Re: language of bird names ?= Old European

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:

>
> In classical Greece, roosters were traditional gifts from male
> lovers to the youth they wished to have their wicked way with.
> As one of my Greek art books puts it (explaining the famous vase
> of Ganymede in the Louvre) when older males wished to show their
> affection for a youth, they gave him a cock.

Is that the origin of the dirty word in English for the penis?
What about the expression "give him the bird" for flipping
someone off? Does it have anything to do with that custom?

> So Greek vase painting shows unambiguously that chickens (in
> both senses!) were present in Greece in the middle of the 1st
> millennium BC.
>
> Peter

Does your first name have anything to do with your considerable
knowledge in this area? :-)

David