Category: SUPERSTITION

  • Coin in the mouth

    We know that the dead had to have a coin in their mouth to pay for their trip to the Underworld.  What we forget is that in the 5th century it was also customary for living people to keep coins in their mouth!  Was it because their clothes were not very practical and had no pockets?

  • Puppy love

    Enyalius was one of the meanest Gods in ancient Sparta.  Blood and gore was what he liked.  So what did they sacrifice to him?  Puppies!

  • Lovers leap to death

    In Leucada there is a cliff called Lovers Leap, reputed to help lovers forget their woes.  Sapho is said to have jumped from here.   At the festival of Apollo every year, a criminal was thrown off for good measure.  But not just like that!  They attached feathers of all sorts to him in some sort of sick attempt of humor.  Was he meant to break the fall by flapping?

    In any case they often died.  Other times they were saved by somebody in a boat below and whisked off to the mainland .