Various expressions of
phallicism developed across cultures, ranging widely from adoration of representations of the male organ, to symbols of generative power across forms of nature worship, to promoting fertility through sexual rites. Phallic traditions may associate their symbols with the release of creative energy, or the return to a primeval state, or promoting the alchemical unification of opposites.
Ancient Egypt s The phallus played a role in the cult of
Osiris in
ancient Egyptian religion. When Osiris' body was cut in 14 pieces,
Set scattered them all over Egypt, and his wife
Isis retrieved all of them except one, his penis, which a fish swallowed; Isis made him a wooden replacement. The phallus was a symbol of fertility, and the god
Min was often depicted as ithyphallic, that is, with an erect penis.
Ancient Greece and Rome ; a bell hung from each phallus In traditional
Greek mythology,
Hermes, the god of boundaries and exchange (popularly the
messenger god), is considered to be a phallic deity by association with representations of him on
herms (pillars) featuring a phallus. There is no scholarly consensus on this depiction, and it would be speculation to consider Hermes a fertility god.
Pan, son of
Hermes, was often depicted as having an exaggerated erect phallus.
Priapus is a Greek god of fertility whose symbol was an exaggerated phallus. The son of
Aphrodite and
Dionysus, according to Homer and most accounts, he is the protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. His name is the origin of the medical term
priapism. The city of
Tyrnavos in Greece holds an annual
Phallus festival, a traditional event celebrating the phallus on the first days of
Lent. The phallus was ubiquitous in
ancient Roman culture, particularly in the form of the
fascinum, a phallic charm. The ruins of
Pompeii produced bronze wind chimes
(tintinnabula) that featured the phallus, often in multiples, to ward off the
evil eye and other malevolent influences. Statues of Priapus similarly guarded gardens. Roman boys wore the
bulla, an amulet that contained a phallic charm until they formally came of age. According to
Augustine of Hippo, the cult of
Father Liber, who presided over the citizen's entry into political and sexual manhood, involved a phallus. The phallic deity
Mutunus Tutunus promoted marital sex. A sacred phallus was among the objects considered vital to the security of the Roman state, which was in the keeping of the
Vestal Virgins.
Sexuality in ancient Rome has sometimes been characterized as "
phallocentric".
Ancient India , 3rd century AD
Shiva, one of the most widely worshiped male deities in
Hinduism pantheon, is worshiped much more commonly in the form of the
lingam. Evidence of the lingam in India dates back to prehistoric times. Although Lingam is not a
mere phallic iconography, nor do the textual sources signify it as so, stone Lingams with several varieties are found to this date in many of the old temples and in museums in India and abroad, which are often more clearly phallic than later stylized lingams. The famous "man-size"
Gudimallam Lingam in
Andhra Pradesh is about in height, carved in polished black granite, and clearly represents an erect phallus, with a figure of the deity in relief superimposed down the shaft. Many of the earliest depictions of Shiva as a figure in human form are ithyphallic, for example, in coins of the
Kushan Empire. Some figures up to about the 11th century AD have erect phalluses, although they have become increasingly rare.
Indonesia According to the Indonesian chronicles of the
Babad Tanah Jawi, Prince Puger gained the kingly power from
God by ingesting semen from the phallus of the already-dead
Sultan Amangkurat II of Mataram.
Bhutan The
phallus is commonly depicted in its paintings. Wooden phalluses, with white ribbons hanging from the tip, are often hung above the doorways of houses to deter evil spirits.
Ancient Scandinavia ),
Húsavík • The
Norse god
Freyr is a phallic deity, representing male fertility and love. • The short story
Völsa þáttr describes a family of Norwegians worshiping a
horse penis that was preserved with
linen and leeks. • Some
image stones, such as the
Stora Hammers and
Tängelgårda stones, are phallus shaped.
China , China. Within the Daoist tradition of
fangzhongshu (房中術, "arts of the bedchamber"), the male sexual organ was understood as the vehicle of
yang essence, whose proper management, including the retention of semen, was considered essential to health, longevity, and spiritual cultivation. Every act of sexual union was regarded as cosmologically significant, each interaction between
yin and
yang carrying both physical and spiritual consequences. The earliest surviving texts on these practices were discovered among the silk and bamboo manuscripts unearthed at the Mawangdui tombs in Hunan Province in 1973, dating to the
Western Han dynasty (before 168 BCE).
Japan The Mara Kannon Shrine () in
Nagato,
Yamaguchi prefecture is one of many fertility shrines in Japan that still exist today. Also present in festivals such as the
Danjiri Matsuri () in
Kishiwada,
Osaka prefecture, the
Kanamara Matsuri in
Kawasaki, and the
Hōnen Matsuri (, Harvest Festival) in
Komaki,
Aichi Prefecture, though historically phallus adoration was more widespread.
Balkans , 3000 BC
Kuker is a divinity personifying fecundity, sometimes in
Bulgaria and
Serbia it is a plural divinity. In Bulgaria, a ritual spectacle of spring (a sort of
carnival performed by
Kukeri) takes place after a scenario of folk theatre, in which Kuker's role is interpreted by a man attired in a sheep or goat-pelt, wearing a horned mask and girded with a large wooden phallus. During the ritual, various physiological acts are interpreted, including the sexual act, as a symbol of the god's sacred marriage, while the symbolical wife, appearing pregnant, mimes the pains of giving birth. This ritual inaugurates the labours of the fields (
ploughing,
sowing) and is carried out with the participation of numerous allegorical personages, among which are the Emperor and his entourage.
Switzerland , Switzerland, carrying a log, often interpreted as a phallus in accordance with
the long-held tradition In
Switzerland, the heraldic bears in a coat of arms had to be painted with bright red
penises, otherwise, they would have been mocked as being she-bears. In 1579, a calendar printed in
St. Gallen omitted the genitals from the heraldic bear of
Appenzell, nearly leading to war between the two cantons.
The Americas Figures of
Kokopelli and
Itzamna (as the Mayan tonsured maize god) in
Pre-Columbian America often include phallic content. Additionally, over forty large monolithic sculptures (
Xkeptunich) have been documented from Terminal Classic Maya sites, with most examples occurring in the Puuc region of Yucatán (Amrhein 2001). Uxmal has the largest collection, with eleven sculptures now housed under a protective roof. The largest sculpture was recorded at Almuchil measuring more than 320 cm high with a diameter at the base of the shaft measuring 44 cm.
Alternative sects St. Priapus Church (French:
Église S. Priape) is a North American new religion that centres on the worship of the phallus. Founded in the 1980s in Montreal, Quebec, by D. F. Cassidy, it has a following mainly among
homosexual men in Canada and the United States. Semen is also treated with reverence, and its consumption is an act of worship. Semen is esteemed as sacred because of its divine life-giving power. ==Psychoanalysis==