25. Greek Olympic Athletes Leashed Their Penises
Many statues and vase paintings of the ancient Greeks that depict men engaged in athletics portray them nude. The era’s literature also makes 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 bare bodies, since they often let it all hang out. As it turns out, however, the ancient Greeks had one particular hangup, that had to do with the penis: they thought that the naked glans was vulgar.
Circumcision was not practiced in ancient Greece, so the glans was 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.
