An Intellectual Defense for the Use of Horns Down

Horns Down

By now most people have heard that Big 12 officials will penalize any Oklahoma Sooner player who flashes the "horns down" hand sign during the 2018 Big 12 Championship in Arlington, Texas.

Unfortunately, many will assume that this ban of the "horns down" is a promotion of good sportsmanship, and they will never consider the implications of banning a gesture that has significant intellectual and religious meaning. As you'll read in this short essay, if there is a symbol that should be "banned" during the Big 12 Championship, it is the "horns up" symbol, otherwise known as "Hook'em Horns."

Allow me to explain.

Horns Up

The traditional Texas Longhorn hand sign of the pinkie and index finger pointing up, called "the sign of the upright horns, is also known as "devil horns," "metal horns," or "rock horns."

The "Hook'em Horns" symbol has a long history in eastern religions as well as western "rock and roll" music. When someone flashes "horns up," it symbolizes cuckoldry. The common words for cuckoldry in Italian, Greek and Spanish are cornuto, κερατάς (keratas) and cornudo respectively. All three words literally mean "horned."

Do you know what a cuckold is? A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife. The term is applied to males who are unwittingly investing parental effort in offspring that are not genetically their own. The word cuckold is derived from the cuckoo bird and alludes to the cuckoo's habit of laying its eggs in another's nest. In time, the rightful owner of the nest will recognize that the cuckoo birds he's raising are not his own. They don't belong.

The sign of "the upright horns," is "the cuckhold (horn) symbol" and conveys that one is taking for himself what is not rightfully his to possess.

So when someone flashes the "horns down" gesture, it means just the reverse. The "upside down horns" is a symbol that refers to  "the reversing the curse" or to "the warding off of cuckoldry." It is the modern equivalent of "knocking on wood" to prevent malevolency in one's life.

Warding Off the Spirit of Cuckoldry

In Italy and other parts of the Mediterranean, the "horns down" gesture is the most powerful symbol designed to keep at bay evil spirits.

There are other gestures in those cultures that supposedly keep someone from bad luck, like "touching iron" (tocca ferro), touching one's nose, or grabbing one's testicles. But the "horns down" symbol remains, to this day, the most powerful and least offensive gesture for warding off the spirit of cuckoldry in many countries.

Big 12 officials, I suggest you do a little homework before you penalize a player from Oklahoma.  The "horns down" symbol of the Oklahoma Sooners is definitively more appropriate than the "horns up" symbol of the Texas Longhorns.

When a player flashes and waves "horns up," he is calling the other players cuckolds; stupid, naive players who have no clue that there's illegitimacy in their house, and they (the "horns up" signalers) are the ones responsible for the illegitimacy.

But when a player lashes "horns down," that person is "warding off" the spirit of cuckoldry, making it known that only those who truly belong will be allowed in the house.

The "horns up" symbol should be banned. The "horns down" symbol should be approved.

"Horns down" is how Oklahoma players will ward off the illegitimate cuckoldry spirit of the Texas Longhorns who are trying to lay their eggs in the wrong house.

There's only ONE Oklahoma!