A Greek and an Irishman were sitting in a Starbuck's cafe one day discussing who had the superior culture...

Over triple lattes the Greek guy says, 'Well, we Greeks built the Parthenon,' arching his eyebrows.

The Irishman then replies, 'Well... it was the Irish that discovered the Summer and Winter Solstices.'

The Greek retorts, 'We Greeks gave birth to advanced mathematics.'

The Irishman, nodding in agreement, says, 'Irish were the ones who built the first timepieces and calendars.'

And so on until the Greek comes up with what he thinks will end the discussion. With a flourish of finality he says, 'The Greeks were the ones who invented sex!'

The Irishman replies, 'Indeed, that is true, but it was we Irish who introduced it to women.'

or should I say butt--it was the Arabs who gave birth to advanced mathematics. Among other things, we invented the zero…

It would seem Greek and Arab men have very similar sexual proclivities, so I'll concede it was probably the Irish who introduce sex to women. God bless them.

I love you all.

Sheika Fatima
[email protected]

my impression is that neither the Greeks nor the Arabs invented sex.

The Summarians in the city of Uruk appear to have invented sex approximately between 4000 BC to 3100 BC. This occured when they developed the belief in Inanna, the goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. Inanna was very popular. She became known as:
- Ishtar by the Assyrians and Babylonians
- Astarte and then Aphrodite to the Greeks
- Atarsamain to the Isamme tribe in pre-Islamic northern and central Arabia and then Allat a pre-Islamic Arab goddess
- Asherah by the Hebrews and Phoenicians. The names Sarah, Esther and Hadassah can be traced back to Asherah and so to Inanna.

Please forgive the Sheika for not responding sooner. I have been very busy as of late, but responding to this post has never been very far from my mind.

Now, bearbare, the Sheika finds interesting, accurate and impressive your short discourse and chronology. You are proving to be a very knowledgeable and well informed individual, particularly when it involves matters pertaining to the Middle East. Indeed, as your research has shown, ancient history is replete with a plethora of sexy gods and goddesses, but to suggest that any one such ancient culture “invented sex” circa 4000-3100 B.C. is just way off-based.

Darling Bearbare, few would argue against the fact that sex--in one form or another--has been with us since the dawn of life. There is very little, if any, asexual reproduction in the universe.

Loving Regards and Peace,

Sheika Fatima
[email protected]

P.S. Bearbare, I’ve been meaning to write a reply to your post of 5/30/08 on this board which was in answer to one of mine. It was “the harem thread”, if I recall. But, alas, your reference to Hanan Ashrawi set me on a course to explore, the pervasive and quite political problem of retaliatory terrorism which exists on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian debacle...If you have any thoughts on the issue, I'd like to hear them. Please keep writing.