Ancient World Review

The Joy Of Sexus: Lust, Love & Longing In The Ancient World (2013)

"'Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians had erotic preferences and sexual taboos we’ve seldom heard about,' says California author and historical detective Vicki León in her new book The Joy of Sexus: Lust, Love, & Longing in the Ancient World. Her book's topics range from orgasm to the long-ago fear of hermaphrodites, from circumcision to the wide acceptance of a variety of gay relationships. With Tip Sheet, she shared some carnal curiosities and extraordinary stories of sex and love, encountered while researching The Joy of Sexus." Source: Publisher's Weekly (2013)

Comment: I haven't read this book, but it sounds like it's pretty entertaining and based on original sources, for what they're worth. Nero, Caligula and Tiberius are described as "sexually twisted," of course, echoing the slanders of ancient historians looking to tarnish the emperors' reputations and portray them as monsters. Maybe they were that deranged, but I really doubt it.

The ancients, especially the Greeks and Romans, are usually described in the mass media as a bunch of perverts, but even if all the stories about orgies and weird sex practices are true it's hard to know how widespread this type of stuff was back then. I don't know if the Romans really thought that "wandering wombs" caused hysteria or if Romans in Spain washed their teeth with urine, but when it comes to the human animal nothing surprises me anymore.

The ancients were probably just as sex-crazed as people have always been throughout history. They had prostitution and adultery and buggery and so on, just like we do today, but if you ask me they were nowhere near as depraved as modern societies. They didn't have a multi-billion sesterce porn industry, for instance, and the Roman masses probably weren't bombarded on a daily basis with stories about bugchasers,  52-year-old men who abandoned their families to live their lives as a 6-year-old girl, men who have sex with their cars, and how a baby was born to a man who used to be a woman and got impregnated by a man who is now a woman.

The modern world is not only a million times more deranged than the ancient world; it's also a lot more ridiculous.

Himera: One Of The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries Of Recent Decades Emerges From Oblivion

Video from 2011.

"A necropolis with more than 12,000 almost untouched burials from the Archaic and Classical periods, many of which are rich in grave goods, was discovered between 2008 and 2011, during work on the expansion of the railway line at the site of the ancient Greek city of Himera, the remains of which lie within the borders of the modern Sicilian comune of Termini Imerese." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Many of these burials are associated with an infamous page in the history of the ancient city, located on the strategic border between Hellenic Sicily and the area controlled by the Phoenicians: a vicious battle fought between the Greeks and Carthaginians in 480 BC."

The Battle Of Himera: First Sicilian War (480 BC)

Audio not that great. Closed captions useful.

"The Battle of Himera (480 BC), supposedly fought on the same day as the more famous Battle of Salamis, or at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae, saw the Greek forces of Gelon, King of Syracuse, and Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum, defeat the Carthaginian force of Hamilcar the Magonid, ending a Carthaginian bid to restore the deposed tyrant of Himera ... Scholars ... agree that the battle led to the crippling of Carthage's power in Sicily for many decades. It was one of the most important battles of the Sicilian Wars." Source: Wikipedia.

Note: The battle of Himera was one of the first major events in a struggle for power in the region that lasted for hundreds of years. Sicily is located about midway between the coast of northern Africa and the boot of Italy (see map). This made the island a central conflict zone between the forces of Carthage, Greece and later Rome.

Around two centuries after the Battle of Himera, the Punic Wars began and much of the action in the beginning took place on Sicily. By that time, Carthage had grown into an empire dominating the Mediterranean and was threatening to invade Italy itself. The land and sea battles that took place between Carthage and the emerging Roman Republic were later described by the Greek historian Polybius in his Histories, available in an excellent Penguin edition titled The Rise Of The Roman Empire.

"The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place." (Wikipedia) The story of the back-and-forth struggle between the two major powers is complex and exotic and full of wild scenes of fleets destroyed by storms, land battles fought with elephants, sieges, calamitous reversals of fortune, spectacular exploits like Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, and major battles like Cannae.  Carthage came very close to defeating Rome, something that would have changed the future course of history completely.

Related: The Battle of Himera (409 BC. Second Sicilian War.

Snakes In Ancient Biological Warfare

"Scientists in Italy have rediscovered a type of snake that the ancient Greeks used to hurl at their enemies to create panic and confusion during sea battles." Source: The Telegraph (2015).

"The Javelin Sand Boa had not been officially recorded in Italy for 80 years, but sightings by locals suggested that it might still survive in a region of Sicily."

Note: Description of the Javelin Sand Boa starts at 4:24 in the video.

The Greeks weren't the only ones to use snakes and especially snake venom as weapons. "The ancients particularly dreaded encounters with poisonous snakes, a problem that plagued Alexander the Great and his army in India," according to Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, by Adrienne Mayor (p. 63). "Things only got worse when the Greeks learned that Indian archers dipped their arrows with snake venom..."

Hannibal apparently used a kind of snake bomb "during a decisive naval battle against King Eumenes of Pergamum (Asia Minor) sometime between 190 and 184 BC." (Ibid) "Hannibal sent his men ashore to 'capture the greatest possible number of venomous snakes' and stuff them into earthenware jars ... When the clash came and Eumenes' ships bore down on Hannibal's fleet, the marines let fly the jars, catapulting them onto the enemy decks." This unexpected attack caused widespread confusion and panic, leading to the defeat of Eumenes' forces.

"The Scythians and some other steppe people are believed to have collaborated a mixture of decaying/decomposing [adder and snake] bodies, human blood and various animal faeces into large vats, where they would be left to combine and become a feral disgusting bacteria-ridden load of sludgy liquid. This mixture would then be applied to arrow tips of the Horse Archers." Source: "Unconventional Animals in the History of Warfare," Alexander J. Knights, All Empires

The use of live snakes as weapons in ancient warfare was relatively rare, as far as I can tell. The use of their venom, on the other hand, was very common:

"Despite the perils of handling deadly snakes, arrows steeped in snake venom were the most popular—and the most feared—biological weapons in the ancient world. The deep antiquity of the concept of envenomed projectiles is revealed in Greek mythology, when Heracles dipped his arrows in venom leaking from the dead Hydra Monster." Source: Wonders & Marvels.

The Hallucinogenic Honey That Poisoned A Greek Army

"When bees feed on the pollen of rhododendron flowers, the resulting honey can pack a hallucinogenic punch." Source: Atlas Obscura.

"It’s called mad honey, and it has a slightly bitter taste and a reddish color. More notably, a few types of rhododendrons ... contain grayanotoxin, which can cause dramatic physiological reactions in humans and animals. Depending on how much a person consumes, reactions can range from hallucinations and a slower heartbeat to temporary paralysis and unconsciousness."

"The intoxicating effects of mad honey have been known for thousands of years. Not surprisingly, there have been many famous episodes of human inebriation caused by its consumption. Xenophon, Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny the Elder and Columella all document the results of eating this 'maddening' honey, believed to be from the pollen and nectar of Rhododendron luteum and Rhododendron ponticum. According to Xenophon, an invading Greek army was accidentally poisoned by harvesting and eating the local Asia Minor honey, but they all made a quick recovery with no fatalities. Having heard of this incident, and realizing that foreign invaders would be ignorant of the dangers of the local honey, King Mithridates later used the honey as a deliberate poison when Pompey's army attacked the Heptakometes [1] in Asia Minor in 69 BCE. The Roman soldiers became delirious and nauseated after being tricked into eating the toxic honey, at which point Mithridates's army attacked." Source: Wikipedia.

[1] "In about 65 BCE, Pompey's army was approaching Colchis.  Mithridates' allies there, the Heptakometes, were described by Strabo as 'utterly savage' mountain barbarians, dwelling in tree forts and living on 'the flesh of wild animals and nuts.'  The tribe was feared for attacking wayfarers - suddenly leaping down on them like leopards from their tree houses.  The Heptakometes may have received specific orders from Mithridates on how to ambush the Roman army.  What we do know for a fact is that they gathered up great numbers of wild honeycombs dripping with toxic honey and placed them all along Pompey's route.  The Roman soldiers stopped to enjoy the sweets and immediately lost their senses.  Reeling and babbling, the men collapsed with vomiting and diarrhea and lay on the ground unable to move.  The Heptakometes easily wiped out about one thousand of Pompey's men." - Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor. (Source: Roman Times)

Taking mad honey sounds like a dangerous way to get loaded. According to the Drug Classroom, "[t]he core symptoms of mad honey poisoning include nausea, vomiting, salivation, headache, blurred vision, sweating, weakness, circumoral paresthesia, tongue numbing, fainting, drowsiness, drunkenness, tingling, and seizures." The toxins in the honey can also cause "1st to 3rd degree heart block, asystole, and myocardial infarction."

The Voyage around the Erythraean Sea

"The Periplus Maris Erythraei (or ‘Voyage around the Erythraean Sea’ [the modern Red Sea]) is an anonymous work from around the middle of the first century CE written by a Greek speaking Egyptian merchant." (Source: Washington University) The document describes "the maritime trade-routes following the north-south axis from Egypt down the coast of East Africa as far as modern day Tanzania" and "the routes of the east-west axis running from Egypt, around the Arabian Peninsula and past the Persian Gulf on the west coast of India." The complete translation of this fascinating resource on the ancient sea trade can be found here. A detailed map of the Erythraean Sea in the 1st Century can be found here.

The Aphrodite Of Knidos

Note: The Aphrodite of Knidos is the "first monumental female nude in classical sculpture," according to the University of Chicago. The Amores, a Greek dialog attributed to the rhetorician and satirist Lucian [~125-180 AD], but probably written by someone else, describes a visit to view the statue in its temple at Knidos:

"...we entered the temple. In the midst thereof sits the goddess -- she's a most beautiful statue of Parian marble -- arrogantly smiling a little as a grin parts her lips. Draped by no garment, all her beauty is uncovered and revealed, except in so far as she unobtrusively uses one hand to hide her private parts. So great was the power of the craftsman's art that the hard unyielding marble did justice to every limb....The temple had a door on both sides for the benefit of those also who wish to have a good view of the goddess from behind, so that no part of her be left unadmired. It's easy therefore for people to enter by the other door and survey the beauty of her back. And so we decided to see all of the goddess and went round to the back of the precinct. Then, when the door had been opened by the woman responsible for keeping the keys, we were filled with an immediate wonder for the beauty we beheld."-- Amores, Pseudo-Lucian.

Mystery Greek Artifact Goes On Rare Display

"A 7,000 year old bird-like statue, which has puzzled Greek archaeologists for decades has gone on rare display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens." Source: Tornos News.

"Dubbed the '7,000-year-old enigma' the 36 cm granite statuette dating back to the late Neolithic era has been brought out of the museum’s hidden storerooms as part of the 'The Unseen Museum' exhibition for visitors to view artifacts from the closed storerooms, which have some 200,000 antiquities not on daily display."

In The Footsteps Of Minoan Worshippers At Zominthos

Video from 2009.

"A new dimension to the cult [of Zeus] at the palace of Zominthos and its beginnings in the Paleopalatial period (1900-1700 BC) was discovered this year during the annual excavation of the Archaeological Society conducted on Psiloritis [Mount Ida] by the Honorary Head of Antiquities, Dr Efi Sapouna-Sakellarakis." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Zominthos Area 26, 2012 season.

"...both the labyrinthine building [the palace] and the ceremonial artefacts that have come to light are proof of the site’s importance and its centuries-long religious role in the cult of Zeus.

"Established about halfway between Knossos and the Ideon Andron, Zominthos was for the Minoans the site that could replace the sacred cave in the winter months of the year, when access to it became difficult.

Funerary Rites In Ancient Greece

A video presented at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

"The ancient Greek conception of the afterlife and the ceremonies associated with burial were already well established by the sixth century B.C.," according to the Met's Heilbrunn Timeline Of Art History. "...The Greeks believed that at the moment of death, the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals. Ancient literary sources emphasize the necessity of a proper burial and refer to the omission of burial rites as an insult to human dignity (Iliad 23: 71)."

These rites consisted of three stages. The body was washed, anointed, dressed and "placed on a high bed within the house." After a period of mourning and ritual lamentations, the body was then carried to the cemetery in a pre-dawn procession.

"Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the dead by the living. From depictions on white-ground lekythoi, we know that the women of Classical Athens made regular visits to the grave with offerings that included small cakes and libations."