Tawdry Tuesday (NSFW): Heavy-tongued Hipponax With a Word We Don’t Need

Hipponax 135 b

“opening of filth”

βορβορόπη

Eust. iv.835.13 in Hom. Il. 23.775

Here it is not inapt to say that a mouth spitting out thus might be called an orifice of shit and filth, just as according to ancient inquiry the heavy-tongued Hipponax made a compound when he insulted some woman as a “filth-opening”, when he was mocking her for her dirty child-rearing. He also tore down another women by calling her a “dick-shaker”, because, people claim, she makes a penis dance.”

ἐνταῦθα δὲ οὐκ ἄκαιρον εἰπεῖν καὶ ὅτι στόμα τὸ οὕτως ἀποπτύον ὄνθου λεχθείη ἂν καὶ βορβόρου ὀπή, ὅπερ κατὰ παλαιὰν ἱστορίαν συνθεὶς ὁ βαρύγλωσσος Ἱππῶναξ “βορβορόπην” ὕβρισε γυναῖκά τινα, σκώπτων ἐκείνην εἰς τὸ παιδογόνον ὡς ἀκάθαρτον. ὃς καὶ “ἀνασεισίφαλλον” ἄλλην τινὰ διέσυρεν, ὡς ἀνασείουσαν, φασί, τὸν φάλητα.

Suda 

“Hipponax calls the woman a “filth-opening” as if he is saying she is unclean, drawing on the word for ‘filth’ (barboros) and also he adds “flasher” from the verb anasuresthai, for “pulling up one’s clothes”.

Ἱππῶναξ δὲ “βορβορόπιν” ὡς ἀκάθαρτον ταύτην φησίν, ἀπὸ τοῦ βορβόρου, καὶ “ἀνασυρτό{πο}λιν” ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνασύρεσθαι.

Image result for Ancient Greek flasher

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