>Plot is important

>he was watching a donkey eat some figs and cried out: "Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs", whereupon he died in a fit of laughter.

I don't get it....what exactly is so funny about that?

>>7598577
He was phone.

>>7598577
DUDE DONKEYS LMAO

>>7598577
Because figs and wine were a mark of aristocracy, and donkeys are the least aristocratic animals.

>>7598577
People had much better senses of humor back then. You'd have to to deal with cholera and smallpox and everything.

>>7598577
He browsed Reddit. This was hilarious to him.

>>7598577
The first time I read about the death of Chrysippus (probably in a Horrible Histories book) I laughed for 10 minutes straight. Something about donkeys eating figs is just hilarious.

>>7598589
What is the most aristocratic animal?

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>>7598609
Ur mum. Lel

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>>7598609
The Capybara

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>>7598577
>Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs

>>7598577
its pretty great that he died laughing at his own mediocre joke

>wrote over 700 works
>none have survived
>only remembered because of that donkey

>>7598577
this is pretty funny and would be REALLY funny if you were drunk

>>7598577
French wikipedia say it's a wordplay because figs and wine sound alike in greek.

>>7598570
What's this thread even supposed to be about? A donkey?

>>7600099
Here's the passage from Diogenes Laertius

Ἔνιοι δέ φασι γέλωτι συσχεθέντα αὐτὸν τελευτῆσαι: ὄνου γὰρ τὰ σῦkα αὐτῷ φαγόντος, εἰπόντα τῇ γραῒ διδόναι ἄkρατον ἐπιρροφῆσαι τῷ ὄνῳ, ὑπερkαγχάσαντα τελευτῆσαι.

σῦkα Suka Figs
ἄkρατον Akraton Wine

Curious. I do feel like there must be a pun of some kind here. It could be the pun between wine οἶνος and donkey ὄνου. The word he uses here ἄkρατον literally means "unmixed," and in more archaic Greek, like in the Odyssey, it was paired with the word for wine οἶνος ἄkρητος, but by the time of Herodotus you could just drop the wine and say unmixed and people would understand.

So perhaps Donkey (Onou) and Wine (Oinos) was a play on words? I feel like this is kind of a stretch though...

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This is art that has a plot

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>>7600170
this is art that does not have a plot

>>7600147
Your right wikipedia actually say it's donkey and wine that sound similar.
>Il s'agissait vraisemblablement ici d'un jeu de mot entre âne (ὅνου) et vin (ὅνῳ).

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>>7598570
Plot is extremely important.

>. . . Again, if you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in point of diction and thought, you will not produce the essential tragic effect nearly so well as with a play which, however deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and artistically constructed incidents. . . .

>The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy; Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

>>7600174
If it's something an autistic 7 year old can make or duplicate, it's not art.

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>>7598577

>>7598609

My diary

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>>7598609
Pic related m8.

>>7598577
#goals

>>7598622
>mediocre
Wew lad...
Stop projecting.

>>7600197
Get a load of this shitter. Plot is the least important element.

>>7598577
>Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs
holy fuck

Plot is the singalong melody for the tone-deaf.

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>>7598570
>mfw

>>7598577
OH FUCK OH FUCK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCKING SHIT SEND HELP FUCK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>7598589
DAMN THAT'S A FUCKIN KNEESLAPPER MY DUDE

>>7598577
hahaha, man you have to get it in Greek. Figs and wine sound very similar, so it's a play on words, and figs are associated with aristocracy. That's a damn fine joke; I can see why it'd kill osmeone with laughter. That's amazing. Holy shit.

>>7601300
A novel or poem without a plot is like a building without a structure.

Pretty poetry or prose means absolutely nothing without a good plot. Pathos is built into the situation of the plot, good language just releases that inherent pathos.

You plebs think that plot doesn't matter because you read literature and the first thing you notice about good literature is that its language is more stylish than in pulp fiction. You draw a conclusion based not on reason but on an impression.
If plot didn't matter people wouldn't read a poem, play, or novel in the order it is written, they would just randomly skip fifty pages forward then twenty pages back, etc.

>>7598577
because why were their figs in the donkey's mouth?

>>7602634
Here's a Keats' poem that has a plot

I.

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

II.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.

III.

I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

IV.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

V.

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.

VI.

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.

VII.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
“I love thee true.”

VIII.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

IX.

And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.

X.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”

XI.

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

XII.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

>>7602640
oops. there*

>>7602644
Here's a poem that doesn't:

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.

I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

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>>7598577
dog: me
kiwi: you

>>7600207
Why not?

>>7602612
you dont speak greek. figs and wine do not sound alike

>>7600197
No it's not. Shakespeare could have rearranged the dialogues from every last one of his plays and very little will have been lost.

>>7598577
this is actually funny as fuck
i wish i could die so nobly

>>7598577
Maybe figs and wine are delicacies, and it's absurd for a donkey to be fed them. Maybe it's deprecating toe the upper classes who eat figs and wine. Who knows, if he literally died of laughter there's definitely an aspect we'll never understand.

>>7603865
Pretty much this, it's absurd for a donkey to be eating figs in the first place, the wine comment is as if the donkey deserves the figs he is eating

>people always tell me /lit/ is a smarter board with better culture
>decide to finally check it out
>lurk for a week or so
>literally filled with /r9k/-tier discussion and jokes
You should probably all kill yourselves

>>7604666
>going to any 4chan board expecting serious discussion

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>art
>important

>>7605276
This. The whole site turned to shit when moot tried to make it about serious discussion and not realizing he was running a website based on anonymous interaction.