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Attic antics

21/11/2021

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What is the connection between Aristophanes, a lioness, and a cheese-grater?  
 
Aristophanes wrote a play called Lysistrata set in Athens in 411 BC. The eponymous heroine is proposing an interesting way to end the costly and damaging Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta that has dragged on for twenty years. She does this by persuading the women from the warring states to agree to withdraw conjugal rights from the menfolk who are prosecuting the war until they resolve their differences and make peace. 
 
I cannot resist quoting from part of the play—persons of a delicate disposition should note that the following passage is fairly explicit ... Lysistrata is reciting an oath over a bowl of wine (having decided not to sacrifice a white horse and swear on its entrails because she didn’t know where to find one). Her friend Calonice has to repeat the oath, and all the women place their hands on the bowl in participation...
 
Lysistrata       I will have naught to do whether with lover or husband ...
Calonice        I will have naught to do whether with lover or husband ...
Lysistrata       Albeit he come to me with stiff and standing tool ...
Calonice        Albeit he come to me with stiff and standing tool ... Oh! Lysistrata, I cannot bear it!
Lysistrata       I will live at home in perfect chastity ...
Calonice        I will live at home in perfect chastity ...
Lysistrata       Beautifully dressed and wearing a saffron-coloured gown ...
Calonice        Beautifully dressed and wearing a saffron-coloured gown ...
Lysistrata       To the end I may inspire my husband with the most ardent longings ...
Calonice        To the end I may inspire my husband with the most ardent longings ...
Lysistrata       Never will I give myself voluntarily ...
Calonice        Never will I give myself voluntarily ...
Lysistrata       And if he has me by force ...
Calonice        And if he has me by force ...
Lysistrata       I will be cold as ice and never stir a limb ...
Calonice        I will be cold as ice and never stir a limb ...
Lysistrata       I will not lift my legs in the air...
Calonice        I will not lift my legs in the air ...
Lysistrata       Nor will I crouch with bottom upraised, like carven lions on a knife-handle ...

Here, the translator has taken some liberties with the text. Apparently academics have argued for the last two-and-a-half thousand years exactly what is meant...

The original Greek reads: οὐ στήσομαι λέαιν᾽ ἐπὶ τυροκνήστιδος ... Translating word by word:

οὐ                             no truly/assuredly not
στήσομαι                  make to stand ...
λέαιν᾽                       lioness
ἐπὶ                           on/upon/ being upon
τυροκνήστιδος         cheese-scraper, cheese grater...
 
It has been assumed that Greek cheese-graters had handles carved like lions, and what is referred to is something like—there is no subtle way to say this—'doggie style...' Anyone really interested will find that Google is a great help...

I have researched and written about a number of people from the nineteenth century who studied Classics at Oxford; virtually all of them became Anglican clergymen. It is a source of endless amusement to me to think of them as students in their college rooms poring over the text of Lysistrata with a Greek dictionary, and struggling to translate the above passage. “Cheese-grater? Lioness? Is there something Papa never told me? Scout! Another bottle of wine, for God’s sake!”
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  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
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    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
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    • Anatomy of a Bridge
  • Peter Maggs
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    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald