What does the expression "instruct horns" mean?

In Russian, a lot of words borrowed from the French, for example, "adultery. " But does everyone know its significance? But the expression "to instruct the horns" is clear to everyone. It is used in everyday speech, and in literature, and in innumerable jokes about the theme of marital fidelity.

Where did the mentioned expression come from, which became a phraseological expression? This is not known for certain, but the explanatory dictionaries note at least four possible answers to this question. Let's start in order, namely from Ancient Greece.

Revenge of the Goddess

Very long ago, at a time when the gods of Olympus often descended to the land of Hellas, it happened that Actaeon hunted with friends on a hot day near the Gargafii valley. While friends were resting in the shade of a large tree, Actaeon noticed a grotto on the mountainside. He was curious to find out what was inside.

It's a pity he did not see how a beautiful huntress, the daughter of Latona and Zeus, Artemis, entered the grotto shortly before. Only the nymphs stripped the goddess, preparing her for bathing, as the acteon entered the grotto. No mortal before him saw the naked beauty of Artemis. For such insolence, the offended goddess turned Actaeon into a deer, only reason left him human.

Without recognizing the owner, the dogs chased after the deer with branched horns, overtook and furiously tore his body apart. The friends of Actaeon came to their rescue and heard a moan from the chest of the deer, in which the sound of a human voice could be heard. So they did not know who the deer was really, and why Artemis decided to give him horns. Acteon himself later became the symbol of a deceived husband.

Reward in a royal way

Andronicus, the last emperor of Byzantium from the Komnin dynasty, reigned in Constantinople only two years - from 1183 to 1185, nevertheless managed to instruct the horns not to one of his courtiers. They say that in the form of compensation for the insult, defrauded husbands received hunting grounds, and the reindeer horns nailed to the gates of the manor served as a sign confirming the right to own them.

Later, the French kings, who were also not very chaste, adopted the Byzantine method of compensation for the insult they inflicted. The deceased nobles were allowed to hunt in the royal forests, and their estates were decorated with deer horns. Hence the word "cuckold". And if at first they were called a courtier, whose wife agreed to send a horn to her husband with His Majesty, later they were called all deceived husbands. Well, and from France this expression has got to Russia.

Other versions

The ancient Germans had a custom according to which a woman put on a helmet with horns on the head of a man going to war. Thus, she became free for a while. In the XV century, all in the same Germany issued an imperial decree, which ordered the wearing of horns to those soldiers who were in the army with their wives.

However, there are earlier references to horns associated with adultery. So, Ovid in one of his works laments the horns that appeared on his head, after he belatedly learned of the betrayal of the beloved. In the European poetry of the 13th century, there are often places where it is said that a horn grows on the forehead of a deceived husband.

As you can see, there are many versions, but they all boil down to one answer to the question of what it means to instruct the horns: it means changing your husband or changing your wife, and also touching someone's dignity by seducing his bride or spouse.

In literature

Literary works and memoirs indicate that the expressions "cuckold" and "cuckold" have been used for a long time and everywhere. In addition to the above works of ancient Roman and medieval literature, we find them also in Shakespeare, for example, in "Windsor Mockers".

On the pages of works by Pushkin, Chekhov, Krylov, Dostoyevsky, Lermontov and in the memoirs of Catherine II, there are also repeated references to horns and cuckolds when it comes to adultery, that is, treason to a husband or wife.