Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-courts

Bibliographic Data

ID20083100
AuthorsJasper F Donelan (corresponding author), Jasper Donelan
Year2021
Pages25-42
Publication date2021-07-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueComic Invective in Ancient Greek and Roman Oratory (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/9783110735536-002
OpenAlexW3183622694
ISBN9783110735536
LanguageEN
Citations received1

This paper first presents similarities between the insults spoken by characters in Old Comedy and those employed by litigants in the classical Athenian law-courts. The comparison demonstrates how Old Comedy and Athenian legal oratory relied (albeit with a few important exceptions) on shared topics of invective as well as an overlapping vocabulary of abuse. The discussion then progresses to the way that insulting language is talked about in the preserved law-court speeches. Litigants claim that certain insults could offend the judges' sensibilities. There is, moreover, evidence of formal restrictions on the use of invective in the public sphere. Nevertheless, it appears that judges did enjoy hearing opponents exchange insults and that they could - much like audiences of comedy - respond to this with delight and laughter. This paper concludes by arguing that litigants in Athens faced two competing pressures: on the one hand, to make a pertinent, respectful, and logical case against their adversary, but on the other, to satisfy the judges' desire for pleasurable and often baseless invective

Adversary · Art · Comedy · Computer security · Invective · Laughter · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Vocabulary · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Philosophy

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