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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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AuthorWelcome to the Mirli Books blog written by Peter Maggs Archives
April 2023
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