Sunday, January 18, 2009

January 18: Origin of Yale "Brekekekex-Ko-ax" (Vol. 8, pp. 439-449)

Billed in the reading guide as a bit of comic relief, this selection from Artistophanes' "The Frogs" is supposed to be the ancient Greeks' version of vaudeville, with Xanthias and Dionysus yukking it up.

Unfortunately, since this is more stagecraft from ancient Greece, it is so dense that one really has to dig deep to find the humor.

As for what "Brekekekex-Ko-ax" means, that's the chorus of the frogs in his play, which apparently was swiped as a football cheer back in the day the reading guide was assembled.

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