“The middle finger gesture was used in Ancient times as a symbol of sexual intercourse, in a manner meant to degrade, intimidate and threaten the individual receiving the gesture. It also represented the phallus, with the fingers next to the middle finger representing testicles; from its close association, the gesture may have assumed apotropaic potency In the 1st-century Mediterranean world, extending the finger was one of many methods used to divert the ever-present threat of the evil eye.”