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“You are Mad!” Allegations of Insanity in Greek Comedy and Rhetoric

  • George Kazantzidis
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Comic Invective in Ancient Greek and Roman Oratory
This chapter is in the book Comic Invective in Ancient Greek and Roman Oratory

Abstract

This chapter discusses some of the ways in which allegations of insanity across Greek comedy and oratory can be approached as points of convergence between the two genres. Kazantzidis shows that comic slander revolving around the “you are mad!” accusation is worth exploring deeper than we usually do: this is not just random abuse, but it carries with it a complex cultural significance, pointing as it does directly to the world of the Assembly and, along with it, to a masculine trope of abuse detectable in rhetorical settings. At the same time, although insanity in rhetoric can be a tremendously important issue (the accusation that one is “out of his mind”, when backed up by sufficient evidence, is no laughing matter), it nonetheless retains a considerably comic charge within it: the idea that madness has no fixed limits and can therefore always surpass itself; the notion that there is no such thing as a definitive diagnosis of madness; the unsettling view that madness can infect entire crowds of people - all these concepts have a distinctively potent presence in comedy and may have passed from there to the delicate prose and word of the Greek orators.

Abstract

This chapter discusses some of the ways in which allegations of insanity across Greek comedy and oratory can be approached as points of convergence between the two genres. Kazantzidis shows that comic slander revolving around the “you are mad!” accusation is worth exploring deeper than we usually do: this is not just random abuse, but it carries with it a complex cultural significance, pointing as it does directly to the world of the Assembly and, along with it, to a masculine trope of abuse detectable in rhetorical settings. At the same time, although insanity in rhetoric can be a tremendously important issue (the accusation that one is “out of his mind”, when backed up by sufficient evidence, is no laughing matter), it nonetheless retains a considerably comic charge within it: the idea that madness has no fixed limits and can therefore always surpass itself; the notion that there is no such thing as a definitive diagnosis of madness; the unsettling view that madness can infect entire crowds of people - all these concepts have a distinctively potent presence in comedy and may have passed from there to the delicate prose and word of the Greek orators.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Acknowledgements VII
  4. Killing with a Smile: Comic Invective in Greek and Roman Oratory 1
  5. Part I: Intertextual and Multi-genre Invective
  6. Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-courts 25
  7. Comic Invective and Public Speech in Fourth-Century Athens 43
  8. Comic Invective in Attic Forensic Oratory: Private Speeches 65
  9. Rhetorical Defence, Inter-poetic Agōn and the Reframing of Comic Invective in Plato’s Apology of Socrates 81
  10. “You are Mad!” Allegations of Insanity in Greek Comedy and Rhetoric 107
  11. Comic Invective in Cicero’s Speech Pro M. Caelio 125
  12. How to Start a Show: Comic Invectives in the Prologues of Terence and Decimus Laberius 147
  13. Part II: The Cultural Workings of Invective
  14. Comic Somatisation and the Body of Evidence in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus 171
  15. Comic Invective, Decorum and Ars in Cicero’s De Oratore 191
  16. No Decorum in the Forum? Comic Invective in the Theatre of Justice 211
  17. Part III: Invective in Ancient Socio-political Contexts
  18. Political Rhetoric and Comic Invective in Fifth-Century Athens: The Trial of the Dogs in Aristophanes’ Wasps 235
  19. Democracy, Poverty, Comic Heroism and Oratorical Strategy in Lysias 24 257
  20. Notes on Editors and Contributors 273
  21. General Index 275
  22. Index Locorum 279
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110735536-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Acknowledgements VII
  4. Killing with a Smile: Comic Invective in Greek and Roman Oratory 1
  5. Part I: Intertextual and Multi-genre Invective
  6. Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-courts 25
  7. Comic Invective and Public Speech in Fourth-Century Athens 43
  8. Comic Invective in Attic Forensic Oratory: Private Speeches 65
  9. Rhetorical Defence, Inter-poetic Agōn and the Reframing of Comic Invective in Plato’s Apology of Socrates 81
  10. “You are Mad!” Allegations of Insanity in Greek Comedy and Rhetoric 107
  11. Comic Invective in Cicero’s Speech Pro M. Caelio 125
  12. How to Start a Show: Comic Invectives in the Prologues of Terence and Decimus Laberius 147
  13. Part II: The Cultural Workings of Invective
  14. Comic Somatisation and the Body of Evidence in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus 171
  15. Comic Invective, Decorum and Ars in Cicero’s De Oratore 191
  16. No Decorum in the Forum? Comic Invective in the Theatre of Justice 211
  17. Part III: Invective in Ancient Socio-political Contexts
  18. Political Rhetoric and Comic Invective in Fifth-Century Athens: The Trial of the Dogs in Aristophanes’ Wasps 235
  19. Democracy, Poverty, Comic Heroism and Oratorical Strategy in Lysias 24 257
  20. Notes on Editors and Contributors 273
  21. General Index 275
  22. Index Locorum 279
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