apocolocyntosis

Latin > English (Lewis & Short)

ăpŏcŏlŏcyntōsis: is, f., = ἀποκολοκύντωσις,
I the Metamorphosis into a Pumpkin, the title of an insipid lampoon written by the philosopher Seneca upon Claudius Cæsar. who, acc. to this title, instead of being transformed to a god, is changed to a pumpkin; cf. Bähr, Lit. Gesch. pp. 469 and 470; Teuffel, Rom. Lit. § 284, 7.

Latin > English

apocolocyntosis apocolocyntosis N F :: transformation into a gourd or pumpkin; "Metamorphosis of a Pumpkin" by Seneca

Wikipedia EN

The Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii, literally The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius, is a satire on the Roman emperor Claudius, which, according to Cassius Dio, was written by Seneca the Younger. A partly extant Menippean satire, an anonymous work called Ludus de morte Divi Claudii ("Play on the Death of the Divine Claudius") in its surviving manuscripts, may or may not be identical to the text mentioned by Cassius Dio. "Apocolocyntosis" is a word play on "apotheosis", the process by which dead Roman emperors were recognized as gods.

he Ludus de morte Divi Claudii is one of only two examples of a Menippean satire from the classical era that have survived, the other being the Satyricon, which was likely written by Petronius. Gilbert Bagnani is among the scholars who also attribute the Ludus text to Petronius.

"Apocolocyntosis" is Latinized Greek, and can also be transliterated as Apokolokyntosis (Attic Greek Ἀποκολοκύντωσις: "Pumpkinification", lit. "Gourdification"). The title Apokolokyntosis comes from the Roman historian Cassius Dio, who wrote in Greek. Cassius Dio attributed authorship of a satirical text on the death of Claudius, called Apokolokyntosis, to Seneca the Younger. Only much later was the work referred to by Cassius Dio identified (with some degree of uncertainty) with the Ludus text. Most scholars accept this attribution, although a minority holds that the two works are not the same, and that the surviving text is not necessarily Seneca's.