31 May 2011

Subway Graffiti and DSK

The other day I saw a graffiti in the Paris metro. It said:

DSK: Satyre de la Republique.

The creativity of my fellow passenger made me smile. Satyr is the mythological lecherous half-human, half-goat character. He usually accompanies Dionysus. The term refers to a hedonistic man who is too preoccupied with sex.

Satire was derived from a strict Latin form, which had nothing to do with Satyr. But because it had no verbal, adjectival and adverbial forms, when they emerged they referred to the Greek etymology.

Which enables the double entendre.

He is both the Satyr and satire of the Republic.

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