From jbutrica@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Thu Nov 28 07:21:57 2002 Received: from mailscan3.cac.washington.edu (mailscan3.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.168]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.11) with SMTP id gASFLvrw034362 for ; Thu, 28 Nov 2002 07:21:57 -0800 Received: FROM mxu4.u.washington.edu BY mailscan3.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Nov 28 07:21:56 2002 -0800 Received: from cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (cerberus.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.162]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.11) with ESMTP id gASFLuMb002505 for ; Thu, 28 Nov 2002 07:21:56 -0800 Received: from [134.153.128.98] (drusus.clas.mun.ca [134.153.128.98]) by cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id gASFLore003708 for ; Thu, 28 Nov 2002 11:51:53 -0330 (NST) X-Sender: jbutrica@pop.morgan.ucs.mun.ca Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <200211280641.gAS6frv03875@darwin.helios.nd.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 12:52:21 +0100 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: James Butrica Subject: Re: piercings (was: Nipples on Statues?) >David Meadows wondered >> ... -- did the Greeks or Romans pierce anything? If so, confined >> to males or females? > >and Diana Wright replied >> Women had pierced ears, to judge from the earrings. > >FWIW (how much I don't know), Sextus Empiricus has a relevant >comment in Adv. Gramm. bk. I, 258. Giving examples of reports >not requiring technical competence, he instances that of Plato's >having been first called Aristocles and having, as a youth, had >an ear pierced and worn an earring. Although further on he >characterizes such stories as useless, he seems to imply that >the ones he gives are, though not especially credible, also not >pure inventions of his own. Anyway, on the original Ciceronian >version of the principle that the [need to state, or here interest >in stating, an] exception proves the [existence of a general] rule, >I suppose ear-piercing was not customary in S.E.'s experience. > On the Roman side, there's the opening salvo of Pliny, Natural History 12: So much for the natures, both generally and specifically, of all the animals that have been able to be known. It remains to speak of the things lacking soul (inasmuch as nothing lives without it) that are born from the earth or dug out from it and to leave no work of nature in silence. Its benefits were long hidden, and trees and forests were understood to be the greatest gift given to mankind. From here came nourishment initially,a softer cave from their foliage, clothing from their bark. Even now races live thus. Whence admiration rises more and more that, since these beginnings, mountains are cut into marble, garments are sought among the Chinese, the pearl is hunted in the depths of the Red Sea, the emerald deep in the ground. In addition to this, wounds of the ears were devised, of course because it was insufficient to carry these on the neck, the hair, the hands if they were not also stuck into the body. Therefore it is right to follow the order of life and to rebuke our morals with our beginnings. I wonder what he would say about those *other* piercings so popular now? (Unfortunately, I won't live long enough to see people in their 80s with sagging tongue-studs.) Perhaps some material for a prose composition exercise here. James L. P. Butrica Department of Classics The Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's NL A1C 5S7 (709) 737-7914 / (709) 753-5799 (home) .