Heh ... that reminds me of this famous NY Post headline. If there was a newspaper like the NY Post back in those days an appropriate headline would read "HEADLESS BODIES IN TOPLESS ARENA"
Posted on 04/17/2012 7:25:53 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Rare Ancient Statue Depicts Topless Female Gladiator
A small bronze statue dating back nearly 2,000 years may be that of a female gladiator, a victorious one at that, suggests a new study.
If confirmed the statue would represent only the second depiction of a woman gladiator known to exist.
The gladiator statue shows a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and a bandage around her left knee. Her hair is long, although neat, and in the air she raises what the researcher, Alfonso Manas of the University of Granada, believes is a sica, a short curved sword used by gladiators. The gesture she gives is a "salute to the people, to the crowd," Manas said, an action done by victorious gladiators at the end of a fight.
The female fighter is looking down at the ground, presumably at her fallen opponent.
The "precise real-life" details of the statue suggest the depiction was inspired by an actual person, a real woman who fought, Manas told LiveScience in an interview.
It’s not known where the statue was originally found, though it is currently in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbein Hamburg, Germany.
The rarity of such statues likely reflects the idea that female gladiators in ancient Rome were scarce. They were banned by Emperor Septimius Severus in A.D. 200 with only about a dozen references to them in ancient writing surviving to present day. The only other known depiction of them is a carved relieffrom the site of Halicarnassus (now in the British Museum) that shows two female gladiators fighting. There have been claims made in the past of burials of female gladiators being uncovered, but none has attracted widespread support among scholars.
Identifying the gladiator
Scholars had initially suggested the statue represented a female athlete scraping herself with a strigil ...
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
`` Where`s my $47 dollars?``
“See what you get for cutting off my hand, leg and foot, you witch?!”
She does look like a bathing beauty with a strigil.
“I’d give half my leg for this butternut squash!”
Could be a Roman TS!
Maybe her name was Eileen?
One leg, one arm - the Special Ho-lympics
Man boobs. :)
>> After a strenuous workout in the arena they would slather themselves with oil, then scrape off the dirt, sweat and oil with a curved strigil.
Now that there is capital-A *Arcane* knowledge.
The guy on the ground made the mistake of asking,
“What’s it got in its loincloth pocketses, Lorena—stupid, fat Queen of the Bobbits?”
Laz: The Queen of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Rome chapter, who won a gold & silver medal and was so proud she had them bronzed.
Or a guy needing a brozier.
On second thought, never mind.
Ping
That is the spaghetti squash of DEATH to you mister!
As Bilbo would say, “This is a thread to remember.” Congrats to all who are posting. Time for a laugh and chuckle.
Morphadite?
Heh ... that reminds me of this famous NY Post headline. If there was a newspaper like the NY Post back in those days an appropriate headline would read "HEADLESS BODIES IN TOPLESS ARENA"
Not entirely. Many books on life in ancient Rome mention that practice at the baths.
(Makes one appreciate little things like soap.)
Not only that, but I understand that the scrapings from famous gladiators fetched a pretty good price as a cosmetic treatment.
Great, now we can have Gladiator Barbie with her new playmates Headless Drusilla and eviscerated Phyllis. It would also finally explain after all these years the lack of genitalia on Ken.
The Penis of the Fallen
Guilty
Oh wait, what’s this thread about again?
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