The following late antique text, recently discovered in a restaurant basement, is surmised to be a lost part of Macrobius’ Saturnalia, possibly from discussion, in book 5, of Virgil’s borrowings from Greek authors (e.g., one notes similarities to the etiological mode of Aeneid 7.112-19, where the fulfillment of a prophecy is simultaneously the origin of pizza). It is presented here in the form in which it has been preserved–namely, a loose debate among several scholars, many of them pseudonymous and not a few of them ridiculous, in the tradition of lampoons of intellectual life including Plato’s Symposium and Aristophanes’ Clouds. The accompanying image offers a reconstruction of a painting described by one of the speakers in an ekphrasis.

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064673491092467712

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064675029689004033

An interjection from a noted linguistic charlatan:

“Ah, I always thought it was the nominative singular present active feminine participle of μιμάω (“I drink in the morning”), accented like this: μιμῶσα But, with your explanation, I get to use it on myself.”

Consider:

Μιμάω: “I brunch”
μιμήσω: “I will brunch”
ἐμίμησα: “I brunched”
μεμίμηκα: “I have brunched”
μεμίμημαι: “I have been brunched”
ἐμιμήθην: “I was brunched”; but contrast with middle ἐμιμησάμην: “I made brunch available for others”

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064680083103932417

so, if not the reduplicated form the alpha-contract, it has to be a denominative from mim- vel. sim, right? As reduplicated present, however, should it not be a mi-verb?

New theory, analogically leveling induced by the eponymous substance made a mi verb into a contract verb.

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

Those alpha contract verbs can be intoxicating. I mean, disorienting. Dammit, someone pass me a drink.

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064677001590640640

Or, perhaps, it is merely a forgotten reflex of mim-esis, and it is really just about pretending the weekend isn't almost over…(for sunday brunches…)

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064681277754884096

Absolutely. For Plato, we'd all just be drinking a poor imimitation of a mimeosa anyway.

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

"The Historical Linguistic and Cultural Dimensions of Brunching", An Interdisciplinary Symposium Hosted by Your Favorite University

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

https://twitter.com/beldonstevens/status/1064676562795139072

so, if not the reduplicated form the alpha-contract, it has to be a denominative from mim- vel. sim, right? As reduplicated present, however, should it not be a mi-verb?

New theory, analogically leveling induced by the eponymous substance made a mi verb into a contract verb.

— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) November 20, 2018

 

This thread is my favorite thing that I've read in weeks.

— @thedancinggrad.bsky.social (@DLibatique10) November 21, 2018

[Dr. Benjamin Eldon Stevens works on classical receptions, especially in contemporary fiction, science fiction, and fantasy (most recently co-editing a volume of essays on Frankenstein, while upcoming is a volume on ‘displacement’); underworlds and afterlives; Latin poetry; and histories of the senses. He has also published translations of Spanish poetry and French fiction. Hailing from Colorado and Nebraska, and having taught in Washington DC, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Dr. Stevens is currently at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.]