Men have always been proud of their penises, but before Christianity they used to be more open about it. From the Neolithic period, when men discovered their role in conception, until Christianity spread through Europe, almost every culture had gods with visible penises. Not only visible, but huge.
The Greeks liked penises so much they had a number of penis gods—Priapus was one, Dionysus was another, Hermes another—in fact Hermes is a word for penis in Greek. Bacchus—also known as Liber—was the native Roman penis god. Osiris was the Egyptian penis god. Shiva was the Indian penis god, and there is still a lingam chapel devoted to Shiva in every Hindu temple. In ancient places as various and widespread as India, Japan, Greece, Rome and Britain, there were festivals every year in honor of the penis gods. Huge dummy penises were carried through the streets, people wore penis masks and the feasts usually ended in orgies. Women were often major participants. During the festivals housewives got to wear fake phalluses and behave like men. Then they went back to their circumscribed lives.
When the penis gods reigned, phallic monuments littered the landscape. Egyptians erected obelisks, those lofty squared-off phalluses with pyramid tips. Some survive—among them a Cleopatra's Needle relocated to New York's Central Park and another to London's Embankment. (The Washington Monument, more than forty stories high, is the nineteenth-century American version.) In Dorset, England, the Cerne Abbas giant, thought to date from the second century A.D., is clearly visible today. An enormous drawing cut in chalk on to a green hill, the giant wields a gigantic club and sports an erection that stretches from balls to belly button. The entire figure covers so much ground that a couple of humans can easily have intercourse within the bounds of the phallus. Over the centuries many have done so, hoping for fertility and good luck. On the Greek Island of Delos the remains of the Avenue of Priapus can still be seen—huge stone phalluses perched atop carved stone pillars like cannons aiming gism at the stars.
In societies that practiced phallic worship, phalluses often adorned everyday objects. They were common in the vase paintings of Classical Greece, which regularly took sex play as their subject— between mortals, and among mortals, satyrs and gods. In the excavated ruins of Pompeii the phallus
was a leitmotif. There were bronze ornaments in the shape of phalluses with bells hanging from them; gaily winged phalluses with phallic legs and tails; terracotta bowls with phalluses jutting from them; lamps made of faunlike figures weighed down by huge dick wicks. The ancient Peruvian Mochica culture made a specialty of pitchers with phalluses for spouts. These objects, in which the penis is either disembodied or disproportionately huge, give it an unseemly gravity. If you lived among these objects as a woman you would probably experience penises in some ways more as men do; they wouldn't seem alien to you, but on the other hand you'd be forced to think about them all the time.
Penises, apparently so magical, were widely thought to ward off the evil eye. Small sculptures of phalluses were found on the exterior walls of houses in Pompeii (and can be seen today on the walls of houses in Sikkim). In ancient Rome a victorious general would suspend a huge phallus on his chariot, to insure that success would not destroy his luck. Ancient Romans wore phallic amulets around their necks, or on a bracelet, to protect themselves. Some of these were penis-shaped, others were in the shape of a fist with the middle finger extended, or a fist with the thumb protruding between the second and ring fingers. Those hand symbols are still worn for good luck, though some wearers may not know what they really symbolize. The Latin word for these magical representations of the penis is fascinum—the origin of the English word "fascinate."
Vulvas were also used as good-luck symbols in some cultures. It's easy for me to imagine that men are reminded of their destiny and their importance when they see a phallus being worshiped. Because that's the way I felt when I saw drawings of the Shelah-na-Gig, the Medieval Irish vulva symbol. To my surprise I was proud that vulvas were esteemed for their life-enhancing properties, and were sculpted on the outsides of Irish churches.
Vulvas were not at all as widely revered as penises, and this is probably because men were in charge. It would be wrong to say that men were in charge because they had penises—the reasons are much more complicated, and strength and capacity for violence are more to the point. But erect penises were a symbol of the authority of men, reminding everyone that a man with an erection was a person full of fervor and determination; a person who might be dangerous.
Source: The Book of the Penis by Maggie Paley
The Greeks liked penises so much they had a number of penis gods—Priapus was one, Dionysus was another, Hermes another—in fact Hermes is a word for penis in Greek. Bacchus—also known as Liber—was the native Roman penis god. Osiris was the Egyptian penis god. Shiva was the Indian penis god, and there is still a lingam chapel devoted to Shiva in every Hindu temple. In ancient places as various and widespread as India, Japan, Greece, Rome and Britain, there were festivals every year in honor of the penis gods. Huge dummy penises were carried through the streets, people wore penis masks and the feasts usually ended in orgies. Women were often major participants. During the festivals housewives got to wear fake phalluses and behave like men. Then they went back to their circumscribed lives.
When the penis gods reigned, phallic monuments littered the landscape. Egyptians erected obelisks, those lofty squared-off phalluses with pyramid tips. Some survive—among them a Cleopatra's Needle relocated to New York's Central Park and another to London's Embankment. (The Washington Monument, more than forty stories high, is the nineteenth-century American version.) In Dorset, England, the Cerne Abbas giant, thought to date from the second century A.D., is clearly visible today. An enormous drawing cut in chalk on to a green hill, the giant wields a gigantic club and sports an erection that stretches from balls to belly button. The entire figure covers so much ground that a couple of humans can easily have intercourse within the bounds of the phallus. Over the centuries many have done so, hoping for fertility and good luck. On the Greek Island of Delos the remains of the Avenue of Priapus can still be seen—huge stone phalluses perched atop carved stone pillars like cannons aiming gism at the stars.
In societies that practiced phallic worship, phalluses often adorned everyday objects. They were common in the vase paintings of Classical Greece, which regularly took sex play as their subject— between mortals, and among mortals, satyrs and gods. In the excavated ruins of Pompeii the phallus
was a leitmotif. There were bronze ornaments in the shape of phalluses with bells hanging from them; gaily winged phalluses with phallic legs and tails; terracotta bowls with phalluses jutting from them; lamps made of faunlike figures weighed down by huge dick wicks. The ancient Peruvian Mochica culture made a specialty of pitchers with phalluses for spouts. These objects, in which the penis is either disembodied or disproportionately huge, give it an unseemly gravity. If you lived among these objects as a woman you would probably experience penises in some ways more as men do; they wouldn't seem alien to you, but on the other hand you'd be forced to think about them all the time.
Penises, apparently so magical, were widely thought to ward off the evil eye. Small sculptures of phalluses were found on the exterior walls of houses in Pompeii (and can be seen today on the walls of houses in Sikkim). In ancient Rome a victorious general would suspend a huge phallus on his chariot, to insure that success would not destroy his luck. Ancient Romans wore phallic amulets around their necks, or on a bracelet, to protect themselves. Some of these were penis-shaped, others were in the shape of a fist with the middle finger extended, or a fist with the thumb protruding between the second and ring fingers. Those hand symbols are still worn for good luck, though some wearers may not know what they really symbolize. The Latin word for these magical representations of the penis is fascinum—the origin of the English word "fascinate."
Vulvas were also used as good-luck symbols in some cultures. It's easy for me to imagine that men are reminded of their destiny and their importance when they see a phallus being worshiped. Because that's the way I felt when I saw drawings of the Shelah-na-Gig, the Medieval Irish vulva symbol. To my surprise I was proud that vulvas were esteemed for their life-enhancing properties, and were sculpted on the outsides of Irish churches.
Vulvas were not at all as widely revered as penises, and this is probably because men were in charge. It would be wrong to say that men were in charge because they had penises—the reasons are much more complicated, and strength and capacity for violence are more to the point. But erect penises were a symbol of the authority of men, reminding everyone that a man with an erection was a person full of fervor and determination; a person who might be dangerous.
Source: The Book of the Penis by Maggie Paley
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