The Visuals I Wish HuffPo had Used with my Post

It's always a thrill when something I've submitted to the Huffington Post actually gets posted because there's never a guarantee, even if they've approved your stuff before. My piece on ancient connections to modern workouts--"No Really, Crossfit Helped Me Understand Achilles"--was initially delayed because HuffPo insisted I supply citation for my claims about ancient funeral games.

Which, I have to admit, was kind of cool. I mean, I had to show my sources or they wouldn't run it. Who knew? With as much volume as they put out, It was reassuring to know that someone was checking every post for sources and citations.

My only disappointment was that they didn't include any visuals in the piece. Part of the challenge for them is finding royalty-free, public-domain art--or art they don't have to pay for--but I didn't think that was a problem with ancient artifacts. Perhaps the nudity was an issue?

Anyway, just to verify that there are plenty of options to choose from, I went on Wikemedia Commons, entered "ancient Greek athletes" and voila! It's raining naked men! Here are some of my favorites:

What's not shown on this ancient vase is that the athletes, especially runners, tied their willies down so they wouldn't flop around while they raced. Gary Corby writes amusingly about this in his latest novel, Sacred Games, set in the age of Pericles and during the Olympic Games. It's a great read--you should check it out. 

Athletes were usually shown as nude because that is indeed how they trained and competed. Heroes such as Achilles and Ajax were also usually depicted as nude, even when in battle. One of the more interesting tidbits about ancient men's bits is that the Greeks often depicted the male member as quite small (relatively) and, sometimes, even infantile-looking.Apparently, this was by design. A large member was considered "vulgar" so beautiful athletes/men were often depicted with truly tiny bits.

I don't know what sport they're playing, but all I can think of is, "Whoa--watch out for that stick!"

This Hellenistic boxer resting after his match is a work of wonder. Aside from his beautifully rendered form, I find the leather boxing gloves fascinating, as well as his tired, but determined expression.

There are countless extraordinary images of ancient athletes that HuffPo could've used. But I really can't/shouldn't complain. After all, they posted a piece with the word "Achilles" in the title! Nothing but awesomeness there for those of us who love ancient history.

The Case of the Exploding Cheeks

      While doing research for an upcoming book, I came across a photo of one of the world's first cosmetic surgeries featuring cheek implants. If you're not familiar with the procedure, it's where doctors implant a high-density porous polyethylene (commonly known as Gore-Tex) or pockets of firm silicone on top of a person's cheekbones. The idea is to recreate the roundness and softness of youth by lifting sagging skin and smoothing out wrinkles.
      Many Hollywood stars have allegedly had the procedure done, including Joan Rivers, Madonna, Hunter Tylo, Janice Dickinson and others.
That first implant surgery I came across, though, took place more than 3,000 years ago. The embalmers of the Egyptian Queen Henuttawy of the 21st Dynasty didn't use Gore-Tex, of course. They stuffed her cheeks with sawdust, linen and resin, presumably for the same reason modern surgeons perform cheek implants on the living today -- to give her face a plumper, more youthful appearance.
     The ancient Egyptians believed you needed your body for your ka, or spirit/soul to inhabit in the afterword. No body, no afterlife. A statue might do in a pinch, but you really needed the flesh. Hence, mummification.
     You can't blame the queen's embalmers for figuring that she probably wanted to look her best for her eternal afterlife. It's just that, sadly, it didn't quite work out that way for her. The procedure made the queen's face "plump up" out of all proportion. And it made the skin on her cheeks burst open.
     Poor queen had to walk around in her afterworld with a bloated face and ruptured cheek implants.
      While the cheeks of modern women who've had the procedure are unlikely to explode any time soon, I can't quite shake the feeling that the cosmetic surgery industry has moved into doing what the Egyptians did thousands of years ago -- attempting to embalm and preserve the upper classes who could afford it. Only modern plastic surgeons are doing it while their patients are still alive....

(Read the rest of the post here on Huffington Post.)

The Darker Side of Greek Myths

When I tour school children through our museum's classical galleries, I tread carefully around some of the uglier aspects of Greek mythology. I might say something like, "Zeus fell in love with Europa and took her to Crete." Or, "Zeus loved Leda and came to her as a swan, etc., etc."

In other words, I tiptoe around the fact that the head god of the ancient Greeks was actually a serial rapist. After all, whenever, Zeus "fell in love" with a beautiful young woman (or young man), he "took" her (or him) without asking. Because he could.

Of course, it's not my place to shatter the illusion that the Greek myths are anything other than outrageously fascinating and fun stories from worlds long gone. (There's college for that!)

Yet by telling these stories without pointing out their inherent violence against (mostly) women, I wonder if I'm somehow contributing to a culture that continues to blame the victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators.

Imagine, for example, Europa in a court of law trying to gain justice...

To continue reading, click here.

On "Damnatio Memoriae" and Making Evil Disappear

Source: Sean Simmers, THE PATRIOT-NEWS                                                                                     

The Huffington Post recently published my post on why denial is the real issue when confronting evil.  The post was prompted after my editor mentioned that a friend of hers had used the phrase "damnatio memoriae" in reference to an artist who painted over the image of accused molester Jerry Sandusky after the sex-abuse scandal broke.

That led me to think a lot of about the painter's reaction as well and our own very human impulse to deny the ugliness that is sometimes right in front of us.  Go here to read the full article.


(Photo: The image of Sandusky on a mural celebrating Penn State was painted over after the scandal broke. All that is left now is an empty chair.)