The article explores the strangest traditions and practices of ancient Greece, including their athletic competitions and medicine. The athletes would lather themselves in oil before competitions and afterward, a group of peasants would collect the sweat, filth, and dead skin off their bodies and sell it as medicine. The lack of understanding of human ailments and the absence of definite cures in medicine is highlighted, with examples such as doctors eating ear wax and women being prescribed cattle excrement.
Even the philosopher Heraclitus, who had ideas that sit well with current knowledge of the universe, died in a bizarre way when he covered himself in cow dung to cure his dropsy, but ended up immobile and was eaten by wild dogs. The article also touches upon the strange tradition of throwing undergarments at leaders, with the tyrant Draco being so beloved that Athenians would rip off their tunics and throw them at him. These traditions and practices may seem bizarre and disgusting to modern sensibilities, but they offer a glimpse into the cultural and historical context of ancient Greece.
