# Fingers held up in old artwork



## Androxine Vortex (Aug 24, 2015)

In lots of Greek, Roman, and early Christian artwork people that are speaking or teaching seem to have either one finger or two fingers held high above their head as seen in this picture







(I am not including the famous paintings of Christ where his hand gestures are mean to be roman abbreviations) 

What does this actually mean? Does it mean speaking/teaching? I always thought it meant they were enlightened from the heavens or something. This also applies to depictions of pagan deity the baphomet who holds its one arm up to the moon and the other down, but that i've read is supposed to represent spiritually balanced between good and evil. However, the depictions of the baphomet have the similar hand gesture with two fingers held up and a thumb either sticking out or sometimes closed.

Does anyone know what the gesture's official meaning is?


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## FifthView (Aug 25, 2015)

I haven't found much while searching this topic, although I did find one site (https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/what-does-this-hand-gesture-mean-in-icons/) that includes a link to this image, suggesting it was related to oratory in ancient Greece and Rome.    Without sound systems, etc., hand gestures would have been important when speaking to large numbers of people or in rowdy settings.


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## Androxine Vortex (Aug 27, 2015)

Thanks for the link 
It was quite helpful


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## Gryphos (Aug 27, 2015)

I like to imagine they're saying "up yours!"


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## Androxine Vortex (Aug 29, 2015)

Well if they're Roman then that's probably what they were thinking...


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