Caps of this type were introduced during the first quarter of the 19th century as cheap and practical workwear for sailors and factory workers in Europe. These were particularly popular in Russia, especially among the urban Jewish community, and later gained the nickname fiddler cap due to their use by Topol as Tevye the Milkman in the film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.
The mariner’s theme isn’t long insinuating a bawdy element which historically survives in nautical allusions. I wasn’t however prepared for the epiphany which arose from what I thought at first was a casual FaceTime conversation with my erstwhile undergraduate college, Michael Tweedie (now an acting judge of the Superior Court of Justice in addition to being a published author of civil procedure and liability law). With the aid of Michael’s medieval subconscious, the locker-room smut of sailors getting “blown off shore” acquired an entirely new and quite unpredicted dimension.
Through the intense translation of what is decidedly among the world’s most esoteric ancient manuscripts (epitomizing, as Michael said, the “monastic Latin“), he has accredited a motif which would be highly unlikely anywhere. For anything. Following is his thesis.
By way of introduction here is a snippet about Maccabees (which I personally divine as similar to the Apocrypha):
The Maccabees (/ˈmækəˌbiːz/), also spelled Machabees (Hebrew: מַכַּבִּים Makabīm or Hebrew: מַקַבִּים, Maqabīm; Latin: Machabaei or Maccabaei; Greek: Μακκαβαῖοι, Makkabaioi), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE to 37 BCE, being a fully independent kingdom from about 110 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, partly by forced conversion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.
Apocrypha (Gr. ἀπόκρυφος, ‘the hidden [things]’) are the biblical books received by the early Church as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament, but not included in the Hebrew Bible, being excluded by the non-Hellenistic Jews from their canon. Their position in Christian usage has been ambiguous.
ET ENIM AVSSVS EST SVB IPSA ARCAE GYMNASIUM CONSTITVERE ET OPTIMOS QVOSQVE EPHOEBORVM IN LVPANARIBVS PONERE.
(2 Maccabees, 4:12) (my emphasis)
Epheborus imported from Greek: Youth or adolescent (age 18-20 by Athenian law)
NOTE THE FOLLOWING DIFFERENCE IN TRANSLATION OF THIS VERSE
Only the Catholics are willing to deal honestly with the Latin.
Catholic Douay-Rheims version: “For he had the boldness to set up, under the very castle, a place of exercise, and to put all the choicest youths in brothel houses.”
Catholic translations make it clear that this is enforced homosexuality for young Jewish men – no equivocating, no circumlocution.
But just look at the Bowdlerised Protestant versions of the Bible extant today for the same verse which are set out below:
Practically all of the WASP versions (except for the Wycliffite), despite the Vulgate’s clear use of the term lupanaribus (“whorehouse”), use the euphemism “the Greek hat” instead. Puritan-based protestants resort a periphrastic expression and eschew the bluntness of the clear Latin meaning. Lupa in Latin meant not only a female wolf but also meant prostitute. A Lupanaris was where prostitutes plied their trade.
Protestant King James (1611) “For he built gladly a place of exercise under the tower itself, and brought the chief young men under his subjection, and made them wear a hat.”
New American Bible: “With perverse delight he established a gymnasium at the very foot of the citadel, where he induced the noblest young men to wear the Greek hat.” (footnotes omitted)
CEB
He eagerly founded a gymnasium right below the elevated fortress and induced the most honorable of the trainees to wear the traditional Greek hat.
GNT
With great enthusiasm he built a stadium near the Temple hill and led our finest young men to adopt the Greek custom of participating in athletic events.
NABRE
With perverse delight he established a gymnasium at the very foot of the citadel, where he induced the noblest young men to wear the Greek hat.
NRSV
He took delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
NRSVA
He took delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
NRSVACE
He took delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
NRSVCE
He took delight in establishing a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
RSV
For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
RSVCE
For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
WYC
for he was hardy for to ordain a school of heathenness under that high tower, and for to put all the best of (the) fair young men in bordel houses. (Wycliffite – England was Catholic then)
Thought that this might amuse you,
Mike T