, 24–27; relief theory, 38–39; Renaissance, 212; Roman, 24, 27, 29, 34, 35, 212; superiority theory, 37, 39–40, 41, 230n65; totalizing, 39–40; universal, 50

  Laurence, R., 252n3

  Laurence, Saint: joking by, 155; martyrdom of, 154–55

  Lautréamont, Comte de: Les Chants de Maldoror, 44

  Lee, Guy, 171

  Leeman, A.D., 228n48

  Le Goff, Jacques, 230n71, 231nn1–2, 234n27; on Bakhtin, 234n33; on Isaac the patriarch, 233n22; on smiling, 75

  lepos (wit), in Cicero, 114, 115. See also wit, Roman

  Lessing, D., 228n52

  Lévi-Strauss, C., 256n78

  Lewis, Wyndham: laughter theory of, 36, 228n52

  Life of Aesop: manuscript tradition of, 254n30; master-slave relations in, 137–39

  Ling, Roger, 58, 59

  literature, classical: survival of, 187

  literature, Greek: images of laughter in, 227n41; monkeys in, 161, 261n23; of Roman empire, 85–95, 243n70; Roman laughter in, 85–95; Roman readers of, 87

  literature, Roman: gelastic culture of, 89; in Latin, 16–17, 70–73, 75, 140, 223n51; laughter in, 70–73, 140; moralizing, 163; scripted laughter in, 8–17, 223n51; scurrae in, 153–54; smiling in, 75; truth and falsehood in, 126; women’s laughter in, 157. See also comedy, Roman

  Livius Andronicus, jokes of, 13, 91

  Livy: on dramatic festivals, 238n64; on Fescennine verses, 68; words for smiles, 74

  Long, J., 259n3

  Lowe, N., 229n57

  Lucian, 86, 227n44; Life of Demonax, 202, 274n68; monkeys in, 164

  Lucian (author of Lucius, or The Ass), 178–79, 180, 181; identity of, 266n102

  Lucilius, on Crassus the agelast, 176

  Lucius of Patrai, Metamorphoses, 179, 266n104

  Lucretius, on laughter, 159

  Machon, Chreiai, 274n74

  Macrobius, Saturnalia, x, 64; Augustus’s jokes in, 105, 130–31, 133, 156, 202; Cicero’s jokes in, 103, 104, 202, 212, 246n14; elitism of, 236n51; on Fescennine verses, 238n67; joking in, 77–78, 89; Julia in, 156, 202; mime in, 78–79, 168; on pantomime, 170; smiles in, 73–74, 75, 239n16; sources of, 240n33; Vatinius in, 122

  Magna Mater: cult of, 221n28; Megalesia festival of, 9; temple of, 8

  Maltby, Robert, 203, 257n82

  Marshall, C. W., 233n17

  Martial: on Abdera, 191; on Capitolinus the jester, 143; laughter in, 259n7; use of adridere, 72, 238n5

  Marzolph, U., 275n1

  masks, 221n25

  masks, comic, 32, 227n38; laughing, 57; in mime, 168; monkey heads, 162; in Plautus, 263n53

  Mason, H. J., 266n104

  master-slave relations, laughter in, 137–40

  Maximus (prefect of Egypt), trial of, 241n46

  May, Régine, 179

  McDermott, W. C., 162, 261n35

  Mediterranean, ancient: cultural change across, 87

  Megalesia festival, theater during, 9

  meidiaō (smile), 73, 74; Virgil’s interpretation of, 88

  Melissus, Ineptiae, 202, 274n71

  Memmius, Crassus’s joke on, 123, 125, 248n51

  memory, role in laughter, 15

  Menander: The Eunuch, 90; Roman adaptations of, 86, 90–91; The Toady, 90–91, 243n74

  Mercury, laughter of, 136

  Messius Cicirrus (clown), 68

  middle class, and culture of laughter, 60, 66

  Milanezi, S., 275n86

  Milo, Titus Annius: Cicero’s defense of, 99–100, 126–27, 245n2

  mime, 78–79, 167–71; as antitype of cavillatio, 249n56; bawdiness of, 78, 169, 241n36; changing character of, 169; Cicero on, 168; Dionysos in, 263n61; economy of laughter in, 172; imitative nature of, 170; influence in Philogelos, 271n42; influence on authors, 262n48; laughter at, 160, 169–71; modern literature on, 262n49; and pantomime, 168, 241n38, 262n50; in Petronius, 172; plots of, 168–69; relationship with audience, 172; scholarship on, 167; sources for, 168; survival of, 169; unmasked tradition in, 168, 263n53

  mime actors: comparison to orators, 119, 120, 167, 170; at funerals, 146; jokes of, 103; laughter of, 171; masks of, 168; women, 159, 167–68, 171, 264n66

  mimesis, tragic, 263n63

  mimicry: barristers’ use of, 145; failed, 164–66; production of laughter, 112, 170, 249n57; relationship to laughter, 119, 160, 167–72, 263n62; in Roman culture, 163; in Suetonius, 263n64. See also imitation

  misers, jokes about, 191

  misogyny, ancient: at elderly women, 173, 264n76

  misrule: decline in celebrations, 66; rituals of, 60. See also carnival

  Monaco, G., 248n41

  Mona Lisa, smile of, 233n22

  monkeys and apes: comic nature of, 27, 161, 166; depiction of Roman heroes as, 162–63; dissection of, 27, 224n14; as failed mimics, 164–66; as flatterers, 163; hands of, 165; in Greek literature, 161, 261n23; images of, 162–63, 165, 261nn32,34; imitative, 161–62, 163–64, 165; Latin puns on, 162, 261n27; laughter of, 231n82; Roman idea of, 260n21; tea parties (of chimpanzees), 161, 260n21. See also primates

  Morreall, J., 229n64, 230n68

  mulsum (unwatered wine), donkeys’ drinking of, 180

  Mummius, jokes about, 189

  Murdoch, Iris, 131; The Sea, the Sea, 213–14; 276n5

  Murena, Lucius Licinius: Cicero’s defense of, 102

  Murgia, Charles, 54–56, 232nn12–13

  Musca, Aulus Sempronius, 120

  mutism: Aesop’s, 138, 144; cultural roles of, 254n34

  Mutus Argutus (funerary inscription), 144, 255n61

  names, Roman: jokes on, 120

  Nero, Emperor: as Saturnalian king, 64, 236n54

  Nero, Gaius Claudius: ridiculum of, 117

  Nesselrath, H.-G., 226n29

  Nicolaus of Damascus: Historia, 252n4; on Sulla, 129–30

  Nietzsche, F: on carnival, 63, 235n42; on Hobbes, 45

  Nisbet, Robin, 84, 242n59

  Nonius Marcellus, on vocabulary of laughter, 72

  numbers, jokes about, 198–99, 269n7

  obscenity, as catalyst for laughter, 119

  Oliensis, Ellen, 68

  orators, Roman: as butt of jokes, 120; comparison to mime actors, 119, 120, 167, 170; comparison to scurrae, 121–22, 129; dangers of imitation for, 250n80; personal responsibility of, 121; stylistic changes among, 124; use of laughter, 19, 54, 99–100, 105–8, 170. See also laughter, Roman oratorical; wit, Roman oratorical

  Ovid: laughter in, 71, 81; view of Greek cultu
re, 243n66; words for smiles, 74

  —Art of Love, 81; advice to young men, 157; women’s laughter in, 157–59, 159

  —Metamorphoses: laughter in, 136–37, 253n28; rictus in, 260n14

  paintings, ancient: laughter in, 57, 233n21

  Palamedes, as inventor of the joke, 208–9, 275nn86–87

  Palmer, A.-M., 259n102

  Panayotakis, Costas, 172, 262n49, 263n57; on Petronius, 264n71

  Panksepp, J., 231n83

  pantomime, ancient, 78; Macrobius on, 168, 170; and mime, 168, 241n38, 262n50; women in, 255n62

  papyrus, joke fragments in, 204, 274n76

  parasites, 147–52; at banquets, 148, 149, 150–51, 209; etymologies of, 148–49; in The Eunuch, 10–11, 12, 90, 148, 221n29; flattery by, 150; Greek prose tradition of, 258n89; Greek versus Roman, 149; jokebooks of, 149–50, 193, 202–3, 205; laughter of, 71, 141, 150–51; monkeys as, 163; in Plautus, 149–50, 203, 257nn82–83, 86; in Plutarch, 257n87; pranks played on, 148; ridiculi, 150, 257n86; in Roman culture, 149, 163; scholarship on, 257n80; scurrae and, 153

  Parmeniscus of Metapontum: consultation of Delphic oracle, 174–75, 265n83; identity of, 175, 265n85; inability to laugh, 174–76, 206, 265n87

  Parrhasius, illusionism of, 234n24

  Parvulescu, A., 228n52

  Paterson, J., 252n3

  patronage, Roman: joking in, 208; parasites in, 149, 151; sites of discomfort in, 257n80

  Paul the Deacon, summary of Festus, 264n73

  Peripatetic school, 29, 34; influence on On the Orator, 110; on laughter, 35; of Roman Empire, 227n44; terms for wit, 249n65

  Perseus, slaying of Medusa, 6, 220n18

  Persius, vocabulary for laughter, 72

  persuasion: in On the Orator, 108, 109; through ridicule, 106

  Petrarch, on Cicero, 246n21

  Petronius, Satyricon: dinner party of, 148; Fellini’s adaptation of, 182; laughter in, 171–72, 233n24; plot of, 264n67; Quartilla episode, 171–72, 264n71; risus mimicus of, 267n124

  Phaedrus: Fables of, 126; on flattery, 163

  Philagrios (grammatikos), association with Philogelos, 188, 269n11

  Philemon, death by laughter, 177, 179, 180, 266n112

  Philip of Macedon: attempt to purchase jokes, 8, 206–7; parasite of, 151

  Philistion (mime writer), 169, 263n60; association with Philogelos, 188, 269n11

  Phillips, Adam, 216

  Philo, laughter in, 254n42

  Philocalus, Calendar of, 236n48

  Philogelos (“Laughter lover”), x, 89; academic function of, 271n39; Arabic jokes and, 212; archetypes of, 187–88; bad jokes in, 186; bald jokes in, 185–86, 200; character types in, 190–91, 192, 194, 271n37; compilers associated with, 188; cultural implications of, 197; datable jokes in, 189, 269n17, 270n18; dedication of, 188; famous persons in, 189; fluidity of, 188; Greco-Roman cultures in, 188–89; Greek language of, 185, 189, 269n16; identity jokes in, 199–200; interchangeable jokes in, 192; issues of relativism in, 273n54; Johnson’s publication of, 186, 268n5; jokes on dreams, 197; jokes on family life, 198; joking styles in, 192, 194–96; links to fable in, 271n40; manuscript tradition of, 186–87, 188, 190, 195, 269nn7,11, 270n27; mime influences in, 271n42; miser jokes in, 191; modern appreciation of, 212; modern borrowings from, 213; numerical tropes in, 198–99; origins of, 188–89, 192–93, 201; personal names in, 188–89, 190; places in, 191–93, 199, 201, 269n7, 271n30; popular traditions in, 193; printed texts of, 186, 187, 212, 268n2; puns in, 194; reconstruction of jokes, 195, 272n49; retelling of jokes from, 18–19; Roman character of, 186, 189; scholarship on, 268n2; and scoptic epigrams, 271n40; sexual jokes in, 271n40, 273n61; simpleton jokes in, 196; structure of, 190, 271n37; translations of, 195, 268n2; types of jokes in, 197–200; Tzetzes’ use of, 187; visual jokes in, 194; water jokes in, 191, 270n29; wordplay in, 195. See also jokebooks, Roman; scholastikos jokes

  Philostratus (major and minor), ecphrases of painting, 233n21

  Photios (Byzantine patriarch), 179

  Phrynichus, monkeys in, 161, 261n25

  Pindar, monkey tropes of, 161, 165

  Pinkster, Harm, 228n48, 247n35

  Pithecusae (Monkey Island), 163

  pithēkismos (monkeying around), 161; and laughter, 163

  Pitt, William (the elder): advice on laughter, 237n58

  place-names: funny, 251n102; jokes associated with, 193; in Philogelos, 191–93, 199, 201, 269n7, 271n30

  plants, laughter-causing, 25, 28–29, 224n8

  Plato, epigrams of, 78

  Plautus: banquets in, 236n47; funny words of, 56; monkey tropes of, 162; parasites in, 257n82; scurrae in, 153, 258n99; stage directions for, 16, 223n51

  —Amphitruo, Greek sources of, 90

  —Aulularia, 223n52

  —Persa, joke collections in, 203

  —Pseudolus, 16, 17

  —Rope, puns in, 56, 232nn15–16

  —Stichus, parasite of, 149–50, 203, 257nn83,86

  —Truculentus, masks in, 263n53

  Plaza, Maria, 171, 264n72

  Pliny the Elder, death of, 24

  —Natural History, 224n3; on bodily peculiarities, 25, 42–43; laughter in, 24–27, 83, 84; on magical springs, 25–26; on Saturnalia, 237n56; scope of, 24; sources of, 26–27, 30, 224n11; spleen in, 25, 224n6; tickling in, 34–35; on Zeuxis, 173

  Pliny the Younger, on inappropriate jokes, 131, 252n11

  Plutarch: apophthegmata of, 202; on Attic wit, 94–95, 204, 245n94; on Cercopes, 262n38; citing of Menander, 244n75; on court jesters, 255n49; on flatterers, 257n87; jokes in, 189; on laughter, 27–28, 58; life of Cicero, 101, 102–3; place in laughter culture, 88; on Spartan laughter, 93–94; on Sulla, 130. Works: How to Tell a Flatterer form a Friend, 163; Questions, 89; Saying of the Spartans, 202, 274n70; Sayings of Kings and Commanders, 189, 202; Table Talk, 89

  Politian, on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 241n54

  Pompeii: House of the Dioscuri, 261n34; House of the Tragic Poet, 58, 59, 234n25; monkey images at, 162–63, 261nn32,34

  Pomponius (poet), bodily peculiarity of, 25, 42

  Pomponius Mela, on laughter-causing water, 26

  Porphyry: The Introduction, 33; on laughter, 33–34

  Porson, Richard, 212, 276n3

  Posidonius, on monkeys, 164–65

  Postumius Megellus, Lucius: sneer at Tarentines, 4, 6

  Powell, Enoch: barber joke of, 213, 276n4

  power-laughter relationship, x, 6; in Roman laughter, 3–4, 17, 77, 106, 128–29, 197, 220n10, 252n2; sexual humor in, 106; wish to please in, 12

  power relations: contestation by laughter, 6; between emperors and subjects, 136; human-divine, 159; master-slave, 129

  primates: Aristotle on, 261n31; classification of, 260n17; laughter of, 46–47, 161, 231n82; in Roman laughter culture, 160–61. See also apes; monkeys

  Problems, Aristotelian: tickling in, 43, 230n73

  Prudentius, The Crowns of Martyrdom, 154–55, 259n102

  pseudo-Ovid, De Vetula, 260n14

  psychic energy, release through laughter, 39, 40, 229nn61,64

  puns: Cicero’s, 99–100, 245n1; in Juvenal, 258n88; in Philogelos, 194; in Plautus, 56, 232nn15–16; recovery of, 56; visual, 162–63

  Purcell, N., 256n64

  Pygmies (Ituri Forest), laughter of, 45–46, 231n79

  Pylades (pantomime actor), 79

  Querolus, scripted laughter in, 223n52

  Quinn, Kenneth, 171

  Quintilian, death of family, 123

  —Handbook on Oratory: Cicero in, 103, 123, 251n93; Cicero’s jokes in, 104, 126–27; cookery analogies in, 124; on double entendres, 99–100; jokes in, 54–56, 123–26, 139, 232nn11,13; on laughter, 28, 37, 224n17; ridiculus in, 125; on scurrae, 124; sources of, 123; textual transmission of, 55–56; truth and falsehood in, 125–26, 129, 152; types of wit in, 115, 250n69; on urbanitas, 125; on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 83, 241n54; words for smiles, 74

  Rabbie, Edwin, 110, 228n48

  Rabelais, Francois: Gargantua and
Pantagruel, 60, 61

  Ramsay, Sir William, 26

  Rapp, A., 270n18

  Raskin, Victor, 38, 222n41

  rats, laughter of, 47

  religious images, competing modes of, 175

  Rembrandt, self-portrait as Zeuxis, 173

  renidere (to shine out), 72, 73, 74, 240n20 rex facetus, medieval, 130

  Rhadamanthys, as inventor of the joke, 208–9, 275n87; as judge in underworld, 161

  rhetoric: effect on jokes, 208; Hellenistic handbooks on, 225n23; of invective, 247n26; morality of, 108, 109; truth of, 126

  Richlin, Amy, 259n3; on Freudian laughter, 229n64; The Garden of Priapus, 105–6

  rictus (laughter), 72; of animals, 159; of dogs, 260n16; Ovid’s use of, 260n14

  ridere (to laugh), 71, 72, 75; etymology of, 231n81, 238n1; favorable senses of, 83; and meidian, 253n25; Virgil’s use of, 73

  ridicule: Aristotelian tradition on, 121; Cicero’s use of, 106; enforcement of norms through, 106; in Roman culture, 232n6; Spartan use of, 93; use in persuasion, 106

  ridiculus (laugh-able): Cicero as, 102–3; parasites as, 150, 257n86; Quintilian on, 125; two senses of, 108, 125. See also the laughable

  Risus (god of Laughter), in The Golden Ass, 160, 178, 181–83

  risus (laughter), 11, 71; and gelōs, 48; rules governing, 83; in Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, 81–85. See also laughter, Roman

  rituals: inversionary, 63, 65, 235n47; of misrule, 60; scapegoat, 182, 267n124

  Robert, L., 270n18

  Roberts, M., 259n103

  Robertson, D. S., 267n124

  Rochefort, G., 269n7

  Roller, M. B., 256n77, 258n88

  Roman Empire: bilingual literary culture of, 85–95, 243n68; construction of identity in, 243n65; cultural change in, 87; diversity of inhabitants, 86–87; Greek culture of, 88, 90; Greek literature of, 85–95, 243n70; power structures of, 88

  rulers, benevolent jokes of, 130. See also emperors, Roman

  Saint-Denis, E. de, 231n3, 238n64

  sales (witticisms), Cicero on, 114, 115. See also wit

 

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