Why was Procrustes called the stretcher?
His father was said to be Poseidon. Procrustes had an iron bed (or, according to some accounts, two beds) on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit.
What is Procrustes bed?
The Bed of Procrustes, the title of Nassim Taleb’s book of aphorisms, takes its title from Greek Mythology. Procrustes (“the stretcher”) owned a small estate along the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. He invited every passer-by to spend the night in his iron bed.
What does Procrustes do to people?
According to Greek mythology, Procrustes was a robber who killed his victims in a most cruel and unusual way. He made them lie on an iron bed and would force them to fit the bed by cutting off the parts that hung off the ends or by stretching those people who were too short.
What is Procrustes the God of?
Procrustes the metal worker—not to be confused with Krusty the Klown—was an important figure in Greek mythology. A son of Poseidon, Procrustes was an iron smith, thief, murderer, and inn keeper. He offered hospitality to strangers passing his place on the sacred byway between Athens and Eleusis. For a price.
Why does Orpheus lose his wife?
When Orpheus’ wife, Eurydice, was killed he went to the underworld to bring her back. Fascinated by the beauty of his music the god of the underworld allowed Eurydice to return to the world of the living. Although warned against looking back, he did so anyway and lost his beloved wife once again.
Why did Pygmalion fall in love with a statue and not a real woman?
Venus wasn’t worshipped enough by the women of Cyprus and so she punished them with making them lose their sense of shame. Because of that Pygmalion was disappointed and decided to sculpt a female statue out of ivory. After he had finished this work, he fell in love with his sculpture.
What kind of bed did Procrustes live in?
Procrustes had an iron bed (or, according to some accounts, two beds) on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit.
How is the Procrustean bed used in Antifragile?
Giving continuation to this idea, in Antifragile, the author uses the image of the Procrustean bed as an allegory to modernity, linking it to present-day man’s fear of randomness. Procrustes analysis is the process of performing a shape-preserving Euclidean transformation to a set of shapes.
What did Procrustes do to his victims?
Procrustes had an iron bed (or, according to some accounts, two beds) on which he compelled his victims to lie. Here, if a victim was shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking the body to fit. Alternatively, if the victim was longer than the bed, he cut off the legs to make the body fit the bed’s length.
Where did Procrustes live in the Greek mythology?
Mythology. In the Greek myth, Procrustes was a son of Poseidon with a stronghold on Mount Korydallos at Erineus, on the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. There he had a bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith’s hammer, to stretch them to fit.