In Graeco-Roman antiquity, the elderly, especially elderly men, were typically regarded as timid, cowardly, fearful, ill-tempered, and prone to anger. The Gospel of Luke, however, deviates from this stereotype of emotions by attributing to the aged priest Zechariah an emotional transformation from fear to joy. This article compares Luke’s characterization of Zechariah’s emotions with that of a happy and a timorous old father in Babrios’s fable collection, the Mythiamboi (Fab. 98, 136). Supplementing a narrative ethical analysis with a sociohistorical analysis, this comparative study demonstrates how old age, masculinity, and emotions intersected in diverse ways in different narrative contexts and communicated variegated norms and values regarding old men, their wisdom, authority, and performance of masculinity. Although Luke, due to its Jewish Christian background, evinces its own emphases, the comparison with Babrios highlights the cross-cultural character of narrative depictions of elderly male fear and joy in the Graeco-Roman world.
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