The Origins of Things

As an interesting an addendum to the story I posted on Boatload of Fools entitled "How Chaz became a Stupid Dumb*ss Mother****er," I may have come across the first literary use of the term Mother****er in a derogatory sense.

Although the concept of being a mother****er draws all the way back to the Oedipus myth and before, Oedipus is not generally treated as a mother****er in the modern sense of the term. However, during the sixth century BCE, the Greek lyric poet Hipponax writes, "the mother-****er Bupalus with Arete" in fragment number 12.

Though the usage of the speficic phrase "mother****er" can be attributed to the translator M.L. West, it is nonetheless present in the original Greek that Hipponax insults Bupalus by claiming that he engages in incestual intercourse with his mother.

If this usage is not the first extant occurance of this insult in literature, it is still likely to be the first extant usage in verse.

History can be fun people. Get on the bandwagon and shout "Hi ho."