CLST 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Apocolocyntosis, Zucchini, Apotheosis

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: CLST 205
• Professor: R Drew Griffith

Document Summary

Clst 205 lecture 2 week 2. Greeks and romans were quick to rejoice at other"s misfortunes. Hobbes emphasizes surprise and notion of laughter being at expense of somebody else"s misfortune (such as deformity) : thersites, the ugliest man who ever came beneath ilion annoyed almost the entire. Thersites ridiculed agamemnon, just as achilles did, but achilles earned his right to criticize the boss, thersites did not. Odysseus beats thersites until he sits down crying and they laugh at him. Appropriate to humiliate and mock him, so brings himself down a level so he knows his limitations and place in society. Immanuel kant: laughter = an affection arising from a strained expectation being suddenly reduced to nothing. Emphasizes surprise, like hobbes, buts adds idea of expectation (gap in knowledge between the expected outcome and the real outcome) : satyricon of petronius: during feast of trimalchio, slave-boy trips and falls on master"s arm.