Agelasta
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"The agélastes [Rabelais's word for those who do not laugh], the nonthought of received ideas, and kitsch are one and the same." --The Art of the Novel (1960 by Miland Kundera, cited in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989) by Richard Rorty "Il ne fut onques tant sévère Caton, ne Crassus l'aïeul tant agélaste, ne Timon athénien tant misanthrope, ne Heraclitus tant abhorrent du propre humain." English translation " this [...] would have forced smiles out of the most severe Cato, the never-laughing Crassus, the Athenian man-hater, Timon; nay, even whining Heraclitus, though he abhorred laughing, the action that is most peculiar to man. "
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Agelasta is a person who does not laugh.
In Greek mythology, Agelasta (Ἀγέλαστος in Ancient Greek or Αγέλαστη Modern Greek "smile-less") was the name of the stone on which Demeter rested during her search for Persephone.
In modern culture, Agelasta inspired the title of a documentary by Philippos Koutsaftis (Φίλιππος Κουτσαφτής), called 'Agelastos Petra - Αγέλαστος Πέτρα "smile-less stone" (2000) on Modern Eleusis.
Agélaste (French)
- Personne qui ne sait pas rire.
- "Aulcuns ont à l’Autheur reprouché de ne pas plus sçavoir le languaige du vieulx temps que les lièvres ne se cognoissent à faire des fagots. Iadis ces gens eussent esté nommez, à bon escient, cannibales, agelastes, sycophantes, voire mesmes ung peu yssus de la bonne ville de Gomorrhe." — (Honoré de Balzac, Les Contes drolatiques)
- "Lors de son passage dans l’espace cosmique, l’âme du véritable agelaste ne saura pénétrer en paradis." — (Colette Quesnel, Mourir de rire d'après et avec Rabelais, page 62, 1991)
Etymology
Du grec ancien ἀγέλαστος, agélastos (« qui ne rit pas »). Référence nécessaire