Hollywood has never had a shortage of dumb movie plots. Nor did it have a dearth of far-fetched scenes that stretch credulity to the breaking point, then zoom past it for miles more. However, history has no shortage of silly events that happened in real life, that would come across as too dumb for the movies. Following are twenty things from history, too wild or weird even for Hollywood.
20. Ancient Greek Athletes Strangled Their Penises With String
Many statues and vase paintings of Ancient Greek men engaged in athletics portray them nude. The era’s literature also makes it clear that athletes competed while naked. So it seems reasonable to assume that the Greeks did not have the kinds of hangups we do today about nudity, seeing how often went around while letting it all hang out. As it turns out, however, Socrates’ contemporaries did have one particular hangup, having to do with the penis: they thought the naked glans was vulgar.
Ancient Greeks did not circumcise, so the glans were usually covered by the foreskin. However, the glans might pop out while engaged in frenetic activity such as athletics. To avoid such a faux pas, a string, known as the kynodesme (“dog leash”), was wrapped around the penis and foreskin to ensure that the glans stayed out of sight. The Romans, who thought the Greeks were sissies, took it a step further: instead of dainty strings, they used iron clamps, iron rings, or straight-up safety pins through the foreskin.