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Cuckoldry: Difference between revisions
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The term cuckold is all over medieval literature; in fact, it isn’t too much of an exaggeration to say that a huge percentage of humour from this time revolves around making fun of cuckolds. Cuckoldry plays a major theme Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, the 13th Century poem “The Owl and the Nightingale” to the 18th Century play “The Country Wife”. The cuckold was often portrayed with horns, signifying lechery or ridiculousness, themes associated with satyrs and the god Pan, and Satan by extension. Thus, this style of humor had an element of religious shaming to it. | The term cuckold is all over medieval literature; in fact, it isn’t too much of an exaggeration to say that a huge percentage of humour from this time revolves around making fun of cuckolds. Cuckoldry plays a major theme Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, the 13th Century poem “The Owl and the Nightingale” to the 18th Century play “The Country Wife”. The cuckold was often portrayed with horns, signifying lechery or ridiculousness, themes associated with satyrs and the god Pan, and Satan by extension. Thus, this style of humor had an element of religious shaming to it. | ||
Horns are still associated with cuckolds in the modern era; in some Mediterranean countries, an obscene gesture is created by extending the index and litter finger upwards and tucking in the other fingers and the thumb. This gesture is used to imply the target of the gesture has been cuckolded, and is thus often seen as an especially grievous insult. Meanwhile, in Chinese-speaking communities, wearing a green hat (戴綠帽) is the | Horns are still associated with cuckolds in the modern era; in some Mediterranean countries, an obscene gesture is created by extending the index and litter finger upwards and tucking in the other fingers and the thumb. This gesture is used to imply the target of the gesture has been cuckolded, and is thus often seen as an especially grievous insult. Meanwhile, in Chinese-speaking communities, wearing a green hat (戴綠帽) is used to denote cuckoldry. The phrase 'green hat' is apparently a near-homonym for 'cuckold'. It is claimed this tradition dates back to the Mongol Yuan dynasty, when relatives of prostitutes were publically shamed by being made to wear green hats to denote their inability to 'control their women'.<ref>https://randomwire.com/green-hat-a-no-no/</ref> | ||
==Criticism of usage== | ==Criticism of usage== | ||