Being Left-Handed Was A Sign Of Evil Until Only Recently

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - In ancient times, people believed that left-handed were truly evil individuals. There is evidence of many very ancient tools that have been used by left-handed people and human remains, which showed the left hand's dominance in daily activities.

Why did ancient people consider left-handedness to be evil?

A woman, supporting a child with her left hand, reaches for a fig, from the 25th Dynasty relief in the tomb of Montemhet on the West Bank at Luxor, Egypt. Source

All of the early great civilizations of the world, from the ancient Mesopotamians to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, have been strongly biased towards the right hand. In almost all of these cultures, the right hand was used for ceremonies and eating, and the right-hand side was always the favored position. The gods' right hand was considered healing and beneficent, while their left hand was used for curses or inflicting injury.

In drawings, the Ancient Egyptians depicted all the good armies as right-handed, while their enemies were left-handed.

Also, the Hebrew Bible mentions left-handed people on three occasions: the story of Ehud's assassination of the Moabite king (Judges 3:12–30), the 700 Benjamites who could use the sling with deadly accuracy (Judges 20:16) and the two-dozen ambidextrous warriors who came to support David in Hebron (1 Chronicles 12:2). It is important to say that the Biblical stories left-handed people involve members of the tribe of Benjamin.

Plato and Aristotle, almost always associated the right with good and the left with evil and criminality. The great philosopher Plato was convinced that the limbs are naturally of equal strength and ability and that any handedness is culturally imparted. In fact, he went so far as to blame left-handedness on inept mothers and nurses who failed to adequately school their children in the correct way of doing things. On the other hand, Aristotle believed that a person's handedness was natural and inherited.

Hand preference results in more excellent dexterity of either hand. Hans Holbein the Younger (creation ca. 1523 - Web Gallery of Art  - Public domain

Ancient Romans shared similar beliefs about left-handedness. According to some, wearing a wedding ring on the left hand's third finger originated with the Romans, the idea being to fend off evil associated with the left hand.

The modern practice of shaking right hands in greeting dates back to the Roman custom of touching right hands to demonstrate the absence of hidden weapons.

Little is known of the practices and attitudes towards handedness during the Middle Ages.

Despite the limited reforms of the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment, the 18th and 19th centuries were particularly hard on left-handers, and discrimination against them became ingrained and institutionalized.

Austrian physician and psychologist Wilhelm Stekel wrote in 1911 that "the right-hand path always signifies the way to righteousness, the left-hand path the path to crime. Thus the left may signify homosexuality, incest, and perversion, while the right signifies marriage, relations with a prostitute, etc."

Even in the relatively free societies of North America and Western Europe, deliberate and sometimes brutal attempts to suppress left-handedness and impose conformity in the education system were endemic during this time, including such practices as tying a child's left hand behind his chair or corporal punishment for anyone caught writing with the left hand.

Until recently, left-handed children were forced to learn to use their right hands in school.

Written by – Ellen Lloyd - MessageToEagle.com 

Updated on May 12, 2023

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