A Greek indecency and its students

Λaikazein

Bibliographic Data

ID9391470
AuthorsH D Jocelyn (University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year1980
Volume26
Pages12-66
Publication date1980-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueProceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0068-6735 • E-ISSN: 2053-5899
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s006867350000420x
OpenAlexW2324992086
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited27

Three words of the Aristophanic lexicon, λαικάζειν, λαικαστής and λαικάστρια, are not fully explained by the contexts in which they occur. The remains of ancient learning known to scholars of the sixteenth century contained no clear and unambiguous doctrine about them. A considerable amount of fresh material however has accumulated during recent centuries. The Latinists W. Heraeus and A. E. Housman studied what was available to them around the years 1914 and 1930 respectively and came to firm conclusions but without persuading many students of Aristophanes' comic scripts in particular or of the Greek language in general. G. P. Shipp has recently drawn attention to a third century A.D. document, first published as long ago as 1925, which has the verb in a context leaving little doubt about the user's meaning. This paper attempts to consider systematically the evidence now available and to make clear how Aristophanes and other Athenians of the fifth, fourth and third centuries B.C. used the word group. It is argued that the verb remained alive among some speakers of Greek without change of function until very late and that Housman's explanation of the Aristophanic passages was correct

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Comics · Context (archaeology · Doctrine · Epistemology · Lexicon · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Period (music · Scripting language · Theology · Verb · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Psychology

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