Alexander Chalkidis

Blog

  • The real Fight Club

    It was almost evening at the Nemean Games when Creugas from Epidamnus and Damoxenus from Syracuse were boxing.  So they agreed that they would each allow the other on free punch to decide the match.  In those times the boxers wore soft gloves and their fingers were left uncovered.  Creugas started and punched Damoxenus in the head.  Damoxenus then asked his opponent to raise his arm.  No sooner had Creugas raised his arm, than Damoxenus used his straightened fingers to strike right under his rib-cage.  It was such a hard hit and because he had sharp fingernails that his hand went into his opponent’s body where he grabbed intestines and tore them out with force.

    However Creugas, now dead, was declared the victor by the judges because they considered the blow from each of Damoxenus’ fingers as an individual punch even though they had agreed on one punch.

    Guide to Greece – Pausanias

     

  • Lightly disguised insults

    At Miletus, the people aren’t stupid.  But they always seem to do the things that stupid people would do.

    (Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle quoting)

  • Bad to the bone

    In places like Sparta women are treated badly.  This means that half the population lives without happiness.

    Rhetoric – Aristotle

  • Losing track of our sites

    At a place called Elis, there was a building in the marketplace.  It looked like a temple, had no walls and its roof was supported by columns of oak.  I asked the local people about this and they all agree it is a memorial, but nobody remembers what it is commemorating!

    Guide to Greece – Pausanias

  • Why is seven perfect?

    According to Photius’ Lexicon, Zeus was said to have laughed for seven days non stop when he was born.  (Reliably told to us by Theodorus of Samothrace)

  • Of mice and women

    It makes sense that any man who is a criminal or a coward, will be reborn as a woman.

    Timaeus – Plato

     

    (photo of Annie Smith Peck – mountaineer and author.)

  • How I know I’m not a God

    Alexander the Great, when addressed by people as “God” replied that there were at least two reasons he thought this not to be true.  His need for food and his need for sex!

    How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend  – Plutarch

     

    (The image is Mesopotamian and represents the person asking for the help of a God.)

  • Elephant love

    “Some animals express their passion vividly.  Others are almost like humans and more sensitive about it.  Aristophanes of Alexandria loved a flower girl.  But so did an elephant.  Every day as the elephant went through the market it would bring her what fruit it had taken.  The animal would stand next to her for many minutes.  And it would very gently fondle her by putting its trunk inside her clothes and fondling her lovely breasts.”

    Whether Land or Sea Animals Are Cleverer – 972 d  -Plutarch 

  • 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!