Abusive Mouths in Classical Athens (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521182560)

This study of the language of insult charts abuse in classical Athenian literature that centres on the mouth and its appetites, especially talking, eating, drinking, and sexual activities. Attic comedy, Platonic dialogue, and fourth-century oratory often deploy insulting depictions of the mouth and its excesses in order to deride professional speakers as sophists, demagogues, and women. Although the patterns of imagery explored are very prominent in ancient invective and later western literary traditions, this is the first book to discuss this phenomenon in classical literature. It responds to a growing interest in both abusive speech genres and the representation of the body, illuminating an iambic discourse that isolates the intemperate mouth as a visible emblem of behaviours ridiculed in the democratic arenas of classical Athens.

Author: Nancy Worman
ISBN-10: 0521182565
ISBN-13: 9780521182560
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/17/2011
Pages: 398
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.17lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.82d