5 ms·

The Astrologer is pointing out that since the guy can't have any (more) children, he should take good care of the ones he has. It's also possible that this is

by querez 5y ago

The Astrologer is pointing out that since the guy can't have any (more) children, he should take good care of the ones he has. It's also possible that this is a bad translation from Latin, and the original punchline was along the lines of "take a good look at them" (i.e., implying that he's not the biological father).

LudwigNagasena 5y ago
> the original punchline was along the lines of "take a good look at them" (i.e., implying that he's not the biological father). That’s the punchline I expected when I was reading the joke. It makes much more sense and it is more stinging.
- Brakenshire 5y ago
  It’s a joke at the expense of the astrologer. Rome had Augurs with official responsibilities for predicting the future, so maybe these kind of jokes were more subversive at that time. Although I could imagine a modern joke about an astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled down as the person corrects them.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Although I could imagine a modern joke about an astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled down as the person corrects them. https://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col054/ https://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col054/
gverrilla 5y ago
first possibility wouldn't be a joke imo
- LanceH 5y ago
  The other astrologer one: > An astrologer cast a sick boy's horoscope. After promising the mother that the child had many years ahead of him, he demanded payment. When she said, "Come tomorrow and I’ll pay you," he objected: "But what if the boy dies during the night and I lose my fee?" So if they look down on astrologers as being opportunistic charlatans (at least the bad ones), they are mocking that they will say one thing and when confronted about how wrong they are slide right into their next statement.
  - gverrilla 5y ago
    oh I see. didn't read that one! is it possible that the joke conveyed both meanings?
    - LanceH 5y ago
      Who knows? Generally speaking it's hard to get two meanings to both translate -- especially over 2000 years. I guess a good example of this style of joke would be a used car salesman confronted how the roof has been torn off of the car and immediately switching to upselling it as a convertible. An astrologer predicts no kids, then switches to advising on the future that he should watch over his kids.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jraph 5y ago
Or maybe the incompetent astrologer is also mean and going to try to make their statement right by killing the children, so the father should better look after them.
hn_go_brrrrr 5y ago
This joke is actually in ancient Greek (it's in a book called «Philogelos»), but the translation looks right to me. I think your interpretation is spot on.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> It's also possible that this is a bad translation from Latin, and the original punchline was along the lines of "take a good look at them" This is pretty unlikely as a mistranslation from Latin, where those would be radically different verbs.
- bbarnett 5y ago
  Maybe you'll never read this, but a thought... I've basically run out of new movies to watch, which are good. Yet some movies over the years, maybe a few every year, are quite good. The further back I go, the more nuanced (from my perspective) the comedy or comments can become. And further, the more I may "miss" without looking deeply into topical, timely events. Some stuff literally makes zero sense, then you google, learn something about that specific time, and "oh, I get it". And I'm just talking the 60s or 50s here. And that's what I can google, which 100% doesn't even remotely give the feeling, the nuance, of actually living in that time. All the quirks, all the jokes, all the in humour. Words become slang, meaning changes, then that slang falls out of favour. My point in all of this? I don't think we have proper, 100% accurate nuance of latin, with properly mapped slang and meanings of words, over 1000s of years. (And this joke may have been greecian too, but who knows)

by querez 5y ago

LudwigNagasena 5y ago

> the original punchline was along the lines of "take a good look at them" (i.e., implying that he's not the biological father). That’s the punchline I expected when I was reading the joke. It makes much more sense and it is more stinging.

Brakenshire 5y ago
It’s a joke at the expense of the astrologer. Rome had Augurs with official responsibilities for predicting the future, so maybe these kind of jokes were more subversive at that time. Although I could imagine a modern joke about an astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled down as the person corrects them.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Although I could imagine a modern joke about an astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled down as the person corrects them. https://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col054/ https://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col054/

gverrilla 5y ago

first possibility wouldn't be a joke imo

LanceH 5y ago
The other astrologer one: > An astrologer cast a sick boy's horoscope. After promising the mother that the child had many years ahead of him, he demanded payment. When she said, "Come tomorrow and I’ll pay you," he objected: "But what if the boy dies during the night and I lose my fee?" So if they look down on astrologers as being opportunistic charlatans (at least the bad ones), they are mocking that they will say one thing and when confronted about how wrong they are slide right into their next statement.
- gverrilla 5y ago
  oh I see. didn't read that one! is it possible that the joke conveyed both meanings?
  - LanceH 5y ago
    Who knows? Generally speaking it's hard to get two meanings to both translate -- especially over 2000 years. I guess a good example of this style of joke would be a used car salesman confronted how the roof has been torn off of the car and immediately switching to upselling it as a convertible. An astrologer predicts no kids, then switches to advising on the future that he should watch over his kids.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jraph 5y ago

Or maybe the incompetent astrologer is also mean and going to try to make their statement right by killing the children, so the father should better look after them.

hn_go_brrrrr 5y ago

This joke is actually in ancient Greek (it's in a book called «Philogelos»), but the translation looks right to me. I think your interpretation is spot on.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> It's also possible that this is a bad translation from Latin, and the original punchline was along the lines of "take a good look at them" This is pretty unlikely as a mistranslation from Latin, where those would be radically different verbs.

bbarnett 5y ago
Maybe you'll never read this, but a thought... I've basically run out of new movies to watch, which are good. Yet some movies over the years, maybe a few every year, are quite good. The further back I go, the more nuanced (from my perspective) the comedy or comments can become. And further, the more I may "miss" without looking deeply into topical, timely events. Some stuff literally makes zero sense, then you google, learn something about that specific time, and "oh, I get it". And I'm just talking the 60s or 50s here. And that's what I can google, which 100% doesn't even remotely give the feeling, the nuance, of actually living in that time. All the quirks, all the jokes, all the in humour. Words become slang, meaning changes, then that slang falls out of favour. My point in all of this? I don't think we have proper, 100% accurate nuance of latin, with properly mapped slang and meanings of words, over 1000s of years. (And this joke may have been greecian too, but who knows)