March 19, 2013

Gems from the ancients

One of the statutes of Numa, from Rome in 7th century B.C., is translated at the link as
"If a man is killed by a thunderbolt the proper burial ritual shall not be performed."  
Because, of course, Zeus wished the man dead and had a good reason for it.

The Greek Aristophanes, in a lost comedy called Daitales, refers to one of a pair of brothers as σώφρων, "the clever." The other is καταπύγων, "the one who takes it in the ass." C. Murphy, "Aristophanes and the Art of Rhetoric," Harv. St. in Classical Phil. 49:69, 71 (1938).