CNN – The ancient Greeks and you have a shared experience if you have ever “flipped the bird.”
The impolite Greeks invented the phallic gesture around 2,500 years ago as a way to mock, belittle, and even physically poke one another. Historians claim that while giving someone the middle finger in modern society is a clear way to say “f**k you,” in ancient society it was more often used as a sexist joke.
The impolite Greeks invented the phallic gesture around 2,500 years ago as a way to mock, belittle, and even physically poke one another. Historians claim that while giving someone the middle finger in modern society is a clear way to say “f**k you,” in ancient society it was more often used as a sexist joke.
The middle finger has since spread throughout society as a common symbol, an uninvited guest at a Super Bowl halftime show, a surprise live sign-off on the BBC, and an offensive gesture made by irate drivers. This is how it became into the most repulsive finger on the human hand.
Originally, the middle finger was a phallic gesture.
In a 2017 article about the origins of the gesture, Max Nelson, an ancient civilizations instructor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, said that the cheeky Greeks “probably relied on the use of the middle finger to represent an erect penis.”
Nelson and other classical researchers contend that giving someone the middle finger with pride was typically meant as a jest, an insult, or a sexual invitation. A few ancient Greek texts mention using the middle finger to poke or prod people’s body parts, from the nose to the, well, nethers.
According to legend, Aristophanes, the Greek playwright, was also fond of the gesture and made reference to “the long finger” in multiple of his plays.
According to legend, Aristophanes, the Greek playwright, was also fond of the gesture and made reference to “the long finger” in multiple of his plays.
In 419 B.C., a caricature of Socrates tries to teach the debtor Strepsiades about poetic meter in his comedy “The Clouds.” Strepsiades cracks a nasty joke about creating rhythm with a separate finger. According to Nelson, translators typically deduce that Strepsiades is alluding to masturbation when he makes the middle finger gesture—or, in certain cases, exposes his privates. The character of Socrates reacts indignantly, regardless of the intention.
Eventually, the gesture reached ancient Rome, where people referred to it as “digitus impudicus,” or the impure digit. According to anthropologist and prominent middle-finger historian Desmond Morris, the Roman historian Suetonius wrote that the emperor Caligula made his subjects kiss his middle finger. This was a humiliating gesture that symbolized the ruler’s member.
Morris has stated that the modern middle finger, which is raised in the air and causes other fingers to bend, is a representation of the penis and testicles.
Morris stated to the BBC in 2012 that “it is saying, this is a phallus that you’re offering to people, which is a very primeval display.”
Whether the ancient Greeks and Romans stuck their middle fingers vertically in the air is unclear, though. According to Nelson, although it is possible that ancient people used their middle fingers to make lewd gestures, they might have pointed them in different ways or horizontally, which is not the same as the conventional “finger” that we are familiar with today.
Morris has stated that the modern middle finger, which is raised in the air and causes other fingers to bend, is a representation of the penis and testicles.
Morris stated to the BBC in 2012 that “it is saying, this is a phallus that you’re offering to people, which is a very primeval display.” Whether the ancient Greeks and Romans stuck their middle fingers vertically in the air is unclear, though. According to Nelson, although it is possible that ancient people used their middle fingers to make lewd gestures, they might have pointed them in different ways or horizontally, which is not the same as the conventional “finger” that we are familiar with today.
Nelson stated, “It might be best to keep ‘the finger’ to ourselves in the end.”
