Hermeneutics and Phenomenology of Body in Ancient Greek Comedy

This paper explores how Ancient Greek drama used embodied metaphors drawn from gesture, labor, and sensory experience – to translate abstract domains such as politics, philosophy, and aesthetics into tangible forms on stage. Through physical behavior, facial expressions, and action, theatre forged a reciprocal link between the visible world and the imagined, the material stage and the natural or fictional environment. Comedy, with its reliance on laughter as a universal acoustic and visual behavior, heightened this interplay by engaging audiences both cognitively and emotionally. Shared bodily imagery – kneading, tasting, weighing, cleansing – enabled spectators to grasp complex ideas through common experiences of strain, touch, and discomfort. In doing so, drama created empathetic bridges across cultural and personal boundaries, shaping how societies understood and adapted to the abstract through the visceral.