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Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry

But, Ekaterina
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5333-5195
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619032780255174

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Greek and Latin.
“Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry” provides a study of the literary humor in Hellenistic iambic poetry in the context of rapid political and cultural change in the Ancient Mediterranean of the third century BCE. This project clarifies several questions connected to the nature of humor in Hellenistic iambic poetry: how does humor function in the poetry and performance of the early Hellenistic era? In which contexts does it appear? Does it reflect the multicultural environment of Ptolemaic Egypt? How is humor connected to the recontextualization of generic conventions, both literary and performative? Does humor become an expression of transgression: political, religious, or social? To address these questions, I conduct several case studies focusing on fragments of poems by Greek writers of the third century BCE (Callimachus, Cercidas, Machon, and Herodas) that refer to the tradition of Greek iambic poetry, a poetic invective genre closely connected to comedy and ritual obscenity. In Chapter 1, I focus on the humorous representation of philosophers in Callimachus’s Iambus 1 and argue that these representations play an important role in Callimachus’s dialogue with Plato and contemporary philosophy, and, at the same time, reflect Callimachus’s ideas about the role of intellectual working in Alexandria under the royal patronage. In Chapter 2, I analyze fragments of Cercidas of Megalopolis, politician and Cynic philosopher, and argue that Cercidas employs elements of Cynic teaching to problematize the political and social issues of his community. In Chapter 3, I conduct a study of several anecdotes attributed to the comic writer Machon and argue that the targets of these anecdotes mirror Machon’s own professional fate. In Chapter 4, I analyze sexually oriented humor in Herodas’s Mimiamb 6 and argue that in this poem, Herodas promotes an idea of the female origin of iambic poetry. For each of these case studies, I address linguistic features of humor by applying methods of semantic and pragmatic analysis proposed by modern theories of humor. To analyze ethical and aesthetical values of Hellenistic humor, I draw on humor theories developed in Ancient Greek philosophy and rhetoric. “Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry” fills a gap in the studies of Ancient Greek literary humor and challenges the prevailing image of Hellenistic poetry as produced for and consumed only by the intellectual elite of Alexandria. In this project, I offer new approaches to studies of literary humor in Greek poetry by addressing humorous texts as responding to trends in contemporary popular politics, philosophy, and culture. This project demonstrates that literary humor is major evidence that allows an examination of how poetic texts relate to a broader cultural context and what kind of audiences these texts would have reached.
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Tom Hawkins, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Dana Munteanu, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
269 p.
Classical Studies; Gender Studies; Language; Literature; Philosophy
Hellenistic poetry; Alexandria; Callimachus; Cercidas; Machon; Herodas; Aristotle; Plato; Hipponax; Archilochus; Greek philosophy; mime; iambic poetry; popular culture; hidden transcript; anecdote; parody; wit; incongruity; humor; humor theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • But, E. (2021). Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619032780255174

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • But, Ekaterina. Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry. 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619032780255174.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • But, Ekaterina. "Eutrapelia: Humorous texts in Hellenistic poetry." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1619032780255174

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1619032780255174
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.