# Roman body language: rolling one's eyes



## quexavymz

salvete!

I'm writing an opera in Latin, set in Ancient Rome, and I want one of my characters to roll his eyes to indicate his dismissiveness of what his father is saying, but I'm unsure if such a gesture is anachronistic to my setting, or to any time prior to last century for that matter.  Did Romans do this, or have a similar idiomatic gesture?  At any rate, how would I indicate this in the score (the stage directions are also in Latin)?

Thanks!


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## Scholiast

salve tu quoque!

_mehercle_, that is an interesting little  teaser. Gestures tend to be culturally specific, so I think if you want  authenticity, you are right to ask the question, though given that an  opera set in ancient Rome and sung in Latin already involves some fairly  extensive anachronism, I am not sure you need to worry too much. (We  are not helped much here by the fact that the texts of Greek and Roman  plays contain no stage directions.)

To the best of my knowledge, the specific gesture you are thinking of, indicating impatience or mild annoyance with someone, was not in the vocabulary of Roman body-language. People do indeed sometimes "roll their eyes" (_oculos volvere_),  but the only contexts I can think of for this are of manic or demented  frenzy, as for example when Dido, having heard that Aeneas is about to  leave her in the lurch, throws a wobbly; or when a warrior (usually a  Gaul or a Carthaginian - at any rate not a Roman) is fired up with  frenetic blood-lust before combat. Neither type of context invites the  reader's sympathy so this hardly seems right for what you want.

An alternative would be to have your character perform a mocking yawn (_oscitare_ or _oscitari_ - according to Lewis and Short, both active and deponent forms are found, which you could fill out if necessary by _taedio motus_, "moved by boredom/annoyance").

There is probably a learned German book on the subject of 'Gesture and Body-language in Roman Society' but I regret to say I do not know it. Anyone else here?


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## lacrimae

It might be
Oculis fastidiosis ( with dismissive eyes )
Oculis tortis fastidiose ( turned eyes dismissively )

saludos


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## Scholiast

salvete iterum!

lacrimae's suggestion of an ablative absolute is very good, but I am not 100% convinced about the precise wording (tortis strikes me as too violent - "twisted"). _oculis impatientibus_ perhaps?


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## Copperknickers

I'm pretty sure Dido is described as rolling her eyes in the Aeneid book 5.


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## Cagey

Copperknickers said:


> I'm pretty sure Dido is described as rolling her eyes in the Aeneid book 5.


Dido is indeed described as "turning her eyes here and there" in book 4 (line 362)._
huc illuc uoluens oculos _
​ In this case, it is a sign of emotional distress. Perhaps it will also describe the gesture of disinterest you have in mind.  I am not certain.


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## Scholiast

Quite so, Coppernickers and Cagey - but as I suggested in #2, Dido's rolling eyes in _Aen_. 4.363 reflect a considerably more violent emotional state (_furor_) than what our original questioner was looking for.


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## Casquilho

There is an Elegia by John Milton, written in Latin (the Elegia Prima), where he talks about the academic term (perhaps compulsory estrangement from the university), about theater, and about the women of London, pretty much revealing an influence of Ovid. He talks on the tragedy, which he personifies as a woman with disheveled hair and frenzy rolling eyes, and with a bloody sceptre too. It's other context, more alike Dido's eyes quoted above, but perhaps that may help you anyway.


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## Scholiast

Well done, Casquilho (#8), for pointing this out.

The lines are:

sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum
      quassat et effusis crinibus _ora rotat_...

(_ora_ as a poetic word for "eyes" is fine). It might be unwise to cite a "modern" poet as an authority for classical usage, though if anyone can be thus regarded, Milton can.


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