11. Ancient Greek Humor Could Get Cruel
Boupalus was a famous ancient Greek sculptor.Centuries after his death, the Emperor Augustus had his agents scour the Greek world for statues by Boupalus, which he used to decorate the Temple of Apollo in Rome. In addition to being a great sculptor, Boupalus was a great troll, who unfortunately clashed with an even bigger troll. His adversary, Hipponax of Ephesus, was a poet whose bread and butter seems to have been acerbic lines such as “There are two days when a woman is a pleasure: the day one marries her and the day one carries out her dead body“, and diss poetry. In addition to an ugly personality, Hipponax had a gargoyle face to match. The beef started when Hipponax sought to marry Boupalus’ daughter, only for her father to reject him.
That probably spared the girl from a life with somebody who was, by all reports, as ugly on the inside as he was on the outside. Boupalus then rubbed salt in the wound, and caricatured the unsightly Hipponax in some of his sculptures. Hipponax responded with rhymes that accused Boupalus of being a literal motherfu*ker. He then went into graphic details about the carnal acts that the sculptor supposedly engaged in with his mother. Boupalus was subjected to intense public mockery as a result, and unable to stand it, he hanged himself. His fate became a byword among the Greeks, as illustrated by a line from ancient Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes: “Someone ought to give them a Boupalus or two on the jaw—that might shut them up for a bit“.