Dear Theseus
As a linguist yourself, you must be familiar with the value of cartoons in recording social, political and cultural developments through both their visual and linguistic components. It is often quite a challenge to decode these elements, especially when they correspond to no more than a razor-thin segment of history. In our modern world of electronic and social media, it is easy to miss the specific news item or sound bite that a cartoon uses. It is a problem I constantly have in my covert presence in the social media, when I have to ask my friends to explain to me numerous allusions to stuff I have not come across.
Back to cartoons: One of my favourite cartoonists in recent years is Dimitris Hantzopoulos, now working for the daily newspaper Kathimerini. His cartoons are often quite subtle, and I sometimes read them feeling that I may be missing some of the nuances. By the way, I’m all in favour of the publication of annotated cartoon collections, which can give you interestingly condensed versions of events, obviously filtered through the artist’s subjective vision. Nikos Sarantakos (sarant in lexilogia.gr), in his own blog, does an excellent job presenting the rich background to the cartoons of Mentis Bostantzoglou (“Μποστ”), which were a unique combination of political commentary and linguistic tightrope-walking.
The Hantzopoulos cartoon published a few days ago (also shown above) is an instance of at least two obscure references. It refers to an incident last Sunday when about two dozen members of some anti-authoritarian group stormed the Thessaloniki metropolitan church of St Gregory Palamas and interrupted mass in protest against the evacuation of squatting migrants from abandoned buildings in the city.
The text on the left of the cartoon refers to one of the slogans in the flyers scattered by the protesters: “ΟΛΑ ΜΑΣ ΑΝΗΚΟΥΝ ΓΙΑΤΙ ΟΛΑ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΚΛΕΜΜΕΝΑ”. Everything belongs to us because everything is stolen. I suppose this is a variation of “Property is theft”.
What is, however, linguistically obscure is the ecclesiastical variation of a vulgar rhyme dating back to the eighties (which made me think of you and your excursions into the realm of Greek slang). The text on the right ends with the rhyme “Πιστέψτε μας κι εμάς. Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς”.
“Gregory Palamas” is obviously the name of the 14th century monk and theologian who is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and whom Thessaloniki’s metropolitan church is named after. What is the name doing there in that silly rhyme closing off the text in the second panel?
It harks back to the vulgar rhyme of the 1980s I mentioned, which went “Στ’ αρχίδια μας κι εμάς. Κωστής Παλαμάς.” In a fad of those days you would take a vulgar phrase with some sense of metre and would add to it the name of a famous poet or writer which would rhyme with the phrase and preferably conform with its metre, as if that person added his creative signature and prestige to the vulgar utterance. The monk’s name must have reminded Hantzopoulos of that fad and he just couldn’t help using it.
And this is how a seemingly innocent rhyme in a modern cartoon can take you back three decades to a fad most young people today are unaware of. This is a cartoon fathers should have been explaining to their scions. I have selected some of the examples given in the relevant entry in slang.gr, although I cannot guarantee that all of these rhymes date to that period and are not more recent creations. Other lexilogians may, however, add their own experience.
Στ’ αρχίδια μας κι εμάς. Κωστής Παλαμάς
Τα πιάνεις και τα ξύνεις. Γεώργιος Δροσίνης
Σε γαμώ και μένεις έγκυος. Αριστομένης Προβελέγγιος
Σε γαμώ και υποφέρεις. Γεώργιος Σεφέρης
Με τις τρίχες μην παίζεις. Ηλίας Βενέζης
Τ’ αρχίδια μου θα πάρεις. Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης
As a linguist yourself, you must be familiar with the value of cartoons in recording social, political and cultural developments through both their visual and linguistic components. It is often quite a challenge to decode these elements, especially when they correspond to no more than a razor-thin segment of history. In our modern world of electronic and social media, it is easy to miss the specific news item or sound bite that a cartoon uses. It is a problem I constantly have in my covert presence in the social media, when I have to ask my friends to explain to me numerous allusions to stuff I have not come across.
Back to cartoons: One of my favourite cartoonists in recent years is Dimitris Hantzopoulos, now working for the daily newspaper Kathimerini. His cartoons are often quite subtle, and I sometimes read them feeling that I may be missing some of the nuances. By the way, I’m all in favour of the publication of annotated cartoon collections, which can give you interestingly condensed versions of events, obviously filtered through the artist’s subjective vision. Nikos Sarantakos (sarant in lexilogia.gr), in his own blog, does an excellent job presenting the rich background to the cartoons of Mentis Bostantzoglou (“Μποστ”), which were a unique combination of political commentary and linguistic tightrope-walking.
The Hantzopoulos cartoon published a few days ago (also shown above) is an instance of at least two obscure references. It refers to an incident last Sunday when about two dozen members of some anti-authoritarian group stormed the Thessaloniki metropolitan church of St Gregory Palamas and interrupted mass in protest against the evacuation of squatting migrants from abandoned buildings in the city.
The text on the left of the cartoon refers to one of the slogans in the flyers scattered by the protesters: “ΟΛΑ ΜΑΣ ΑΝΗΚΟΥΝ ΓΙΑΤΙ ΟΛΑ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΚΛΕΜΜΕΝΑ”. Everything belongs to us because everything is stolen. I suppose this is a variation of “Property is theft”.
What is, however, linguistically obscure is the ecclesiastical variation of a vulgar rhyme dating back to the eighties (which made me think of you and your excursions into the realm of Greek slang). The text on the right ends with the rhyme “Πιστέψτε μας κι εμάς. Γρηγόριος Παλαμάς”.
“Gregory Palamas” is obviously the name of the 14th century monk and theologian who is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and whom Thessaloniki’s metropolitan church is named after. What is the name doing there in that silly rhyme closing off the text in the second panel?
It harks back to the vulgar rhyme of the 1980s I mentioned, which went “Στ’ αρχίδια μας κι εμάς. Κωστής Παλαμάς.” In a fad of those days you would take a vulgar phrase with some sense of metre and would add to it the name of a famous poet or writer which would rhyme with the phrase and preferably conform with its metre, as if that person added his creative signature and prestige to the vulgar utterance. The monk’s name must have reminded Hantzopoulos of that fad and he just couldn’t help using it.
And this is how a seemingly innocent rhyme in a modern cartoon can take you back three decades to a fad most young people today are unaware of. This is a cartoon fathers should have been explaining to their scions. I have selected some of the examples given in the relevant entry in slang.gr, although I cannot guarantee that all of these rhymes date to that period and are not more recent creations. Other lexilogians may, however, add their own experience.
Στ’ αρχίδια μας κι εμάς. Κωστής Παλαμάς
Τα πιάνεις και τα ξύνεις. Γεώργιος Δροσίνης
Σε γαμώ και μένεις έγκυος. Αριστομένης Προβελέγγιος
Σε γαμώ και υποφέρεις. Γεώργιος Σεφέρης
Με τις τρίχες μην παίζεις. Ηλίας Βενέζης
Τ’ αρχίδια μου θα πάρεις. Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης
