Women breadsellers are often meant to provide an oblique reference to prostitutes since sexual metaphors could be created by applying certain twists to expressions used in breadsellers’ job. Such metaphors are also present in the story of Periander’s necrophilia on his wife’s corpse, equated by Herodotus to a male breadseller’s putting loaves into a cold oven. The meaning of such an image can be fully caught when we realize that the role of women breadsellers has been paradoxically played by a male.
Si ritiene che le fornaie comiche offrano un riferimento obliquo alle prostitute perché era possibile creare imagini oscene partendo da espressioni tratte dal loro mestiere. Tali metafore sono anche alla base della storia erodotea dell’atto di necrofilia commesso da Periandro sul corpo della moglie. In particolare, l’immagine del fornaio che pone i suoi pani in un forno freddo può essere compresa appieno solo se si capisce il capovolgimento della situazione per cui un ruolo femminile è stato compiuto da un maschio.
Le fornaie comiche e i pani di Periandro / Sonnino, Maurizio. - In: PROMETHEUS. - ISSN 0391-2698. - STAMPA. - 38, 2012:(2012), pp. 67-88.
Le fornaie comiche e i pani di Periandro
SONNINO, MAURIZIO
2012
Abstract
Women breadsellers are often meant to provide an oblique reference to prostitutes since sexual metaphors could be created by applying certain twists to expressions used in breadsellers’ job. Such metaphors are also present in the story of Periander’s necrophilia on his wife’s corpse, equated by Herodotus to a male breadseller’s putting loaves into a cold oven. The meaning of such an image can be fully caught when we realize that the role of women breadsellers has been paradoxically played by a male.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.