The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy

by Jeffrey Henderson

The pervasive and unrestrained use of obscenity has long been acknowledged as a major feature of fifth-century Attic Comedy; no other Western art form relies so heavily on the sexual and scatological dimensions of language. This acclaimed book, now in a new edition, offers both a comprehensive discussion of the dynamics of Greek obscenity and a detailed commentary on the terminology itself.

After contrasting the peculiar characteristics of the Greek notion of obscenity to modern-day ideas, Henderson discusses obscenity's role in the development of Attic Comedy, its historical origins, varieties, and dramatic function. His analysis of obscene terminology sheds new light on Greek culture, and his discussion of Greek homosexuality offers a refreshing corrective to the idealized Platonic view. He also looks in detail at the part obscenity plays in each of Aristophanes' eleven surviving plays. The latter part of the book identifies all the obscene terminology found in the extant examples of Attic Comedy, both complete plays and fragments. Although these terminological entries are arranged in numbered paragraphs resembling a glossary, they can also be read as independent essays on the various aspects of comic obscenity. Terms are explained as they occur in each individual context and in relation to typologically similar terminology. With newly corrected and updated philological material, this second edition of Maculate Muse will serve as an invaluable reference work for the study of Greek drama.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theatre, Language

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1975

About the author

Jeffrey Henderson is the William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Greek Language and Literature, and former Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, at Boston University. He was raised in Verona, New Jersey and educated at Kenyon College (BA 1968), where he also received an honorary degree in 1994, and Harvard University (MA 1970, PhD 1972). Henderson came to Boston University in 1991 as Chair of the Department of Classical Studies and was the founding Director of the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. He held previous professorships at Yale University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Southern California, where he chaired the Department of Classics and won the Raubenheimer Distinguished Faculty Award.
Professor Henderson is known for his pioneering work on Greek drama and politics, and for his editions and translations of the comic playwright Aristophanes. He has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and for 2012 served as President of the American Philological Association, the principal professional organization of classicists in North America, in which he previously served as a Director and as the Vice President for Research. Since 1998 he has been the General Editor of the Loeb Classical Library, published by the Harvard University Press and the world’s premier series of texts and translations of Greek and Latin authors. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.