https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/fascinating-evil-eye-apotropaic-phallus<\/a><\/p>\n\n\tNow it is not uncommon to find these figures or charms as mere decorative items hanging on neck of a boy or girl and in some cases also as a survival of an ancient superstition.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt's obscene <\/em>because it means "fuck you .<\/em>.." It is no need to be more explicit, because its meaning is clear. Also it use, despite its lack of elegance, is very common.<\/p>\n\n\tNote<\/em>: the etymology of the Latin word "obscenus<\/em>" is actually unknown, though some relate to the ob-scaena<\/em> and explain it as "that which does not appear on the scene<\/em> …"; relationship with "caenum<\/em>", silt, mud, muck<\/em> is absolutely unjustified.<\/p>\n\n\tBecause it is an obscene sign, it is so called "impudicus digitus<\/em>", obscene<\/em>, dishonest, shameless finger…There the term "Infamis digitus<\/em>" also appears.<\/p>\n\n\tNote<\/em>: the word "infamis<\/em>" composed of in<\/em>-(negative preverb) and famis <\/em>(from the verb fem<\/em>i in Greek, Latin fari<\/em>) means "that can not or should not say"; so "in-fan<\/em>t" means "who not speech-yet-<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\tTalk about Greek references<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tIn Greek <\/em>this gesture was known as the term "katapygon<\/em>" (κατ\u03acπυγον, kata <\/em>– κατ\u03ac, "down<\/em>" and puge <\/em>– πυγ\u03ae, "buttocks<\/em>") and it also refers to the passive homosexual who is subjected to anal penetration .<\/p>\n\n\tIn Greek comedy this gesture is an insult. So in Aristophanes<\/em>' comedy The Clouds (423 BC) ll. 650 et seq<\/em>. when Socrates <\/em>is examining his pupil on the poetic meters, Strepsiades <\/em>says he knows what a dactyl <\/em>is and shows the finger.<\/p>\n\n\tSocrates<\/em>: Come now; what do you now wish to learn first of those things in none of which you have ever been instructed? Tell me. About measures, or rhythms, or verses?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tStrepsiades<\/em>: I should prefer to learn about measures; for it is but lately I was cheated out of two choenices* by a meal-huckster.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tSoc<\/em>. I do not ask you this, but which you account the most beautiful measure; the trimetre or the tetrameter?<\/strong><\/em>**<\/p>\n\n\tStrep<\/em>. Make a wager then with me, if the semisextarius<\/strong><\/em> *** be not a tetrameter.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tSoc<\/em>. Go to the devil! How boorish you are and dull of learning. Perhaps you may be able to learn about rhythms.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tStrep<\/em>. But what good will rhythms do me for a living?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSoc<\/em>. In the first place, to be clever at an entertainment, understanding what rhythm is for the war-dance, and what, again, according to the dactyle.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tStrep<\/em>. According to the dactyle? By Jove, but I know it!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSoc<\/em>. Tell me, pray.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tStrep<\/em>. What else but this finger? Formerly, indeed, when I was yet a boy, this here!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSoc<\/em>. You are boorish and stupid.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\t(William James Hickie. London. Bohn. 1853?).<\/p>\n\n\t* The choenices <\/em>amounted to little more than a liter (1.08)<\/p>\n\n\t** Socrates <\/em>refers to the measure of verses and Strepsiades <\/em>to capacity measures.<\/p>\n\n\t*** it is equivalent to four choenices<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t**** The gesture of the answer is a visual pun with two senses: the Greek word dactylos <\/em>means "finger<\/em>" and a foot <\/em>or rhythmic measure composed of a long syllable and two short, as the joints of a finger (- \u203f \u203f) and as the penis and two testicles.<\/p>\n\n\tDiogenes Laertius<\/em> says about the philosopher Diogenes <\/em>in "The Life and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers" VI.34<\/em> :<\/p>\n\n\tWhen some strangers expressed a wish to see Demosthenes, he stretched out his middle finger and said, "There goes the demagogue of Athens." (<\/strong><\/em>translated by Robert Drew)<\/p>\n\n\tErasmus <\/em>tells us this anecdote in his adage 1368<\/em>:
\n\t…..
\n\tI think it is relevant what, as I stated elsewhere, Diogenes Laertius said: that some foreigners wanted to see Demosthenes and he does not pointed him with index finger, but with middle finger up, indicating with this sign that he was little manly and somewhat effeminate. And soon after, in the same passage, he indicates that with the lifting of the middle finger it is expressed something obscene when he says that they are considered crazy who raise the middle finger, but not they who raise the index.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t…
\n\tHuc arbitror pertinere, quod apud Laercium Diogenes, vt alibi diximus, hospitibus quibusdam Demosthenem videre cupientibus non indice digito, sed medio porrecto demonstrauit, parum virum innuens et effoeminatum. Ac paulo post eodem in loco satis indicat porrectione digiti medii quippiam obscoenum significari, cum ait insanos haberi, qui medium porrigant digitum, qui indicem, non item.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIn "Epictetus. Dissertations by Arrian, III, 2.12<\/em> "it is narrated the same story but it is referred to an sophist without specify that he was Demosthenes<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tDo you not know that Diogenes pointed out one of the sophists in this way by stretching out his middle finger? And then when the man was furious with rage, remarked: "That's So-and-so; I've pointed him out to you." For a man is not shown by the finger, as a stone or a piece of wood; but when any person shows the man's principles, then he shows him as a man.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t
\n\tNote<\/em>: To point out a man with the middle finger was a way of showing the greatest contempt for him.
\n\tσκιμαλ\u03afζω means “jeer at,” “flout<\/em>” , but the scholiast adds “to hold up the middle finger",<\/em> as the tenth century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda <\/em>explains the term \u1f18σκιμ\u1f71λισεν:<\/p>\n\n\t“[Meaning he\/she\/it] was insulting by joining the thumb to the middle finger and striking it.[1] Or meaning gave the finger: for to flip off is strictly speaking to insert the middle finger into the anus of a bird.[2] Not only this, but also when people want to humiliate someone they extend their middle finger, drawing the rest together, and show it to him. Aristophanes [writes](in Peace 549) : "[…] and how he flipped off the spear-maker.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tErasmus <\/em>then, many years later, collected in their Adagia<\/em> the term and says in III, iii 87 (2287)<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tΕΣΚΙΜΑΛΙΧΘΑΙ (eskimalichthai se chre) 2287
\n\t\u1f18σκιμαλ\u1f77χθαι σε χρ\u1f75. With this gesture it is expressed an insult and the utmost contempt. For Greeks \u1f10σκιμαλ\u1f77σαι (eskimalisai) consists in exposing the middle finger closing the others, to insult, or in expressing contempt with the snap of his fingers. Where (we read) in Juvenal, to what we have referred on another occasion:
\n\the sent him to the gallows and showed him the middle finger (the nail).
\n\tThe Suda cites this senarium of Aristophanes, located in Peace (\u1f10ν Ε\u1f30ρ\u1f75ν\u1fc3)
\n\t\u1f49 δ\u1f72 δρεπανουργ\u1f78ς ο\u1f50χ \u1f41ρ\u1fb7ς \u1f61ς \u1f24δεται,
\n\tΚα\u1f76 τ\u1f78ν δορυξ\u1f79ον ο\u1f37ον \u1f10σκιμ\u1f71λισεν;
\n\tThat is: Do you not see how the manufacturer of sickles is gesturing and he makes the lancer with middle finger (nail)?
\n\tBut who wants to know what properly means \u1f10σκιμαλ\u1f77ζειν (eskimalisein), I'd rather you learn in the Suda than from me. It has been target as elegance and with proverbial sense to the luck or scholarship or something else, to express absolute rejection.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\u1f18σκιμαλ\u1f77χθαι σε χρ\u1f75. Hoc gestu contumeliam despectumque supremum
\n\tsignificabant. Est enim Graecis \u1f10σκιμαλ\u1f77σαι medium digitum ostendere con-
\n\ttractis caeteris, ignominiae causa, aut strepitu digitorum significare contemp-
\n\ttum. Vnde et apud Iuuenalem, quod alibi retulimus:
\n\tMandaret laqueum mediumque ostenderet vnguem.
\n\tSuidas citat ex Aristophane senarium hunc•, extat autem \u1f10ν Ε\u1f30ρ\u1f75ν\u1fc3:
\n\t\u1f49 δ\u1f72 δρεπανουργ\u1f78ς ο\u1f50χ \u1f41ρ\u1fb7ς \u1f61ς \u1f24δεται,
\n\tΚα\u1f76 τ\u1f78ν δορυξ\u1f79ον• ο\u1f37ον \u1f10σκιμ\u1f71λισεν; id est
\n\tAn non vides, vt gestiat falcis faber
\n\tMedioque monstret vngue lancearium?
\n\tQuid autem proprie significet \u1f10σκιμαλ\u1f77ζειν, qui scire cupiet, malo e Suida
\n\tdiscat quam ex me. Elegantius magisque prouerbialiter ad fortunam, ad
\n\teruditionem aut aliud quippiam, quod plane contemnitur, detorquebitur.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe previous occasion that Erasmus <\/em>referred is the adage 1367<\/em>, that is in which the verse in Juvenal<\/em> Satire 10 53<\/em> is cited; Juvenal <\/em>says that Democritus <\/em>sent to the gallows the menacing fortune and sent it to “fuck of<\/em>f” in current and vulgar language<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tHe sent him to the gallows and showed him the middle finger (the nail)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMandaret laqueum mediumque ostenderet vnguem<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMandare laqueum<\/em> means "to hang you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tErasmus <\/em>also in the following adage, 1368<\/em>, explains at length what "medium ostendere digitum<\/em>” means:<\/p>\n\n\tAlso they expressed the utmost contempt with middle finger raised.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMedio item digito porrecto supremum contemptum significabant<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnd in that same adage he quotes Martial <\/em>and his “Et digitum porrigito medium<\/em>” of Book II <\/em>and how he calls this finger "impudicum<\/em>". Also he quotes Persius<\/em>, who calls it "infamous<\/em>" and also he refers to the story of Diogenes <\/em>that we have narrated above. And also to Satyricon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tConsider these references:<\/p>\n
\n\tMartial. II, 28, 2.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tScoff much at him who calls you, Sextillus, a ,
\n\tand push out your middle finger. 2 Indeed you are
\n\tno , nor are you, Sextillus, an adulterer, nor
\n\thave Vetustina's hot lips delight for you. None of
\n\tthose things are you, I confess, Sextillus : what then
\n\tare you ? I don't know ; but you know two things *
\n\tremain<\/strong><\/em>. (Translation by Walter C.A. Ker, M.A.)<\/p>\n\n\tNote<\/em>: * He seems to imply that refers to fellatio and cunnilingus.<\/p>\n\n\tRideto multum qui te, Sextille, cinaedum
\n\tDixerit et digitum porrigito medium.
\n\tSed nec paedico es nec tu, Sextille, fututor,
\n\tCalda Vetustinae nec tibi bucca placet.
\n\tEx istis nihil es, fateor, Sextille: quid ergo es?
\n\tNescio, sed tu scis res superesse duas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMartial. VI, 70, 5<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tA sixtieth summer, Marcianus, has gone, and I
\n\tthink already a second one also, over Cotta's head,
\n\tand yet he cannot recall that even for a single day
\n\the has felt the weariness of a fevered bed. He points
\n\this finger and the insulting finger at Alcon, and
\n\tDasius, and Symmachus. As for us, let our years be
\n\tstrictly counted, and so much of them as harsh fevers
\n\thave carried off, or sore weakness, or racking pains,
\n\tbe parted from happier life : we are children, and
\n\tseem old men. He who thinks the life of Priam
\n\tand of Nestor long, Marcianus, is much deceived and
\n\tmistaken : life is not living, but living in health.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translation by Walter C.A. Ker, M.A.)<\/p>\n\n\tSexagesima, Marciane, messis
\n\tActa est et, puto, iam secunda Cottae,
\n\tNec se taedia lectuli calentis
\n\tExpertum meminit die vel uno.
\n\tOstendit digitum, sed inpudicum,
\n\tAlconti Dasioque Symmachoque.
\n\tAt nostri bene computentur anni
\n\tEt quantum tetricae tulere febres
\n\tAut languor gravis aut mali dolores,
\n\tA vita meliore separentur:
\n\tInfantes sumus, et senes videmur.
\n\tAetatem Priamique Nestorisque
\n\tLongam qui putat esse, Marciane,
\n\tMultum decipiturque falliturque.
\n\tNon est vivere, sed valere vita est.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tY Persio <\/em>en sus Sátiras: 2, 33.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tLook here — a grandmother or a superstitious aunt has taken
\n\tbaby from his cradle, and is charming his forehead and his slavering
\n\tlips against mischief by the joint action of her middle finger and
\n\ther purifying spittle ; for she knows right well how to check
\n\tthe evil eye.<\/em><\/strong> (Translation by John Conington, M.A<\/p>\n\n\tEcce avia aut metuens divum matertera cunis
\n\tExemit puerum, frontemque atque uda labella
\n\tInfami digito et lustralibus ante salivis
\n\tExpiat, urentis oculos inhibere perita;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tSuetonius<\/em>, speaking about Augustus’s interest in putting discipline in public show, tells us about the actors of theater, Life of Augustus, 45, 4<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tHe went so far in restraining the licentiousness of stageplayers, that upon discovering that Stephanio, a performer of the highest class, had a married woman with her hair cropped, and dressed in boy's clothes, to wait upon him at table, he ordered him to be whipped through all the three theatres, and then banished him. Hylas, an actor of pantomimes, upon a complaint against him by the praetor, he commanded to be scourged in the court of his own house, which, however, was open to the public. And Pylades he not only banished from the city, but from Italy also, for pointing with his finger at a spectator by whom he was hissed, and turning the eyes of the audience upon him<\/strong><\/em>. (J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)<\/p>\n\n\tnam histrionum licentiam adeo compescuit, ut Stephanionem togatarium, cui in puerilem habitum circumtonsam matronam ministrasse compererat, per trina theatra uirgis caesum relegauerit, Hylan pantomimum querente praetore in atrio domus suae nemine excluso flagellis uerberarit et Pyladen urbe atque Italia summouerit, quod spectatorem, a quo xibilabatur, demonstrasset digito conspicuumque fecisset.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnd no doubt Suetonius <\/em>refers to this sign of Caligula <\/em>when he says about one of the insulted victims who killed later him, in life of Caligula, 56, 2<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe conspirators having resolved to fall upon him as he returned at noon from the Palatine garies, Cassius Charea, tribune of the pretorian guards, claimed the part of making the onset. This Chaerea was now an elderly man, and had been often reproached by Caius for effeminacy. When he came for the watchword, the latter would give "Priapus," or "Venus;" and if on any occasion he returned thanks, would offer him his hand to kiss, making with his fingers an obscene gesture<\/strong><\/em>. (J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)<\/p>\n\n\tCum placuisset Palatinis ludis spectaculo egressum meridie adgredi, primas sibi partes Cassius Chaerea tribunus cohortis praetoriae depoposcit, quem Gaius seniorem iam et mollem et effeminatum denotare omni probro consuerat et modo signum petenti 'Priapum' aut 'Venerem' dare, modo ex aliqua causa agenti gratias osculandam manum offerre formatam commotamque in obscaenum modum.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tPetronius, Satiricón, 131, 4:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe old woman meantime drew from her pocket a hank of plaited yarns of different colors, and tied it round my neck. Then puddling dust and spittle together, she dipped her middle finder in the mess, and disregarding my repugnance, marked my forehead with it.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t