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As evidenced by numerous finds in Pompeii, the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were literally surrounded by sex symbols.
As works of art, cult objects, graffiti, aids to arousal or signposts to clear offers - in the country town on Vesuvius alone there were several dozen brothels - private houses and public spaces were characterized by realistic representations.
Commercial enterprises were no exception.
This is shown by a new find in Great Britain.
Not far from Oxford, archeologists came across a millstone on which an oversized phallus was emblazoned while preparing a road.
“As one of only four known examples of Roman-British millstones decorated in this way, it is a significant find,” says archaeologist Ruth Shaffrey of Oxford South Historic Monument.
The millstone sheds light on the importance of sexual representations in everyday life of the Romans.
For one thing, the community for whom the wheat was ground in the mill will have expected protection for the flour, says Shaffrey.
On the other hand, the phallus is likely to stand for the life-giving power that the ground grain should give to customers.
This picture adorned a private house in Pompeii
Source: Print Collector / Getty Images
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Because the limb has been associated with fertility cults since ancient times, as a source of strength, but also as a good luck charm and averting disease and other evils.
In mostly erect form, it distinguished the male entourage of the Greek god Dionysus, who was not only responsible for the growth of the wine, but also for fertility in an almost excessive way, which also made him the protector of ecstatic events such as theater, music, festivals and Had orgies.
With the realistic phallus, the followers of Dionysus stood out clearly from the statues of naked men, whose primary sex organs were deliberately designed with restraint.
Another god, whose erect member was mainly present in public, was Hermes, also known as the messenger of Zeus, the father of the gods, and carer for travelers such as traders and robbers.
But with this, his statues, the so-called herms, also separated the inhabited area from uninhabited paths, fields and mountains beyond the city limits.
In Athens, for example, imposing deterrent steles with bulging phallic depictions marked properties, quarters and streets.
The scandal that broke out in 415 BC shows how seriously they were taken.
Occurred when the Athenian fleet was equipped to set out to conquer the city of Syracuse in Sicily.
Numerous herms had been overturned, heads and bodies were mutilated.
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This was seen as a sacrilege against the keeper of the way, who would now proceed against the planned campaign.
Since the attack had hit almost every herm in the city, an organization had to be behind it.
"As a sign of a conspiracy to revolt and overthrow the rule of the people", so the historian Thucydides, the attack was interpreted and numerous death sentences followed.
Nevertheless, the expedition to Sicily was to end in disaster.
The inhabitants of the Roman province of Britain may not have ascribed this importance to their millstone.
They were glad it turned powerfully, because that meant the harvest had been good.
Apparently the only offenders were the Christians.
For them, the ubiquitous sex offer in everyday Roman life, which could quickly become concrete in the back room of taverns or changing rooms at thermal baths, was very contrary to morality.
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