Statue of Greek god found in Bulgarian sewer

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/12/statue-of-greek-god-found-in-bulgarian-sewer.html

…

3 Likes
2

Contributed by Natalie Dressed

10 Likes
3

Since the BB post doesn’t have a pic of the statue in question…

959×1439 302 KB

Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

23 Likes
4

way to go, Natalie.

959×1179 229 KB

13 Likes
5

I know that this is the fault of the original Forbes article, but the Tiber river is in Rome, not Bulgaria. The river near this city appears to be called the Struma.

15 Likes
6

Yeah. Sloppy journalism. As best as I can discern from that Forbes article, it was found while excavating the sewers of Roman Heraclea Sintica in Bulgaria. The Tiber probably slipped in due to a poor game of word association the journalist played when googling “Roman sewer”.

10 Likes
7

Is he standing next to a Dalek done by an intern?

3 Likes
8

The Cloaca Maxima? Really? Are we being trolled?

3 Likes
9

I mean, the Cloaca Maxima is definitely a thing. One of the marvels of ancient engineering. Only, it’s in Rome

9 Likes
10

“After the statue was removed, the eldritch horror buried in the sewers was unleashed upon the city”

7 Likes
11

Is cloaca maxima used to describe main sewers in other Roman cities? Or are they just called cloaca?

5 Likes
12

Positively callipygian!

5 Likes
13

Not sure why the BB post seemingly went to pains to obscure which Greek god it is, but if my recall of Greek mythology is correct is pretty important to know who’s gonna come after anyone who disrespects the statue.

In the article it says the archaeologists think it’s Hermes. Which tracks, given that the messenger of the gods would have to have some well developed glutes.

6 Likes
14

I thought it was only the one in Rome, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was used in provincial cities either at the time or in modern parlance to describe the main sewer.

7 Likes
15

I was surprised to find there was a goddess of the sewer in Rome, and that cloaca derives from cluere, “to purify.”

I guess cleanliness really is next to godliness.

7 Likes
16

“But how did it end up down there in the city’s nether regions?”

They were very strict with gods who didn’t produce results.

7 Likes
17

Fell on it?

9 Likes
18

You dont want to annoy Hermes. He is the god of the sneaky and clever. His retribution will come out of nowhere and will probably be hilariously creative.

2 Likes
19

Which reminds me of this true but hilarious scene from History of the World Part I

1 Like
20

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.