Laughing with the Gods: The Tale of Ares and Aphrodite in Homer, Ovid, and Lucian

“Homeric laughter” plays a climactic role in the tale of Ares and Aphrodite in Odyssey 8 and reappears in versions of the adulterous liaison in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria 2, Metamorphoses 4, and Lucian’s Dialogi Deorum. Through analysis of the laughter in these narratives, this article argues that the polyvalence of laughter in the Homeric text permits Ovid and Lucian to deploy laughter in distinct ways that shape the contexts of their own versions of the tale. Laughter’s function in each telling of the story remains pivotal. The article posits in its conclusion that laughter was so inextricably linked to “the tale of Ares and Aphrodite” that the introduction and narration of the episode was akin to recounting a version of a well-known joke in whose telling “Homeric laughter”—as narrative feature and audience response—was anticipated.