Historians believe that the modern handshake is at least 3,000 years old, based on a relief from the ninth century BCE, which depicts King Marduk-Zakir-Shumi I of Babylonia shaking hands to forge an alliance with the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III.
Where did handshake originate?
The custom continued among the ancient Greeks, based on representations found on vases, reliefs, and funerary art.
Reasons for handshake
In these contexts, handshakes conveyed peaceful intentions among armed men.
Extending the right hand with an open palm and shaking your hand up and down was a way to demonstrate that there were no weapons hidden in your sleeve.
Further evidence comes from the poet Homer, who in both the Iliad and the Odyssey includes scenes where men ‘grasp’ hands as displays of trust.
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Did the Romans invent the handshake?
Ancient Romans adopted the custom of the Greeks to signify that strangers had no ill intentions toward each other.
People clasping hands appeared on Roman coins, and in Fanti from the first century CE, the Roman poet Ovid described how the Sabine women persuaded their fathers and husbands to stop fighting: ‘The men let their weapons and their mettle fall, and, having laid by their swords, the fathers-in-law shake hands with their sons-in-law and receive their handshake.’
