Gwar, economic crisis, health crisis, exacerbated morality? Times are gloomy. So, how about we laugh, without constraint, fully? For this, an excellent solution: the laughter of the Ancients. That of the Greeks and Romans. Laughter according to Homer, Aristophanes, Menander, Lucian, Plautus, Apuleius and tutti quanti.
Of everything, they laughed heartily and shamelessly, even if the censorship did not spare them. Laughter for them was the prerogative of humans and rhymed with freedom and good health. According to legend, the Greek philosopher Democritus, in the IVe century before our era, had thus made it a rule of life, and the great physician Hippocrates, coming to his bedside, would have judged that for this very reason he was the least mad of all men.
The models of modern authors
Laughing is indeed a symptom of joy, a step towards happiness. Certainly, the great Plato was wary of comedians and professional entertainers. Already, he condemned laughter when it was hurtful. After him, the early Church condemned laughter, seeing in it the work of the devil, and it was not until the end of the twelfthe century so that the angels finally have the right to smile!
Since then, fortunately, we have caught up. And the ancient authors have become the models of modern authors. For didn’t they invent comedy, parody, epigram and satire, theater ingenues like stingy fathers and cunning servants? Without them, neither Figaro nor Scapin. They are the inspiration of Rabelais, La Fontaine, Molière, Beaumarchais, but also perhaps more indirectly of Tristan Bernard, Pierre Desproges or Blanche Gardin.
Clear private jokes
Hence the importance of reading or re-reading them, what this new opus of the Item References. About thirty works are presented there by the best specialists in Greek and Latin literature. Thanks to them, the historical and biographical context of “private jokes” becomes clear, the intricacies of language and metrics easy to understand. We thus know what would have happened if, in the IVe century before our era, the Athenian women at war had gone on a sex strike (Russian women should perhaps read Aristophanes again…).
We also learn how, thanks to humour, we can always outwit bullies “with donkey ears”. Better, by reading these pieces and these jokes, we discover in an original and unprecedented way what was really the spirit of the Greeks and Latins, who remained essential references. Let’s laugh, therefore, and let’s not sulk our pleasure.
Laugh. The great texts of the Greeks and Romans, Le Point Références, on sale from June 7.