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Author Topic: Coins held in the mouth?  (Read 20832 times)

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Offline Danny S. Jones

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Re: Coins held in the mouth?
« Reply #25 on: August 28, 2009, 03:41:55 pm »
The thought of putting metal coins in my mouth makes me cringe. It's the cross between the feeling of scraping your fingernails down a blackboard mixed with pouring alum into your mouth. I'm not saying they didn't, but I just want to know why they would want to. My fingertips are black right now from handling coins. I certainly don't want that in my mouth. :P

Offline slokind

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Re: Coins held in the mouth?
« Reply #26 on: August 29, 2009, 04:24:44 am »
I have wondered.  Only Jonah's a later story and slightly more naturalistic, though when some Early Christian art shows him emerging with panache one does think of the older, more mythic (meaning, they don't make sense except magically) tales.
Pat L.
BTW, I just remembered.  It's a tale of Herakles (a very hairy hero) who emerged hairless.

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Coins held in the mouth?
« Reply #27 on: August 29, 2009, 04:14:43 pm »
I'm not suggesting a direct connection, but the motif could easily have been known over a wide area.
Robert Brenchley

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Offline Equity

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Re: Coins held in the mouth?
« Reply #28 on: November 22, 2014, 02:43:48 pm »
I've been reading Harry Turtledove's fascinating picaresques, the "Hellenic Trader" novels--historical fiction set during the wars of the Diadochi. His characters frequently carry oboloi  (and perhaps tinier bits such as tetartemorioi) in their mouths, and "spit" them out to hand over to messengers &c.:

Quote
“While Sostratos eyed the dockyards and the bills and mused on world affairs, Menedemos briskly went ahead with what needed doing. Like a lot of Hellenes, he carried small change in his mouth, between his cheek and his teeth.”

Excerpt From: H. N. Turteltaub. “The Gryphon's Skull.”

I agree with other commenters here that this seems remarkably improbable (and uncomfortable and unhygienic) --is there no evidence besides the possibly satirical allusion in Aristophanes for this practice? One of Turtledove's characters is very fond of Aristophanes, so perhaps this is a meta-joke of some sort!

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Offline mauseus

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Re: Coins held in the mouth?
« Reply #29 on: November 22, 2014, 03:52:38 pm »
Hi,

There is the chance that there is a mix up over the term obelos or "spit" as I talk about in a blog post of mine. In the quoted term obelos, or spit, means a skewer for cooking (meat) on.

My bog post is here:

http://mauseus.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/handful-of-spits.html

Regards,

Mauseus

 

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