GRIFFITH, R. DREW, Architecture of a Kiss: The Vocabulary of "kataglottismata" [Greek] in 
Attic Old Comedy , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:4 (1994:Winter) p.339 

Architecture of a Kiss: 
The Vocabulary of Ka'tayAro't'ticr~a:ta 

in Attic Old Comedy 

R. Drew Griffith 

I N THE EXODUS OF ARISTOPHANES' Acharnians Dicaeopolis, en­
joying the fruits of his private peace, enters between two 
courtesans, whom he bids (1200£) 

<plA:ftou'tov J.l.E J.l.uA8uKW,;, ill XPUOlO), 
'to 7rEpt7rnuo'tov Ka7rlJ.l.UvbuAO)'tOV. 

The scholiast says that line 1201 describes d81l qnAll/.lu,WlV EPCl}H­
KWV, £V ots 8El 'tl)V yAw't'tuv 'taus qllAoDv'tas AElX£tv. In similar 
words at Thesm. 130ff Mnesilochus describes a lascivious song 
as a /.l£AOS ... KU'teyAuHUcr/.l£VOV Kat /.laVbaAuHOV. As a /.luv8a­
AO~ (more commonly called a ~UAavo~, Ar. Vesp. 155,200) is 
the bolt-pin of a door (Zeno Med. ap. Erotianus s.v. O:/.l~llv; 
Artem 2.10 [=p.116 Pack]), scholars have compared (Eltl)/.lav8a­
AO)'1:0s with Teleclides' image of a YlyyAu/.lUytOV <ptATWa (fr.~·14 
PCG; cf Hesychius s.v. yiYYAuJlo~), which is formed from yiy­
yAU/.lOS, the pivot or gudgeon on which a door turns (also called 
the ealpo~, m:povll, or O''tpo<Pl''(S).1 The line from Thesm. 
quoted above and the scholiast's comment on the passage from 
Acharnians have led scholars most plausibly to conclude that 
the kisses described metaphorically as "spread," "with the door­
bolt pinned," and "pivot-like" are what are literally called 
Ka'tayAoYt'ttO'/.la'ta (Ar. Nub. 51, Them. 1192). Ancient de­
scriptions (Automedon, Anth. Pal. 5.129 [128].7; Philodemus, 
Anth. Pal. 5.132 [131].6; Achilles Tatius 2.37.8) show that these 
are what English speakers call "French kisses," 2 in which one 
inserts the tongue in another's mouth. Except in the case of 
Philocleon, who allows his daughter to fish his three-obol 

1 J. Taillardat, Les images d'A ristophane (Paris 1965) 17.9, 104.195; J. 
Henderson, The Maculate Muse 2 (New York 1991) 182.370. 

2 W. Young, Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society (New York 1964) 321. 

339 



GRIFFITH, R. DREW, Architecture of a Kiss: The Vocabulary of "kataglottismata" [Greek] in 
Attic Old Comedy , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:4 (1994:Winter) p.339 

340 ARCHITECTURE OF A KISS 

juror's payout of his mouth with her tongue (Ar. Vesp. 609), 
such kisses occur only in sexual contexts.3 

Taillardat (supra n.1: 17.9) characterizes yi:yyA:UJlO<; as "une 
maniere de 'synonyme'" for Jl&V8UAO<;, but a brief considera­
tion of the mechanics of ancient doors will show that we are 
hardly dealing with synonyms. The Jl&v8UAO<; is part of the 
mechanism of a Spartan lock (Ar. Thesm. 423; Aristophon fro 
7.4 PCC; Men. Mis. fr. 10 Koerte:::::8 Sandbach; Plaut. Mostell. 
404; other kinds of locks were known).4 This consisted of a bolt 
(JlOXAO<;, 0X£u<;, or KA£l8pov) on the inside of the door sliding 
freely in brackets (EJlJlOXAW) attached to the door and, when 
the door is closed, into a socket in the doorpost. Above this bar 
sat a box (~uAuv08oKT1) containing a number of pins. When the 
bolt was shot into the locked position, these pins fell by gravity 
into corresponding holes ('tpU7t'1lJlU'tU) in the bolt, thus locking 
the door. The door could be unlocked only by a thin plank 
fitted at right angles with dowels (YOJl<Ptot) in the same pattern as 
the box and bolt. There was a transverse slot in the bolt directly 
under the pin-holes and a corresponding, although longer, slot 
in the door directly under the box of pins. The 'key', when slid 
into place through these two slots and lifted straight up, 
dislodged the pins so that the bolt could be pulled back by 
means of a rope or leather strap (iJl&<;) that passed through a 
separate slot and hung outside the door. The yiYYAUJlOl, by 
contrast, were part of the hinging mechanism of the door, being 
dowels fitted into the cross-braces (~uyci) at the top and bottom 
of the door and playing freely in sockets (cr'tPO<p£l<; or crUPlYY£<;) 
in the lintel and threshold. It is clear from this account that 
(Ern)JlUV8UAono<; and YLYyAUJlOno<; are words related not by 
synonymity but by participation in the vocabulary proper to 
doors.s When the matter is considered in this light, we see 

3 This may not be an exception if K. J. Dover, Aristophanic Comedy 
(Berkeley 1972) 127, correctly suggests that "the passage is the only one in 
comedy which dares to hint at the enjoyment of incestuous contacts." 

4 H. Diels, Antike Technik 3 (Stuttgart 1924) 52-55; S. A. Handford, "The 
Evidence of Aeneas Tacticus on the BAAANor and BAAANAfPA," jHS 46 
(1926) 181-84. 

5 They are further similar in that they, like the teeth of the key, are treenails 
or dowels (tUAOt). This may be the link that connects the door metaphor to 
the other image of the tongue as instrument, for Aristophanes thinks of song 
and speech as being bored with an auger (tOPE'UE rcaoav cpDJlv, Thesm. 986; 
t£tOPJlo(O tau'ta [= to ldjp'Uy~a]. Pax 381) and joined with dowels U)Jl~a'ta 
yo~q>o1tayil, Ran. 824; cf o(oKpatoyo~q>o'U<;, Teleclides fro 2 PC G). See E. Ver­
meule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (Berkeley 1979) 198. 



GRIFFITH, R. DREW, Architecture of a Kiss: The Vocabulary of "kataglottismata" [Greek] in 
Attic Old Comedy , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:4 (1994:Winter) p.339 

R. DREW GRIFFITH 341 

immediately that 1t£Pl1t£'w<J'to<;, which keeps close company 
with E1tlIlUVOUAUl'toC; at Aeh. 1201 and which effectively 
describes the parting of the lips involved in French kissing (ef 
UVOlYWV 'tel qllA:fU.lu'tu, Achilles Tatius 2.37.8) is also a door 
metaphor.l' (,Avu)1t£'tavvuJ..tl, like Latin pateo, is so often said of 
opening doors (II. 12.122, etc.) that it can be used alone, with the 
word for door in ellipse (Theoc. Id. 16.6). 

It is no accident that Old Comedy described kisses involving 
the tongue using door vocabulary, for Greeks since Homer 
have viewed the tongue as a door.? I have argued elsewhere that 
Homer's phrase <J'tp£1t'tll OE YAw<Ja' Ea1l ~P01WV (II. 20.248) 
pictures the tongue as the door to the cage of the teeth (EpKOC; 
ooov'twv, II. 4.350, etc.) capable of pivoting noisily on its hinge 
to allow the winged words (£1t£U 1t1£PO£V'tu, Il. 1.201, etc.) 
within to escape. s Subsequent Greek authors, and in particular 
Aristophanes, elaborated upon this idea. The mouth ought to 
have a door or gate (ef u8upw'tov <J'to,.w, Ran. 838 RMgl. with 
scho!. vet. A K; U1tUA-, Ran. 838 V, Gel!. NA 1.15.19, Eust. Il. 
2.619.7),9 namely the tongue. The tongue pivots (Nub. 792, Ran. 
892) and has a key (Aesch. fr. 316 TrCF; Soph. OC 1052) where­
by to lock the mouth (KA£l£tv <J'to J.W , Eq. 1316, Thesm. 40). 
When not locked with a key, the tongue, like a door (ef Thesm. 
421-27),10 may be sealed (Critias fro 5.3 West; Timotheus 791.148 
PMC; Lucian, Anth. Pal. 10.42.1). The basis for the equation of 
tongue and door is apparently the noisiness of the pivot-and­
socket mechanism (The sm. 487f). The vox propria for this noise 
is ",ocpOC; (ef ",OCPEW with LS] S.V. II); someone sneaking into a 

6 A. H. Sommerstein, Aristophanes, Aeharnians (Warminster 1980) 213 ad 
1201: "broad: lit. 'spread,' i.e., with spread lips." 

7 Door imagery depicts other aspects of sexual congress beside kissing. The 
door is used metaphorically of the vagina (Ar. Vesp. 768, Thesm. 424, Eeel. 
962, 990; Eupolis fr. 236 PCG) and anus (Semon. fro 17 West; Hipponax fr. 
92.14 West; Ar. Ecel. 316-71; Eur. Cye. 502), and penis and vagina may be 
depicted respectively by ~aA.avo" (Ar. Lys. 407-13, with a surface meaning of 
"jewelry-clasp" rather than, as elsewhere, "door bolt") and 'tp{l1tTJI-W (Eeel. 
624). Timocles describes intercourse as bolting the tongue box, with reference 
to the box in which oboe reeds (literally "tongues") were kept (Kat 'to yA.Ctl't­
't6l(Ol-lOV ~aMv£uO"at£. fro 2 PCG). 

8 "A Homeric Metaphor Cluster Describing Words, Tongue and Teeth," 
AJP 116 (1995) 1-5. 

9 As the mouth has a door in Hebrew thought: Job 41:14, Qoheleth 12:4, 
Micah 7:5. 

10 For a seal on the door see J. Diggle, Euripides: Phaethon (Cambridge 
1970) 145f ad 223. 



GRIFFITH, R. DREW, Architecture of a Kiss: The Vocabulary of "kataglottismata" [Greek] in 
Attic Old Comedy , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:4 (1994:Winter) p.339 

342 ARCHITECTURE OF A KISS 

house seeks to do so a'l'oCPTltt (Lucian Dial. Meret. 12.3 [314]).11 
Metaphorically, the bombastic Aeschylus is 'l'6cpou 1tA£WV 
(Nub. 1367) and Pluto's doorkeeper, Aeacus, terrifies callers 
with 6 'l'6cpo~ tWV PTI/J.a.tWV (Ran. 492). Knocking is another 
kind of door noise and it is a cliche of comic doorway scenes 12 
that knocking, however timid, is always too loud (Nub. 136, 
Av. 53-56, Ran. 39, Plut. 1097-1102). In Aristophanic parlance, 
the door, when knocked on by an unseen person, is "speaking" 
for itself (cp8£y¥£cr8m, Pluto 1097).13 

The equation of tongue and door is actualized in courting 
ritual. According to custom, the exclusus amator passes the 
night on the doorstep of his beloved, singing 1tapaKAaucrt-
8upa,14 as the young man does at Eccl. 962ff.1S The lover 
accompanies his song with various gestures, which include 
kissing his beloved's door, doorpost, or doorstep (Callim. 
Epigr. 43.5f; Theoc. Id. 23.16; Lucr. 4.1179; Prop. 1.16.42).16 It 

11 The classic discussion of door noises is W. W. Mooney, The House Door 
on the Ancient Stage (Baltimore 1914) 19-41. See also H. Petersmann, "Philo­
logische Untersuchungen zur anti ken Biihnentiir," WS N.F. 5 (1971) 91-109. 

12 The doorway scene provides comic effects in both comedy and tragedy 
from Aesch. Cho. 653 to Shakespeare, Macbeth Il.iii. see E. H. f-Iaight, The 
Symbolism of the House Door in Classical Poetry (New York 1950) 37-91; O. 
Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford 1977) 34Cff. 

13 Personification of the door is at home in comedy (as here and at Plaut. 
Stich. 312), in divine epiphanies (rind. Nem. 1.41, on which see H. Herter, 
"Ein neues Tiirwunder," RhM 83 [1940J 152-57; Callim. Ap. 6; Eur. Bacch. 
443-48; Verg. Aen. 6.81), and under the influence of black magic (Apu!. Met. 
1.14). In general see K. J. McKay, "Door Magic and the Epiphany Hymn," 
CQ NS. 17 (1967) 184-94. 

14 This is a popular genre of unknown antiquity. It makes its debut in the 
surviving literature at Eur. Cyc. 483-518; see R. A. S. Seaford, Euripides, 
Cyclops (Oxford 1988) 195 ad lac., quoting L. E. Rossi, "II Ciclope di Euripide 
come 1(00110<; mancato," Maia 23 (1971) 10-38 at 21. In general see F. O. 
Copley, Exclusus Amator (Madison 1956) 1-27. 

15 W. Headlam and A. D. Knox, Herodas: The Mimes and Fragments 
(Cambridge 1922) 83 ad Herod. 2.34-37 pace R. C. Ussher, A ristophanes: 
Ecclesiazusae (Oxford 1973) 210 ad 960-63. The men's attack on the Pro­
pylaea in Lys. 254-466 makes much verbal and scenic use of the imagery of 
gates and penetration in an early variation on the exclusus amator motif; see 
C. H. Whitman, Aristophanes and the Comic Hero (=Martin Classical Lec­
tures 19 [Cambridge (Mass.) 1964]) 203. 

16 Doorposts are also traditionally kissed in farewell (Ap. Rhod. 4.26£; Verg. 
Aen. 2.490; Valerius Flaccus 2.168f). There is a similar ambiguity with kisses 
that are said to suck forth the soul, an expression used either of passionate 
sexual kisses (Plato, Anth. Pal. 5.78 [=D.L. 3.32J; Achilles Tatius 2.8.2; cf 
Marlowe, Faustus V.i. 1 00) or of the last kiss to the dying (Cic. Verr. 5.118; 
Verg. Aen. 4.684). 



GRIFFITH, R. DREW, Architecture of a Kiss: The Vocabulary of "kataglottismata" [Greek] in 
Attic Old Comedy , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:4 (1994:Winter) p.339 

R. DREW GRIFFITH 343 

consoles him that the door barring him from the object of his 
desire nonetheless, if only metaphorically, affords the kisses 
that he hopes to encounter within. In the passage from 
Ecclesiazusae the impediment is not the door but the old 
woman who opens it. This is one impediment, however, to 
which the youth refuses to rrpoaaY£lv 'to a't6~w (993f),17 

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON 

June, 1995 

17 The material for this note was gathered in the course of preparing a 
glossary of early Greek anatomical terms. I am grateful to the Social Sciences 
and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous support of 
that project and to an anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier 
draft of this note.