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Dog Imagery
Timon of Athens features a startling number of references to dogs. The figure most closely associated with dog imagery is Apemantus. This connection relates symbolically to his status as a cynic, since the very word cynic derives etymologically from the Greek for “doglike.” Thus, the Painter says to Apemantus, “You’re a dog” (1.1.200); the Page tells him, “Thou wast whelped a dog and thou shalt famish a dog’s death” (2.2.87–88); and Timon says, “I had rather be a beggar’s dog than Apemantus” (354–55). As these examples suggest, the dog imagery in the play is almost always derogatory, even when not used in reference to Apemantus. For example, Timon chases away despised visitors calling them “rascal dogs” (5.1.114). Elsewhere, demonstrating its general use as a term of abuse, a creditor’s servant declares: “A plague upon him, dog!” (2.2.50). The derogatory nature of the dog imagery undoubtedly references the famous biblical passage from Matthew 7:6: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” Yet in a more general sense, the dog imagery references the predatory nature of Timon’s flatterers.
Curses
As a play with strong thematic strains related to cynicism and misanthropy, it’s perhaps no surprise that Timon of Athens features many curses. Most of the play’s curses come from Timon, who spends the latter half of the play so deeply embittered that most of what he says is meant as a curse—either against someone he’s deemed a villain, or else against all of humankind. The general form these curses takes is concise and punchy, as in, “Consumption catch thee!” (4.3.201). However, an especially interesting pattern emerges in the play in which characters utter curses disguised in the form of a blessing. For example, when Apemantus joins the first feast at Timon’s house, he says a special “grace” in which he declares, “I pray for no man but myself” (1.2.61), effectively cursing all others present by omission. A more extreme example comes during the second feast. Timon prefaces the meal with a speech framed as an expression of gratitude to the gods, but it ends by cursing those present as “nothing, so in nothing bless them” (3.6.84). Timon’s bitter speech in act 4, scene 1, is similarly framed as a prayer for the destruction of accursed Athens, ending with a satirically solemn, “Amen” (4.1.41).
References to Prostitution
The play features numerous references to prostitution, often linking the practice to the corrupting power of wealth. One key example appears in act 2, scene 2, when the Fool converses with the creditors’ servants. The Fool asks the servants if they are “usurers’ men” (2.2.97). When they affirm that they are, the Fool responds: “I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly and go away merry; but they enter my mistress’ house merrily and go away sadly” (2.2.99–103). The joke, of course, is that his mistress is a brothel owner, or “bawd,” but he likens her to a moneylender who charges high interest on loans. A second key example comes in act 4, scene 3, when Alcibiades and two women come upon Timon in the woods. Timon refers to the woman as “a brace of harlots” (4.3.80). He encourages them to spread diseases to the men who pay them for sex. He later gives them handfuls of gold and instructs them to “be whores still” (4.3.140), to which they greedily respond: “Well, more gold! What then? / Believe’t that we’ll do anything for gold” (149–50).
