Monday, October 10, 2011

We owe a cock to Asclepius




















Ganymede, Attic red-figure krater, 5th century BC
Holding the traditional pederastic gift of a rooster from his lover Zeus (on obverse of vase)

"Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius, pay it and do not forget." (Phaedo 118a)
Eva C. Keuls (The Reign of the Phallus, 1985) had this to say about the enigmatic last words of Socrates: "It was in fact a joke and by our taste a coarse one, understandable only against the background of the consistent portrayal of Socrates as satyr-like in appearance and perpetually randy." Keuls then goes on to claim that Socrates actually uncovered his groin rather than his face as is conventionally understood and revealed an erection (the Greek as far as I can tell only says that he uncovered what was veiled); it is then that he uttered the famous last words quoted above. Then in a nod to the god of health for his last hard-on, Socrates offered the rooster.

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