[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DaveLoneRanger. The Egyptian household deity Bes was a dwarf, and was of interest to people well into Roman times.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Hi ho, hi ho ping. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[adam_az]

...but were they tossed?

[mdittmar]

I always thought they got the short end of the stick.

Very little is known about this topic.

[Candor7]

Short people

Short people got no reason Short people got no reason Short people got no reason To live

They got little hands Little eyes They walk around Tellin’ great big lies They got little noses And tiny little teeth They wear platform shoes On their nasty little feet

Well, I don’t want no short people Don’t want no short people Don’t want no short people `round here

Short people are just the same As you and i (a fool such as I) All men are brothers Until the day they die (it’s a wonderful world)

Short people got nobody Short people got nobody Short people got nobody To love

They got little baby legs That stand so low You got to pick ’em up Just to say hello They got little cars That go beep, beep, beep They got little voices Goin’ peep, peep, peep They got grubby little fingers And dirty little minds They’re gonna get you every time Well, I don’t want no short people Don’t want no short people Don’t want no short people ’round here

[Alkhin]

"By the first millennium BC, Bes was thought of as a life-force. He was equated with Shu, god of the air, who filled the cosmos with the breath of life. This pantheistic form of Bes absorbed the protective attributes of many other deities.

...Bess fulfilled the same function as the hideous and sometimes obscene gargoyles found on many Christian churches. His nakedness, his ithyphallic form, his hideous face and stuck-out tongue were all meant to repel hostile forces...Bes's dancing and noisy music-making were also thought to drive away evil powers...

Bes's curious physique and the fact that his face is often shown from the front, in defiance of the normal rules of Egyptian art, have led to suggestions of foreign origin. Some scholars have compared him with the dancing pygmies known to have been imported into Egypt [possibly Ituri Forest people?]* for protective and funerary rituals in the third millennium BC. Others have suggested that Bes came from Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). He does have much in common with the Mesopotamian lion-demon La-Tarak, who was invoked as a protector against witchcraft. - - Magic in Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch.

* - my own question.

[BJClinton]

elite dwarfs

I'm not sure if I should make a Tom Daschle or role-playing gamer joke here.

[Phsstpok]

I have long believed that when we get serious about space flight and industry in space that "little people" will be sought out for some jobs. In micro gravity they will have none of the handicaps of moving around in a world built for "bigguns" and will offer distinct advantages in mass/work ratio when calculating the cost of lifting stuff out of the gravity well.

I'm not joking.

[hadaclueonce]

Bump, read my tag line.