Abstract
In this paper, I illustrate a certain strand of ancient Greek humor concerning sexuality, and more particularly, concerning adulterous wives. I suggest that, on the basis of this evidence, Greek males were not as uptight about controlling their wives as we might have expected, given their reputation, by no means undeserved, for misogyny generally and for anxiety about women’s infidelity more specifically. My conclusion is that we may need to modify in some respects—only in some—our sense of early Greece as the kind of honor culture in which men’s selfrespect was radically bound up with the comportment of their women. This claim is not entirely new—it was made forcefully by Gabriel Herman (Herman 1993)—nor are the texts I deal with unfamiliar. By bringing them together, and by offering perhaps novel ways of viewing them, I hope to provide a slightly different image of gender relations in classical Greece.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Ahl, Frederick and Hannah M. Roisman. 1996. The Odyssey Re-Formed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Beidler, Peter G. 2005. “The Miller’s Tale.” In Sources and Analogues of the Canterbury Tales II, edited by Robert M. Correale and Mary Hamel, 254–255. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
Brule, Pierre. 2003. Women of Ancient Greece. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (French edition, 2001).
Capra, Andrea (ed.). 2010. Aristofane Donne al Parlamento. Rome: Carocci.
Easterling, P. E. 1985. “Semonides.” In The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. 1: Greek Literature, edited by P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foka, Anna. 2011. “Beauty and the Beast: Femininity, Animals and Humour in Middle Comedy.” Classica et Mediaevalia 62: 51–80.
Foka, Anna. 2014. “Material Girls: Humor and Female Professional Seduction in Greek Literature and Culture.” EuGeSta Vol.-4
Gow, A. S. F. and D. L. Page (eds.). 1968. The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grossman, Janet Burnett. 2004. “Review of Brule 2003.” Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.03.37.
Halliwell, Stephen. 2002. “Aristophanic Sex: The Erotics of Shamelessness.” In The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Martha C. Nussbaum and Juha Sihvola, 120–142. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hendry, Michael. 1991. “A Hermetic Pun in Marcus Argentarius XII GP (A.P. 5.127).” Hermes 119: 497.
Herman, Gabriel. 1993. “Tribal and Civic Codes of Behaviour.” Classical Quarterly 43: 406–419.
Himmelhoch, Leah Ruth. 1990. Misogyny in Ancient Greek Literature. Austin: University of Texas.
Keuls, Eva C. 1985. The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens. New York: Harper and Row.
Konstan, David. 2006. The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and Classical Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Konstan, David. 2014. Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Konstan, David. 2014. “Turns and Returns in Plautus’s Casina.” In Plautine Trends: Studies in Plautine Comedy and its Reception, edited by Ioannis N. Perysinakis and Evangelos Karakasis. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (Trends in Classics Supplementary Volume 29, pp. 3–12.
Louden, Bruce. 2005. “The Gods in Epic, or the Divine Economy.” In A Companion to Ancient Epic, edited by John Miles Foley, 90–104. Malden MA: Blackwell.
Madrid Navarro, Mercedes. 1999. La misoginia en Grecia. Madrid: Catedra.
Newton, Rick M. 1987. “Odysseus and Hephaestus in the Odyssey.” Classical Journal 83: 12–20.
O’Higgins, Laurie. 2003. Women and Humor in Classical Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Olson, S. Douglas. 1988. “The Identity of the Δεσπότης at Ecclesiazusae 1128 f.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 28: 61–66.
Olson, S. Douglas. 1988a. “The ‘Love Duet’ in Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae.” Classical Quarterly 38: 328–330.
Reece, Steve. 1993. The Stranger’s Welcome: Oral Theory and the Aesthetics of the Homeric Hospitality Scene. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Reynolds, R. W. 1946. “The Adultery Mime.” Classical Quarterly 40: 77–84.
Richlin, Amy. 1992. The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sanders, Ed. 2013. Envy and Jealousy in Classical Athens: A Socio-Psychological Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schear, L. 1984. “Semonides Fr. 7: Wives and their Husbands.” Echos du monde classique 29: 39–49.
Slater, Niall W. 2002. “Waiting in the Wings: Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae.” In Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes, edited by Niall W. Slater, 207–234.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; available online at http://classics .emory.edu/indivFacPages/slater/slater22.html (accessed 31 January 2013).
Strong, Anise K. 2012. “Working Girls: Mother–Daughter Bonds among Ancient Prostitutes.” In Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Lauren Hackworth Petersen and Patricia Salzman-Mitchell. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Toscano, Margaret M. 2013. “The Eyes Have It: Female Desire on Attic Greek Vases.” Arethusa 46: 1–40.
Ussher, R. G. (ed.). 1973. Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walcot, Peter. 1984. “Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence.” Greece and Rome 31: 37–47.
Webb, Ruth. 2008. Demons and Dancers: Performance in Late Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
West, Stephanie. 1988. A Commentary of Homer’s Odyssey I: Introduction and Books I–VIII. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2015 Anna Foka and Jonas Liliequist
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Konstan, D. (2015). Laughing at Ourselves: Gendered Humor in Classical Greece. In: Foka, A., Liliequist, J. (eds) Laughter, Humor, and the (Un)Making of Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137463654_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137463654_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50139-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-46365-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)