Labros Hydras, a mechanical engineer, left D.C. this summer for a relaxing vacation in Greece. And while he and his family were snorkeling, they happened upon a six-legged octopus in the ocean. They wanted to do what “local tradition” dictates that you do when you find an octopus while snorkeling: Kill it and eat it. (Because, when in Rome … or Athens … etc.)
He pulled the creature from the water and smashed it against a rock to kill it. When he took it to a local tavern to be cooked, the chef refused. Hydras then fried it up on his own, eating it with a slice of tomato and lemon, before he researched and discovered the octopus was actually an extremely rare, six-limbed hexapus.
This octopus wasn’t necessarily a different species than your average calamari, but it’s really rare to find one that should have eight legs, but doesn’t. In fact, it turned out that only one of these octopi had ever been found by a human before. Hydras said he feels bad:
“It tasted just like a normal octopus but now I feel really bad … when we caught it, there was nothing to suggest it was any different.”
Expect that it had six legs? In short, this is a poignant tale about the dangers of innumeracy.
