[Photo of stone phalluses]

Ancient agricultural and pastoral societies honored the male and female reproductive organs as symbols of life. Many rites and festivals were devoted to invoking the gods' blessings of fertility on people, animals, and harvests. Representations of the penis and the vulva were part of life from birth to death. Symbols such as stone phalluses were ritually tended with oils and touched by a supplicant desiring fecundity or fertility. The creation myths of the Egyptians speak of Atum the Creator masturbating into his clenched fist to produce other gods, and ancient Egyptians would have been familiar with representations of Atum in this position in his temples. Makes our church artwork seem kind of dull, doesn't it?

[Photo of Satyr]

Male nudity was customary among the Ancient Greeks as part of the ceremonial initiation into manhood. The habit of exercising and competing in the nude in athletic contests, such as the Olympic Games, gradually became a celebration of masculinity. The exposed penis was not shameful, but an accepted symbol of maleness. The penis was normally depicted in a state of rest on statues of athletes and warriors, and the entire organ is generally modest in size. You may have noticed this tendency when flipping through your art history books looking for statues of naked people. When men are depicted in Greek art with erect penises it is primarily in reference to lewd sexual behavior and the organ is greatly exaggerated, such as on this satyr.

[Photo of Herm]

The erect penis, however, was not only, or simply, a sexual object. It served as a potent device for warding off evil. It was found carved on the front of herms -- male busts mounted on pillars -- which were set up at crossroads and corners and other places where evil might lurk to protect the traveller. In Athens, herms functioned as protectors of the city. But this belief isn't limited to "the olden days." To this day in Thailand some men still wear small charms in the shape of a penis and scrotum on a waist-string under the clothes next to the real penis, in the hope that the charms will attract and absorb any magical injury directed toward the generative organs.

An important physical distinction throughout history until very recent times was the practice of circumcision by Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Arabs. The rest of the ancient world found the custom anything from hilarious to distasteful to depraved. Things haven't changed much outside the U.S..

[Photo of anti-masturbation device]

The independence of the male erection has long confounded and disturbed or delighted the owners of the organ. Saint Augustine argued that erections were the physical expression of the sin of lust which came about after Adam's sin of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. St. Augustine wrote an awful lot about erections for a church man. The Victorians, those great delineators of human sexuality, defined a multitude of distinctive sexual behavior and attempted to control or eradicate it. The child masturbator, among others such as the pervert, homosexual, and nymphomaniac, was deemed a potent threat to heterosexual reproduction, bourgeois morality and social order. Anti-masturbation devices were invented to combat the vice which was once considered the act of a god. This one delivered a mild shock to the wearer should he "accidentally" get an erection at an inappropriate time. When you're 13 all times are inappropriate, I should imagine.

[Photo of Freud]

No discussion of the penis in historical perspective is complete without a mention of Sigmund Freud. His theories about childhood sexuality are part of the foundations of modern sexuality. "Penis envy" is the supposed wish of a girl or woman to have a penis, postulated by Freud as a cause of feelings of inferiority and psychic conflict. (Any women here feeling anxious on account of their lack of a penis? No? Freud, what a dreamer!) The male equivalent is fear of losing the penis, or "castration anxiety." (Men, any... no? Okay then.) Penis envy supposedly occurs during the stage of human development in which a longing for power becomes externalized. Like many before him, Freud viewed the phallus as a symbol of power as well as a sexual symbol. Unlike earlier societies, however, he did not view female genitalia in the same way. Happily, since Freud's time there have been significant shifts in social attitudes, behaviours and regulations surrounding sexuality. But the image of a penis is still capable of provoking controversy, and remains a powerful symbol of fertility and maleness.

Past Life The Index Next Incarnation