In the Greek Mythology, Procuste (deformation of Procruste , in Greek old Προκρούστης / Prokroústês , literally “which hammers to lengthen”) is the nickname of a brigand of the area Attique, named Polypémon .

Myth

It has for another nickname Damastès (“the trainer”). Wire of Poséidon, he is married with Sillée of which he has a son, Sinis.

He resides at Corydalle according to Diodore of Sicily, and prevails along the road which goes from Athens to Éleusis, where he offers hospitality to the travellers whom he captured to torture them as follows: he attaches them on a bed, where they must hold exactly; if they are too large, it cuts the members who exceed; if they are too small, it stretches them until they reach the necessary size (from where its nickname). Procuste is killed by Thésée, which makes him undergo the same fate.

An older version lends two beds to him: small for the large prisoners, large for the small ones. The value of the myth is reinforced when the bed becomes single and corresponding to no size, not even that of Procuste, which returns it primarily symbolic system.

Derived directions

Procuste became the Symbole conformism and standardization. One usually speaks about “bed of Procuste” to indicate any attempt to reduce the men to only one model, only one way of thinking or to act, and of “Procuste” for their author.

The “bed of Procuste” also indicates a sexual Position, which owes its name with the fact that the legs of the woman exceed bed. The use of the name of Procuste in a sexual metaphor was already attested under Antiquity. One finds it for example at Aristophane in the Parliament of the women (v.  1021): “to become Procuste” meant “to have a erection”.

In Mathematical, the Analyze procustéenne is a technique for the study of the distribution Statistique of the Forme S. It is used in Biologie to compare alive forms. The name of “Procuste” comes from the need for giving the same size to all the specimens before making calculations to avoid a Biais. This scaling which removes the differences in sizes led to compare relative proportions.

In Data-processing, one gives sometimes the name of Procustre (or Procruste) to an assignment of Variable formatted, which consists in chopping the surplus elements or supplementing with elements considered as neutrals in the event of deficit. Example: for the seizure of a Character string formatted with 12 signs, “character string” will be tiny room to “Ca chain”, and “chain” will become “chain ......” (“chain” + 6 spaces). The people having a first name or a long patronym know this problem well when it is a question of filling certain forms. Another known example of this type of treatment meets in the impression of the accounts - checks to the cases of the stores, where the numbers “are procustés” by stars (protection against falsifications).

Sources

• (I, 4).

• (IV, 29).
• (XXXVIII).
• (I, 38,5).
• Xénophon, Memorable (I, 38,5).

See too