Andre the Giant (pro wrestler) and giants in antiquity

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15 Nov 2014, 1:08 am

We've read certain races in history being described as comprised of giants and have wondered at the mystery of it and if it is actually true. I just now saw a picture of Andre the Giant, a pro wrestler, and I wonder if the giants of antiquity could have looked somewhat like him and maybe, since many "races" back then originated from just a handful of related people, if it is possible, perhaps, tribes could have had this mutated gene prevalent in the members and this led to developing Giganticism. Andre the Giant was kinda robust so they can be genetic giants and still be strong. I am thinking of Goliath and picturing a man similar to Andre. What do you all think?

I have hear of Andre before, he just slipped my mind until I stumbled on a picture of him and then I thought of Goliath. Goliath would have, perhaps, been more muscular and burly than Andre because living was not as easy back then and took more physical effort.

MjrMajorMajor
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15 Nov 2014, 6:52 am

I don't think there was any past race of giants, but I'm sure one popped up here and there. Andre's size was due to a pituitary disorder, and he lived a lot of his life in constant pain due to his size, along with wrestling injuries.

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15 Nov 2014, 1:46 pm

MjrMajorMajor wrote:

I think an individual like Andre with a pituitary disorder, especially in a martial society like the Philistines, would have absolutely made use of him. So that very much could have explained Goliath. Incidentally, a young Andre The Giant had played Goliath in a TV miniseries about David when I was a kid.

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Humanaut
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15 Nov 2014, 2:02 pm

They haven't found any big skeletons, but there have been some hoaxes.

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15 Nov 2014, 2:15 pm

Humanaut wrote:

They haven't found any big skeletons, but there have been some hoaxes.

Actually in Iceland, they had found the remains of a Viking warrior/poet who was described as huge and hideous. I believe there was evidence of agamegaly (spelling).

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15 Nov 2014, 2:33 pm

I didn't know that. A contemporary contrast:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTDTrFhV_CU[/youtube]

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15 Nov 2014, 2:43 pm

There's also other reasonably good historical documentation of individual giants...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Manl ... _347_BC%29

Quote:

In 361 BC, Titus Manlius fought in the army of Titus Quinctius Poenus against the Gauls. When a Gaul of enormous size and strength challenged the Romans to single combat, Manlius accepted the challenge with the approval of Poenus after the rest of the army had held back from responding for a long period of time. Despite being physically inferior, he killed the Gaul with blows to the belly and groin, after which he stripped the corpse of a torc and placed it around his own neck. From this, he gained the agnomen Torquatus, a title that was passed down also to his descendants.[3]

I actually did a paper comparing Livy's version with other, more contemporary accounts...

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