ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND DIRTY PICTURES IN ANCIENT ROMAN BATHROOMS

Archeologists doing excavation inside a second-century Roman latrine in Turkey found some ancient mosaics that depict dirty jokes. Michael Hoff, an archaeologist from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says you have to understand ancient myths to really get the joke, but, he says, “Bathroom humor is kind of universal as it turns out.” The two mosaic scenes twist common legends depicted in Greek and Roman art at the time.
– In one of the mosaics, you have to know that the god Narcissus is typically shown falling in love with his own reflection in water. In the naughty mosaic, Narcissus is shown with an uncharacteristically long nose, admiring the reflection of his naked penis instead of his face.
– In the other, you have to know that Zeus disguised himself as an eagle to kidnap Ganymede. In art depicting that abduction, Ganymede is often shown holding a stick and rolling hoop as a toy. But in the naughty mosaic, Ganymede instead holds tongs with a sponge, a reference to the sponges that would have been used for wiping the toilet. And Zeus is not an eagle but a heron, with a long beak grasping a sponge and dabbing Ganymede’s penis.
* Ha! Good one, tilers!
* In those days this was called Crotchus jokus.
* Who came up with these mosaics? Bobus Sagettus?
* The original Greek frat-boy humor.
* They also found this: “For a good time, call Nymphonia at V, V-I, I-X… X-I-I L-V”
* Then they found this Roman graffiti in the bathroom: “Here I sit so mortified / Paid an X but only I’d.”