serlud
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Worship of sex and fertility is among the most ancient superstitions of the human race, prevailing among most peoples before the introduction of Christianity. Even then it continued to exist, accepted and often encouraged by the medieval clergy, and still prevailed at Isernia in the kingdom of Naples in the eighteenth century.
The town of Isernia was destroyed, and many killed, in the earthquake which devastated the kingdom of Naples on the 26 July, 1805, nineteen years after the appearance of Payne Knight’s famous book on phallic worship, but even he did not know that this superstition existed throughout Southern and Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
The medieval worship of the power of sex, represented by the sexual organs, was derived from two separate sources. First, Rome carried into the her provinces Roman institutions and forms of worship and established them permanently. The worship of the god Priapus—the penis—is multiply confirmed from the provinces of Rome from monuments and findings identical to those found in Italy.
Among the remains of Roman civilization in Gaul are statues or statuettes of Priapus, altars dedicated to him, gardens and fields entrusted to his care, and the phallus, the penis, figured in a variety of shapes as a protecting power against various evil influences.
Sculptured on the walls of public buildings, placed in conspicuous places in the interior of the house, worn as an ornament by women, and suspended as an amulet to the necks of children, it was a charm against harm. Erotic scenes of the most extravagant description covered vessels of metal, earthenware, and glass, intended for festivals connected with the worship of fecundity, and for common usage because sex was not alarming, but was considered important and valuable.
An enormous phallus, encircled with garlands, sculptured in white marble, was found at Aix in Provence, on the site of the ancient baths. At Le Chatelet, in Champagne, on the site of a Roman town, another colossal phallus was also found.
Similar objects in bronze, and of smaller dimensions, are common on Roman sites, and examples abound in museums of Roman antiquities. Phallic worship appears to have flourished especially at Nimes (Nemausus) in the south of France, where the phallus was sculptured on the walls of the amphitheatre and on other buildings, often fanciful or playful forms.
The first is a double phallus, sculptured on the lintel of one of the rows of seats of the Roman amphitheatre, near the southern entrance gate. The double and the triple phallus are common among the small Roman bronzes, which served as amulets and for other similar purposes.
One phallus is the body, and usually has the legs of a goat. A second is where the penis should be, between the legs, and a third is a tail. Such a triple phallus appears on a pilaster of the amphitheatre of Nimes. A small bell is suspended from the smaller phallus in front, and the larger organ which forms the body has wings.
The picture is completed by the introduction of three birds, two pecking the head of the principal phallus, while the third holds down the tail with its foot.
Several examples of these triple phalli occur in the Musee Secret of the Antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
An example has the hind part of the main phallus in the form of a dog. To most of them are attached small bells, their explanation yet uncertain. Wings also are common attributes of the phallus in these monuments. Plutarch is quoted as an authority for the explanation of the triple phallus as intended to signify multiplication of its productive faculty.
On the top of another pilaster of the amphitheatre at Nimes, to the right of the principal western entrance, was a bas relief, also representing a triple phallus, with legs of dog, and winged, but with a woman, dressed in the Roman stola, standing upon the phallus forming the tail, and holding both it and the one forming the body with a bridle. This bas relief was taken down in 1829, and is now preserved in the museum of Nimes.
Another remarkable example was found at Nimes in 1825. It is a bird, perhaps a vulture, with spread wings and phallic tail, sitting on four eggs, each of which represents the female organ. A similar design sometimes occurs among Gallo-Roman antiquities. The triple phallus controlled by the woman appeared in bas relief also on a small bronze plate in a private collection in London, with a duplicate, cast from the same mould, meant to be suspended from the neck. The woman here bridles only the principal phallus. The legs are again those of a bird, and it is standing upon three eggs, standing for the females sexual organ.
Another monument at Nimes of what seems to have been an open worship, was found while excavating the Roman baths. It is a squared stone, the four sides of which are covered with figures of the sexual characteristics of the female, arranged in rows. It must have been the pedestal of a statue, or an altar. It is in the museum at Nimes.
Nimes seems to have been a center of priapic worship in the south of Gaul, but other centers existed even to the northern extremities of the province and across the Rhine. Pottery and other objects found in quantity on the site of Roman settlements near Xanten, in lower Hesse, proved the prevalence of phallus worship there. The Roman settlement of Antwerp was a main center of the worship of Priapus in the north of Gaul, and there it continued until early modern times.
Phallic worship is also found in Britain. Statuettes of Priapus, phallic bronzes, pottery covered with pictures considered obscene in our prudish view, conditioned by Christianity, are found wherever extensive remains of Roman occupation are found. The many phallic figures in bronze, in England, are like those in France and Italy.
The triple phallus shown as an example was an amulet in great favour, according to Plutarch. In the first, found in London in 1842, again a principal phallus forms the body, having the hinder parts apparently of a dog, with wings of the form, perhaps, of a dragon. Several small rings are attached, probably for suspending bells. The second example, found at York in 1844, also suggests that the hinder parts were meant to be those of a dog.
Many priapic subjects appear among the fine red pottery called Samian ware, found abundantly throughout Roman Britain. They show erotic scenes of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, including homosexuality, with figures of Priapus, and phallic emblems. An example is a Samian bowl found in Cannon Street, London, in 1828.
Found with it was an oil lamp, of phallic shape, of earthenware, decorated with such scenes. The subject of this lamp, found in London in the mid nineteenth century is plain. Such objects were for special occasions, festivals, perhaps, like those described in in the satires of Juvenal, but they are not uncommon.
The parish of Adel north of Leeds, Yorkshire, was important in Roman times. Temples with altars were found there and stones with inscriptions. They werer placed in the museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society. One was a votive offering to Priapus, but under the name Mentula.
A rough, unsquared stone had been selected for its tolerably flat and smooth surface, then the figure and letters were made with a rude implement, but by someone too unskilled to cut a continuous smooth line. The figure of a phallus occupied the middle of the stone, and the inscription seemed to read Priminus Mentalae, “Priminus to Mentula”. Priminus maybe wanted an heir, or had some sexual infirmity, so dedicated his crude stone to the god, a local Priapus, whose assistance he sought.
Another suggestion is that Mentla, or perhaps Mentila or Mentilla, might be the name of a woman joining with her husband in this offering for their common good. It is rather late in the Roman period.
The town of Isernia was destroyed, and many killed, in the earthquake which devastated the kingdom of Naples on the 26 July, 1805, nineteen years after the appearance of Payne Knight’s famous book on phallic worship, but even he did not know that this superstition existed throughout Southern and Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
The medieval worship of the power of sex, represented by the sexual organs, was derived from two separate sources. First, Rome carried into the her provinces Roman institutions and forms of worship and established them permanently. The worship of the god Priapus—the penis—is multiply confirmed from the provinces of Rome from monuments and findings identical to those found in Italy.
Among the remains of Roman civilization in Gaul are statues or statuettes of Priapus, altars dedicated to him, gardens and fields entrusted to his care, and the phallus, the penis, figured in a variety of shapes as a protecting power against various evil influences.
Sculptured on the walls of public buildings, placed in conspicuous places in the interior of the house, worn as an ornament by women, and suspended as an amulet to the necks of children, it was a charm against harm. Erotic scenes of the most extravagant description covered vessels of metal, earthenware, and glass, intended for festivals connected with the worship of fecundity, and for common usage because sex was not alarming, but was considered important and valuable.
An enormous phallus, encircled with garlands, sculptured in white marble, was found at Aix in Provence, on the site of the ancient baths. At Le Chatelet, in Champagne, on the site of a Roman town, another colossal phallus was also found.
Similar objects in bronze, and of smaller dimensions, are common on Roman sites, and examples abound in museums of Roman antiquities. Phallic worship appears to have flourished especially at Nimes (Nemausus) in the south of France, where the phallus was sculptured on the walls of the amphitheatre and on other buildings, often fanciful or playful forms.
The first is a double phallus, sculptured on the lintel of one of the rows of seats of the Roman amphitheatre, near the southern entrance gate. The double and the triple phallus are common among the small Roman bronzes, which served as amulets and for other similar purposes.
One phallus is the body, and usually has the legs of a goat. A second is where the penis should be, between the legs, and a third is a tail. Such a triple phallus appears on a pilaster of the amphitheatre of Nimes. A small bell is suspended from the smaller phallus in front, and the larger organ which forms the body has wings.
The picture is completed by the introduction of three birds, two pecking the head of the principal phallus, while the third holds down the tail with its foot.
Several examples of these triple phalli occur in the Musee Secret of the Antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
An example has the hind part of the main phallus in the form of a dog. To most of them are attached small bells, their explanation yet uncertain. Wings also are common attributes of the phallus in these monuments. Plutarch is quoted as an authority for the explanation of the triple phallus as intended to signify multiplication of its productive faculty.
On the top of another pilaster of the amphitheatre at Nimes, to the right of the principal western entrance, was a bas relief, also representing a triple phallus, with legs of dog, and winged, but with a woman, dressed in the Roman stola, standing upon the phallus forming the tail, and holding both it and the one forming the body with a bridle. This bas relief was taken down in 1829, and is now preserved in the museum of Nimes.
Another remarkable example was found at Nimes in 1825. It is a bird, perhaps a vulture, with spread wings and phallic tail, sitting on four eggs, each of which represents the female organ. A similar design sometimes occurs among Gallo-Roman antiquities. The triple phallus controlled by the woman appeared in bas relief also on a small bronze plate in a private collection in London, with a duplicate, cast from the same mould, meant to be suspended from the neck. The woman here bridles only the principal phallus. The legs are again those of a bird, and it is standing upon three eggs, standing for the females sexual organ.
Another monument at Nimes of what seems to have been an open worship, was found while excavating the Roman baths. It is a squared stone, the four sides of which are covered with figures of the sexual characteristics of the female, arranged in rows. It must have been the pedestal of a statue, or an altar. It is in the museum at Nimes.
Nimes seems to have been a center of priapic worship in the south of Gaul, but other centers existed even to the northern extremities of the province and across the Rhine. Pottery and other objects found in quantity on the site of Roman settlements near Xanten, in lower Hesse, proved the prevalence of phallus worship there. The Roman settlement of Antwerp was a main center of the worship of Priapus in the north of Gaul, and there it continued until early modern times.
Phallic worship is also found in Britain. Statuettes of Priapus, phallic bronzes, pottery covered with pictures considered obscene in our prudish view, conditioned by Christianity, are found wherever extensive remains of Roman occupation are found. The many phallic figures in bronze, in England, are like those in France and Italy.
The triple phallus shown as an example was an amulet in great favour, according to Plutarch. In the first, found in London in 1842, again a principal phallus forms the body, having the hinder parts apparently of a dog, with wings of the form, perhaps, of a dragon. Several small rings are attached, probably for suspending bells. The second example, found at York in 1844, also suggests that the hinder parts were meant to be those of a dog.
Many priapic subjects appear among the fine red pottery called Samian ware, found abundantly throughout Roman Britain. They show erotic scenes of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, including homosexuality, with figures of Priapus, and phallic emblems. An example is a Samian bowl found in Cannon Street, London, in 1828.
Found with it was an oil lamp, of phallic shape, of earthenware, decorated with such scenes. The subject of this lamp, found in London in the mid nineteenth century is plain. Such objects were for special occasions, festivals, perhaps, like those described in in the satires of Juvenal, but they are not uncommon.
The parish of Adel north of Leeds, Yorkshire, was important in Roman times. Temples with altars were found there and stones with inscriptions. They werer placed in the museum of the Leeds Philosophical Society. One was a votive offering to Priapus, but under the name Mentula.
A rough, unsquared stone had been selected for its tolerably flat and smooth surface, then the figure and letters were made with a rude implement, but by someone too unskilled to cut a continuous smooth line. The figure of a phallus occupied the middle of the stone, and the inscription seemed to read Priminus Mentalae, “Priminus to Mentula”. Priminus maybe wanted an heir, or had some sexual infirmity, so dedicated his crude stone to the god, a local Priapus, whose assistance he sought.
Another suggestion is that Mentla, or perhaps Mentila or Mentilla, might be the name of a woman joining with her husband in this offering for their common good. It is rather late in the Roman period.
ents about Min. 
