It was long thought that the Greek God Glycon was a work of fiction for similar reasons. That was until an artifact of Glycon worship was found and later other prints.
We know there were hundreds of Greek underworld gods but only 3 names fully survive today.
Much of what was written has been lost for various instances of destruction.
The most interesting thing to me is both quoted descriptions talk of vermin and worms “springing forth” from the excrement. It was once thought that things like worms, insects, even mice and rats, would just spawn from various kinds of filth.
Oh god the wikipedia page has some vile descriptions too. Especially the last part for Mithridates
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism
I like how everyone is just ignoring this part:
No it’s more about the horror of the story than the legitimacy of it.
It was long thought that the Greek God Glycon was a work of fiction for similar reasons. That was until an artifact of Glycon worship was found and later other prints.
We know there were hundreds of Greek underworld gods but only 3 names fully survive today.
Much of what was written has been lost for various instances of destruction.
The most interesting thing to me is both quoted descriptions talk of vermin and worms “springing forth” from the excrement. It was once thought that things like worms, insects, even mice and rats, would just spawn from various kinds of filth.
I learned this as spontaneous generation, the obsolete theory that life could appear directly from things that are not alive.