Religion and superstition intertwine in a world where everything seems to revolve around sex which, source of life and joy, is for the Romans a positive, magical phenomenon, sometimes endowed with a spiritual power that directs life, and, through reproduction, goes beyond it.

 Arte Romana, Fallo Alato con gambe (I secolo d.C.; bronzo, Londra, Britisj Museum)
The Phallus in Pompeii


 

We will begin this journey into the imagination of the Romans with an object that we today would define as obscene, but this term, in the ancient world , does not have the same meaning that it has for us today. A Roman would never have called a Phallus obscenus because in their world, this term indicated something of bad omen, and therefore the exact opposite of what one of the most famous images from Pompeii, from the Roman world and Roman art ... identifies.

Read all

The Wings of the Phallus


 

The Phallus was depicted with wings to emphasize its divine qualities.

As a winged figure, the Phallus could ideally connect men with the sky and the beyond, offering a link to the divine.

Wings, and therefore the ability to take flight , allowed one to leave the earthly world to access a foreign , inaccessible, and unknown world. Since ancient times, the sky has been seen as the dwelling of the divine: from the gods of Olympus in the Greek world, to the Christian Paradise ...

Read all

The Phallus as a divine attribute

As it is considered the source of life, capable of pro-creating and thus creating , it possesses a gift common to the gods, divine ...

Read all

The Cult of the Phallus in the Following Centuries

 

Saint Augustine

 


Saint Augustine (354 AD-430 AD) bishop of Hippo Regis (in present-day Algeria), recounts these pagan celebrations [1] , describing the ancient fertility processions with a Christian prejudice of strong disapproval:

"Varrone says that in Italy certain rites of Liber (Italic god of fertility and fields) were celebrated * ) that were of such unrestrained wickedness that the shameful parts of the male were worshiped in his honor at the crossroads . [...] In fact, during the days of the Liber festival, this obscene member, placed on a little cart, was first exhibited...

Read all

Malleus Maleficarum for the witch hunt - 1482

In 1484, the Pope officially launched the witch hunt . A hunt that would last two centuries, leading to over 60,000 death sentences, mostly women.

To lead the persecutors, the church commissioned a manual for two Benedictine friars, the Malleus Maleficarum. An official manual of great success that the Catholic Church ...

Read all

Lord Hamilton letter from Naples - 1781

Even at the end of the 18th century in Italy, the ancient cult of the Phallus persisted. In a letter from Naples dated December 31, 1781 , William Hamilton describes the custom in Naples among children and women of the lower classes of wearing amulets with phallic symbols , clearly derived from the cult of Priapus of ancient Rome. The function of these amulets was naturally to protect against spells and the evil eye.

They were amulets in silver, ivory, coral very similar to those found among the excavations of Herculaneum. Hamilton collected many amulets both modern and from the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum to send them to the British Museum ...

Read all

The horn

In Southern Italy and particularly in Naples, the horn has replaced the Phallus as a good luck amulet. The Catholic religion and common morality have led to the disappearance of the Phallus as a pagan symbol and lucky charm and to its replacement with the horn. Just as in ancient times farmers placed a large Phallus, symbol of the god Priapus, to protect their fields, so even today large horns are indispensable in modern farms of Southern Italy. ...

Read all

The Iron Penis Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭り

In Japan , every year in April, the "Iron Penis" festival takes place. A religious festival that dates back to very ancient times during which processions of carts with enormous phalluses and prayers are held to promote fertility, luck, and family harmony.

A somewhat macabre curiosity ( * ):

Tattoo of a Phallus on preserved human skin, dated 1904-5. From the collection of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Paris. Image © MNHN, Paris. ( * )

From ancient Greece to Japan, from the cult of Priapus to Neapolitan beliefs, the Phallus has been a powerful symbol that has crossed centuries and different cultures. Its meanings, linked to fertility , protection, and the connection with the divine , remain imprinted in historical memory as a testimony of deep and rooted beliefs.

 

Discover our collection "Erotic Art from Pompeii"

 

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.