Wednesday, October 19, 2022

 

Some Insults

Aristophanes, Frogs 465-466 (tr. Stephen Halliwell):
You nauseating, shameless, audacious man,
You're loathsome—more than loathsome—as loathsome as hell!

ὦ βδελυρὲ κἀναίσχυντε καὶ τολμηρὲ σὺ
καὶ μιαρὲ καὶ παμμίαρε καὶ μιαρώτατε...
Kenneth Dover ad loc.:
Both lines lend themselves splendidly to declamation as 'rising trikola'; cf. 204 n. They repeat—exactly in M P20ac U VSI, which have καὶ τολμηρὲ κἀναίσχυντε σὺ, almost exactly in the other MSS—the words with which Hermes greets Trygaios' arrival on Olympos in Pax 182 f. βδελυρός and μιαρός, 'foul', 'vile', 'filthy', express violent adverse reaction, whatever the nature of the conduct condemned; they go together in Eq. 304, μιαρός and ἀναίσχυντος in Pax 362, and τολμηρός and βδελυρός in Ach. 287.
See also Jasper Donelan, "Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-Courts," in Sophia Papaioannou and Andreas Serafim, edd., Comic Invective in Ancient Greek and Roman Oratory (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), pp. 25-41 (at 28-30 on μιαρός and βδελυρός). I don't see the lines in the Index Locorum of Deborah Kamen, Insults in Classical Athens (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2020). The Greek is worth memorizing, to have ready at hand when needed.

From Eric Thomson:
For βδελυρός, the LSJ has 'disgusting, loathsome, blackguardly'. I like 'blackguardly' and am sorry about its near total demise. After all, the world has no shortage of blackguards, nor of bounders, scoundrels, caitiffs & dastards.
Related post: The Eloquence of Abuse.



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