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This anthology of jokes in Greek makes fun of the coward, the glutton, the miser… and the intellectual, described as a simpleton. Cult book.
© Bridgeman Pictures
By Arnaud Zucker*
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Le Philogelos is an anonymous collection of Greek jokes whose content dates back to at least the IVe century and which has been transmitted to us by Byzantine manuscripts of the tenthe century. Its title literally means “the friend of laughter”. Made up of around 270 jokes, sometimes in different forms, it represents the only collection of jokes from Mediterranean antiquity that we have kept. He is thus the only survivor of an ancient tradition, since, from the classical period (Ve-IVe centuries BC. J.-C.), the Greeks, great publishers and collectors, had composed compilations and anthologies of funny stories and jokes which also dot historical and biographical works. This taste is expressed here in short and sometimes dazzling stories, which…
Laughter – The great texts of the Greeks and Romans
8,90€
Laughing was more than a hobby among the Greeks and Romans, it was a way of life. The Ancients were convinced of this: laughter was the essence of man and one should not deprive oneself of it. So let’s laugh with Aristophanes, Menander, Lucian, Plautus, Apuleius and even Homer. Let’s laugh with the Point References, to live better.
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