Learning about obscene 6th century vases via Twitter

Earlier tonight, Jen, a friend of mine both in real life and on Twitter, asked me about the Greek inscriptions on this vase:

Aryballos, c. 570 BCE, Attic, black-figure, signed by Nearchos as the potter

While it took a few minutes of searching the internet/trolling the LSJ Greek-English Lexicon online (thank you TLG!), I managed to track down the rather hilarious meanings of the inscriptions painted near the three satyrs.

A (perhaps too close) close-up

The words inscribed from left-to-right are, approximately, ΧΑΙΡΕΙ (χαίρει), ΔΟΦΙΟΣ (Δοφίος), ΤΕΡΠΕΚΕΛΟΣ (Τερπήκελος), ΦΣΟΛΑΣ (Ψώλας), and the inscrutable ΗΑΟΙ ΛΕΙ ΒΡΕ (ηαοι λει βρε, which will not be discussed here). I feel a little bit better about not understanding the last few words since the Metropolitan Museum's page on this vase says "Surprisingly, much of the writing, although finely lettered, is nonsense rather than real words."

The three central inscriptions, which frame the middle satyr, are meant to be the satyrs' names, each of which, rather hilariously, incorporates the satyrs' actions. 

The left satyr is identified as Dophios (Δοφίος), derived from the Greek verb δέφω, which means "soften by working with the hand," i.e., masturbate. Behind him is written χαίρει, the third person present indicative active of χαίρω, a standard verb often used in greetings, but in this particularly context takes on a more specific meaning: "he is enjoying [it/himself]".

Satyr in the middle has Terpekelos (Τερπήκελος) above his head, which is a really awesome compound phrase. The first half is from the verb τέρπω, which in the middle and passive voices has the meaning "enjoy oneself" or "delight in". The second half derives from the noun κῆλον, meaning "shaft" (usually an arrow, though here, clearly something a bit more suggestive). Terpekelos, therefore, is essentially "delighting in one's own virile member".

The right-side satyr is Psolas (Ψώλας). This name clearly derives from the Greek ψωλός, "with the prepuce (i.e. foreskin) drawn back". 

So, in sum, the names of the rather masturbatory satyrs depicted on this vase augment their visual/comedic effect! Hope you've all enjoyed this little interlude!

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Sources:

The Beazley Archive

Gisela M. A. Richter. 1932. "An Aryballos by Nearchos," American Journal of Archaeology 36 (3): 272-5.

The LSJ online (via the TLG)

Metropolitan Museum's page on this vase in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Publish or Perish: it begins!

I'm not sure whether I wrote anything at all about the research I did last summer, but this seems to be as good a time as any (and this blog was in dire need of an update).

Last year, one of my fabulous professors (Nigel) and I were awarded Reed's Lankford Grant for Faculty-Student Collaborative Research in the Humanities, which funded our summer research project, initially entitled "The Rhetoric of Aging in Archaic Greece." Although I've joked to some of my friends that I essentially spent my summer reading (and subsequently getting very depressed) about old people, it was one of the best academic experiences of my life—I was able to work closely with my professor (and take care of his dog Toby when he was in Sicily!), studied wonderful and engaging literature, and had my first serious and glorious exposure to Pindar. By the time September rolled around, we had completed our research and had produced an article that would be submitted for publication.

In the past month, I've had two pieces of fantastic news. First, we will be presenting our research at a Classics conference in March. Second, our finished article, "Aging, Athletics and Epinician," will be published in the upcoming issue of the academic journal Nikephoros. Although I am a little nervous about the conference presentation, I couldn't be more excited about everything.

This might be the longest of long shots, but if any of you Reedies in this blog's extremely limited readership are at all interested in learning a bit about all of this, you should come to the Classics Symposium this Thursday at 4:15, during which Nigel and I will be presenting our research. There will be snacks!

Summer with Toby Monophthalmos, the best one-eyed dog around