Laughing with the Gods: Religion in Greek and Roman Satire Comedy Epigram and other Comedic Genres

In this paper, I examine the humorous representation of gods in the erotic Iambi of the Hellenistic poet Callimachus [Clayman 1980; Acosta-Hughes 2002] as an integral part of poet’s reception of Plato’s teachings about love. I provide close readings of Iambus 3 (fr. 193 Pf.) and Iambus 5 (fr. 195 Pf.), which address incorrect sexual behavior. I also interpret the preserved fragments of Iambus 9 (fr. 199 Pf.) and Iambus 10 (fr.

Yearly festivals throughout the classical Greek world featured the expulsion of scapegoats, φαρμακοί, to appease the wrath of the gods.

There is something puzzling about Cloudcuckooland’s triumph over Olympus in Aristophanes’ Birds. At a critical moment, Heracles agrees to surrender his father Zeus’ heavenly kingdom after he is reminded that, as a bastard, he himself could not hope to inherit it (1646ff). Curiously, nobody points out that Zeus’ immortality would have rendered squabbles over legitimacy and inheritance utterly moot.

Our understanding of animal sacrifice in ancient Greece has recently undergone a dramatic shift resulting from much wider use of epigraphic, iconographic and archaeological data than ever, along with the use of newly applied and relatively recently developed zoo-archaeology and osteology. As a result, two paradigms of theoretical approach that have dominated thus far (the so-called Paris school and the Burkert-Meuli paradigm) have undergone severe criticism.