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Generic Ambiguity and “Tendentious” Humor in the Hellenistic Epigram
- Arethusa
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 52, Number 1, Winter 2019
- pp. 21-51
- 10.1353/are.2019.0001
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
This article looks at a selection of Hellenistic epigrams (mostly by Callimachus), focusing on the way they produce humor through verbal ambiguity and subversion of the conventional form and meaning of epigrammatic topoi relating to religion, sexuality, common values and beliefs, and death. A detailed analysis of the epigrams is followed by a general discussion of their ideological orientations, which are shown to resemble the psychological motives for jokes identified by Freud in Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. Epigrams discussed include Callimachus 10, 13, 23, 28, 30 Pfeiffer, Asclepiades 2 Sens, and Hippon 1 Page.