Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

radish up the fundament

created by Gritchka

(idea) by Gritchka (2.5 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 3 C!s Mon Feb 19 2001 at 13:22:39

A punishment for adulterers in ancient Athens. Actually, a cuckold could do more or less anything they liked if they caught an adulterer, including death, a fine, or doing nasty things to their genitals, but one established practice was to make an example of them by sticking a radish up them.

The interesting thing is that they even had a word for it. Well, Aristophanes did: he had lots of lovely words for all sorts of weird things. 'Radish' was ραφανος rhaphanos, and 'to stick up a radish up the fundament, as a punishment for adultery' was ραφανιδοω rhapanidoô. This occurs in The Clouds (in the passive, ραφανιδωθηι rhaphanidôthêi), where the Just Argument is trying to convince the Unjust Argument that adultery cannot be committed with impunity.

Catullus also refers to the practice, in his poem 15, line 19, warning one Aurelius to keep his hands off a certain little boy.

There is also a word aporaphanidosis, a much-needed noun meaning the practice of sticking a radish where it won't photosynthesize, etc.


printable version
chaos

rhaphanidosis Fundament The vegetables of wrath What sort of impotent sorcerer are you?
ben-wa balls Fucked up Facts from History Seven words you can say on television cuckold
softlink poetry Helpless to my own mistakes The Clouds Feague
watermelon radish In defense of intellectual property laws Aristophanes radish
genitals Leptocephalus Perionychium Convey
Battle of Boroughbridge Thy fundement depeint Momiji oroshi Cyphonism
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Just another sprinkling of indeterminacy
Poetry you found that you wrote when you were ten but secretly still like
Tap
Fuck the models
logicism
glassblowing
The Language of Flowers
Psychological Theories of Creativity
Being with an older woman
The facial nerve
ooblick
I'd dance forever if they'd let me, you know
accordion
Some of your peers who seem happy, popular, and self-confident are miserable
New Writeups
antigravpussy
One fly amongst many(person)
sam512
Moon Base Shackleton, 1978(fiction)
Pavlovna
toy boy(person)
XWiz
tear jerker(review)
Heitah
Anarchy is Order(idea)
jessicaj
July 26, 2008(dream)
Berek
ABBA(person)
devolution
k-hole(place)
Nadine_2
The Sound Of Madness(review)
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo, the Loneliest dog in Purgatory(fiction)
locke baron
lynx(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us(person)
This page courtesy of The Everything Development Company