Cinna and Crassicius: Promiscuity, Incest and the Erotics of Commentary.

This paper argues that an anonymous epigram about the commentator Crassicius marrying Cinna's Zmyrna is a satirical poem playfully evoking the incest of Zmyrna in order to make a more pointed critique of the genre of commentary. The poem suggests that like Zmyrna herself, the Zmyrna is libidinous, a...

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Published in:Mnemosyne Vol. 73; no. 2; pp. 243 - 261
Main Author: Conrau-Lewis, Kyle
Format: Article
Published: Brill Academic Publishers 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Cinna and Crassicius: Promiscuity, Incest and the Erotics of Commentary.
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        au: Conrau-Lewis, Kyle
        affil: Yale University, New Haven, CT
      su:
        Erotica
        Literary criticism
        Comparative literature
        Philology
        Linguistics
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          Erotica
          Literary criticism
          Comparative literature
          Philology
          Linguistics
      keyword:
        Cinna
        commentary
        Crassicius
        gender
        metatextuality
      ab: This paper argues that an anonymous epigram about the commentator Crassicius marrying Cinna's Zmyrna is a satirical poem playfully evoking the incest of Zmyrna in order to make a more pointed critique of the genre of commentary. The poem suggests that like Zmyrna herself, the Zmyrna is libidinous, an unfaithful and Catullan mistress who cannot be trusted by her commentator. The poem therefore invites the reader to think more broadly about the relationship between author and commentator and about issues of textual ownership. In antiquity, poems are often imagined as sexual partners, while conversely sex itself is conceptualised as a grammatical activity. Sexuality therefore becomes a site for thinking about grammar and literary criticism and the relationship of commentator to text.
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