r/todayilearned • u/mvincen95 • 1d ago

TIL that despite their name, it is biologically impossible for a centipede to be born with exactly 100 legs because a genetic quirk dictates they always have an odd number of leg pairs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipede
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u/Christmas_Queef 22h ago

Correct. Wine is wayyyyyyy older than Romans. Also Romans flavored their wine with lead lol.

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u/Nirast25 22h ago

I was mostly going by the fact Dionysus is the god of wine, but I wasn't sure if he got that title later on.

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u/JonatasA 22h ago

What's the Roman equivalent?

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u/Nirast25 22h ago

Bacchus.

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u/Lyrolepis 20h ago edited 20h ago

Also possibly Liber.

Except that he was more a deity of freedom and fertility, whose portfolio did include wine and partying but also plebeian freedom, political satire, and free speech more in general - at least until he was identified with Bacchus (who was also stripped of the more complex aspects of Dyonisus) and turned into a "Woo booze!" sort of deity...

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u/DwinkBexon 20h ago

I read somewhere once that the Roman gods were more inspired by the Greek gods than a 1:1 copy of them. (As a kid, I was taught the Roman gods were exactly the same as the Greek gods, just with their names changed which isn't even remotely true. But I think a lot of people think that.) This is demonstrated very well with Ares and Mars, both gods of war. Usually, when you see Ares portrayed in popular media (God Of War games, old Xena or Hercules episodes, some Wonder Woman stuff, etc.) he's in shining armor, a highly skilled vicious fighter who never backs down. That's Mars. They might call him Ares, but it's Mars. Mars was a leader and a fighter.

To the Greeks, Ares was a coward and bully. He'd be cruel if he was winning a fight, but he'd bellow in pain and retreat if he was injured. He ran from difficult situations.

I'm painting these both in very broad strokes here (and am also no expert.) If I had more time, I'd get a quote comparing them from one of my mythology books. But I really need to get ready for work now. But, the point is, it's not at all surprising Bacchus is different from Dionysus.

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u/Dire87 21h ago

And by today's standards ... it tasted like shit. Like everything back then. Palates were ... let's say different. And no, I don't just mean that we add way more sugar today in almost everything. Roman wine was supposedly very sour and vinegary, I think. Maybe even "mouldy" to an extent. Seen some peoply try cook "ancient recipes" on TV a few times. Very rarely did the dish turn out all that great. Well, for us, at least. I'm sure the Romans loved their wine.