pothos.org

I can't remember where I saw this but I heard that Alexander the Great once rallied his troops at a critical moment in a battle by doing obscene gestures with a pickel. Does anyone know if this is true?

Thanks - I will add this to the myths and trivia page. Great!

I suppose the original joke is by Robert Graves and can be found in *I Claudius*. One of Claudius's teachers, Pollio, describes how Caesar (not Alexander) addressed his troops before the battle of Pharsalus. According to Graves, Caesar asked why Pompey was surnamed "the Great", and just made a gesture with the pickle.Graves' books are usually well-researched, so it is possible that there's an ancient source telling the anecdote.Jona

I think it was radish...

You're right!J

Radishes were funny because having a radish
stuffed up your ass was a traditional
punishment for adultery. This was true in
Athens, but I think elsewhere as well. See,
including references in Aristophanes, Lucian:
.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8
859-1&q=radish+athens+adultery
.
I have a vague memoryGÇöokay a vivid but
possibly inexact memoryGÇöthat a fish could be
similarly employed, but can't confirm. Anyone?

This message thread reminds me of 'Pepe Le Pu' and his love Penelope (unfortunate cat)It's becoming a *rank* litter box!

What can I say? Ancient culture isn't a cartoon...
Sexual humiliation was a major part of it. Just
ask Pausanias, Philip's assassin.

PS: The fish bit is somewhere in Athenaeus,
Deipnosophistae (Gastronomers). Thomas
Brown comments on it--a passage that found its
way online although Athenaeus didn't:"Among the ancients mullets were forced into
the bellies of gross fornicators, they were
beaten with scorpions, pierced with radishes.
Why not these, too, deserving of the radish and
fit to be placed among the lustful who are
enwound in rain and storm and whirlwind in the
Florentine hell."
(http://wikisource.org/wiki/From_a_reading_of_A
thenaeus)

There is currently no text in this page http://wikisource.org/wiki/From_a_reading_of_A

one word for the Greeks...creative.

For some reason the URL gets chopped at
some limit. Get rid of any spaces that happen in
it
http://wikisource.org/wiki/From_a_reading_of_A
thenaeusBest,
Tim

My post was a metaphor, so what more can I say except *whatever* but I do know where your coming from and you make a valid point.I liked Alexander's style of discipline; He killed ya or sold you into slavery either way the cities became fairly peaceful after he moved on. The only way to rule in ancient times.Take care Tim, Andrew

It's been a while since I read it, but the excellent "Courtesans and Fishcakes" covers this sort of thing in some detail.I must read it again ...Marcus

I would have thought it would, but so far as the index worked,
it didn't. A bit odd.
.
Incidentally, Andrew I think my tone was misunderstood. I was
not being as hostile as you seem to have thought. (Tone is
hard on the web .)
.
I do think the temptation is great to turn Greeks into
moderns, particularly when dealing with a comfy topic like
military history. Wrapping your head around something like
root-
vegetable sodomy is a useful corrective to this view...