Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After

494 Pages·2017·2.99 MB·English

by  Margaret Alexiou

EDINBURGH LEVENTIS STUDIES 8
Previously published
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 1
Word and Image in Ancient Greece
Edited by N. Keith Rutter and Brian A. Sparkes
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 2
Envy, Spite and Jealousy: The Rivalrous Emotions in Ancient Greece
Edited by David Konstan and N. Keith Rutter
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 3
Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer
Edited by Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Irene S. Lemos
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 4
Pursuing the Good: Ethics and Metaphysics in Plato’s Republic
Edited by Douglas Cairns, Fritz-Gregor Herrmann and Terry Penner
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 5
The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations
Edited by Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 6
Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras
Edited by John Marincola, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Calum
Maciver
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 7
Defining Greek Narrative
Edited by Douglas Cairns and Ruth Scodel
Edinburgh Leventis Studies 8
Greek Laughter and Tears: Antiquity and After
Edited by Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns
EDINBURGH LEVENTIS STUDIES 8
GREEK LAUGHTER
AND TEARS
ANTIQUITY AND AFTER
Edited by
Margaret Alexiou and
Douglas Cairns
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© editorial matter and organisation Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns, 2017
∫ the chapters their several authors, 2017
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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The right of Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns to be
identified as the editors of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003
(SI No. 2498).
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Preface xi
Notes on Contributors xv

1 Introduction 1
Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns
PART I ANCIENT KEYNOTES: FROM HOMER
TO LUCIAN
2 Laughter and Tears in Early Greek Literature 27
Richard Seaford
3 Imagining Divine Laughter in Homer and Lucian 36
Stephen Halliwell
4 Parody, Symbol and the Literary Past in Lucian 54
Calum Maciver
PART II ANCIENT MODELS, BYZANTINE
COLLECTIONS: EPIGRAMS, RIDDLES AND JOKES
5 ‘Tantalus Ever in Tears’: The Greek Anthology as a Source
of Emotions in Late Antiquity 75
Judith Herrin
6 ‘Do You Think You’re Clever? Solve This Riddle,
Then!’ The Comic Side of Byzantine Enigmatic Poetry 87
Simone Beta
7 Philogelos: An Anti-Intellectual Joke-Book 104
Stephanie West
vi contents
PART III BYZANTINE PERSPECTIVES: TEARS
AND LAUGHTER, THEORY AND PRAXIS
8 ‘Messages of the Soul’: Tears, Smiles, Laughter and
Emotions Expressed by them in Byzantine Literature 125
Martin Hinterberger
9 Towards a Byzantine Theory of the Comic? 146
Aglae Pizzone
10 Staging Laughter and Tears: Libanius, Chrysostom
and the Riot of the Statues 166
Jan R. Stenger
11 Lamenting for the Fall of Jerusalem in the Seventh
Century ce 187
Ioannis Papadogiannakis
12 Guiding Grief: Liturgical Poetry and Ritual Lamentation
in Early Byzantium 199
Susan Ashbrook Harvey
PART IV LAUGHTER, POWER AND SUBVERSION
13 Mime and the Dangers of Laughter in Late Antiquity 219
Ruth Webb
14 Laughter on Display: Mimic Performances and
the Danger of Laughing in Byzantium 232
Przemysław Marciniak
15 The Power of Amusement and the Amusement of
Power: The Princely Frescoes of St Sophia, Kiev,
and their Connections to the Byzantine World 243
Elena Boeck
16 Laughing at Eros and Aphrodite: Sexual Inversion
and its Resolution in the Classicising Arts of Medieval
Byzantium 263
Alicia Walker
PART V GENDER, GENRE AND LANGUAGE:
LOSS AND SURVIVAL
17 Comforting Tears and Suggestive Smiles: To Laugh
and Cry in the Komnenian Novel 291
Ingela Nilsson
18 Do Brothers Weep? Male Grief, Mourning, Lament
and Tears in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium 312
Margaret Mullett
contents vii
19 Laments by Nicetas Choniates and Others for the Fall
of Constantinople in 1204 338
Michael Angold
20 ‘Words Filled With Tears’: Amorous Discourse
as Lamentation in the Palaiologan Romances 353
Panagiotis Agapitos
21 The Tragic, the Comic and the Tragicomic in Cretan
Renaissance Literature 375
David Holton
22 Belisarius in the Shadow Theatre: The Private Calvary
of a Legendary General 390
Anna Stavrakopoulou
23 Afterword 403
Roderick Beaton
Appendix
CHYROGLES, or The Girl With Two Husbands 413
Bibliography 420
Index Locorum 472
Index Rerum 482
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
7.1 Drawing by Tomasz Łowicki from Łanowski 1986:
25, illustrating joke 21. 113
7.2 Drawing by Tomasz Łowicki from Łanowski 1986:
97, illustrating joke 41 = 156. 113
15.1 Church of St Sophia (Kiev, Ukraine), south-western
turret, view of the ‘minstrels’ fresco (photo by George
Majeska), BF.S.1979.87 49a, Image Collections and
Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for
Harvard University, Washington, dc. 244
15.2 Church of St George (Staro Nagoričino, Macedonia),
the Mocking of Christ (photograph by Ivan Drpić). 250
15.3 Church of St Nicholas (Curtea de Argeş, Romania),
view from the west (photo by author). 252
15.4 Church of St Nicholas (Curtea de Argeş, Romania),
the Mocking of Christ (photo by author). 252
15.5 Church of St Nicholas (Curtea de Argeş, Romania),
Christ administering the eucharist (lower register),
the Old Law (upper register), painting in the apse
(photo by author). 254
15.6 Church of St Nicholas (Curtea de Argeş, Romania),
the Old Law or the Ark of the Covenant, painting in
the apse (Beljaev 1930: pl. XLVI). 255
15.7 Church of St. Sophia (Kiev, Ukraine), southwestern
turret, reconstruction of the orchestra, after Totskaia
and Zaiaruznyi 1988 (artwork by Brian Boeck). 259
16.1 Veroli Casket, Byzantine, Constantinople (?), second
half of tenth century or eleventh century, wood overlaid
with carved ivory and bone plaques with traces of
polychrome and gilding, h. 11.5 cm, l. 40.3 cm, w. 16 cm,
Victoria and Albert Museum, no. 216–1865. © Victoria
and Albert Museum, London. 264
illustrations ix
16.2 Detail Veroli Casket showing scenes of Aphrodite and
Ares and erotes with animals. © Victoria and Albert
Museum, London. 268
16.3 Detail Veroli Casket showing scene of Aphrodite
and Ares and erotes with animals. © Victoria and
Albert Museum, London. 268
16.4 Detail Veroli Casket showing scene of erotes with
animals. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 271
16.5 Rabbit attacked by hunting dogs, Great Palace,
Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), Byzantine,
mosaic, sixth century. © Pavle Marjanovic/
Shutterstock.com. 273
16.6 Hunters attacking a tiger, Great Palace, Constantinople
(Istanbul, Turkey), Byzantine, mosaic, sixth century.
© Pavle Marjanovic/Shutterstock.com. 273
16.7 The punishment of Eros by Aphrodite, Hippolytus Hall,
Madaba (Jordan), Byzantine, mosaic, sixth century.
© Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd/Alamy. 274
16.8 Censer, Byzantine, Constantinople (?), twelfth
century, silver, 36 × 30 cm (c. 14 × 12 in), Treasury
of San Marco, Venice, Italy. © Photo: Per gentile
concessione della Procuratoria della Basilica di San
Marco, Venezia, Italia. 279
16.9 Detail of the San Marco Censer showing the
personifications Andrea and Phronesis flanked by
a lion (left) and a griffin (right). © Photo: Per gentile
concessione della Procuratoria della Basilica di San
Marco, Venezia, Italia. 280
16.10 View of the San Marco Censer showing depictions
of animals, Eros in a basket, an amorous couple, and
a centaur. © Photo: Per gentile concessione della
Procuratoria della Basilica di San Marco, Venezia,
Italia. 282
16.11 A peasant feeding a donkey, Great Palace,
Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), Byzantine,
mosaic, sixth century. © Pavle Marjanovic/
Shutterstock.com. 283
16.12 Detail showing Herakles and the kine of Geryon, from
Pseudo-Oppian’s Cynegetica, Byzantine, c. 1060,
pigment on vellum, Venice, Biblioteca Marciana cod.
Gr. Z 479, fol. 24r. © Biblioteca Marciana, Venice. 283
16.13 Detail of the San Marco Censer showing sirens playing
instruments flanked by a lion and a griffin. © Photo:
x illustrations
Per gentile concessione della Procuratoria della
Basilica di San Marco, Venezia, Italia. 284
16.14 Detail of the San Marco Censer showing an amorous
couple, a centaur attacking a lion, and a griffin.
© Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, NY. 285
22.1 ‘Karaghiozis as general Belisarius’ jester, with hearty
laughs’ (from Vassilaros’ Notebooks). 395
22.2 ‘The bloody Antonina, wife of Belisarius, who destroyed
him, 554 C.E.’ (from Vassilaros’ Notebooks). 395
22.3 ‘The king of the Persians, Khosrow I, who was
captured by Marshal Belisarius’ (from Vassilaros’
Notebooks). 396
22.4 Belisarius blind and Maria, his daughter (from
Vassilaros’ Notebooks). 397
22.5 ‘Ten years later, Belisarius naked with his daughter
in the desert’ (from Vassilaros’ Notebooks). 398
22.6 ‘Karaghiozis kills the wife of Belisarius, Antonina’
(from Vassilaros’ Notebooks). 398