Talk:Procrustes
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Any source for the geometric meaning? Charles Matthews 20:13, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Was Procrustes an innkeeper?
I was quite convinced that Procrustes was an innkeeper, rather than some sort of roving bandit as the article implies, and indeed Robert Graves seems to agree with me. This is the brief mention of Procrustes from The Greek Myths (96 k 6):
- On reaching Attic Corydallus, Theseus slew Sinis's father Polypemon, surnamed Procrustes, who lived beside the road and had two beds in his house, one small the other large. Offering a night's lodging to travellers, he would lay the short men on the large bad, and rack them out to fit it; but the tall men on the small bed, sawing off as much of their legs as projected beyond it. Some say, however, that he used only one bed, and lengthened or shortened his lodgers according to its measure. In either case, Theseus served him as he had served others. [And Graves then references Diodorus Siculus: iv. 59; Apollodorus: Epitome i. 4; Pausanias: i. 38. 5; Hyginus: Fabula 38; and Plutarch: Theseus II in case anyone would like to go back to the original sources.]
Note in particular the reference to two beds!
Richard W.M. Jones 17:23, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Was the Procrustean Bed actually invented in Sodom?
The book of Jasher recounts the story of the four judges of Sodom and Gomorrah, who among other obscene injustices arrested and tortured immigrants to their cities with the rack (a form of the Procrustean Bed) and other fiendish methods.
See my note in Talk:Rack (torture), also see the extracanonical book of Jasher, ch. 19 v. 3-6, which can be read at http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/jasher/19.htm . TurtleofXanth 03:34, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
- Looks like Peter G Werner covered this on the linked to talk page. Further, I think that the Greek version came first in any case. --Falcorian (talk) 16:16, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Whoa
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