every currency of seduction that can nail them dish, fig, cooch

[meliss]

Hi. I can't understand this sentence. Cooch, as the author explains in his Glossary of slang, means women; sex in general. The rest is obscure.

"Our lord [Alexander] intends to make the country over by all means, civil as well as military. His boldest innovation is the oikos (“household”) system. By decree he establishes “site incentives.” What this means is that soldiers of the army, who in the past have received wages only as individuals, will from now on get their pay and allowances as households... the oikos system lures their [afghan] young women. Soldiers reckon every currency of seduction that can nail them dish, fig, cooch. Now they have a new plum to dangle: marriage."

(The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield)

 

[Skrej]

Soldiers now have a new way of soliciting things like food, sex, and goods from the local females - the promise of marriage.

 

[meliss]

Soldiers now have a new way of soliciting things like food, sex, and goods from the local females - the promise of marriage.

So dish, fig and cooch are food, sex, and goods, aren't they? But the local females have nothing of these to propose but sex.

 

[Skrej]

So dish, fig and cooch are food, sex, and goods, aren't they?

I suspect 'dish' may be used as a synonym for food or a meal for immediate consumption, whereas figs can be dried for longer term storage and consumption. Or perhaps they were valued for their inherit sweetness and viewed as a sweet treat.

Regardless, it's not really important to clarify the differences in terms of understanding the larger context - the foreign soldiers had various things they wanted, and they could now use marriage (via the oikos system) as a way of getting what they wanted.

But the local females have nothing of these to propose but sex.

Why wouldn't local women be able to procure food or other trade goods? There would have been local trading going on long before the Greeks arrived. Given the culture and the time, it was very likely the women were the ones doing the cooking and shopping anyway.

What's really going on is that Alexander's trying to encourage intermarriage between locals and foreign soldiers in an effort to fully subdue the conquered country. In essence, he's trying to make the locals into Greeks and Greeks into locals through marriage, so the Greeks are no longer viewed as invaders. Alexander's playing the long game here.

People are far less likely to revolt and overthrow an occupying force if the invaders are no longer considered outsiders. Once people start marrying and raising families, the line blurs significantly between being conquerors and just being immigrants, especially after a generation or so.

 

[meliss]

In essence, he's trying to make the locals into Greeks and Greeks into locals through marriage, so the Greeks are no longer viewed as invaders. Alexander's playing the long game here.

It's clear, thank you. I'am more interested in the words' meaning in this sentence. Why "nail", for instance: "nail them dish, fig, cooch"...

 

[Skrej]

It's clear, thank you. I'am more interested in the words' meaning in this sentence. Why "nail", for instance: "nail them dish, fig, cooch"...

You'd have to ask the author as to why he choose that particular word to be certain, but the puns seems too intentional to be accidental.

See verb definitions #6 & 7, and of course in the context of women there's a double-entendre with definition #8.

Note that 'dish' as per noun definition 4b can also refer to an attractive woman as slang, so there's some potential word-play there as well.

Additionally 'fig' can refer to female genitalia, so the whole phrase may just be about sex instead of actual food, too.

Good word play relies on such deliberate ambiguity.