The Ancient Emotion of Disgust PDF
Preview The Ancient Emotion of Disgust
i The Ancient Emotion of Disgust ii Emotions of the Past Series Editors Robert A. Kaster | David Konstan This series investigates the history of the emotions in premodern societies, tak- ing 1500 ce as the conventional threshold of modernity. In addition to new work on Greco-R oman and medieval European cultures, the series provides a home for studies on the emotions in Near Eastern and Asian societies, including premodern Egypt, India, China, and beyond. The Elegiac Passion Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy Ruth Rothaus Caston Envy and Jealousy in Classical Athens A Socio- Psychological Approach Ed Sanders Hope, Joy, and Affection in the Classical World Ruth R. Caston and Robert A. Kaster The Ancient Emotion of Disgust Donald Lateiner and Dimos Spatharas iii The Ancient Emotion of Disgust Edited by Donald Lateiner and Dimos Spatharas 1 iv 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress ISBN 978– 0– 19– 060411– 0 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America v For my wife, E. Marianne Gabel, uxori patientissimae, and our younger granddaughter Analucia, nepti callidae and her wonderful mother, Erika, nurui optimae For Δανάη vi vii Contents Preface ix Contributors xi Introduction: Ancient and Modern Modes of Understanding and Manipulating Disgust 1 Donald Lateiner and Dimos Spatharas Part I Hellenic 1. Empathy and the Limits of Disgust in the Hippocratic Corpus 45 George Kazantzidis 2. Moral Disgust in Sophocles’ Philoctetes 69 Emily Allen- Hornblower 3. Disgust and Delight: The Polysemous Exclamation αἰβοῖ in Attic Comedy 87 Daniel B. Levine 4. Demosthenes and the Use of Disgust 103 Nick Fisher 5. Sex, Politics, and Disgust in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus 125 Dimos Spatharas 6. Beauty in Suffering: Disgust in Nicander’s Theriaca 141 Floris Overduin Part II Roman and Greek Imperial 7. Not Tonight, Dear, I’m Feeling a Little pig- 159 Robert A. Kaster 8. Beyond Disgust: The Politics of Fastidium in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita 175 Ayelet Haimson Lushkov vii viii viii Contents 9. Witches, Disgust, and Anti-Abortion Propaganda in Imperial Rome 189 Debbie Felton 10. Evoking Disgust in the Latin Novels of Petronius and Apuleius 203 Donald Lateiner 11. Obscena Galli Praesentia: Dehumanizing Cybele’s Eunuch-Priests through Disgust 235 Marika Rauhala 12. Monstrum in Fronte, Monstrum in Animo? Sublate Disgust and Pharmakos Logic in the Aesopic Vitae 253 Tom Hawkins 13. Smelly Bodies on Stage: Disgusting Actors of the Roman Imperial Period 267 Mali Skotheim Bibliography 277 Index Rerum et Nominum 301 Index Auctorum Antiquorum et Locorum 305 ix Preface The present volume arose from a panel examining ancient disgust, convened at the Edinburgh 2014 Celtic Conference in Classics, organized by the editors at the suggestion of Dimos Spatharas. We invited papers from specialists on all continents and received many more proposals than we could accommodate. We heard nineteen analyses. Some of the original contributors at Edinburgh had to withdraw from this volume, but one scholar attending the panel added his valuable essay. We wished to explore an important emotion generally slighted or neglected in both the ancient and modern literatures. Several reasons explain this lacuna, including disgust’s inherent improprieties, shame attached to deeds, and words about them. The current climate is more receptive to discussions of physical repulsion and its expressions. Disgust is a powerful weapon in enforc- ing class distinctions, as several contributors to this volume demonstrate. All contemporary psychosociological listings of emotions now include this violent “feeling,” cognition, and currently common metaphor, for example, “These for- mulaic academic prefaces disgust me.” There is much more work to be done. We trust that this collection will interest students of ancient Mediterranean and contemporary societies. We hope that scholars of medieval, Renaissance, early modern, and non- Mediterranean cultures can profit as well. The volume surveys a broad spectrum of ancient sources and theoretical approaches, both generic and chronological (from Homer to Aesop, from Cicero to Apuleius, from medical diagnoses to satire, fable, and honorific inscriptions). Our sources include literary, epigraphical, and other documentary materials. We had hoped to provide one or more essays on archaeological and art historical materials depicting or preventing disgust (cautionary Attic sympotic vases and Roman fish markets and sewers), but the relevant scholarly authorities were unable to contribute to this event. Our introduction attempts to sketch some further ave- nues in these and yet other directions. ix
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