Insult and Humiliation

My department hosted a lecture this week, and it put me in mind of Mr. Sun. I wish I had invited him to come.

The subject of the lecture was "Insult and Humiliation in Ancient Athens," and it was learned, amusing, and illustrated with the kind of ancient art that seems lately to be fascinating my friend Helios (if I may call him by his Greek name).

I can't link to most of the images from the lecture, though, because they're not "family friendly." I've put up a picture of Socrates because he was a master of insult.

"Feminize, infantilize, bestialize" are the three keys to successful insults in ancient Greece, and things haven't changed at all since then. As in,

"You're a bunch of girly men," or, "Waah, waah, waah, you crybabys," or, "Dog breath!"

So that's why I wasn't blogging much this week -- I was attending to work matters.