>From http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/wolffiles.html
COURT GESTURES
Let’s thank the Greeks. They gave us Plato. They gave us Socrates. … And
they gave us The Finger. I’m talking about the middle finger. That dirty
digit. The one that tells it like it is. The one they call, “The Bird.”
In The Finger: A Comprehensive Guide To Flipping Off" (Acid Test
Productions), authors M.J. Loheed, Matt Patterson and Eddie Schmidt
trace The Finger’s long, pointed history as far back as 423 B.C. in an
early version of Aristophanes’ The Clouds.
Of all people to receive the first documented Bird, it was Socrates. The
great philosopher was locked in an argument, when his opponent flipped
him a good one. It’s hard to tell what Aristophanes expected, but the
audience hated it. The Clouds finished last in an Athenian theater
competition, and the playwright deleted the dirty segment from the
classic finished version. “Then, just like now, the finger wasn’t
considered high-minded. But it was clearly part of the society,” said
Schmidt. “In some Greek theater, the actually hit each other with
leather phalluses. This was actually a step up.”