“Cosa diranno i signori dell’Istmo?”: l’umorismo di Pind. fr. 122 M.

Pindar’s fr. 122 M. celebrates a Corinthian rite dedicated to Aphrodite by Xenophon and numerous hetairai. At ll. 13-15, the speaker wonders how the Corinthian community will react to the ode’s opening, ‘companion of public women’ (ξυνάορον ξυναῖς γυναιξίν, l. 15). As a contribution to the study of laughter in Greek conviviality, this paper will examine humorous interpretations of this ode, with a particular focus on the hesitation expressed in ll. 13-15 and on other Pindaric passages where the narrator abruptly stops his train of thoughts to avoid unsuitable topics (as in Ol. 13.91, another ode for Xenophon). In the fragment, this well-known rhetorical device appears to be repurposed for a subject and a performative context that could provoke laughter from the audience.