[Avodah] Sodom bed [was Torah Homeschooling|

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Yitzhak Grossman _celejar at gmail.com_ (mailto:celejar at gmail.com) 

>>I once  noted in a speech that this type of bed also appears in Greek
mythology, in  the story of the bandit  Procrustes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrustes

Serendipitously,  only several days later I heard R. Breitowitz of
Silver Spring speak, and he  also noted the parallel between the
Talmudic account and the Greek one.   There are at least three
possibilities:... <<

 
 
>>>>
You are hardly the first to notice the close similarity between the  
Procrustean bed and the Sodom bed.  The chance that this story arose twice,  
independently, is nil.  The odds that the Greeks took it from us are  slight, but 
it is possible.  Far more likely IMO is the third possibility  you 
mentioned, that Chazal took a commonly known Greek story floating around in  the air 
of their time and used it to illustrate the kind of thing that went on  in 
Sodom.
 
There are many stories and ideas in Chazal that have close parallels in  
Greek and Roman mythology  and the odds are that all or most of them  were 
taken from the Greeks and Romans and re-purposed by Chazal.   However the 
intellectual and cultural traffic between the Jews and the  surrounding cultures 
always went both ways and some ideas could well have come  from us first.
 
With a bit of research I could find a lot of examples of parallel  stories 
in Jewish and non-Jewish ancient sources, but it's late and  I'm tired so I 
will just mention a few that pop into my head, and the erudite  talmidei 
chachamim (and secular historians) who people these august pages will  surely 
be able to cite chapter and verse and correct my mistakes if I have  messed 
up some details.
 
A. Romulus and Remus, twins suckled by she-wolf -- founders of  Rome
B. Phoenix -- bird that dies in fire and is reborn from the  ashes
C. Salamander that is immune to fire
D. Adonis or Narcissus -- handsome man who sees his reflection in  water 
and falls in love with his own image
E. All twelve signs of the Zodiac
 
 



--Toby  Katz
==========



_____________________

**************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your 
fingertips. 
(http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000004)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20090615/2d5936f8/attachment-0001.htm>