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
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)
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.)
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.)
“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
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?
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!
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 .
If Athenians were such nice people, how come they cut off all the thumbs of the people of Aegina? Or kill all males in Lesvos? Or brand an owl on the foreheads of the people of Samos?
Aphrodite was of course know for her beauty. She was often referred to as “callipigos”, ie “lovely rumped” Aphrodite and her sacred tree was the box tree, again in honor of her buttocks! ( πύξος [ pyxos ]) the tree, (πυγαί [ pygae ] the buttocks)