Ampelomixia
Ampelomixia ( Greek ἀμπελομιξία ; from ἄμπελος , ámpelos , "grapevine" and μείγνυμι, meígnymi , "to unite") is a late Greek term that satirically denotes sexual intercourse with grapevines . It appears for the first time in the 2nd century AD with the writer Lukian of Samosata .
etymology
The name ἀμπελομιξία , ampelomixía is a Greek compound composed of the words ἄμπελος ámpelos (vine, vine) and μιξία, mixía (the mixture). The latter is derived from the verb μείγνυμι, meígnymi (to mix; to unite) and also specifically means "copulation", "sexual intercourse". So ampelomixia can be translated as "grapevine mating ".
Ampelomixia at Lukian
The expression ampelomixía can be found once ( hapax legomenon ) in the work True Stories , ( ἀληθῶν διηγημάτων , alēthōn diēgēmátōn ) by the ancient writer Lukian of Samosata (approx. 120-180 AD). The True Stories is a fictional travelogue that parodies Homer's Odyssey and the Hellenistic adventure novel . With numerous absurd and comical lies, Lukian exposes the sailor's thread character of these popular narrative genres. During his sailing trip, the first-person narrator claims to have visited an island with a river in which wine instead of water flows. While exploring the island, the narrator and his companions come across hybrids who are half women, half grapevines:
Τότε δὲ τὸν ποταμὸν διαπεράσαντες ᾗ διαβατὸς ἦν, εὕρομεν ἀμπέλων χρῆμα τεράστιον · τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, ὁ στέλεχος αὐτὸς εὐερνὴς καὶ παχύς, τὸ δὲ ἄνω γυναῖκες ἦσαν, ὅσον ἐκ τῶν λαγόνων ἅπαντα ἔχουσαι τέλειατοιαύτην παρ ἡμῖν τὴν Δάφνην γράφουσιν ἄρτι τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος καταλαμβάνοντος ἀποδενδρουμένην. ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν δακτύλων ἄκρων ἐξεφύοντο αὐταῖς οἱ κλάδοι καὶ μεστοὶ ἦσαν βοτρύων. καὶ μὴν καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἐκόμων ἕλιξί τε καὶ φύλλοις καὶ βότρυσι. After wading through the river, at a point where it was very shallow, we came across a wonderful species of vines; From the bottom up, every stick was green and gnarled vine wood; from above, on the other hand, it was women who, right down to their girdles, had everything that was due in the greatest perfection; much like we paint Daphne when she becomes a tree in Apollo's embrace. Her fingers ended in saplings that hung full of grapes; their heads were also covered with tendrils, leaves and grapes instead of their hair.
The narrator's companions are attracted to the hybrid beings and have sex with them. In doing so, however, they grow firmly and transform themselves into vines:
καὶ δύο τινὲς τῶν ἑταίρων πλησιάσαντες αὐταῖς οὐκέτι ἀπελύοντο, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν αἰδοίων ἐαδέδεντο .ρντντνοροων ἐαδέδεντο. καὶ ἤδη αὐτοῖς κλάδοι ἐπεφύκεσαν οἱ δάκτυλοι, καὶ ταῖς ἕλιξι περιπλεκόμενοι ὅσον οὐδέπω καὶ αὐτοὶ καρποφορήσειν ἔμελλον. Some of them even received the desire to mate with us; but a pair of my companions who were willing to pay dearly for their lust. For they could not detach themselves again, but grew together with them in such a way that they became a single stick with common roots; her fingers turned into vine shoots, full of twisted tendrils, and were already beginning to attract eyes and promise fruit.
The expression ampelomixía is used when the narrator has fled back to his ship and tells the companions who stayed there about the events:
... διηγούμεθα ἐλθόντες τά τε ἄλλα καὶ τῶν ἑταίρων τὴν ἀμπελομιξίαν. ... where we [...] told everything we had seen, especially the adventure of the two who were so bad at the embrace of the Reb women. (Translation based on Christoph Martin Wieland )
Reception history
The treatment of the Lukian passage in classical philology is a reflection of the respective moral concepts. In many text editions, especially those that are intended ad usum Delphini , the relevant passage is shortened because it was perceived as morally offensive. When translating into modern languages, the translators show more or less a sense of shame: At the end of the 18th century, Christoph Martin Wieland's translation of Lucian gave the term Ampelomixia quite frankly with “embrace of the Reb women”. The English translation by the Fowler brothers from 1905 speaks with British understatement of experiment in viticulture . In Wilhelm Gemoll's standard dictionary from 1908, the keyword ampelomixía is listed, but with the belittling translation "transformation into a vine". Here the ambiguity of the "mixing of people with grapevines" (in the sense of copulation as well as in the sense of metamorphosis ), which is created in the word -μιξία ( -mixía ), is just as clear as in Wieland's translation.
swell
- ^ Christoph Martin Wieland: The true story first book , 1788/1789 project Gutenberg-DE
- ^ HW Fowler, FG Fowler: The Works of Lucian of Samosata . The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1905 Works of Lucian, Vol. I Index
- ^ Wilhelm Gemoll: Greek-German school dictionary and concise dictionary , eighth edition 1962 (1908).
