It Is Not What It Appears to Be: A Note on Theodore Prodromos’ Against a Lustful Old Woman

Abstract

This article discusses Theodore Prodromos’ work Against a Lustful Old Woman, which is a satire directed against a proverbial older woman who despite her age attempts to find a younger lover. This paper offers a new interpretation of the poem according to which Prodromos while using traditional literary topoi of depicting ‘“a crone in heat again’” discusses in fact a much more serious problem of hypokrisis. This is one of the recurring themes in Prodromic works where hypokrisis is understood as ‘playing a part’, ‘pretending’ and ‘mimicry’ – people play their parts in life, pretend that they are somebody else.