'May all your weddings be happy ones!': Philogelos 72

Abstract

ΤΗΕ ANCIENT collection of jokes entitled Philogelos is considered to be of mediocre value, but some of its contents do not fail to amuse us. Another striking feature of the collection is the durability of some jokes, which still survive in several European languages. However, the form of 'joke' or 'anecdote' is not the only form in which the content of jokes can appear, and this is certainly true of the Philogelos examples. This paper discusses a modern Greek proverb, which is almost identical in sense to the Philogelos joke no. 72: Ήaving attended a wedding reception, an egghead (scholastikos) took his leave with these words: "May all your weddings be happy ones!'" (transl. Β. Baldwin). It is then shown that similar content is found in texts not belonging to either the proverb or the anecdote genre. This provides stimulus for comment οη the broader issue of the relationship between jokes and types of the so-called 'wisdom literature' (proverb, apophthegm and fable). Common elements between jokes and literary genres such as satiric epigrams and the mime, are also brought into the discussion. The paper culminates in some thoughts οη the antiquity of the discussed proverb and joke, and οη the question whether it is possible to support the chronological priority of one over the other.