"Homeric laughter" as a phrase is well-known in English too, I thought? And based mostly on descriptions of the gods laughing. I've found https://www.jstor.org/stable/3289782 as an example.
Very unscientifically, if I ask Google to complete "гомерический" in an incognito window, 6 out of 10 completions are versions of "homeric laughter", 1 is "homeric means", etc. compared to English where I get "homeric epic", "homeric question", "homeric greek", etc.
But on further thought, it's just that for cases like "Homeric Greek" a different adjective is normally used: "гомеровский", "Homer's". Why the split, I have no idea.
I agree that humor is often overlooked in the Iliad which has quite a lot of both humor and irony. The episode in which Diomedes wounds Aphrodite and Ares and their reception back on Mt. Olympus is one example. Another scene plays out in Book II when Agamemnon tests the troops and tells them to go to the ships and sail home. To his great surprise, they completely fail the test by rising en masse, running to the ships, hoping to embark for home as soon as possible. This scene always had the feel of a "Keystone Cops" affair, highlighting the incompetence and poor leadership ability of Agamemnon. And surely there is irony the tragic death of Patroclus which owed much to Achilles' plan to get his own back after Agamemnon dishonored him. He asks Zeus to ensure that many Achaeans would pay for his ατιμη by sending "forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes, and made them themselves spoil for dogs and every bird." Achilles suffers greatly from his μένις which was not what he intended at all.
Being laughed at, or mocked, is another kind of laughter which the listening or viewing audience may not find funny. Within the story, we watch characters laugh at the misfortune of another as in your example of the gods laughing at Hephaestus; it casts those laughing at the expense of the other in a negative light. In Euripides' Medea, one of her greatest fears is that her enemies will laugh at her. It drives her to slay her own children to revenge herself on her faithless husband. And in Sophocles' Ajax, Athena says to Odysseus, "And is not the sweetest mockery the mockery of enemies [ekhthros]? "
And Odysseus in a rare gesture of empathy says to her,
“But I entirely pity the wretched man, although he is my enemy, because he is shackled by the yoke of a terrible delusion. It makes me think of my own lot, no less than that of this man: for I see that we are nothing but phantoms or fleeting shadow, while we live.”
Humor in ancient Greek classics is multidimensional.
Strangely enough, in Russian the adjective "гомерический" ("Homeric") is most commonly applied to laughter.
this is amazing and I want to know how this happened
"Homeric laughter" as a phrase is well-known in English too, I thought? And based mostly on descriptions of the gods laughing. I've found https://www.jstor.org/stable/3289782 as an example.
Very unscientifically, if I ask Google to complete "гомерический" in an incognito window, 6 out of 10 completions are versions of "homeric laughter", 1 is "homeric means", etc. compared to English where I get "homeric epic", "homeric question", "homeric greek", etc.
But on further thought, it's just that for cases like "Homeric Greek" a different adjective is normally used: "гомеровский", "Homer's". Why the split, I have no idea.
I agree that humor is often overlooked in the Iliad which has quite a lot of both humor and irony. The episode in which Diomedes wounds Aphrodite and Ares and their reception back on Mt. Olympus is one example. Another scene plays out in Book II when Agamemnon tests the troops and tells them to go to the ships and sail home. To his great surprise, they completely fail the test by rising en masse, running to the ships, hoping to embark for home as soon as possible. This scene always had the feel of a "Keystone Cops" affair, highlighting the incompetence and poor leadership ability of Agamemnon. And surely there is irony the tragic death of Patroclus which owed much to Achilles' plan to get his own back after Agamemnon dishonored him. He asks Zeus to ensure that many Achaeans would pay for his ατιμη by sending "forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes, and made them themselves spoil for dogs and every bird." Achilles suffers greatly from his μένις which was not what he intended at all.
Being laughed at, or mocked, is another kind of laughter which the listening or viewing audience may not find funny. Within the story, we watch characters laugh at the misfortune of another as in your example of the gods laughing at Hephaestus; it casts those laughing at the expense of the other in a negative light. In Euripides' Medea, one of her greatest fears is that her enemies will laugh at her. It drives her to slay her own children to revenge herself on her faithless husband. And in Sophocles' Ajax, Athena says to Odysseus, "And is not the sweetest mockery the mockery of enemies [ekhthros]? "
And Odysseus in a rare gesture of empathy says to her,
“But I entirely pity the wretched man, although he is my enemy, because he is shackled by the yoke of a terrible delusion. It makes me think of my own lot, no less than that of this man: for I see that we are nothing but phantoms or fleeting shadow, while we live.”
Humor in ancient Greek classics is multidimensional.