Monday, October 28, 2024
The Difference a Finger Makes
Diogenes Laertius 6.35 (tr. R.D. Hicks; on Diogenes the Cynic):
"Little finger"is incorrect, though, because λιχανός is the forefinger, or pointer (literally "licker").
See Max Nelson, "Insulting Middle-Finger Gestures among Ancient Greeks and Romans," Phoenix 71.1/2 (Spring-Summer, 2017) 66-88 (at 72-73).
Related post: Skimalization.
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Most people, he would say, are so nearly mad that a finger makes all the difference. For, if you go along with your middle finger stretched out, some one will think you mad, but, if it’s the little finger, he will not think so.This is fragment 276 of Diogenes the Cynic in Gabriele Giannantoni, ed., Socraticorum Reliquiae, Vol. II (Naples: Bibliopolis, 1983), p. 338.
τοὺς πλείστους ἔλεγε παρὰ δάκτυλον μαίνεσθαι· ἐὰν οὖν τις τὸν μέσον προτείνας πορεύηται, δόξει μαίνεσθαι, ἐὰν δὲ τὸν λιχανόν, οὐκέτι.
"Little finger"is incorrect, though, because λιχανός is the forefinger, or pointer (literally "licker").
See Max Nelson, "Insulting Middle-Finger Gestures among Ancient Greeks and Romans," Phoenix 71.1/2 (Spring-Summer, 2017) 66-88 (at 72-73).
Related post: Skimalization.
