O segundo riso dos deuses na canção sobre o amor de Ares e Afrodite (Odisseia 8. 325‑345)

The subject‑matter of this essay is the story, sung by Demodocus (Odyssey VIII, 266‑366), of the gods Ares’ and Aphrodite’s adulterous love, not only by its amoral and transgressive character (according to a moral criticism already present in the Antiquity), but also by the fact that it contains – especially in the gods’ second laugh – a position which openly does not take into account the model of monogamic marriage and of conjugal fidelity which is that of the poem’s own chief story. The essay is brief and purports to discuss only two precise points: the manner of the gods’ participation in the narrated scene, and the comedy of this second laugh in its relationship with the sexual morality of the Odyssey.