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The Funeral of Archimimus

O. Jamie Walsh

Out of print

Details

Status Out of print
Release Date Summer 2023
Size 11 × 30 cm
Pages 16
Edition single
Workmanship Hand-sewn booklet, printed on a few handmade cotton rag pages with deckled edges.

Content

The archimimes or arch-buffoons were different from moirologists, those hired to bulk out processions light on mourners, or to shriek loudly where shrieking was the social expectation but the bereaved were shriekless in their grief. In Rome, the archimime followed Vespasian’s funeral cortège. They counterfeited the gestures and manners of the dead as if they were still alive. Caesar himself had his clown-mimic, although when the crowd saw the archimime in the guise of the dead emperor, they rioted.