Whoring, Gaping and Hiding Meat: The Humour of Male-on-Male Sexual Insults in Aristophanes' Knights

Robson, James (2018). Whoring, Gaping and Hiding Meat: The Humour of Male-on-Male Sexual Insults in Aristophanes' Knights. Archimède: Archéologie et Histoire Ancienne, 5 pp. 24–34.

URL: https://archimede.unistra.fr/revue-archimede/archi...

Abstract

This article looks at the obscene and scurrilous humour of Knights with a view to examining how its main protagonists are characterized sexually. Through an examination of how the Sausage-Seller and Paphlagon are presented in terms of both sexual insertiveness and receptiveness – both anal and oral – I seek to challenge views of the play which cast Paphlagon as the more sexually aggressive of the two. Rather, the contention of the article is that the Sausage-Seller’s aggression is expressed both through the direct nature of his sexual threats and the shameless ways in which he flaunts his whorishness and oral and anal receptiveness. In contrast, Paphlagon-Cleon’s sexual character largely emerges through metaphors, allegations, innuendos and jokes made at his expense.

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