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Phrynichus fr. 27 K-A: a pun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. L. de Boo
E. L. de Boo
Affiliation:
American School of Classical Studies, Athens
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Extract

Punning on names was common in Old Comedy. Aristophanes punned on the name of Lamachus, who died at Syracuse (μαχ⋯ν / κα⋯ Λαμ⋯χων, Acharnians 269–70; cf. 1071). In the same play he made the famous joke, ‘some went to Kamarina, others to Gela, and some to Katagela’—‘an invention of the poet's from the fact that the men's officers laughed at them’ (schol. Ar. Ach. 606).

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 291 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1998

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References

1 Wilson, N. G. (ed.), Scholia in Aristophanem: Acharnenses et Lysistratam (Groningen, 1975), p. 81. See also the omnipresent puns on the fictitious name Demus in Knights (pp. 211–17,461, 650, 831–3,953,1111–20, et passim).Google Scholar

2 The title of one of his plays, is uncertain precisely because of his parody of a sophistic etymology from two made-up words: (Phrynichus fr. 1 K-A); neither is listed in LSI He called a certain Hierokleides ‘Kolakophorokleides’ (fr. 18). In general, wordplay and soundplay were important

3 Radin, M., ‘Freedom of speech in ancient Athens’, AJP 48 (1927), 215–30Google Scholar; Sommerstein, A., ‘The decree of Syrakosios’, CQ 36 (1987), 101–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Halliwell, S., ‘Comic satire and freedom of speech in classical Athens’, JHS 111 (1991), 48–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 I thank Prof. Robert W. Wallace for his assistance with this work.