Monkey Business: Imitation, Authenticity, and Identity from Pithekoussai to Plautus

Abstract

This essay explores references to monkeys as a way of talking about imitation, authenticity, and identity in Greek stories about the ““Monkey Island”” Pithekoussai (modern Ischia) and in Athenian insults, and in Plautus' comedy. In early Greek contexts, monkey business defines what it means to be aristocratic and authoritative. Classical Athenians use monkeys to think about what it means to be authentically Athenian: monkey business is a figure for behavior which threatens democratic culture——sycophancy or other deceptions of the people. Plautus' monkey imagery across the corpus of his plays moves beyond the Athenian use of ““monkey”” as a term of abuse and uses the ““imitative”” relation of monkeys to men as a metapoetic figure for invention and play-making. For Plautus, imitator——and distorter——of Greek plays, monkeys' distorted imitations of men are mapped not onto the relations between inauthentic and authentic citizens, as in Athens, but onto the relation of Roman to Greek comedy and culture at large. Monkey business in Plautus is part of the insistence on difference which was always crucial in Roman encounters with Greek culture.

The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the Visual

“…This 'imitative dancing' , as well as the promise of extra rations, are themes that I take up in section 2. 43 For the mimetic monkey, see further the plentiful examples cited in the discussions in Bowra (1937) 10-11, Connors (2004), Lilja (1980) and Luria (1930). 44 ἐν συνόδωι τῶν ἀλόγων ζώιων πίθηκος ὀρχησάνεμος καὶ εὐδοκιμήσας βασιλεὺς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐχειρο-τονήθη, ἀλώπηξ δ' αὐτῶι φθονήσασα ὡς ἐθεάσατο ἔν τινι πάγηι κρέας κείμενον, ἀγαγοῦσα αὐτὸν ἔλεγεν ὡς εὑροῦσα θησαυρὸν αὐτὴ μὲν οὐκ ἐχρήσατο, γέρας δὲ αὐτῶι τῆς βασιλείας τετήρηκε, καὶ παρήινει αὐτῶι λαμβάνειν.…”

“…While some ancient authors associate the name of Pithecussae (modern day Ischia) with the Kerkopes who were consigned to the island after being transformed into pithêkoi, others derive it from pithoi, amphora-like vessels regularly used to transport and store wine. For the sources, see Connors (2004) of the image, Brijder suggests that the ape in the centre acts as the judge in the balancing competition, ready to award the skyphos to the winner of the (sympotic) agôn.80 On the reverse face, a satyr seated on a rock plays the pipes while three goats caper in a chorus line on their hind legs. The drinking horn reappears on an askos in London, now clutched by a four-footed monkey positioned so as to face a second animal; as Lissarrague observes, the ape deploys the horn in just the manner of the fat dancers, for whom it is the 80 Brijder (1988 drinking vessel of choice throughout the visual repertoire.81 A series of figure vases reiterate the monkey's association with wine; a vessel in Oxford takes the shape of a monkey straining to lift an outsized bowl, and a second terracotta simian in New York, this one with its body similarly covered in the dots that indicate the hairy pelt and dated to c. 565-550, holds an amphora-like vessel in its elongated arms ( fig.…”

Making Monkeys: Archilochus frr. 185–187 W. in Performance

“…For the mimetic monkey, see further the plentiful examples cited in the discussions in Bowra (1937) 10-11, Connors (2004), Lilja (1980) and Luria (1930). 44 ἐν συνόδωι τῶν ἀλόγων ζώιων πίθηκος ὀρχησάνεμος καὶ εὐδοκιμήσας βασιλεὺς ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐχειροτονήθη, ἀλώπηξ δ' αὐτῶι φθονήσασα ὡς ἐθεάσατο ἔν τινι πάγηι κρέας κείμενον, ἀγαγοῦσα αὐτὸν ἔλεγεν ὡς εὑροῦσα θησαυρὸν αὐτὴ μὲν οὐκ ἐχρήσατο, γέρας δὲ αὐτῶι τῆς βασιλείας τετήρηκε, καὶ παρήινει αὐτῶι λαμβάνειν.…”

“…While some ancient authors associate the name of Pithecussae (modern day Ischia) with the Kerkopes who were consigned to the island after being transformed into pithêkoi, others derive it from pithoi, amphora-like vessels regularly used to transport and store wine. For the sources, see Connors (2004) of the image, Brijder suggests that the ape in the centre acts as the judge in the balancing competition, ready to award the skyphos to the winner of the (sympotic) agôn.80 On the reverse face, a satyr seated on a rock plays the pipes while three goats caper in a chorus line on their hind legs. The drinking horn reappears on an askos in London, now clutched by a four-footed monkey positioned so as to face a second animal; as Lissarrague observes, the ape deploys the horn in just the manner of the fat dancers, for whom it is the drinking vessel of choice throughout the visual repertoire.81 A series of figure vases reiterate the monkey's association with wine; a vessel in Oxford takes the shape of a monkey straining to lift an outsized bowl, and a second terracotta simian in New York, this one with its body similarly covered in the dots that indicate the hairy pelt and dated to c. 565-550, holds an amphora-like vessel in its elongated arms ( fig.…”

To Script or Not to Script: Rethinking Pseudolus as Playwright

“…For a Roman ear, the name Simia would quickly create a verbal echo with similis and simius. Connors (2004) has explored shifting attitudes towards the imitative qualities of monkeys in Greek and Roman culture. Rather than denigrating the monkey, Roman authors celebrate it for its ability to produce alternative meaning through imitation.…”