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Apollo playing the cithara (marble ) - Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. 2nd century AD.
"Apollo Citharoedus -2"
( ... cont. from page 134) I still have not gotten any credit for the Ostrich female phallus ! In my book thats a major advance for science ... And it's not that rare - an elephant penis does not tell you the sex of the elephant ...
But Ostriches are rare in that the penis is female only. That's a form of transgressive sexuality - male chastity and female led relationships - the theory is if men curb their libido it sparks the female libido ... Males and females have nothing in common when it comes to sex
- Curbing male libido was practiced by the Romans. Gladiators for example - they were not gelded, but had a removable surgical procedure that prevented self-pleasure. Ancient Greek athletes too. ... The practice probably comes from ancient Egypt. :Infibulation
" ... Greek and Roman slave owners tried various methods to prevent sexual activity between their slaves, or between slaves and members of the household. Substances, such as hemlock juice, for instance, would be applied to the male testes of slaves at puberty.
Far more often, though, they employed a sadistic means of genital control called infibulation. On the uncircumcised phalluses of boys approaching puberty they made a series of perforations in the foreskin, using a needle. After the holes healed, they inserted a fibula, a large bronze forerunner of the safety pin, through the foreskin. Sometimes the luckless wearer was fitted with larger bronze rings that were welded shut by applying red-hot charcoal.
This horrendous practice is on visual display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where two larger-than-life, very nude statues of Roman slaves can be seen. They clearly show infibulation and what it did to phalluses—as well as what infibulated life must have been like.
Believe it or not, infibulation was thought to be the more “humane” approach. Masters ordered male slaves to be infibulated rather than subject them to castration, given the much higher likelihood of their death in surgery. It was also a common practice to infibulate gladiators—the rationale being to preserve their vigor. (Three-quarters of all gladiators were slaves and thus had no say in the matter.)
Flesh-crawling as it sounds, in Roman times a few free men actually infibulated by choice, to be hip and desirable. Comedy actors, dancers, and musicians did it, hoping to attract well-heeled sexual partners who would pay to play by unchaining them temporarily.
Members of religious sects, including the early Christian church and ascetics of various persuasions, also used infibulation to control their earthly desires.
From Greco-Roman times forward, the practice of infibulation has had staying power. Some statuary and art from the Renaissance, for example, depicts piercing of the male genitalia, often with oversize metal rings.
In the eighteenth century, population control advocates like Malthus and his followers lobbied for compulsory infibulation for anyone over fourteen years of age who was deemed unfit to procreate. His list included criminals, those with chronic diseases, beggars, unmarried servants (!!), apprentices, and rank-and-file soldiers.
During the Victorian era, prudish Western societies went hysterical over masturbation, again warming to the idea of locking up the sexual organs in a variety of ways. .... ""Infibulation: Genital lockups, male & female" erenow.net
Wikipedia on male infibulation:
" ... Infibulation also referred to placing a clasp through the male foreskin. In ancient Greece, male athletes, singers and other public performers used a clasp or string to close the foreskin and draw the penis over to one side, a practice known as kynodesm (literally "dog tie"). Many kynodesm are depicted on vases, almost exclusively confined to symposiasts and komasts, who are as a general rule older (or at least mature) men. In Rome a fibula was often a type of ring used similarly to a kynodesme.
Kynodesm was seen as a sign of restraint and abstinence, but was also related to concerns of modesty; in artistic representations, it was regarded as obscene and offensive to show a long penis and the glans penis in particular. Tying up the penis with a string was a way of avoiding what was seen as the shameful and dishonorable spectacle of an exposed glans penis, something associated with those without repute, such as slaves and barbarians. It therefore conveyed the moral worth and modesty of the subject. ... "
- My intuition is infibulation was not for slaves only in the Greco-Roman world. In ancient Greece it was practiced by aristocrats and probably in Rome too. My guess is male infibulation was the mirror of the vestal virgins. There was probably a male priesthood that practiced strict abstinence for the 30 years that was required for the vestals.
- The lyric poet Anacreon (570-485 B.C.) Copenhagen, New Carlsberg Glyptotek
Found by Francesco Capranesi in 1835 at Monte Calvo in the Sabine Mountains. Acquired in 1881 from the Villa Borghese.
1. Fantasy portrait of Anacreon
On the basis of a portrait herm bearing an inscription (Rome, Nuovo Museo Capitolino, A. Hekler, Bildnisse berühmter Griechen, 18 and 52) the lyric poet Anacreon (570-485 B.C.) has been identified as the statue’s subject. The elderly man, standing naked, is covered only around his shoulders by a light mantle, a claina. He sings and plays a lyre, no longer extant. There are traces of a poet’s ribbon, a taenia, running through the hair. The penis is infibulated.
It was not only in the fashioning of the hair and the beard that the running drill was put to use.This tool was utilized as well in differentiating the left leg from the form of the statue’s support. As a copy, the statue dates from the 2nd cent. A.D., the late Hadrianic period, a fact especially indicated by the special form of the statue’s support (see F. Muthmann, Statuenstützen und dekoratives Beiwerke an griechischen und römischen Bildwerke, 1951, 37-467). The present work is a Roman copy of a statue, supposedly created by Phidias, which was placed on the Acropolis in Athens around the year 440 B.C. According to Pausanias (1, 25, 1), this statue was positioned next to the statue of Pericles’ father, Xanthippus. ... " ancientrome.ru
Also according to "The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity" by Paul Zanker (1996)
" ... The way the mantle is draped actually emphasizes the poet's nudity and calls attention to a striking detail that has barely been noticed before: he has tied up the penis and foreskin with a string, a practice known as infibulation (or, in Greek, kynodesme ) . The explanations for this practice in ancient authors—as a protective measure for athletes or a token of sexual abstinence in a professional singer ... —all come from relatively late sources and are not satisfactory in the present instance. But many examples of kynodesme in contemporary vase painting suggest another explanation. Here it is almost exclusively symposiasts and komasts who have their phallus bound up in the same manner as Anacreon, and as a rule they are older men, or at least mature and bearded. Satyrs are also so depicted, evidently for comic effect.To expose a long penis, and especially the head, was regarded as shameless and dishonorable, something we see only in depictions of slaves and barbarians. ... " "The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity" by Paul Zanker (1996)
If we look at the modern day practice in BDSM culture the practice is said to improve marriages by making the husband more attentive to his wife or the "keyholder". It also heightens the sexual energy of both partners.
There's a deeply important idea here - the flow of energy and where it goes. ...In modern day corporate culture the "keyholder" is business, not the wife and family . That's probably the direct cause of the ED "Erectile Dysfunction " epidemic in the west ...
But that's a taboo subject as is quickly revealed when you try to research this subject on the Internet ...
Also see: "Preputial infibulation: from ancient medicine to modern genital piercing"
D. Schultheiss J.J. Mattelaer F.M. Hodges (2003)
" ... Medical procedures designed to prevent the eversion and retraction of the foreskin, such as binding it shut or perforating it and holding it closed with a metal clasp, have been in use since antiquity, and have been carried out until the modern era for various reasons. However, the term ‘male infibulation’ is commonly used with an imprecision that has obscured its precise historical meaning. Infibulation refers specifically to the process of piercing the lips of the foreskin to fit it with a metal clasp or ring. The devices used for this varied from a silver, gold or bronze ring (later referred to as circellus or annulus), to a metal clasp (referred to as a fibula), and even to safety-pins. The simple binding of the foreskin to keep it securely closed was accomplished with a simple leather lace, called in Greek a kynodesme. Whether secured by a simple lace or by a metal clasp, the object of these procedures was the same; the temporary narrowing or closing of the foreskin to keep it securely over the glans penis. Closure of the introitus vaginae as part of ‘female circumcision’ procedures is also called infibulation. This procedure is still practised in some African and Muslim cultures today, but is not the focus of this article.
THE ROMAN METHOD: INFIBULATION
The first written report on this method of infibulation was provided by the Roman writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE to 50 AD). Celsus gives the following detailed description of the surgical procedure:
The foreskin covering the glans is stretched forwards and the point for perforation marked on each side with ink. Then the foreskin is let go. If the marks are drawn back over the glans too much has been included, and the marks should be placed further forward. If the glans is clear of them, their position is suitable for the pinning. Then the foreskin is transfixed at the marks by a threaded needle, and the ends of this thread are knotted together. Each day the tread is moved until the edges of the perforations have cicatrized. When this is assured the thread is withdrawn and a fibula inserted, and the lighter this is the better. But this operation is more often superfluous than necessary. .
Celsus provides no information on the objective behind infibulation, except to state obliquely and disapprovingly that it was mainly performed on youths, sometimes on account of the voice and sometimes for the sake of health. This possibly refers to an earlier idea, reported by Aristotle (384–322 BCE):
This development [of the voice at age 14]is greater in those who attempt sexual intercourse; for in those who indulge vigorously the voice even changes to that of a man, while in those who abstain the opposite is the case; and if they help to check it through exercises, as some do who are engaged in the choruses, the voice remains the same for a long time and the change that it undergoes is altogether slight..
A more detailed understanding of male infibulation can be found in the works of other ancient writers. For example, the Roman poet Martial (38–100 AD) often referred to infibulation in his epigrams. In one epigram, he implies that comedy actors and singers who played the cithara wore a fibula, apparently to enhance their sexual attractiveness and thereby to increase their income. This is corroborated in the satires of the poet Juvenal (58–140 AD). In a satire devoted to the subject of Roman wives, he charges that: ‘Some pay a lot to undo the pin of a comic actor. In another epigram, Martial describes a young athlete whose ‘swollen penis has been unpinned by the smith’and is now ready for sexual intercourse. As some fibulae were apparently more easily removed than others, it is likely that, at least among hired singers, preputial fibulae were worn more as an eye-catching genital adornment and as part of the standard costume of the cithara player, rather than a medical device. As such, the fibula would have raised the stakes in subsequent bargaining for supplementary sexual services. .
... The Greek medical writer Oribasius (325–403 AD) also gave a detailed description of male infibulation, which he calls krikôsis. Oribasius implied that this procedure was still common in his day. One variation between his technique and that of Celsus is that the perforations made in the foreskin are widened with palm fibres before a tin stud is inserted to aid in cicatrix formation . Unfortunately, the manuscript is incomplete and no description of the fibula or the rationale for the operation have survived. ... "
"Preputial infibulation: from ancient medicine to modern genital piercing"
D. Schultheiss J.J. Mattelaer F.M. Hodges (2003)
***
My conclusion is the Greco -Roman binding of the penis was directly tied to activation of the mythical "female phallus". Roman wives paid good money to temporarily unpin the pinned phallus' of handsome bound men - probably both slave and free ...
***
(Feb 8, 2020) A lot of sexual energy was released by that update in the dreamspace! The images are the erect and rutting female phallus, the white light of the Fon rainbow serpent and fanged serpent women of the night ...
I've been doing a little more searching on the Internet and my conclusion is binding of the penis was universal in the greco-roman world ....
What a strange set of images - the sexual aggression is all female! Highly pleasurable - I will not argue - but very strange ...
The image is a permanent metal ring was inserted at 14 and not removed until 25 - when the man was eligible for marriage; - that's more than an image - I read a text to that effect.
And even after that, my intuition is the metal or leather binding was not removable unless paid for by an amorous female ...
I suppose in marriage the ring came off when the wife wanted it to....
The casual assumption that Rome and Greece were homosexual with non-sexual women needs revision
- Infibulated Greek bronze statue of an Athlete after a boxing match, 1st cent BC.
That's a rare clear example of the "dog leash". You could argue that that's just a slave - however a quick review of Greek and Roman statues - from gods to emperors always shows the penis as much smaller than the testicles. ...
- Infibulated roman emperor: Bronze statue of the emperor Trebonianus Gallus A.D. 251–253
The Roman world was "bound" as they say in Japanese futanari. In futa the binding is done by the semen of the "female phallus" ...
My guess is the dog was unleashed when access to the spirit world was desired. Kind of the way papa Legba is worshiped at the beginning of a voodoo service. - The unleashed dog - or erect penis was an icon of the Vestal Virgins - however, my suspicion is that's a female phallus, not male - Vesta is a goddess with a penis - She's probably the goddess doing the binding of Roman men.
The dog was also unleashed when sex was desired - but the spiritual component was probably more important. ...
- Unleashed dog - winged erect fascinus
- Unleashed dog (wind chime) - winged erect fascinus
- Unleashed dog (wind chime) - woman riding an erect fascinus
- Unleashed dog - winged erect fascinus
- Unleashed dog - winged erect fascinus
- Roman Woman with a penis - Probably a Roman "keyholder" - or "leashholder" - or a phallic goddess
- Unleashed dog (wind chime) - winged erect fascinus
However as modern BDSM shows, sex can occur without removing the dog leash - with gay sex that's straight forward - but the dream images are female on male femdom! Rome probably had the female strap-on genre - although I have not seen images of it in the physical world ...
On the other hand I may be projecting the present onto the past ... But the images are the images ...
- Blastgoogles futa cartoon - female on male BDSM - thats the inner image that was conveyed in the dream space last night - What probably ruled Rome ... The key gift is the futa semen - it has alchemical powers
The page was blocked though. I had to use my workaround
- The ritual unleashing of the dog was also probably a key component of the Eleusinian Mysteries
-Dmitrys Ostrich sex- Probably a more accurate picture of roman sex. Roman wives worshiped Vesta and her massive and proudly erect penis , while Roman men were sexually caged from 14 to 25 - and even after that expected to maintain a very small infibulated and dog-leashed penis
Roman wives, not husbands were known for paying to unleash infibulated men for sex be they singers or athletes or gladiators and roman brothels seem to have serviced roman women - emperors wives were famous for frequenting them for sex marathons. A famous brothel sexual position was female on top - or Horse -riding" :
"Riding" is a common metaphor for the sex act, particularly used of the woman-on-top position. The mulier equitans ("woman riding") does not appear in Greek vase painting but is popular in Roman art. Ovid recommends it for the petite woman, as a tall woman may not wish to seem too towering in relation to the man. Supposedly favored by the mythological couple Hector and Andromache, even though she was of legendary height, it was jokingly called "the Hector horse". One relief from Roman Gaul showing the mulier equitans plays on the metaphor by picturing a galloping horse within a frame in the background .
In art, the mulier equitans convention has the woman posed frontally to expose her body in full to the viewer, often emphasizing her depilated pubic area. The significance of this position in Roman culture has been interpreted variously. Kenneth Dover thought it might represent the relative sexual emancipation of Roman women. From a woman's perspective, the position would grant an independence of movement for her own pleasure. Paul Veyne, however, thought it emphasized that the woman had to do the work of servicing the man, who lies there and receives pleasure without effort. The position may have been favored for art because it pleased both male and female viewers: for men, it offered an unobstructed view of the woman's body, as recommended by Ovid, and of the penis entering the vagina; women saw the visually dominant female figure playing the active role. ... " Wikipedia
Horse riding in the brothel was probably literal in the Roman world - ie the stud was probably a slave who had to perform.
My guess is Roman brothels were to service women only - men were dog leashed and stayed leashed unless a woman uncaged them ...
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - nude woman receiving oral sex from a clothed, kneeling and probably infibulated man - "Serving the Deva" - or awakening the female phallus
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - Mulier equitans or "horse riding"
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - Mulier equitans or "horse riding"
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - Mulier equitans or "horse riding"
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - Mulier equitans or "horse riding" - "
"Venus pendula aversa, "perpendicular Venus with the woman facing away", the man lies down with the woman on top, but she turns her back and faces his feet. This version is rarely mentioned or depicted, but is found in Roman art set in Nilotic Egypt." The Dirty Classicist - Facebook
- Roman brothel: dominant female figure playing the active role - Mulier equitans or "horse riding" - medallion
- The" horses" being ridden were probably not slaves - a better possibility was the "horses" were paid for. ie an amorous roman wife had paid the "horse" to unleash the infibulated penis she was riding. That was not a casual transaction as it required a trip to the blacksmith to break the metal fibula and another trip to the smith to re-cage the penis
- Amorous Roman wives may seen strange - but that is basic in bdsm female dominant/male chastity - the "cuckold fantasy". Yes, Rome may have been famous for orgies - but these were almost certainly female dominant affairs with Roman husbands having no active sexual participation
-- Caged Penis - Pompeii
-- Caged Penis - 2- Pompeii
-- Caged Penis - 3- Pompeii - marble Roman copy of a Greek original. Ancient Greece was also caged - probably by a phallic earth goddess
-- Caged Penis - 4 Greek athlete wearing the kynodesme or "dog leash". Triptolemos painter 480 BC
-- Caged Penis -5 Victorious Youth, 300–100 B.C. - Getty Villa
-Caged penis - 6 Riace Warriors, Greek , 460–450 BC
- Caged Penis - 7 Riace Warriors, Greek , 460–450 BC
-Caged Penis - 8 Riace Warriors, Greek , 460–450 BC
- - Roman matron revealing an erect phallus. Roman 200-300 AD - Louvre.
That erect phallus is visible all over Pompeii - It's probably a shorthand for a common Roman experience - the female phallus - and more specifially the fiery female phallus in the temple of Vesta
- - Roman Hermaphrodite - penis looks caged
- - Roman Hermaphrodite - 2- penis looks caged
- - Roman Hermaphrodite - 3- penis looks caged
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -4- penis not caged
" ... The Sleeping Hermaphroditus is an ancient marble sculpture depicting Hermaphroditus life size. In 1620, Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted the mattress upon which the statue now lies. The form is partly derived from ancient portrayals of Venus and other female nudes, and partly from contemporaneous feminised Hellenistic portrayals of Dionysus/Bacchus. It represents a subject that was much repeated in Hellenistic times and in ancient Rome, to judge from the number of versions that have survived. Discovered at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, the Sleeping Hermaphroditus was immediately claimed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese and became part of the Borghese Collection. The "Borghese Hermaphroditus" was later sold to the occupying French and was moved to The Louvre, where it is on display.
The Sleeping Hermaphroditus has been described as a good early Imperial Roman copy of a bronze original by the later of the two Hellenistic sculptors named Polycles (working ca 155 BC);the original bronze was mentioned in Pliny's Natural History. ... " Wikipedia
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -5 Satyr and Hermaphrodite 100-200 AD Rome - Villa Aldobrandini
Satyr has a caged penis - looks like he is about to pleasure the goddess ...
The description that came with this photo makes no sense to me. It says that this is an aborted rape attempt. Aborted because of the discovery of a female phallus. I do not think that small guy would think of raping that big woman. Plus rape does not work when you are caged.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -6 "Pan meets hermaphrodite" Pompeii Fresco from the House of the Dioscuri
Looks like he's going to pleasure her whether he wants to or not! Roman brothels were for women not men .... The caged penis is of no use in a brothel
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite 7 Erect female phallus
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite 8 Erect female phallus
Women with a penis were the real rulers of Rome - the men served their female "dogleash-holders" ; - it was literally true with the vestal virgins - the vestals has veto power over Roman legislation - Rome was carnal and communal but not in the hollywood way ...
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite - 9 Bronze hermaphrodite figures in the Louvre.
That's a girl hermaphrodite next to the mother hermaphrodite. That was probably the state of the upper class roman family. As I said before curbing the male libido sparks the female libido
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite - 10 Hermaphroditus fighting off a Satyr from the Villa of Poppaea
Not sure who is fighting off who, knowing what I know now!
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite - 11 Hermaphroditus fighting off a Satyr - Pompeii
To me the opposite is happening in that mural. The dark skinned horse looks like he's resisting "mounting" - thats an example of the reverse Roman Egyptian Mulier equitans or horse riding : "Venus pendula aversa, "perpendicular Venus with the woman facing away", the man lies down with the woman on top, but she turns her back and faces his feet. "
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite - 12 Hermaphroditus fighting off a Satyr - Villa of Poppaea, Oplontis.
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite 13 Erect female phallus
- - - Roman Hermaphrodite 14 Erect female phallus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -15- Statue of a hermaphroditus anasyromenos, at the Torlonia Museum in Rome, from the Giustiniani collection.
Penis looks caged - Probably a "manly" goddess like Athena - the gods are always caged - even Zeus! The god on page 29 of this website is caged. I used to think it was just a small penis - some sort of artist convention on depicting male genitals ... Now I know he's caged
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -16 Hermaphrodite sarcophagus- Diocletian baths, Rome c. 300 AD (Jesse Waugh)
Her penis is not caged. There is a whole iconography of hermaphrodite as Dionysus in late Rome. For example, There is a bronze plate at the Freer from pre-Islamic Persia that depicts a triumphal procession of Dionysus but on closer examination, he has breasts and the figure of a woman! I could never make sense of that ...
My conclusion is late Roman sex was ruled by the uncaged female phallus - probably women members of the Vesta cult. They rode male horses that were temporarily uncaged ...
There were only 6 vestals - but all roman women participated in the annual rites of the fire goddess - and one of those rites was almost certainly mounting a horse ...
- Extrapolating from there - all Roman men were probably expected to be sexually uncaged and mounted at one point or another.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -17 Hermaphroditus and Silenus. On the right a maenad with thyrsus.
Hermaphroditus, Silenus and maenad with thyrsus. Roman fresco. Pompeii, House of M. Epidi Sabini, IX-1-22. 1st century AD. National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Italy.
Hermaphrodite as Dionysus. Or Hermaphrodite as Vesta - the goddess with a penis .
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -17 Hermaphroditus and Silenus. On the right a maenad with thyrsus.
Hermaphroditus, Silenus and maenad with thyrsus. Roman fresco. Pompeii, House of M. Epidi Sabini, IX-1-22. 1st century AD. National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Italy.
Hermaphrodite as Dionysus. Or Hermaphrodite as Vesta - the goddess with a penis .
She's enthroned and is proudly displaying an erect phallus - Probably the roman "potomitan"
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -18 Hermaphroditus and Silenus. Roman fresco from Pompeii.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite -19 Fragment of a wall fresco dated to the second half of the third century depicting a hermaphrodite . Capua, Campania, Italy. Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 20 "Bacchus - Hermaphrodite" 2nd century AD - Naples, Archaeological Museum
Hermaphrodite as Dionysus - not ambiguous - there was a female version of the rites of Dionysus - Probably drunken horse riding orgies ...
- Erect penis icon - Pompeii - The mythical female phallus
- Erect penis icon - 2- Pompeii - The mythical female phallus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 21 Satyr and Hermaphroditus - Berlin
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 22 Satyr and Hermaphroditus - Berlin
- Mulier Equitans "Horse riding" - Naples archeology museum
Mulier equitans or the "Hector horse" position was named after an Amazon and her horse/husband Hector:
" ... In Greek mythology, Andromache ... was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means "man battler" or "fighter of men" (note that there was also a famous Amazon warrior named "Andromache," probably in this meaning) or "man's battle" (i.e. "courage" or "manly virtue") ... "Wikipedia
The Amazons played a sinister and unbelievable trick on the men of ancient world: concede the erect penis to women. But it worked out - the men became happy sex toys and energy theft was shut down - They probably reached critical mass - and evolved up and out to a higher plane ...
- Erect penis icon -- Pompeii - The mythical female phallus
- Erect unleashed Penis in penis temple - wall detail Pompeii - probably Vesta or another female phallus. Vesta had a fire temple that was off-limits to men. It seems that the unleashed erect penis was also off limits to men in the Roman world - up to and including the emperor. Once "bound" by the goddess, she took over control of the penis.
To me this indicated a heightening - not dampening of eros. Eros expanded out from the genitals into the entire body - and beyond - into nature itself.
There had to have been a major benefit associated with male genital lock-up. Just looking at the bodies of greco- roman studs proves my point.
Also , the reason most of the "mounts" in the Pompeii brothel murals are dark brown as contrasted to the white skin of their riders is the brothel horses were probably sexually caged 100% of the time outside the brothel - creating a "perma-tan". Some of the mounts are Negroes - but most just have deep tans
- Erect unleashed Penis in penis temple - wall detail Pompeii. probably a female phallus - Vesta or an egyptian goddess
- Erect unleashed winged Penis - Pompeii
- 2 wall mounted erect unleashed Phalli - Pompeii
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 23 Labeled as a male Roman copy of a Greek original. The weight of evidence points to female with a penis in the Roman context though. Capitaline museums, Italy
Shot blocked. I used workaround
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 24 - Late roman plate found in Persia. Freer Gallery. From the Sackler's Sassanian dynasty "A taste for luxury" ancient Iran show.
It's a Dionysian procession - but at the center is a woman. If more details were available - that would be a woman with a penis.
That's the end result of caging the male libido. A very powerful aphrodisiac for both sexes - but maybe more so for women - it caused a male brothel culture in ancient Rome
The appearance of this new archetype - a female Dionysus in the 200's means there was a movement to rule by queens in the late classical world - More research needs to done here - a beehive/fire commune formed then suddenly vanished leaving behind a massive collapse of civilization - where did they go? Muslims would say this is the world of the "smokeless fire" of the "jinn" and the queen of Sheba ...
That tells me at one point caging of the male penis was once practiced in east Africa and south Arabia. That's not easy to do, but if it's a common event and starts just as puberty is hitting - it can be done. It's a pain for men at first - but ultimately a huge windfall sexually.
Circumcision was probably invented as a guarantee that the female phallus did not form. It's a big deal in Africa but many tribes do not do it.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 25 Roman 200-300 AD - Louvre.
Shot blocked. I used workaround. I am not "mounted" just now! But these ideas are like dreamwork - they can't be scheduled ...
- African in Pompeii brothel - he is probably the sex worker - although the easy assumption is he is the customer.
- African in Pompeii brothel - 2
It's more clear here that the African is the "horse" thats about to be mounted by a roman matron. She must have been rich - she has servants waiting around with refreshments - and the horse has a golden laurel on his head ... Roman women did not have to fear rape as the men were sexually caged !
- African in Pompeii brothel - 3
- Passionate inter-racial kiss! - this is still a taboo in Hollywood ... Although that's starting to loosen up - but the trend remains to kill the relationship before it becomes too permanent
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 26
She has a caged penis - probably a vestal virgin
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 27
She has a caged penis. Caption says she is cradling an infant eros. Thats probably a "manly" goddess.
Very similar to Hermaphrodite 23 except penis is undamaged.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 28
She has a caged penis.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 29
She has a caged penis. Figurine found in British river.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 30
She has a caged penis.
" ... Parian marble terminal figure of a hermaphrodite feeding a bird. Restored in the 18th century. ... Townley's description; ‘A Hermaphrodite ending from the waist downwards in a Terminus; it holds in the right hand a bunch of grapes, at which an Ibis, held under the left arm, is pecking. it was found 1774 at the Lake of Nemi’..." The British Museum
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 31
She has a caged penis.
" ... Thomas Hope: Regency designer. Hermaphrodite (left)about AD 70-100 Roman. /Maiden (center), 25 BC-AD 25, Roman marble. /Aphrodite or Nymph (right) about AD 150, Roman. ... " Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 32
She has a proudly erect penis.
Hermaphroditos, Stuttgart, Landesmuseum Württemberg
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 33
Sleeping hermaphrodite. My guess from the famous sleeping hermaphrodite is that is not a caged penis.
The House of D. Octavius Quartio, Pompeii
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 34
Female Dionysus - Metropolitan Museum of Art
From the age of Augustus.
Marble Statue of Dionysos Leaning on an Archaistic Female Figure, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Labeled "male" - but the image is not male. Compare with hermaphrodite 20 above.
My analysis of the female with a penis is an anima figure - the anima controls the penis for a male and is centered in the earth- or in other language - an earth goddess
- Spintria were Roman brothel coins used to pay male prostitutes - they depict male/female sexual positions -
" ...A spintria (plural, spintriae) is a small bronze or brass Roman token, possibly for use in brothels, although none of the literature on the spintriae contains any evidence to support this assertion. The tokens usually depict on the obverse a motif of sexual acts or symbols and a numeral in the range I - XVI on the reverse.
Spintria was used by Suetonius to refer to young male prostitutes. ... " Wikipedia
ex: Mulier equitans
& Spintriae from Pompeii
& other Spintria
Brothels were a service offered to roman women not men - a caged penis has no use for a brothel
- Going by the bird model Rome was probably Polyandrous at the elite level. ie women were expected to take lovers in addition to their husbands. And as the "dog-leash-holders" they controlled property and wealth and were probably expected to have children by as many men as they wanted to. The typical bird alpha female has 3 mates - this was probably normal for the roman elites:
" ...It is difficult to get a clear understanding as to how licentious things might have become in terms of wife swapping and lending out one’s own wife. There’s one anecdote which has the Christians being laughed at for sharing all their belongings and the Christians laughing back for sharing everything except their wives. Tertullian (Apology chpt. 39) writes a fairly explicit account of the practice and singles out Socrates and Cato as freely lending out their wives to their friends.
There was however a law which demanded a penalty of husbands who hired out their wives for money so we can guess that wife swapping fell short of actual prostitution.
Strabo gives the following account: “…that it is counted lawful among them (the Tapyrians) to give away their wives to other men after they have had two or three children by them: As Cato in our time, upon the request of Hortensius, gave him his wife Marcia, according to the old custom of the Romans“. ...""Marriage in Ancient Rome" Maria Melani
That's Polyandry! With Ostriches the female mounts a male and gives him 2 or 3 children to raise then moves to the next mount.
It was more than children that was desired - sex for the sake of sex in brothels was expected of the roman wife:
" ... Extra Marital Affairs in ancient Rome
... I take the opportunity to repeat an earlier quote from Horace who lived around the year 0 as the Roman Republic became an Empire, comments (book 3, ode VI) and makes satire of the manners of the age.
“A marriageable virgin rejoices to be taught Ionic Dances…and meditates from her very infancy on unchaste amours. Soon after marriage, she seeks after younger men…” ...
Messalina, wife of Emperor Claudius is equally well remembered for her amorous affairs. According to Juvenal (Satires) she would wear a cloak and blond wig in order leave the palace as soon as her husband was asleep and make haste to a house of disrepute in the most infamous area of Rome called the Suburra ...." Marriage in Ancient Rome" Maria Melani
Also see wikipedia:
" ... Two accounts especially have supplemented the gossip recorded by historians and added to Messalina's notoriety. One is the story of her all-night sex competition with a prostitute in Book X of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, according to which the competition lasted for 24 hours and Messalina won with a score of 25 partners.
The poet Juvenal mentions Messalina twice in his satires. One story told there is that she compelled Gaius Silius to divorce his wife and marry her. In his sixth satire appears the notorious description of how the Empress used to work clandestinely all night in a brothel under the name of the She-Wolf. ... " Wikipedia
Roman men were "belted and bound" to their wives - There probably a reference to the dog leash that all Roman men wore:
" ... Roman couple joining hands; the bride's belt may show the knot symbolizing that the husband was "belted and bound" to her, which he was to untie in their bed (4th century sarcophagus)"
That dog leash - the kynodesme was the reason Roman wives were so amorous
As far as marriage the husband had authority over his children , but not his wife - she came into the marriage with a dowry and could walk out of the marriage with the dowry at any time.
The unspoken truth is the dog-tie meant the Roman husband was under the authority of his wife:
" ...Under early Roman law, the oldest living male was the head of a family, or pater familias, and had absolute authority (patria potestas) over his children and, to a lesser extent, his wife. His household was thus understood to be under his manus (literally, "hand").He had the right and duty to seek a good and useful match for his children, and might arrange a child's betrothal long before he or she came of age. To further the interests of their birth families, sons of the elite should follow their fathers into public life and daughters should marry into respectable families. If a daughter could prove the proposed husband to be of bad character, she could legitimately refuse the match.
The age of lawful consent to a marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Most Roman women seem to have married in their late teens to early twenties, but noble women married younger than those of the lower classes, and an aristocratic girl was expected to be virgin until her first marriage.
Roman mores idealised a married daughter's relationship to her father as deferential and obedient, even at her husband's expense. "Deference" was not always absolute. After arranging his daughter's first two marriages, Cicero Marcus disapproved — rightly, as it turned out — of her choice to marry Dolabella, but found himself unable to prevent it. A daughter kept her own birth-family name (nomen) for life; and although children usually took the father's name, some might take their mother's family name as part of theirs. In the early Empire, the legal standing of daughters differed little, if at all, from that of sons; either could inherit a share of the family estate if their father died intestate. ... "Wikipedia
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 35
Marble from Temple of Apollo, Pompeii. Nat. Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Snapshots of the careers wives and mothers of roman emperors reveal "women with a penis;" - that was probably a coded reference of the popular Hermaphroditus
For example Livia Drusilla the wife of Augustus who moved on from her marriage to her cousin and caused an already married Octavian to leave his wife and marry her. The throne passed to her and her son by a previous marriage on the death of Augustus:
" ... Livia Drusilla ... was the wife of the Roman emperor Augustus throughout his reign, as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the emperor Claudius, paternal great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, and maternal great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta.
She was born on 30 January 59 or 58 BC as the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus by his wife Aufidia, a daughter of the magistrate Marcus Aufidius Lurco
She was married around 43 BC. Her father married her to Tiberius Claudius Nero, her cousin of patrician status ...
After peace was established between the Triumvirate and the followers of Sextus Pompeius, a general amnesty was announced, and Livia returned to Rome, where she was personally introduced to Octavian in 39 BC. At this time, Livia already had a son, the future emperor Tiberius, and was pregnant with the second, Nero Claudius Drusus .... Legend said that Octavian fell immediately in love with her, despite the fact that he was still married to Scribonia. Octavian divorced Scribonia in 39 BC, on the very day that she gave birth to his daughter Julia the Elder. Seemingly around that time, when Livia was six months pregnant, Tiberius Claudius Nero was persuaded or forced by Octavian to divorce Livia. On 14 January, the child was born. Augustus and Livia married on 17 January, waiving the traditional waiting period. Tiberius Claudius Nero was present at the wedding, giving her in marriage "just as a father would." ... Livia and Augustus remained married for the next 51 years, despite the fact that they had no children apart from a single miscarriage. She always enjoyed the status of privileged counselor to her husband, petitioning him on the behalf of others and influencing his policies, an unusual role for a Roman wife in a culture dominated by the pater familias.
... Livia would set the pattern for the noble Roman matrona. ... In 35 BC Octavian gave Livia the unprecedented honour of ruling her own finances and dedicated a public statue to her. She had her own circle of clients and pushed many protégés into political offices, including the grandfathers of the later emperors Galba and Otho.
With Augustus being the father of only one daughter (Julia by Scribonia), Livia revealed herself to be an ambitious mother and soon started to push her own sons Tiberius and Drusus into power.
... Augustus died on August 19, 14 AD, being deified by the Senate shortly afterwards. In his will, he left one third of his property to Livia, and the other two thirds to Tiberius. In the will, he also adopted her into the Julian family and granted her the honorific title of Augusta. These dispositions permitted Livia to maintain her status and power after her husband's death, under the new name of Julia Augusta. ...
For some time, Livia and her son Tiberius, the new Emperor, appeared to get along with each other. Speaking against her became treason in AD 20, and in AD 24 he granted his mother a theater seat among the Vestal Virgins. Livia exercised unofficial but very real power in Rome. Eventually, Tiberius became resentful of his mother's political status, particularly against the idea that it was she who had given him the throne. At the beginning of his reign Tiberius vetoed the unprecedented title Mater Patriae ("Mother of the Fatherland") that the Senate wished to bestow upon her, in the same manner in which Augustus had been named Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland") ...
The historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions, the most notable instances being the case of Urgulania (grandmother of Claudius's first wife Plautia Urgulanilla), a woman who correctly assumed that her friendship with the empress placed her above the law .... A notice from AD 22 records that Julia Augusta (Livia) dedicated a statue to Augustus in the center of Rome, placing her own name even before that of Tiberius.
Ancient historians give as a reason for Tiberius' retirement to Capri his inability to endure his mother any longer. Until AD 22 there had, according to Tacitus, been "a genuine harmony between mother and son, or a hatred well concealed;" Dio tells us that at the time of his accession already Tiberius heartily loathed her. In AD 22 she had fallen ill, and Tiberius had hastened back to Rome in order to be with her. But in AD 29 when she finally fell ill and died, he remained on Capri, pleading pressure of work and sending Caligula to deliver the funeral oration. ...
It was not until 13 years later, in AD 42 during the reign of her grandson Claudius, that all her honors were restored and her deification finally completed. She was named Diva Augusta (The Divine Augusta), and an elephant-drawn chariot conveyed her image to all public games. A statue of her was set up in the Temple of Augustus along with her husband's, races were held in her honor, and women were to invoke her name in their sacred oaths. In AD 410, during the Sack of Rome, her ashes were scattered when Augustus' tomb was sacked. ... " Wikipedia
- Livia married as she wanted to; - shared power with Augustus during his lifetime; and passed on the crown to her son by a previous marriage ... that was just the roman way. Husbands deferred to their "dog-leash-holder" and unmarried sons were also probably leashed to their mothers until married off to a another "dog-leash-holder..."
In BDSM femdom/male chastity, a basic principal is financial domination - this usually means the finances are controlled by the domme or "keyholder" with the male given an allowance - that was probably the roman way too. The fact pattern from wikipedia says Livia had financial independence - the reality was probably absolute control of the property and finances of Caesar Augustus ... And control of the finances of her son the nominal emperor Tiberius as well. ...
Tiberius was married off to Octavian's daughter - Julia - and she maintained the Roman pattern of amorous wives taking many lovers after marriage:
" ... Octavian divorced Julia's mother the day of her birth and took Julia from her soon thereafter. Octavian, in accordance with Roman custom, claimed complete parental control over her. She was sent to live with her stepmother Livia when she was old enough and learn how to be an aristocrat. ...
Julia's social life was severely controlled, and she was allowed to talk only to people whom her father had vetted. However, Octavian had a great affection for his daughter and made sure she had the best teachers available. Macrobius preserves a remark of Augustus: "There are two wayward daughters that I have to put up with: the Roman commonwealth and Julia."
....Among contemporary writers Julia is almost universally remembered for her flagrant and promiscuous conduct. Thus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (2.100) describes her as "tainted by luxury or lust", listing among her lovers Iullus Antonius, Quintius Crispinus, Appius Claudius, Sempronius Gracchus, and Cornelius Scipio. Seneca the Younger refers to "adulterers admitted in droves";Pliny the Elder calls her an “exemplum licentiae” (NH 21.9). Dio Cassius mentions "revels and drinking parties by night in the Forum and even upon the Rostra" (Roman History 55.10). Seneca (De Beneficiis 6.32) tells us that the Rostra was the place where "her father had proposed a law against adultery", and yet now she had chosen the place for her "debaucheries". ..." Wikipedia
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 36
Fresco painting of Hermaphroditus - Herculaneum c. 50 AD - National Archaeological Museum of Naples
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 37
African male vagina
Not sure how to read that! Probably a nubian pleasure center for all those Roman matrons with a penis
Bronze lamp in the shape of a Nubian head - Pompeii, roman 1st century AD
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 38
Female Dionysus at the met - From the age of Augustus.
I call this the "Roman Potomitan"
Dionysus was originally from Nysa which was black Africa - and was probably originally a woman.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 39
Mulier equitans - "Horse riding"
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 40
Roman male "belting and bonding"
- The commentary on line is the knotted belt around the roman bride is a chastity belt. But in ancient Rome chastity was for males not females: the "dog - leash".
Young roman brides probably felt free to emulate Empress Messalina - the "she-wolf" who would spend all night in the brothels riding male prostitutes while her husband slept at home. The "she-wolf" Messalina was probably emulating the empress before her - Livia Drusilla , and Octavian's daughter Julia and other roman women down the ages ...
That's the line of transmission of power and wealth - the sexual domme - and in the roman case that was female ... The "Hector horse" - Mulier equitans- model is probably the key to roman society. Towards the end of the empire - the roman upper classes were probably a single commune focused on a single queen
Marriage sarcophagus (known as sarcophagus of cardinal Guglielmo Fieschi.) Front panel with wedding scenes. Marble. Ca. 210-220 CE. Rome, Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 41
Satyr and Hermaphrodite
There was a female-only roman religion that worshiped a female version of the god Faunus
Faunus was a pan-like god of hyper-sexuality - he is often depicted in roman art as trying to have sex with a hermaphrodite::
" ... In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields ... He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan.
Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities, known as the di indigetes. According to the epic poet Virgil, he was a legendary king of the Latins. His shade was consulted as a goddess of prophecy under the name of Fatuus, with oracles in the sacred grove of Tibur, around the well Albunea, and on the Aventine Hill in ancient Rome itself.
Marcus Terentius Varro asserted that the oracular responses were given in Saturnian verse. Faunus revealed the future in dreams and voices that were communicated to those who came to sleep in his precincts, lying on the fleeces of sacrificed lambs. ... "
According to Wikipedia:
" ...Bona Dea (Latin: 'Good Goddess') was a goddess in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in Roman women, healing, and the protection of the state and people of Rome. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia at some time during the early or middle Republic, and was given her own state cult on the Aventine Hill.
Her rites allowed women the use of strong wine and blood-sacrifice, things otherwise forbidden them by Roman tradition. Men were barred from her mysteries and the possession of her true name. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about her identity abound, among them that she was an aspect of Terra, Ops, Cybele, or Ceres, or a Latin form of the Greek goddess "Damia" (Demeter). Most often, she was identified as the wife, sister, or daughter of the god Faunus, thus an equivalent or aspect of the nature-goddess Fauna, who could prophesy the fates of women.
The goddess had two annual festivals. One was held at her Aventine temple; the other was hosted by the wife of Rome's senior Annual Magistrate for an invited group of elite matrons and female attendants. The latter festival came to scandalous prominence in 62 BC, when the politician Publius Clodius Pulcher was tried for his intrusion on the rites, allegedly bent on the seduction of Julius Caesar's wife, whom Caesar later divorced because "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". The rites remained a subject of male curiosity and speculation, both religious and prurient.
Bona Dea's cults in the city of Rome were led by the Vestal Virgins, and her provincial cults by virgin or matron priestesses. Surviving statuary shows her as a sedate Roman matron with a cornucopia and a snake. Personal dedications to her are attested among all classes, especially plebeians, freedmen and women, and slaves. Approximately one third of her dedications are from men, some of whom may have been lawfully involved in her cult. ...
The house was ritually cleansed of all male persons and presences, even male animals and male portraiture. Then the magistrate's wife and her assistants made bowers of vine-leaves, and decorated the house's banqueting hall with "all manner of growing and blooming plants" except for myrtle, whose presence and naming were expressly forbidden. A banquet table was prepared, with a couch (pulvinar) for the goddess and the image of a snake. The Vestals brought Bona Dea's cult image from her temple and laid it upon her couch, as an honoured guest. The goddess' meal was prepared: the entrails (exta) of a sow, sacrificed to her on behalf of the Roman people (pro populo Romano), and a libation of sacrificial wine. The festival continued through the night, a women-only banquet with female musicians, fun and games (ludere), and wine; the last was euphemistically referred to as "milk", and its container as a "honey jar". The rites sanctified the temporary removal of customary constraints imposed on Roman women of all classes by Roman tradition, and underlined the pure and lawful sexual potency of virgins and matrons in a context that excluded any reference to male persons or creatures, male lust or seduction,. According to Cicero, any man who caught even a glimpse of the rites could be punished by blinding. Later Roman writers assume that apart from their different dates and locations, Bona Dea's December and May 1 festivals were essentially the same. ... "
- The Female phallus - the snake - - that had to be what was celebrated here - the female pan - the sexual domme of the roman world ... .
That's probably what I saw in a dream as the "rutting fanged serpent women of the night." Bona Dea was a goddess of chastity and fertility - but that was probably male chastity or "the dog -leash"- the behavior of Roma matrons told the real story - chaste husbands and aggressively sexual and promiscuous roman matrons.
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 42
2 Hermaphroditus from Thebes, Boetia, Greece. Roman imperial period
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 43
Labeled Statue of Pan and Olympus (Daphnis) - but that's not a male on the right!
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 44
Labelled : Pan Teaching Daphnis to play the pipes by sculptor Heliodorus of Rhodes from the 2nd Century BC . Uffuzi gallery. Florence , Italy
Again - that does not look like a male on the right
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 45
Labeled: Pan Teaching Daphnis to play the flute. Roman copy of Hellenistic Original. Palazzo Altemps, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
The flat chest just means this was probably a ritual of early puberty in ancient Rome.
There's a more mature fresco of this scene above Hermaphrodite 19
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 46
Labelled: Pan Teaching Daphnis to play the pipes. Uffuzi gallery. Florence , Italy
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 47
Ceramic figurine of Hermaphroditus. Yortanli Dam salvage
excavation, near Pergamon. Bergama Archaeological Museum, Turkey.
- -Trojan Hermaphrodite 48
Hermaphroditus. 3nd century B.C., Pergamon. Istanbul Archaeological Museum , Turkey
- Labeled Greek, but this is probably the essence of ancient Troy
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 49
Sculpture found in Pompeii : Pan teaches Daphnis to touch the Zampoña c. 100 AD
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 50
Sculpture found in Pompeii : Pan teaches Daphnis to touch the Zampoña c. 100 AD
The correct answer is probably Faunus and Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 51
Marble herm of Hermaphroditus-Priapus
Roman, late 2nd - early 1st century BC., Theatre Quarter, Delos. Delos Archaeological Museum, Greece.
Probably Faunus after "mounting" a female worshiper of Bona Dea - Faunus was probably the roman Legba.
After being mounted by Faunus, amorous roman matrons probably mounted belted and bound roman men. That's the clear implication and was also the self evident behavior of upper class Roman wives ... The "Hector horse" and more
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 52
- Labeled Priapus - Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican. Roman empire period
Female body with erect penis covered in fruit basket and a male head
Probably Faunus after "mounting" a female worshipper of Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 53
Priapus - Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, Turkey
Female body with erect penis covered in fruit basket
Probably Faunus after "mounting" a female worshipper of Bona Dea
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 54
Table support in the form of Hermaphroditus. 1st century BC - 1st century AD. Parian marble. Barracco Museum, Rome.
Female body with erect penis
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 55
Cameo. Sleeping Hermaphroditus Surrounded by Cupids. Egypt 1st century B.C. Medium two-layered onyx, gold (in a mount of a later date). Hermitage Museum, Russia
This is from Cleopatra's days! She almost certainly had a large male harem ...
Quick research here comes up empty though - besides terms like "prostitute queen" from Roman authors. We can't really rely on the testimony of infibulated roman men to describe a world they were not familiar with.
This Cameo probably provides the basis for further inquiry into Cleopatra's sexuality. She was probably sexually insatiable like Empress Messalina or Julia the Elder - the daughter of Augustus - only without constraints ...
We know she had a child with Julius Caesar and also"mounted" Marc Anthony - so Cleopatra was certainly aware of the rituals of unleashing a caged Roman penis ... ie she paid for it - an probably a great deal of money!
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 56
Cameo - Hermaphroditus, 1st century BC, Sardonyx , Ancient Rome, Getty Museum
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 57
Fresco - House of Holconius Rufus, Pompeii - Hermaphroditus among Dionysus' retinue including a maenad, satyr, eros and Silenus.
The caption is wrong though - the Hermaphroditus is Dionysus ...
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 58
- Etruscan Hermaphroditus
The "venus with a penis" pre-dates the roman republic!
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 59
'Pan copulating with goat' – Naples Museum
Probably Faunus not pan - and the goat is probably the caged roman husband! Amorous Roman housewives were the avatar of Faunus - the all female Bona Dea cult...
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 60
Farnese Sarcophagus with Bacchanal. National Archaeological Museum - Naples, Italy.
Looks like a sexy dream after a night of heavy drinking. Roman matron's are being sexually mounted by Faunus and a Faunus statue and have grown a set of goat-legs.
This is probably where the penis in the all those hermaphrodites comes form - the all night , and all female Bona Dea festival.
The guy in the middle is probably Faunus himself and his attendants:
" ... Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities, known as the di indigetes. According to the epic poet Virgil, he was a legendary king of the Latins. His shade was consulted as a goddess of prophecy under the name of Fatuus ... " Wikipedia
Thats what they call being "mounted" in voodoo
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 61
Farnese Sarcophagus with Bacchanal. National Archaeological Museum - Naples, Italy.
That's a dream scene of metamorphosis into a hermaphrodite after a drunken religious festival.
In Rome and probably Greece and Egypt too this celebration of hyper-sexuality was an all female affair.
This is also probably where Roman matrons did the serious business of selecting Roman men to mount - that's the other part of this festival - the selection of the "Hector Horses."
Faunus taught Rome the secret of hyper-sexuality - the caged penis
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 62
Figurine of Hermaphroditus + Hermaphroditus herm
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 63
Marble Hermaphroditus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 64
Marble Hermaphroditus - roman cornucopia matron lifting her skirt to reveal an erect penis
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 65
Bona Dea (The Good Goddess) holding a cornucopia - ancient Rome.
There is almost certainly a large penis hidden under those skirts! A Horse Cock ...
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 66
Bona Dea (The Good Goddess) holding a cornucopia + a ship's rudder - ancient Rome.
Labeled: Marble Statue of Tyche Fortuna, Metropolitan Museum of Art
My guess from that hair style, is that is a specific Roman empress as Bona Dea - thats where real power in Rome lived - the emperor's "dog-leash holder"
That's the explicit meaning of the ship's rudder - the empress was the captain of the roman ship!
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 67
Bona Dea (The Good Goddess) holding a cornucopia - ancient Rome.
Labeled: Marble Statue of Tyche Fortuna
" ... TYKHE (Tyche) was the goddess of good fortune.
She was usually worshipped as the guardian spirit of a city's good fortune and her cult was fairly widespread. In this guise she was depicted with a turret-crown representing the city's walls and a horn of plenty brimming with the fruits of the earth.
... In most representations she is barely distinguished from the goddess Demeter--the crown, cornucopia and child Ploutos were attributes shared by both goddesses. In many cases, Tykhe was probably viewed as simply an aspect of that goddess.
... Tykhe has her three standard attributes of turret-crown, cornucopia and ship's rudder. ... "theoi
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Marble Hermaphroditus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 69
Penis temple Pompeii - almost certainly a female phallus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 70
Hermaphrodite (marble) from Roman, early Imperial period (about 20 B.C. — A.D. 40) Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 71
Faunus with grapes - and a caged penis
Labelled : Pan or "Della Valle Satyr"
"Satyr "Della Valle” one of a pair depicting Pan were found near the Theater of Pompey and are thought to be part of its original decoration sculpted from a Hellenistic period original 1st century BC" Mary Harrsch
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 72
Faunus with grapes - and a caged penis
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 73
Female Dionysus and procession
Labeled: Drunken Dionysos between Satyr and Maenads (late 2nd C AD). Ancient Roman relief in the Museo Archeologico of Naples
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 74
Roman matron lifting dress to reveal an erect penis
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 75
Labeled: Roman Sculpture of a Nymph pushing a Satyr away, 1st century AD, Herculaneum, Secret Museum or Secret Cabinet, Naples National Archaeological Museum
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 76
Labeled: Satyr and a Maenad dancing. Ancient Roman Fresco, c.62-79, Casa Dei Dioscuri, Pompeii
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 77
Pompeii: A Satyr with a winesack
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 78
Reclining hermaphrodite: Roman 2nd century AD
Described as male - but probably a female with a penis
" ... Depicted as an effeminate youth reclining on his back upon a mantle, leaning to the left with the right shoulder elevated, supporting his raised head on his left hand, the right arm resting on his right thigh, the legs slightly drawn up with the knees bent, the twist of his torso prominently displaying his dual sexuality, the male genitalia of an adolescent youth, the small breasts of a young woman, his wavy hair center parted and tied in a fillet, the ties and long tendrils falling onto his shoulders, the mantle visible beneath his left arm, over his right leg and under his left, the figure restored in the 18th century, perhaps by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-1799), with the addition of limbs and an ancient head, not original to the torso, with some of the 18th-century restorations abandoned in the late 20th century, the current rocky plinth fashioned during this second restoration
43 5/16 in. (110 cm.) long
Provenance: William Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne, Marquis of Lansdowne (1737-1805), bought from Gavin Hamilton for #40, sent from Rome on May 6, 1775 on board the Tartar (according to a letter dated May 30, 1775).
The Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles, The Property of the Most Honourable The Marquess of Lansdowne; Christie's, London, 5 March 1930 ... " Christies
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 79
" ... Annia Galeria Faustina Minor..., Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger (born probably 21 September c. 130 CE, — 175/176 CE) was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She was held in high esteem by soldiers and her own husband and was given divine honours after her death. ... "Wikipedia
" ... Marcus Aurelius married Faustina the Younger in AD 145, due to the wishes of Antoninus Pius.
Faustina was reported to have been overcome with passion for a certain gladiator, and that her son Commodus was the product of this union and not her marriage with the emperor. At any rate, the empress was well-known for her passions, particularly for low-life sailors and gladiators. Marcus Aurelius never divorced her, however, out of respect for the wishes of his father. He considered that the empire was the dowry for which he married Faustina, and even promoted several of her known lovers. ... " finds.org
Faustina was given the title of Augusta on 1 December 147 after the birth of her first child, Domitia Faustina.
The facts are confused. Marcus Aurelius was never really emperor - he was always sharing power with other men. The truth seems to have been power was centered in the office of Augusta and moved from Faustina's mother to Faustina them to Faustina's daughter Lucilla
" ... Augusta was a Roman imperial honorific title given to empresses and honoured women of the imperial families. It was the feminine form of Augustus. In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater Castrorum ("Mother of the Camp") and Mater Patriae ("Mother of the Fatherland").
The title implied the greatest prestige. Augustae could issue their own coinage, wear imperial regalia, and rule their own courts.
In the third century, Julia Domna was the first empress to receive the title combination "Pia Felix Augusta" after the death of her husband Septimius Severus, which may have implied greater powers being vested in her than what was usual for a Roman empress mother. ... " Wikipedia
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Labeled Priapus
But that might be a mistake - the dress and body is female - but a fecund male spirit seems to have inhabited it. To me this is Faunus possessing one of his female followers and not Priapus
- - Roman Hermaphrodite 81
Same here - female form but large male erection and the face of Faunus - That's the roman Legba ... Or the roman Futa - and the all-important Futa semen ... - roman men were stingy with their semen - Roman matrons were forced to mount lower class men as men of their own class seem to have preferred the dog-leash ...
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Roman matron and Faunus herm
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Roman matron lifting her skirt to reveal an erect penis
Terracotta anasyromenos figurine, from a Nymphs sanctuary in Locri, National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria; late 4th century BC.
The roman female phallus goes back to Etruscan days - the Roman way was for the father to raise children while young wives mounted as many men as they could - Roman and Greek too it seems - this was the situation in the days of Socrates! It was not wife sharing - it was full-on polyandry! The female bulls ...
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Labeled: Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the Younger in Capitoline Museum
The label is misleading - Faustina is the emperor - Augusta and Marcus Aurelius is a dog leashed sex object ... Just one of many mounts of the empress
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Bona Dea (The Good Goddess) holding a cornucopia
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Labeled: Detail of Roman statue Pan and Daphnis
But that's probably - a roman matron and Faunus
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- - Roman Hermaphrodite 89
" ...Julia Domna (c. 160 – 217 AD) was Roman empress consort from 193 to 211.
As empress, Domna was famous for her political, social, and philosophical influence. She received titles such as "Mother of the Invincible Camps". After the elder of her sons, Caracalla, started ruling with his father, she was briefly co-empress with Caracalla's wife, Fulvia Plautilla, until the latter fell into disgrace. Following the death of Severus in 211, Domna became the first empress dowager to receive the title combination "Pia Felix Augusta", which may have implied greater powers being vested in her than what was usual for a Roman empress mother. Her sons succeeded to the throne. ...
After the death of Domna, her older sister Julia Maesa successfully contended for political power. The Severan dynasty was restored to power with the accession of Maesa's grandson, Elagabalus, in 218. The dynasty maintained power until 235 when the reign of Severus Alexander, the cousin and successor of Elagabalus, ended. This marked the start of the Crisis of the Third Century. ...
Unlike most imperial wives, Domna remarkably accompanied her husband on his military campaigns and stayed in camp with the army. As worded by Barbara Levick, Domna "was to exceed all other empresses in the number and variety of her official titles."Honorary titles were granted to Domna similar to those given to Faustina the Younger, including "Mother of the Invincible Camps",and Mater Augustus (Mother of Augustus). She was respected and viewed positively for most of her tenure, as indicators and evidence include the coins minted with her portrait, mentioning her with the titles and also simply as "Julia Augusta". The title Pia Felix Augusta which she received after Severus' death was "perhaps a way of implying that Domna had absorbed and was continuing her husband's attributes" after his death.
Several medallions for Domna were issued by Severus as early as 207, on the reverses of which is "Vesta Mater" (Mother Vesta), which, according to Molly M. Lindner, "could refer to an invocation to Vesta during prayers and supplications that the Vestal Virgins made whenever they prayed publicly". According to Lindner,
While some scholars have proposed that Julia Domna's medallions commemorate the restoration of the Temple of Vesta by the empress, Melanie Grunow Sobocinski pointed out that [the temple] burned down in 191, whereas Julia Domna's use of Vestal iconography does not occur until 207. Either the reconstruction of [the temple] took more than fifteen years, or Julia Domna had a different motivation, perhaps one connected to her role as the mother of Septimius Severus' heirs, as the legend on the reverses suggests. ... " Wikipedia
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" ...Julia Maesa (7 May before 160 AD – c. 224 AD) was a member of the Severan dynasty of the Roman Empire who was the major power behind the throne in the reigns of her grandsons, Elagabalus and Severus Alexander, as Augusta of the Empire from 218 to her death.Born in Emesa, Syria (modern day Homs), Maesa was the daughter of the high priest of Emesa's Temple of the Sun, and the elder sister of Roman empress Julia Domna.
The Severan dynasty was dominated by powerful women, one of which was Maesa. Politically able and ruthless, she contended for political power after her sister's suicide.She is best known for her plotting and scheming which resulted in the restoration of the Severan dynasty to the Roman throne after the assassination of Caracalla and the usurpation of the throne by Macrinus. Afterwards she held power until she died in Rome. She was later deified in Syria along with her sister. The Severan dynasty ended in 235. ... " Wikipedia
These 2 Roman empresses show that female power was still dominant as late a 235 AD in the Roman empire. I was surprised to read that women were so equal they even shared public baths naked with men in the late empire:
" ... Wealthy women traveled around the city in a litter carried by slaves. Women gathered in the streets on a daily basis to meet with friends, attend religious rites at temples, or to visit the baths. The wealthiest families had private baths at home, but most people went to bath houses not only to wash but to socialize, as the larger facilities offered a range of services and recreational activities, among which casual sex was not excluded. One of the most vexed questions of Roman social life is whether the sexes bathed together in public. Until the late Republic, evidence suggests that women usually bathed in a separate wing or facility, or that women and men were scheduled at different times. But there is also clear evidence of mixed bathing from the late Republic until the rise of Christian dominance in the later Empire. Some scholars have thought that only lower-class women bathed with men, or those of dubious moral standing such as entertainers or prostitutes, but Clement of Alexandria observed that women of the highest social classes could be seen naked at the baths. Hadrian prohibited mixed bathing, but the ban seems not to have endured. Most likely, customs varied not only by time and place, but by facility, so that women could choose to segregate themselves by gender or not ... "Wikipedia
From study of roman brothels and infibulation of the male penis we are left with the incredible conclusion that prostitution was a service offered to roman women not given by roman women - so I do not find it surprising that Clement of Alexandria could report naked female public bathing in Rome.
Also , all these naked statues of women with a penis tell a story - women were quite comfortable nude and in public in the late roman empire.
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Hellenistic Bronze Figure of Hermaphrodite c. 2nd/1st Century B.C. (Sotheby's)
- fully erect penis
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Aphroditus - MARQ Archaeological Museum of Alicante
Roman Imperial Bronze, 1st-3rd century AD
Roman matron lifting her dress to reveal an erect penis
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- erect penis
According to the Met: "This figure is one of a group of seven mother goddesses that sprang from an associated Hindu male god. Despite their alluring beauty, these matrikas represent dangerous and malevolent forces—the devourers of children and bearers of sickness and disease. Although they were integral to early temple iconographic schema, as seen at sixth-century Aihole, their power was so threatening that they were soon marginalized, consigned to dedicated shrines beyond city boundaries. The combined power of the matrikas is understood to be embodied in the mother goddess par excellence, Durga"
I disagree with this analysis! The female with a penis is an anima figure - Fanged? Yes. Serpentine? Yes. Hyper-sexual? Yes - But that's it - the rest is up to the ego
" ... Matrikas also called Matar or Matri, are a group of mother goddesses who are always depicted together in Hinduism. Matrikas are the different forms Adi Parashakti. Matrikas are the personified powers of different Devas. Brahmani emerged from Brahma, Vaishnavi from Vishnu, Maheshvari from Shiva, Indrani from Indra, Kaumari from Skanda, Varahi from Varaha and Chamunda from Devi, and additionals are Narasimhi, Vinayaki.
The Matrikas are usually depicted in a group of seven called Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers).However, they may be eight Matrikas called Ashtamatrika(s). In South India, Saptamatrika worship is prevalent whereas the Ashtamatrika are venerated in Nepal.
The Matrikas assume paramount significance in the goddess-oriented sect of Hinduism, Tantrism. In Shaktism, they are described as "assisting the great Shakta Devi (goddess) in her fight with demons." Some scholars consider them Shaiva goddesses.They are also connected with the worship of warrior god Skanda. In most early references, the Matrikas are described as having inauspicious qualities and often described as dangerous.The Matrikas are fearsome goddesses, abductors and eaters of children; that is, they were emblematic of childhood pestilence, fever, starvation, and disease. They were propitiated in order to avoid those ills, that carried off so many children before they reached adulthood.They come to play a protective role in later mythology, although some of their inauspicious and wild characteristics still persist in these accounts. Thus, they represent the prodigiously fecund aspect of nature as well as its destructive force aspect.
In the Brihat-Samhita, Varahamihira says that "Mothers are to be made with cognizance of (different major Hindu) gods corresponding to their names."They are associated with these gods as their spouses or their energies (Shaktis).Originally believed to be a personification of the seven stars of the star cluster the Pleiades, they became quite popular by the seventh century and a standard feature of goddess temples from the ninth century onwards. ... " Wikipedia
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dancing female with a caged penis
Hermaphrodite Diana sculpture, Bronze, 1st century AD, Roman
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Egyptian amulet of a masturbating hermaphroditic god. c. Ptolemaic Period (332 -30 BC)
- we do not see this scene, although through Freud and others we have heard about it . ... Isis and other Egyptian goddesses have a penis!
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" ... Vibia Sabina (83–136/137 AD) was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin once removed to Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter of Matidia (niece of Roman Emperor Trajan) and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus.
After her father's death in 84, Sabina, along with her half-sister Matidia Minor, went to live with their mother's mother, Marciana. They were raised in the household of Trajan and his wife Plotina.
Sabina married Hadrian in 100, at the empress Plotina's request. Hadrian succeeded her great uncle in 117. Sabina's mother Matidia (Hadrian's second cousin) was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter.
Sabina accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus’ wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most traveled and visible empress to date. In 128, she was awarded the title of Augusta. ... " Wikipedia
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" ... Pompeia Plotina Claudia Phoebe Piso, or simply Pompeia Plotina (died 121/122 AD) was a Roman Empress and wife of Roman Emperor Trajan. She was renowned for her interest in philosophy, and her virtue, dignity and simplicity. She was particularly devoted to the Epicurean philosophical school in Athens, Greece. She is often viewed as having provided Romans with fairer taxation, improved education, assisted the poor, and created tolerance in Roman society.
Plotina was born and was raised in Tejada la Vieja (Escacena del Campo) in the province of Hispania, possibly during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero (r. 54–68). However, she could have been born in the 70s CE. She was the daughter of Lucius Pompeius and Plotia, who had extensive political and familial connections. Trajan married her before his accession and, although a happy marriage, they had no known children.
Upon entering the imperial palace following Trajan's ascension, Plotina is said to have turned to those watching her and carefully announced, "I enter here the kind of woman I would like to be when I depart." It was through acts like this she sought to dispel the bad taste of domestic strife that had characterized the reign of Domitian as well as the Julio-Claudian dynasty, where she acted like a traditional Roman matron, and was associated with chaste goddesses like Vesta, the guardian of Rome's sacred fire, and Minerva, goddess of war and wisdom.In 100, Trajan awarded her with title of Augusta, but she did not accept the title until 105. Plotina did not appear also on the coinage until 112. ...
When a letter Trajan was said to have composed on his deathbed appeared in Rome with Plotina's signature on it, in which he adopted Hadrian and naming him successor to the Empire, suspicions were raised. It was rumoured that Attianus and the Empress Plotina had been lovers, both were very fond of Hadrian their ward, both were present at Trajan’s deathbed at Selinus in Cilicia in August 117, and that the two had helped secure Hadrian's succession by forging Trajan’s will.
Annelise Freisenbruch dismisses this accusation: "Plotina, the silent spouse of the second century, thus joined Livia, Agrippina Minor, and Domitia in the gallery of Roman imperial women accused of covering up or conspiring in their husband's deaths." Freisenbruch notes that there are many plausible explanations why Plotina's signature might legitimately be on this declaration: Trajan may have simply been too weak to sign the letter himself. Freisenbruch also notes these kinds of accusations have dogged the spouses of rulers through the centuries. ...
It was while a widow that Plotina's best documented action took place. During the year 121, while the emperor Hadrian was inspecting the provinces, Plotina and he engaged in a series of letters discussing who should be the new head of the Epicurean school of philosophy in Athens. She petitioned for a change in the law, which would allow Popillius Theotimus, the acting head of the school, to become the actual head; in response, Hadrian agreed with her argument, and the relevant letters were preserved in a series of inscriptions. Freisenbruch notes, "In stark contrast to her passive anonymity in the literary record, this inscription from Athens recasts Plotina as a highly educated woman, active on behalf of causes close to her heart and with the kind of access to the emperor once enjoyed by Livia."
When Plotina died of illness, she was deified. Hadrian built a temple in her honor at Nîmes, in Provence. ... " Wikipedia
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Statues of Claudius and Agrippina, Aphrodisias Museum - That's the classic Roman "bound and belted" marriage. A naked Emperor Claudius is being "dog-leashed " by his niece Agrippa the new Augusta.
" ... Agrippina the Younger (Latin: Julia Agrippina; 6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina Minor ... was a Roman empress and one of the more prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Her father was Germanicus, a popular general and one-time heir apparent to the Roman Empire under Tiberius; and her mother was Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of the first Roman emperor Augustus. She was also the younger sister of Caligula, as well as the niece and fourth wife of Claudius.
Both ancient and modern sources describe Agrippina's personality as ruthless, ambitious, violent, and domineering. ... She briefly served as the de facto ruler of Rome during the reign of her son, emperor Nero. In AD 59 Agrippina was executed on the orders of Nero.
... On the day that Agrippina married her uncle Claudius as her third husband/his fourth wife, she became an Empress and the most powerful woman in the Roman Empire. ...
... In 50, Agrippina was granted the honorific title of Augusta. She was only the third Roman woman (Livia Drusilla and Antonia Minor received this title) and only the second living Roman woman (the first being Antonia) to receive this title. ...
Ancient sources claim that Agrippina successfully influenced Claudius into adopting her son and making him his successor. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was adopted by his great maternal uncle and stepfather in 50. Lucius' name was changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus and he became Claudius's adopted son, heir and recognised successor. Agrippina and Claudius betrothed Nero to Octavia, and Agrippina arranged to have Seneca the Younger return from exile to tutor the future emperor. Claudius chose to adopt Nero because of his Julian and Claudian lineage. ...
Nero and Octavia were married on June 9, 53. Claudius later repented of marrying Agrippina and adopting Nero, began to favor Britannicus, and started preparing him for the throne. His actions allegedly gave Agrippina a motive to eliminate Claudius. The ancient sources say she poisoned Claudius on October 13, 54 (a Sunday) with a plate of deadly mushrooms at a banquet, thus enabling Nero to quickly take the throne as emperor. Accounts vary wildly with regard to this private incident and according to more modern sources, it is possible that Claudius died of natural causes; Claudius was 63 years old. ... " Wikipedia
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Relief sculpture of Nero being crowned emperor by Agrippina, Aphrodisias Museum, Aphrodisias, Turkey.
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" ... Valeria Messalina; c. 17/20–48 AD, sometimes spelled Messallina, was the third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she allegedly conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot.
... Little is known about Messalina's life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, who was then about 47 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union: a daughter Claudia Octavia (born 39 or 40), a future empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero; and a son, Britannicus. When the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor and Messalina became empress.
... After her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable, while Claudius is painted as easily led by her and unconscious of her many adulteries.
... In 48 AD, Claudius went to Ostia to visit the new harbor he was constructing and was informed while there that Messalina had gone so far as to marry her latest lover, Senator Gaius Silius in Rome. It was only when Messalina held a costly wedding banquet in Claudius' absence that the freedman Narcissus decided to inform him.The exact motivations for Messalina's actions are unknown—it has been interpreted as a move to overthrow Claudius and install Silius as Emperor, with Silius adopting Britannicus and thereby ensuring her son's future accession. Other historians have speculated that Silius convinced Messalina that Claudius' overthrow was inevitable, and her best hopes of survival lay in a union with him.Tacitus stated that Messalina hesitated even as Silius insisted on marriage, but ultimately conceded because "she coveted the name of wife", and because Silius had divorced his own wife the previous year in anticipation of a union with Messalina.Another theory is that Messalina and Silius merely took part in a sham marriage as part of a Bacchic ritual as they were in the midst of celebrating the Vinalia, a festival of the grape harvest.
Tacitus and Dio state that Narcissus convinced Claudius that it was a move to overthrow him and persuaded him to appoint the deputy Praetorian Prefect, Lusius Geta, to the charge of the Guard because the loyalty of the senior Prefect Rufrius Crispinus was in doubt. Claudius rushed back to Rome, where he was met by Messalina on the road with their children. The leading Vestal Virgin, Vibidia, came to entreat Claudius not to rush to condemn Messalina. He then visited the house of Silius, where he found a great many heirlooms of his Claudii and Drusii forebears, taken from his house and gifted to Silius by Messalina. When Messalina attempted to gain access to her husband in the palace, she was repulsed by Narcissus and shouted down with a list of her various offences compiled by the freedman. Despite the mounting evidence against her, Claudius's feelings were softening and he asked to see her in the morning for a private interview.Narcissus, pretending to act on Claudius' instructions, ordered an officer of the Praetorian Guard to execute her. When the troop of guards arrived at the Gardens of Lucullus, where Messalina had taken refuge with her mother, she was given the honorable option of taking her own life. Unable to muster the courage to slit her own throat, she was run through with a sword by one of the guards. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor did not react and simply asked for another chalice of wine. The Roman Senate then ordered a damnatio memoriae so that Messalina's name would be removed from all public and private places and all statues of her would be taken down. ... " Wikipedia
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The Empress Livia Drusilla (58 BC-29AD) as Ops, with wheat sheaf and cornucopia, 1st century. Wife of Augustus and first Augusta. Collection of Musée du Louvre, Paris.
" ... In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis (Latin: "Plenty") was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin.
...The Latin word ops means "riches, goods, abundance, gifts, munificence, plenty".The word is also related to opus, which means "work", particularly in the sense of "working the earth, ploughing, sowing". This activity was deemed sacred, and was often attended by religious rites intended to obtain the good will of chthonic deities such as Ops and Consus.
According to Roman tradition, the cult of Opis was instituted by Titus Tatius, one of the Sabine kings of Rome. Opis soon became the matron of riches, abundance, and prosperity. Opis had a famous temple in the Capitolium. Originally, a festival took place in Opis' honor on August 10. Additionally, on December 19 (some say December 9), the Opalia was celebrated. On August 25, the Opiconsivia was held. Opiconsivia was another name used for Opis, indicating when the earth was sown. These festivals also included activities that were called Consualia, in honor of Consus, her consort.
Opis, when syncretized with Greek mythology, was not only the wife of Saturn, she was his sister and the daughter of Caelus. Her children were Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres, and Vesta. Opis also acquired queenly status and was reputed to be an eminent goddess. By public decree temples, priests, and sacrifices were accorded her.
When Saturn learned of a prophecy that stated his and Opis' children would end up overthrowing him as leader, he ate his children one by one after they were born. Opis, being the loving mother that she was, could not just stand by and let all of her children be eaten by her husband. So, instead of feeding Saturn their final child Jupiter, she wrapped a rock in swaddling clothes, and fed that to Saturn instead of Jupiter. Opis then went on to raise Jupiter, and then helped him free his siblings from their father's stomach. ... " Wikipedia
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Bust of the Empress Livia Drusilla (58 BC-29AD) . Wife of Augustus and 1st Augusta. Getty Villa..
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Marble Statues of the Empress Livia Drusilla (left), and her son Tiberius (right), 14-19 AD, from Paestum, Italy. National Archaeological Museum of Spain.
That's probably Livia as Bona Dea - the "good goddess" - The women-only roman cult where women aquired a penis from a fecund pan-like Faunus.
This was the pattern of roman rule - the public, chaste "bound and belted" or infibulated emperor and the hidden phallic and promiscuous Augusta - the"mother of the invincible camp"
" ... The Annals of Tacitus is a history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty beginning with the death of Augustus. In it, he portrays women as having a profound influence on politics. The women of the imperial family in particular are depicted by Tacitus as having a notable prominence in the public sphere as well as possessing a ferocity and ambition with which they pursue it. Tacitus presents them as living longer than the imperial men and thus being more wise as they advance in age. Among the most broad of his portrayals is that of Agrippina. He emphasizes their role in connecting genetically back to Augustus, a significant factor in the marriages of the emperors and princes of the dynasty. The Annals repeatedly has Agrippina competing for influence with Tacitus simply because she is related to Augustus biologically.
Tacitus presents Agrippina as being kindred to aristocratic males, and has her reversing gender roles, which showcases her assumption of male auctoritas ("authority") with metaphors of her dressing and undressing. In an example of Agrippina assuming auctoritas, he says:
But throughout those days, a femina, mighty of spirit, donned the apparel of a dux, and she distributed clothing or bandages to the soldiers, whoever might be needy or suffering. Gaius Plinius, the chronicler of the German wars, relates that she stood at the head of the bridge, offering congratulatory praises to the legions as they returned.
—Tacitus, 1.69.1 —L'Hoir 2006, pp. 136–7
Using the above epithet, "(femina) ingens animi" ("..[a woman], great for her courage"), he assigns a haughty attitude to Agrippina that compels her to explore the affairs of men. He records her as having reversed the natural order of things when she quelled the mutiny of the Rhine in AD 14. In so doing, he describes her as having usurped her husband's power, a power rightfully belonging only to a general. ... "Wikipedia
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Akhenaten - Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Looks like a female pharaoh Akhenaten! That statue leaves no room for doubt that Akhenaten was a woman
That's an example of the female phallus - there must have been caging of the penis in the 18th dynasty ...
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Again - there is no doubt that Akhenaten is a woman!
Not the first female pharaoh though - there was Cleopatra and Hatshepsut. The woman with a penis is an ancient event in Africa ...
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Akhenaten and female worshipers of the sun
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Female dionysus - in ceremonial robes. . The caption says that's a male, but those are female robes.
Sarcophagus with Bacchanalian scenes, - The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia - Circa 210 AD
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Cameo - Reclining hermaphrodite
Glass paste cameo - Farnese Gems
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Bronze dancing hermaphrodite figurine
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Bronze hermaphrodite figurine
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Mosaic of dancing Hermaphroditus, North Africa, Roman period, 2nd to 3rd century AD
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Hermaphroditus and Silenus. Roman fresco from Pompeii.
Silenus has a deep tan - that's the "dog-leash" effect.
These are probably the "ionic" dances that caused new roman wives to chase after younger men.
The penis is symbolic - it probably means that the spirit of Dionysus incarnates though women - or "mounts" women as they say in voodoo
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Relief of a dancing Hermaphroditus
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Marble Hermaphroditus
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Labeled: "Pan surprising Hermaphroditus" Fresco c. 67 AD, Pompeii
That's probably a seated female Dionysus with an erection and Silenius
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Julia Domna (c. 160 – 217 AD), Roman empress (Augusta) and her family: Septimius Severus and two sons.
Septimius Severus was from Carthage but that is probably not the cause of his dark skin. That was probably caused by longterm use of the "dog-leash". His sons are still the skin tone of their mother - they have not yet been leashed.
Julia Domna was the leash holder. - The Roman ruling classes were female led families with control over the children given to the father, and control over the father or more specifically his dog-leash , given to the mother. This is a counter-intuitive truth, but is borne out by the facts upon closer examination
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Messalina by Jack Oleck (1963) - cover by James Meese.
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Relief of Caracalla with Domna as Victoria, National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
Caracalla being crowned by his mother Julia Domna (Augusta)
According to Wikipedia: " ... Julia Domna was born in Emesa (modern day Homs) in Syria around 160 AD to an Arab family that was part of the Emesan dynasty. Her name, Domna, is an archaic Arabic word meaning "black."She was the youngest daughter of the high priest of Baal, Julius Bassianus, and sister to Julia Maesa. Through Maesa and her husband Julius Avitus, Domna had two nieces: Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea, the respective mothers of future Roman emperors Elagabalus (r. 218–222) and Severus Alexander (r. 222–235).
Domna's ancestors were priest kings of the famous temple of Elagabalus. The family had enormous wealth and was promoted to Roman senatorial aristocracy. Before her marriage, Domna inherited the estate of her paternal great-uncle Julius Agrippa, a former leading centurion ... "
Not sure about the Arab part knowing the way colonial power works. They were probably Romans living in Arabia.
On the other hand - the epithet Domna as "black" probably means that she was neither ethnically roman nor Greek. Julia Domna is probably the archetype of "she"- the pre-Islamic Arab queen with a penis
Not mentioned is her mother - which is probably where her authority emanated from ...
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Roman matron lifting her dress to reveal a penis
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Erect penis
Roman bronze figure of Hermaphroditos c early 1st Century A.D.
" ... The nude ithyphallic figure depicted standing, the body turned to peer back over the proper right shoulder to gaze down at a double-mirror held in the lowered proper right hand, angled to catch a reflection of the buttocks, the proper left hand raised to touch the fillet binding the hair, the ribbons of which trail below, the figure atop a ribbed socle, ancient but slightly later in date, ...
Reputedly discovered in Spain in the 1950s.
Private collection, Spain. ... " Bonhams
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Roman bronze figure of Hermaphroditos
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Dancing Hermaphrodite
- Roman statue, 1st century-2nd century. Bronze. From Roman village of El Ruedo, Almedinilla (province of Cordoba), Andalusia, Spain.
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Coin of Septimus Severus with Hermaphroditus as female Dionysus and Faunus on back side
" ... Septimius Severus. 193-211 AD. Hadrianopolis, Thrace; Æ 28. Obv: His laureate and draped bust, r. Rev: To right, Pan, with goat legs, holding lagobolon and facing HERMAPHRODITOS ... on the left ... " akropoliscoins
The Severan dynasty seems to have been the last days of the hermaphrodite cult - a cult that probably stretched back to ancient Egypt. Later roman dynasties show a growing tendency towards Christian Augusta's
Hermaphroditus and Augusta - the "Mother of the Invincible Camps" - or a woman with a penis are probably the same thing.
Once Christian civilization began, the "dog leash" or Kynodesme tradition probably fell out of fashion and with it the corresponding "woman with a penis" or hyper-sexual Roman matron went extinct
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Roman matron incarnating the spirit of Faunus lifting her dress to reveal an erect penis and a fruit basket
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Roman herm figurine with an erect penis
" ... Roman copper alloy statuette of herm of Priapus from Pakenham, Suffolk. Priapus promises the fertility of gardens and the safety of seafarers. Roman in origin, but rare outside of Italy. From the British Museum's collection. ... " Getty Images
Based on the previous examples from this period in roman history - that is probably not Priapus. It's probably a naked roman matron proudly displaying a full erection. - Once a Roman matron had "bound and belted" a husband, she was expected to take pride in her virility by bedding as many men as she pleased ...
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Bacchus and Ampelus - British museum
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" ... Ampelos (Greek: μπελος, lit. "Vine") or Ampelus (Latin) was a personification of the grapevine in Greek and Roman mythology. In Nonnus's etiology, Ampelos is a beautiful satyr youth, who was loved by Dionysus, and whose death was foreseen by the god. ... " Wikipedia
That's a goddess with a penis, not a god though - or maybe an amazon - with a penis
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Bacchus and Ampelus - Uffizi Museum, Florence, Italy
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Again, thats a woman with a penis - the hair and head is female , the body mostly male.
- The Dionysus on the "Triumph of Dionysus sarcophagus" at the Walters with his head scratched out is probably a female - from the arrangement of the hair - that's probably a female Dionysus
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Bacchus and Ampelus -
Or " ... Dionysos with His panther, and Oinosthe Wine-God, 150-200 BC, British Museum ... "
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Not ambiguous - thats a goddess or amazon with a penis
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Bacchus and Ampelus -
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Thats a goddess or amazon with a penis
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" ... Dionysus & satyr w/ panther"-ca.160-180 AD Roman marble copy after 4th c. BC Greek original w/ some 16th c. restoration -Museo Nazionale Romano in Palazzo Altemps" Michel Lara
Or: Bacchus and Ampelus -
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That's a goddess or amazon with a penis. She goes back to the 4th century BC. This was the female phallus that was ruling the world of Plato and Socrates.
- Literally so in in the case of Athena and the Acropolis - Athena was a masculine goddess and probably had a large female phallus. While always modestly dressed , Athena's cult images were always accompanied by a very large snake - that's the female phallus by another name ...
Athenian marriages were like Roman marriages - on the surface they seemed conservative - but on closer examination they were polyandrous with females moving from man to man as they felt like it, and men responsible for raising children (patria potestas)- all control flowing from the bound or dog-tied penis of the Athenian man.
Athena and her female proxies were the penis "key-holders". - Athenian female sexual promiscuity is only clear on a close reading of the sources - but there can be no doubt that the nude, bronzed, buff and and infibulated Athenian male was the sex object of the classical world.
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That's a female Dionysus on the left - or Ampelus ; a woman with a penis. That's s probably a sneak peak into the Greek holy dances - the bacchanals - which were evidently ruled by a female with a phallus ...
" ... LEFT: Table support. Found at Megara. Decorated with a group of the drunken Dionysus supported by a Satyr holding a lagobolon (stick to catch hares). From an Attic workshop. A.D. 250-260. ... National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Athens, Greece. RIGHT: Table support. Found at Gytheion, Laconia. Decorated by a group of a dancing Maenad and a Satyr. From an Attic workshop. A.D. 250-275. ... National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Athens, Greece. ... " Wikipedia
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Labeled: "Pan discovers Hermaphroditus, Fresco, c. 67 AD" Pompeii
That's probably Faunus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares) and Hermaphroditus or Ampelus
As usual the roman male is deeply tanned - or the "dog-leash" effect.
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Labeled: " Drawing of a cameo with Hermaphroditus reclining on a rock, 1768"
That's probably Faunus and a male attendant and Hermaphroditus.
Hermaphroditus, or Ampelus, or the woman with a penis was the ruler of the greco-roman world
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Renaissance cameo of Bacchus and Ampelus- Museo arheologico nazionale .Florence, Italy
That's probably a fair copy of an ancient cameo. Ampelus is clearly female with male genitals. That's the famous female Dionysus or Hermaphroditus.
Ampelus was a childhood companion of Bacchus who died and was transformed into a grapevine by Bacchus.
The propaganda is the Greeks "civilized" the amazons after waging war with them. To me it seems the opposite happened. The amazons were a more civilized race that "dog-leashed" Greek men - and later Roman men.
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Bacchus and Ampelus mosaic. Ampelus has a dress that has fallen low enough to reveal male genitals. Bacchus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares)
Drunken Dionysus mosaic, from Antioch (Antakya) 2nd-3rd century AD, Hatay Archaeology Museum, Antakya, Turkey
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Bronze Bacchus and Ampelus
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Bacchus and Ampelus. Bacchus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares)
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Gold shrine of Bacchus and Ampelus. Athens.
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Bacchus and Ampelus mosaic. Bacchus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares) Thessaloniki
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Labeled: Bacchus - Pompeii. Roman copy of a Greek original
Probably Ampelus - thats a dress being lowered to reveal a penis
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That's the scene on the Severan dynasty coin above. A female Dionysus and Faunus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares)
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Labeled: Central panel of the Dionysus Mosaic, showing a drunken Dionysus (Bacchus) needing support from a friend
Bacchus and Ampelus Mosaic 220-230 AD, Romisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne, Germany
Following Roman fresco conventions Bacchus is the tanned and infibulated male figure and Ampelus is the light skinned female figure . The fact that she has a penis does not make her male.
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Bacchus and Ampelus and Maenad Mosaic, Poseidon Villa, Ancient Zeugama, 3rd century AD . Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Gaziantep, Turkey.
Διονσιος at center above the tall figure means Dionysus. I do not know what the other words mean. But that's a genre scene of a young Bacchus and his companion Ampelus
Ampelus is lowering her dress to reveal a penis - Rome had an amazon overlord!
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Triumph of Dionysus, Mosaic from Baths of Roman Setifis (Algeria) c. 297 AD, Archaeological Museum of Setif, Algiers
Rare images of original African inhabitants of Roman Algeria - captives
That's probably the female Dionysus (Ampelus) in the chariot - That's a gown, not male clothing. Also she is not tanned - meaning no dog-leash ... Dionysus was still an infant during this scene.
Alternately, Dionysus could be one of the two deeply tanned youths by the chariot - probably the one with the leopard skin. Dog-leashing was not for everyone it seems - the old guy at the front is not tanned.
I noticed that with the Hawara portraits - Roman Egyptians did not have that deep tan. Dog-leashing was for a few privileged men, it seems ...
" ... Sitifis was officially Colonia Augusta Nerviana Martialis Veteranorum Sitifensium, and from the time of Diocletian, (293 A.D.), was the capital of Mauretania Sitifensis (now eastern Algeria). Today vestiges of the third century and fourth century include city walls, temple, circus, mausoleum and "Scipio" Byzantine fortress. Numerous archaeological artifacts are exhibited at the archaeological museum of the city. ...
Setifis (or Sitifis) was founded in 97 AD by the Romans, during the reign of Nerva, as a colony for Roman veterans. Although no buildings of this period are known, a cemetery excavated in the 1960s seems to have contained tombs from the early colony ...
As the town grew, around 297 AD, the province of Mauretania Sitifensis was established, with Sitifis as its capital. In the newly prosperous town a bath building was built, decorated with fine mosaics: its restoration in the fifth century had a cold room (frigidarium) paved with a large mosaic showing the birth of Venus ... " Wikipedia
Can't find any Augusta Nerviana during the reign of Emperor Nerva 96 to98 AD. However, it seems the colony was named for an empress. This was the pattern with Rome - the Augusta had more authority than the emperor. It's analogous to the relationship between Ampelus and Dionysus. Ampelus holds the dog-leash of Dionysus ...
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Epiphany of Dionysus mosaic, from the Villa of Dionysus in Dion, Greece, Archeological Museum of Dion, Late 2nd-early 3rd century AD
" ... In the center of the large mosaic, Dionysus is depicted in a chariot. Next to him stands a mature Silenus, who is more a helper of the god than a driver. The carriage is drawn by two panthers, two centaurs hold their reins. One of the two centaurs is a mature, bearded man carrying a vessel (krater) that probably contains wine. The other centaur carries on his shoulder a closed vessel in which presumably the sacred symbols of the Dionysus cult are located. ... " Wikipedia
That's not Dionysus - it's the Amazon Ampelus - hugging her is probably a mature Dionysus
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Dionysus. Bronze. 117—138 AD. Rome, Roman National Museum
Found in the Tiber river-bed during the excavations for the foundation of a pier for the Ponte Garibaldi (1885).
Thats not a man. It's a female with a penis and a Thyrus.
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Basanite statue of Agrippina the Younger depicted as a priestess. 54-59 AD. Discovered during excavations in 1885 in Rome.
" ... Agrippina the Younger AD 15 – AD 59 was a Roman empress and one of the more prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Both ancient and modern sources describe Agrippina's personality as ruthless, ambitious, violent and domineering. Physically she was a beautiful and reputable woman; according to Pliny the Elder, she had a double canine in her upper right jaw, a sign of good fortune. ... " Wikipedia
Double canine? The girls were firmly in control of the roman empire at the time of Christ. The roman guys probably preferred it that way!
I finally figured out who the seventh Vestal was - Augusta! Spiritual power was ruled by women in the office of the Vestals and physical power too - in the office of the Augusta ...
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Dionysus. Marble copy of a 300 BC original. National Museum of Rome.
Not Dionysus - probably his childhood companion Ampelus.
Ampelus was from Africa - Africa was probably also under female domination.
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Phallic Columns of the temple of Dionysus , Delos Island , Greek Cyclades islands.
" ... The platform of the Stoivadeion dedicated to Dionysus bears a statue of the god of wine and the life-force. On either side of the platform, a pillar supports a colossal phallus, the symbol of Dionysus. The southern pillar, which is decorated with relief scenes from the Dionysiac circle, was erected around 300 BC to celebrate a winning theatrical performance. The statue of Dionysus was originally flanked by those of two actors impersonating Paposilenoi (conserved in the Archaeological Museum of Delos). The marble theatre is a rebuilding of an older one, undertaken shortly after 300 BC. ... " Wikipedia
Based on what has been parading above - those are erect female phalli - not male ... there is an image of a bird with the head of a penis below each statue of an erect penis. From fragments recovered, these were erect winged phalli ....
The only thing that could create these conditions is the caged male penis. The "Greek miracle" was firmly rooted in curbing the male Libido.
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Phallic Bird Fertility Symbol - Dionysus Temple, Delos Island, Greece, 300 B.C.
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An Apollo Citharoedus from the Palazzo Altemps. The National Roman Museum.
Probably from 1st century AD based on similar work cited above.
And that's probably not Apollo - its a woman with a penis ...
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" ... The Apollo of Cyrene is a colossal Roman statue of Apollo found at the ancient city of Cyrene, Libya. It was unearthed at the site along with a large number of other ancient sculptures and inscriptions which were presented to the British Museum in 1861 ...
This enormous sculpture was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century at the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene in Libya. It was excavated by the British explorers and amateur archaeologists Captain Robert Murdoch Smith and Commander Edwin A. Porcher. The statue was found broken into 121 pieces, lying near the large plinth where it originally stood. The fragments were later reassembled in the British Museum to create a relatively intact statue with only the right arm and left hand missing.
The statue is made from high quality marble and would have originally been painted. The god is shown nude with the exception of a cloak wrapped around his hips. As the god of music, he is shown playing a lyre, with a python nestled below. The statue has a curious mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics, which reflects its Hellenistic origin.
The statue was probably the main cult image in the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene. The deity would have acted as the focal point for worship and ritual activity. ... " Wikipedia
Reminds me of the Amazon childhood companion of Dionysus. That's not a man -it' s a woman with a penis ...
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Pothos Apollo (Musei Capitolini)
Statue of Pothos, recreated as Apollo Citharoedus, From an original greek of Skopas, dated 4th century BC
Again, I say its an amazon with a penis
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" ... Apollo Kaitharoidos. Marble, original parts (torso and right leg): Roman copy from the Hadrianic period after an Hellenistic original. Heavily restored in the 17th century: head (after the Apollo Lykeios type), left arm and lyre, left leg, drapery and stick. ... " Wikipedia
Museo nazionale romano di palazzo Altemps
I say amazon with a penis
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Colossal statue of Apollo Citaredo after a 2nd C. BC original attributed to Timarchides.
Rome Capitoline Museum Italy
I say amazon with a penis
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Apollo citharoedus or Apollo with the griffin.
Musei Capitolini (Palazzo Nuovo), Rome.
I say amazon with a penis
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Marble statue of Apollo Citharoedus, - Frigidarium of Baths of Faustina, Miletus, Turkey
Again, I say amazon with a penis
In this case the Augusta herself:
The construction of these baths (161-180 A.D.), one of the most remarkable buildings in Miletus, was made possible by money donated by Faustina, the wife of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Parts of this colossal building of brick and dressed stone blocks are still standing. One of the most remarkable features is the palaestra, the imposing remains of which lie immediately adjacent to the baths themselves. Beside the pool in one of the cool rooms (frigidaria) is a statue of Meandros, the river god.
On the east is the hot room (caldarium) with walls reaching a height of 15 m. There is another frigidarium on the south, together with a dressing-room, or apodyterium. A stoa extends along the other side of the street. ... " turizm
The amazons with a penis tell a story about roman society - literally!
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Apollo citaredo - Uffizi Gallery, Florence , Italy
I say amazon with a penis
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Apollo Citharoedus (playing the lyre) from Casa del Protiro: Museo di Ostia, Italy.
" ... The Baths at Ostia, otherwise known as the Thermae Gavii Maximi, are named after Gavias Maximus, who was the city prefect for 20 years.The baths were intended for public use in Ostia Antica and like many other thermae, created as a gift to the public and were therefore free. They were built during the reign of Emperor Antonius Pius and Septimius Severus (193-225AD). ... " Wikipedia
I say amazon with a penis
Or maybe , the female Apollo
There is probably a specific myth about a female Apollo. The androgyny goes back to ancient Greece - its probably a representation of the "hierosgamos" -
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Apollo Citharoedus (Apollo with a lyre). Roman greywacke (sandstone) copy from the 1st century AD after the Greek original by Timarchides dated from 179 BC. Statue from the Farnese Collection on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Campania, Italy
Not Apollo though. It's a woman with a penis
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Female centaur with a lyre, Roman fresco from Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples
It's a starry girlfriend with a penis!
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Statuetta di Apollo Citaredo
No - it's more likely a female centaur - a "horse cock" girl ...
" ... The Centaurides (Ancient Greek: Κενταυρδες, Kentaurides) or centauresses are female centaurs. First encountered in Greek mythology as members of the tribe of the Centauroi, the Centaurides are only occasionally mentioned in written sources, but appear frequently in Greek art and Roman mosaics. The centauress who appears most frequently in literature is Hylonome, wife of the centaur Cyllarus. ...
In the "Imagines", the rhetorician Philostratus the Elder gives a brief description of the Centaurides:
How beautiful the Centaurides are, even where they are horses; for some grow out of white mares, others are attached to chestnut mares, and the coats of others are dappled, but they glisten like those of horses that are well cared for. There is also a white female Centaur that grows out of a black mare, and the very opposition of the colours helps to produce the united beauty of the whole ... "Wikipedia
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Roman bronze statuette of Apollo zither player. 2nd-3rd century AD 9 in. high (without the base). Private collection, acquired by family descent.
No, its a woman with a penis!
The confusion makes no sense - that means there is an archetype here - or psychological complex - my guess is this is where roman upper class women went to become phallic - roman women were the champions of the phallus and the female phallus probably had a religion or many religions attached to it
- One possibility is the statuette of a masturbating Egyptian goddess above - in The Golden Ass or The Metamorphoses of Apuleius a roman man is transformed into a donkey and is forced to undergo a series of mis-adventures before he is saved by initiation into the secret rites of Isis. I am certain an encounter with the female with a penis was a part of this initiation ...
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" ... The Apollon Citharède, an ancient bronze masterpiece Dated from the 2nd or 1 st century BC, this large bronze statuette of exceptional craftsmanship represents Apollo, Greek god of the arts, of male beauty and light. ... Known since 1922 in the Durighello collection, the Apollo citharède de Pompéi remained in French private hands for almost a century and was never presented to the general public. ... " liti
No -the only male part of this statue is the penis!
- The female Apollo could also be Athena without her robes on. - Maybe thats why in addition to the lyre - which is missing here, the figure of Apollo Citharede is always accompanied by a large python.
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Centauress carrying a young man, playing the lyre with one hand and clashing cymbals with the other.
" ....Painting removed from a wall of a room, possibly a triclinium or dining room, in a house in Pompeii in 1749. Copperplate engraved by Tommaso Piroli from his own Antichita di Ercolano (Antiquities of Herculaneum), Rome, 1789...." Alamy
Passion in coded language - horse sex probably - roman women were insatiable - the hero of "the golden ass of Apuleius" for example, was forced to sexually service a female owner - as a donkey!
That's how the minotaur was born - an insatiable Greek matron sexually serviced a bull ...
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Pompeii fresco of a woman playing the lyre 50 -79 AD
She's also wearing the purple - could be an Augusta! Her lover has the "dog-leash" tan ...
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Centaur with Dionysus playing a cithara depicted in fresco from Pompeii (1-79 AD) - National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy.
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Maenad forcibly mounting a Centaur - fresco from Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy
Probably a coded reference to the "mulier equitan" female on top horse riding sexual position . Maenad is nude except a purple cloth hanging over her shoulder. Royal horse - rider probably has a female phallus too ...
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"A ... centauress carrying a bacchant carrying a thyrsus or staff. The centauress holds a sprig of foliage in her left hand and with her right hand drapes a garland under the bacchant's arm ... " Alamy
Centaurs and the lyre and the female phallus and horse sex - probably a better association than Apollo Citharede. When I think of Apollo , I think of reason and light - not bachhants ...
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" ... Painting removed from a wall of a room, possibly a triclinium or dining room, in a house in Pompeii in 1749. Centaur carrying a youth and teaching him to play the lyre, as Chiron taught Achilles. The boy holds a thyrsus decorated with a ribbon and a gold tympanum drum. Copperplate engraved by Tommaso Piroli from his own "Antichita di Ercolano" (Antiquities of Herculaneum), Rome, 1789. Italian artist and engraver Piroli (1752-1824) published six volumes between 1789 and 1807 documenting the murals and bronzes found in Heraculaneum and Pompeii. ... " Alamy
That's not a boy - there is no penis ... it's a girl being taught to play the lyre - like Achilles. Roman girls were trained just the same as boys; - evidently once Roman girls got married, they became the head of household - young roman wives put their husbands' penis on a dog-leash.
That's probably the moment a roman woman was considered to have a penis - once she had belted and bound a roman man ...
On a psychological level it's true- the anima controls a mans eros (penis).
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Apollon citharède de Pompeí - Louvre
That's clearly not a man. It's a woman with a penis
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Apollo statue, 2nd century, Roman copy from a Greek original.
That's a woman, lowering her dress to reveal a penis
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Chiron the centaur teaching Achilles to play the lyre. Relief of a Roman sarcophagus, Museum of the Baths of Diocletian
The example above shows that this is probably a girl with a penis being taught to play the lyre
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A statue of Apollo 2nd Century AD from Carthage in the Bardo National Museum (Tunis)
That's a woman lowering her dress to reveal a penis
This image was usually found in Roman baths - probably linked to female driven sexual activity in the 2nd century AD
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-Statue of the type of Apollo Sauroctonus (lizard-killer) AD 1st century after a Greek original of ca. 350 BC Found in Rome, 17th century
No, that's a woman with a penis -
Many of these roman "female with a penis" statues were originally Greek. Which means Greek women in the time of Plato and Socrates were the sexual bulls of the Greek universe. This does not appear in the records, but can be inferred from the behavior of their deity's - ex. the martial Athena in Athens, or the domineering Demeter for all Greeks and from the physical evidence of statues of phallic women.
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Statue of Apollo in the Temple of Apollo, Pompeii - 120 BC
Upon closer examination - that's a woman with a penis. Looks like there was a raging amazon cult in ancient Rome!
Or maybe not a cult - the day to day reality of the dogleashed Roman man
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"Dionysus and Satyr, from the eastern tabernacle of the Antonine Nymphaeum, the statue was carved by an Aphrodisian artist, 160-180 AD, Burdur Museum (Turkey)" Carole Raddato
That's a young Bacchus and his companion Ampelus - a female with a penis
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Apollo, Roman sculpture in marble after a Hellenistic model, 2nd century AD, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany
That's a woman with a penis - the lyre probably has more to do with Bacchus, sex and bath culture than Apollo
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Apollo Citharoedus (Apollo with a lyre)
Really a woman with a penis
" ... Statue of Apollo Lykeios, Altes Museum Berlin
Acquired in Rome (Italy) in 1766, Marble, Roman copy around 140 AD (body)
Head and body of two different Roman copies were combined in the 18th century. The god appears in the so-called Lykeios type with the right forearm resting across his head. The model was either an original created circa 340 BC in the circle around Praxiteles or Hellenistic remodelling from the time around 150 BC. ... " Carole Raddato
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Apollo Citharoedus . Imperial Era. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Probably a woman with a penis
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Marble colossal-type statue of Apollo. Prado museum, Spain
Thats probably an Amazon about to enter a public bath in imperial Rome
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" ... Marble statue of Apollo. It follows the type of Apollo Lyceios, which is attributed to the great sculptor Praxiteles. The god is represented leaning on a tree and stepping on a heap of Gallic shields ..."
To my eye that's a woman with a penis
The Gallic shields held us identify this as Augusta Agrippina - who was known to don male military attire as she led Roman soldiers in the Germanic wars :
" ... Tacitus presents Agrippina as being kindred to aristocratic males, and has her reversing gender roles, which showcases her assumption of male auctoritas ("authority") with metaphors of her dressing and undressing. In an example of Agrippina assuming auctoritas, he says:
But throughout those days, a femina, mighty of spirit, donned the apparel of a dux, and she distributed clothing or bandages to the soldiers, whoever might be needy or suffering. Gaius Plinius, the chronicler of the German wars, relates that she stood at the head of the bridge, offering congratulatory praises to the legions as they returned.
—Tacitus, 1.69.1 —L'Hoir 2006, pp. 136–7
Using the above epithet, "(femina) ingens animi" ("..[a woman], great for her courage"), he assigns a haughty attitude to Agrippina that compels her to explore the affairs of men. He records her as having reversed the natural order of things when she quelled the mutiny of the Rhine in AD 14. In so doing, he describes her as having usurped her husband's power, a power rightfully belonging only to a general. ... "Wikipedia
Tacitus is not being fully truthful. As a roman man, he was born into a dog-leash culture - and all that implies ... The Roman indirect rule by women - Augusta and Vestals and roman wives and mothers and priestesses - was probably the main reason they were so successful - it's an unbreakable code for the enemy
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"Hippodamia greeted by a seemingly genteel Centaur in a wall painting from Pompeii ...
In Greek mythology, Hippodamia : πποδμεια, "she who masters horses" derived from ππος hippos "horse" and δαμζειν damazein "to tame" ..." Wikpedia
That's a symbol of the roman woman - horse tamer ! Or man -rider ...
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"Relief detail from the panel of a sarcophagus depicting Dionysus on his chariot being pulled by a centaur. Capitoline Museum, Rome. " Getty Images
That's clearly the female Dionysus or Ampelus in the chariot riding the centaurs. This "female in a chariot" image can be seen above from the Algerian mosaic above .
Conquest is by the female with a penis - not Dionysus
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"Relief with an old man and a siren [having sex]
" ... A winged female with large bird feet is about to bestride a sleeping old man. He has spread his cloak in a rocky landscape, a tree with Pan-pipes hanging from a branch, a rustic altar and a herm of Pan appearing at the upper right. The old man's staff, wicker produce basket, and sack for food or water lie beside him, the basket being used as a partial pillow. The winged creature holds a small vessel in her extended left hand. She is pouring something, perhaps a draught of the potion or drug which brings nightmares or perhaps a superabundance of wine that induced the old man's dream. ... " Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Roman Marble, Imperial Period, 2nd century A.D.
Spiritual "mulier equitans" or horse-riding - Roman graybeards submitted sexually to virile young roman women ...
Although that's not a woman - its a winged and web-footed female creature . Which backs up my observation that birds are female dominant sexually.
And he is probably not asleep - this was a prime and coveted experience, as would have been recognized from the genre woman on top position
Also that's probably a shrine to Faunus, not Pan
-Roman Hermaphrodite 186
Statue of Apollo, Petworth House
Clearly not a male. The snake may point to a naked Athena. The penis to a well developed masculine side - the "animus"
-Roman Hermaphrodite 187
"Dionysus and Satyr, from the eastern tabernacle of the Antonine Nymphaeum, the statue was carved by an Aphrodisian artist, 160-180 AD, Burdur Museum, Turkey" Carole Raddato
That's a young Bacchus and his Amazon companion Ampelus
-Roman Hermaphrodite 188
The Citharode Apollo
Roman statue of Apollo citharoedus (probably early Imperial period). Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Those are sheer women's robes with a penis showing through and a lyre. Not Apollo.
The lyre was probably a device to woo dog-leashed men into bed - In the roman upper classes, the women chased the men ...
-Roman Hermaphrodite 189
Dionysus. Marble, Roman artwork after Praxiteles' Lykeios Apollo (4th century BC).
Probably the female Dionysus - the Amazon Ampelus
-Roman Hermaphrodite 190
Actor and mask, fresco from the House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli
Clearly dog-leashed from the deep tan. Roman matrons were famous for paying lavishly to "break the pin" (fibula) of famous actors ...
-Roman Hermaphrodite 191
No description available.
It looks like the erect and aroused female Dionysus has made a bid to "break the pin" (fibula) of the deeply tanned seated man. He seems to have accepted, and is handing her papers to sign. Above is a panel of judges ...
Another reading is the "binding" of the seated, dog-leashed man by the erect and aroused female Dionysus.
-Roman Hermaphrodite 192
" ...coin of Marcus Aurelius from Augusta Traiana ... It portrays a very famous statue, now in the Louvre, Sleeping Hermaphrodite, which was copied and widely distributed in the Greco-Roman world ... " coin talk
That's probably a coin of Augusta Faustina the Younger, not Marcus Aurelius. She was famous for "breaking the pin" of gladiators and many other men:
" ... Annia Galeria Faustina Minor (Minor is Latin for the Younger), Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger born probably 21 September c. 130 AD was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She was held in high esteem by soldiers and her own husband and was given divine honours after her death. ....
... The Augustan History mentions adultery with sailors, gladiators, and men of rank; however, Faustina and Aurelius seem to have been very close and mutually devoted.
Faustina accompanied her husband on various military campaigns and enjoyed the love and reverence of Roman soldiers. Aurelius gave her the title of Mater Castrorum or ‘Mother of the Camp’. ... "
She inherited the Roman empire from her mother ... Mater Castrorum probably meant head of the Roman military - she was the emperor ...
-Roman Hermaphrodite 193
" ... Syria, Antioch Pseudo-Autonomous Issue. Time of Hadrian 117-138 AD. Dated Caesarean Year 177 (128/129). Obverse: MHTROPOLEWC Laureate and draped bust of Apollo right. Reverse: ETOYC ZOP B Kithara (Lyre). ... "
That's probably not Apollo though. Based on the examples above it's probably a lyre playing hermaphrodite or female Dionysus - or the Augusta Sabina. . Sabina seems to have been erased from the record though ...
-Roman Hermaphrodite 194
Apollo Citharoedus with the head of Dionysus
- Female with a penis from the revealing sheer gown. Probably a female Dionysus.
-Roman Hermaphrodite 195
"Fresco fragment depicting Apollo, from the House of Julia Felix in Pompeii, 62-79 AD" Wikipedia
I say , the female with a penis -or female Dionysus.
That's the roman "potomitan" - that's what did the "binding" of roman men ...
-Roman Hermaphrodite 196
Apollo Citharoedus, showing a cithara with box tail-pieces (Museo Pio-Clementino).
Thats a woman in a gown - my guess is the female Dionysus
-Roman Hermaphrodite 197
Sleeping Hermaphrodite, Louvre
The roman "potomitan" or queen bee
-Roman Hermaphrodite 198
Pothos Apollo (Musei Capitolini)
Statue of Pothos, recreated as Apollo Citharoedus, From an original Greek of Skopas, dated 4th century BC
- Looks female to me - with a penis
Maybe the Apollo cult was female only - like in Voodoo, Legba is expressed through female shamans
-Roman Hermaphrodite 199
" ... Roman fresco depicting Pan playing the double flute with a nymph playing the lyre and two other nymphs accompanying them. ... House of Jason, Pompeii. National Archaeological Museum. Naples. Italy. ... " Alamy
Note the deep tan on Pan - really Faunus though. That's the "dog-leash" effect.
Also note the purple robes on the lyre player.. the Apollo Citharoedus cult was probably a royal cult
-Roman Hermaphrodite 200
"Fragmentary fresco showing the god Apollo. He is seen here with a lyre, as was appropriate to the god of music and poetry. Country of Origin: Italy. Culture: Roman." Alamy
Looks female to me
-Roman Hermaphrodite 201
Bronze figurine of a young Bacchus and his companion Ampelus - a female with a penis. Walter Gallery, Baltimore
-Roman Hermaphrodite 202
Vase painting by the “CA Painter”, c.340 BC -Alamy
Ancient Greek brothel: note the deep tans on the men - a product of the "dog-leash"
My guess is this was a women's brothel and those are male prostitutes. The dog-leash reverses the sexual dynamics - women pay to "break the pin" of dog- leashed men
-Roman Hermaphrodite 203
Detail from: c.190 AD "Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysus" at the Walters Gallery, Baltimore
The Amazon Ampelus in chariot, an infant Dionysus riding a panther, and leading the panthers the goat-legged Faunus with a lagobolon (stick to catch hares)
-Roman Hermaphrodite 204
Apollo Citharoedus, Roman copy of Greek original 5th century BC
Looks like a woman to me - below the dress was probably a female phallus
-Roman Hermaphrodite 205
Bronze statuette of Apollo Citharoedus - Staatiche Antikensammlingen, Munich
Amazon! Woman with a penis and a lyre- music almost certainly for a male prostitute or sex-worker brothel event
-Roman Hermaphrodite 206
Bronze Apollo with Lyre. Pompeii, House of Apollo
Looks female to me
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 207
Female Lyre - player having sex
Note the darker skin on the male Egyptian. Egyptian men were probably sexually caged - although I don't know how they were caged with a circumcised penis.
Can't locate the source of this picture, but it seems real. The lyre seems more Greek than Egyptian - maybe that's a Greek Egyptian lyre player
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 208
Egyptian lady playing a cithara/ lyre
18th dynasty tomb painting in Veset (Thebes) c.1420-1411 B.C.' Artist: Unknown.
Purpose was probably the same as Apollo Citharoedus
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 209
'Egyptian arched harp, lute, double oboe and lyre; 18th dynasty tomb painting in Veset (Thebes) c.1420-1411 B.C.' Artist: Unknown.
That was the Akhenaten time - a female pharaoh - the potency of the 18th dynasty is probably related to the caged male penis -
- Caging of the penis can happen unconsciously - I think I went through the classic roman caging at 14 and release at 25 (summer of 1994) - not physically, but I had the subjective feeling of changes happening without my knowledge or consent "down there". - At 14 in Ethiopia I briefly felt my libido go off, then come back, but different than before - there was also an inner image of a tall woman doing the alteration - probably an Ampelus! This entire page is an Ampelus page for me - an amazon titan ...
The libido has a life of its own!
Roman Hermaphrodite 210
Painting of Pompeii. Chiron and Achilles.
The centaur Chiron taught Achilles how tho work the lyre. However, in the Roman context - this is probably a girl with a penis being trained in the arts of lovemaking and love-taking.
Roman women "took it" either by paying for it "breaking the pin" - or as suggested in The golden ass of Apuleius taking it from donkey endowned slaves ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 211
Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a 4th century BC original - Louvre
Looks female to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 212
Roman wall painting of 'Aldobrandini Wedding' from villa of theEsquiline, c.1st century BC.
Note the tanned bridegroom - "dog-leashed"
The bride is about to assume the leash - or "take the penis" - and start hunting for unchaste amours - Only an Amazon spirit could devise such a salacious scheme!
Roman Hermaphrodite 213
Apollo Citharoedus
Could pass as a male, but I am sure a closer look will reveal a female with a penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 214
Richelieu Apollo. Roman marble copy dated from the 1st or 2nd century AD after a Greek original from the 4th century BC on display in the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France
Another amazon
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 215
Sex scenes from the 19th dynasty Turin Erotic Papyrus ... Again , we see the Greek-like lyre associated with sex. Also the margin notes appear to be written by a female customer to a male sex worker and approve of the services rendered.
" ... The Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001, also called the Erotic Papyrus or even Turin Papyrus) is an ancient Egyptian papyrus scroll-painting that was created during the Ramesside Period, approximately in 1150 B.C. Discovered in Deir el-Medina in the early 19th century, it has been dubbed "world's first men's mag." Measuring 8.5 feet (2.6 m) by 10 inches (25 cm), it consists of two parts, one of which contains twelve erotic vignettes depicting various sex positions. It is currently housed by the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.
... The final two thirds of Turin Erotic Papyrus consist of a series of twelve vignettes showing men and women in various sexual positions. The men in the illustrations are "scruffy, balding, short, and paunchy" with exaggeratedly large genitalia and do not conform to Egyptian standards of physical attractiveness, but the women are nubile, and they are shown with objects from traditional erotic iconography, such as convolvulus leaves and, in some scenes, they are even holding items traditionally associated with Hathor, the goddess of love, such as lotus flowers, monkeys, and sistra. The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292-1075 BC). Its high artistic quality indicates that it was produced for a wealthy audience. No other similar scrolls have yet been discovered. Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art, but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti.
The various male images have also been interpreted as a single protagonist, who has several encounters with a courtesan.
... The severely damaged Erotic Papyrus is the only known erotic scroll-painting to have survived.
Modern audiences often misconceive that ancient Egyptian art is devoid of sexual themes. After Jean-François Champollion saw the papyrus in 1824 in Turin, he described it as "an image of monstrous obscenity that gave me a really strange impression about Egyptian wisdom and composure."
... The real significance of the images is yet unknown since those fragments of text that have survived reasonably intact have so far not yielded any clear purpose for the Erotic Papyrus. The text appears to have been hastily written in the margins and would seem to express enjoyment and delight:
"... come behind me with your love, Oh! Sun, you have found out my heart, it is agreeable work..." Wikipedia
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 216
Those must be Greek Egyptian princesses having fun - the author of the wikipedia article is wrong - its not the world's first "mens magazine" - sex in the greco-roman world and apparently in Egypt was a women's world ...
Or maybe Trojan princesses - Troy and ancient Egypt were tightly bonded together - usually against Greece.
Roman Hermaphrodite 217
Bronze Apollo with Lyre. Luxury and decadence. Life on the Roman Gold Coast. Exhibition at the Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen, Holland
Pompeii, House of Apollo
It's a woman with a penis - romans considered themselves to be Trojans - so there is a continuity with the Egyptian sex scenes and the Pompeii male prostitute brothel life
Roman Hermaphrodite 218
" ... The Apollon Citharède, an ancient bronze masterpiece Dated from the 2nd or 1 st century BC, this large bronze statuette of exceptional craftsmanship represents Apollo, Greek god of the arts, of male beauty and light. ... Known since 1922 in the Durighello collection, the Apollo citharède de Pompéi remained in French private hands for almost a century and was never presented to the general public. ... " liti
That's an amazon !
Roman Hermaphrodite 219
Pothos (Desire), copy after a Greek original. 2nd century AD, Rome - The Uffizi Collection
" ... Pothos was one of Aphrodite's erotes and brother to Himeros and Eros. In some versions of myth, Pothos is the son of Eros, or is portrayed as an independent aspect of him. Yet others called him son of Zephyrus and Iris. He was part of Aphrodite's retinue, and carried a vine, indicating a connection to wine or the god Dionysus. Pothos represents longing or yearning. In the temple of Aphrodite at Megara, there was a sculpture that represented Pothos together with Eros and Himeros which has been credited to Scopas. ... " Wikipedia
Amazon to me ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 220
Statue of Pothos at the Centrale Montemartini
That's a female with a penis not a man
Roman Hermaphrodite 221
Statue of Pothos at the Centrale Montemartini - (back side)
That's a female with a penis not a man
Life with the dog-leash! It's more erotic, and more amazon ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 222
Priapus - marble, House of the Vettii, Pompeii
That's an unauthorized erection ! The dog-leash won't allow it
The dog-leash works even during sleep! That's where most energy theft occurs ....
Roman Hermaphrodite 223
Priapus the God of Good Fortune in entrance of Villa of the Vettii, Pompeii
Dog-leash is blocking blocking full erection !
The artist is conveying the commercial nature of the dog-leash -i.e. for a certain amount of coin, the leash can be removed ...
Note the deep tan - that's the famous dog leash effect
In ancient Rome and Greece women paid for sex, not men
Roman Hermaphrodite 224
Apollo Citharoedus
A potential client to "break the pin" of the Vetti villa Priapus - that's a woman with a penis - or a woman with a sexual appetite
Roman Hermaphrodite 225
The colossal statue portrays Apollo sitting on a rocky spur. All bare parts, namely the head and hands, as well as the lyre, were originally made of bronze and were replaced by C. Albacini with those visible today in white marble. Engravings and testimony of that period confirm that the statue represented a female subject, that is the personification of Rome, before the restorer altered its features.
The use of porphyry, for the intrinsic value of the material and for the exclusively imperial exploitation of quarries, suggests that the statue should be destined to a temple or a private residence of the emperor.
The statue, belonged to the Sassi family, was acquired by the Farnese family in 1546 and then it was inherited by the Bourbons through Charles III; it was moved to Naples in 1799 when most of the Farnese collection had already been transferred there. ... " Museo Archelogico nazionale di Napoli
Seated Apollo with Lyre, porphyry and marble, 2nd Century AD
Almost certainly a penis under those skirts! The 2nd century AD was a sensually hot century ...
That's probably one of the purple clad Augusta's of the 2nd century AD - the true and absolute rulers of the 2nd century roman world - from financial to political to religious and especially sexual female domination - the "dog-leash" effect.
The lyre tells the story - it's a male brothel signifier as the ancient Egyptian example above , plus all the aggressive sensual nudity proves. I guess the message is in the 2nd century - and even before - going back to ancient Greece, women ,not men were the sexually aggressive avatars of Apollo
See for example : "The Emperor from Africa" - Aramco World Magazine. - the reign of Septimius Severus of Carthage. Although this article misses the raging eros of the 2nd century ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 226
Fresco portraying Terentius Neo and his wife. - Pompeii
Note the famous dog-leash tan on Neo.
" ... The Portrait of Terentius Neo is a famous, unique and exquisite fresco that was found in Pompeii in the House of Terentius Neo ... It is currently preserved at the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
It is considered one of the finest pieces of art from the area of Vesuvius.
An inscription was found on the outside of the house was an election recommendation for Terentius Neo.
The fresco depicts a pair of middle-class Pompeians believed to be man and wife. Terentius Neo was a baker as the house had been modified to include a bakery, and the portrait shows the couple as equal members of a confident and fashionable mercantile class. The man wears a toga, the mark of a Roman citizen, and holds a rotulus, suggesting he is also involved in local public and/or cultural events. The woman is in the foreground and holds a stylus and wax tablet, emphasising that she is of equal status, educated and literate.
The fact that the portrait shows imperfections or peculiarities in the faces is rare in similar frescoes and brings to life the characters. ... " Wikipedia
Roman Hermaphrodite 227
Female Dionysus
Roman Hermaphrodite 228
Marble statue of Dionysus, Roman period - Athens, Greece, Archaeological museum of Eleusis
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Thats a woman with a penis to me!
That's one of the scenes pilgrims to the Eleusinian Mysteries mysteries would encounter - the female phallus ....
Roman Hermaphrodite 229
2nd century AD Roman sculpture of Pothos, a copy of a 4th century BC Greek original attributed to Skopas of Paros. (Naples, National Archaeological Museum)
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Borderline male or female - my guess is female with a penis. Also probably not Pothos - that's a famous lyre playing scene - signaling male brothel time - Apollo Citharoedus
Roman Hermaphrodite 230
Apollo Citharoedus
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Woman with lyre to me - and almost certainly a penis under those skirts
Roman Hermaphrodite 231
Apollo Citharoedus - Royal purple robes! - Pompeii
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Roman princess with lyre - and a young apprentice
Late Republican wall painting with seated woman holding a kithara, from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, c. 40–30 BC
Roman Hermaphrodite 232
Ionian dances - Pompeii
Nude dancing, wine , then "breaking the pins" of brothel workers and orgy-time
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Fresco from the Sala di Grande Dipinto, Scene VIII in the Villa de Misteri (Pompeii).
" ... The Villa of the Mysteries ... is a well-preserved suburban ancient Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, southern Italy, famous for the series of exquisite frescos in one room, which are usually thought to show the initiation of a young woman into a Greco-Roman mystery cult. These are now among the best known of the relatively rare survivals of Ancient Roman painting.
... The Villa is named for the paintings in one of its numerous rooms. This space may have been a dining room (triclinium in Latin) and is decorated with very fine frescoes, which are dated to about 70-60 BC. Although the actual subject of the frescoes is debated, the most common interpretation is that they depict the initiation of a woman into the Dionysian Mysteries, a mystery cult devoted to the god known to the Romans as Bacchus. Specific rites were required to become a member. A key feature that helps to identify these scenes as Bacchic is the depiction of maenads, the deity's female followers. These devotees are often shown dancing with swirling drapery on painted Greek pottery from the sixth century BC onward, centuries before the cult spread to the Romans. ... "
Roman Hermaphrodite 233
Apollo Citharoedus
Turkey, 2nd century B.C. relief depicting a woman playing cithara. From Babakoy. Istanbul, Arkeoloji Muzerleri (Archaeological Museum)
Almost certainly a penis beneath that skirt
That's where the assumption that the Greeks and Romans were a homosexual community comes from. The evidence tells another story - the dog-leash effect on the female libido
Roman Hermaphrodite 234
Bronze Apollo Citharoedus
Rome - female with a penis
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 235
Thebes in Egypt, Valley of the Nobles, tomb of Nakht. Female musicians. Lyre, double flute and lute. 18th dynasty
Almost nude and nubile ancient Egyptian lyre players.
Ritualized sex was probably held at the same time
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 236
Nakht and Lady Taui :
" ... Nakht was an Ancient Egyptian official who held the position of a scribe and astronomer of Amun, probably during the reign of Thutmose IV in the Eighteenth Dynasty. He is buried in the Theban Necropolis in tomb TT52. ... " Wikipedia
Nakht is much darker than his wife - that has to be the dog-leash effect. The 18th dynasty must have been in the penis cage
I noticed this with prince Rahotep of the 4th dynasty also. Rahotep is much darker than his wife. He was probably in the penis cage.
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 237
Egyptian culture: a dancing scene on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs of the 5th dynasty (2500 B.C.)
Nude dancers! They clearly have agency - i.e. they are not dancing for men, but for themselves - and making their own music. Ritual sex was almost certain to follow with selected male "mounts"
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 238
Prince Rahotep of the 4th dynasty and his wife Princess consort Nofret . He's much darker than his wife - probably because he has a caged penis.
The conclusion to draw, is that was a matriarchy - as was long speculated by the Greeks.
" ... Prince Rahotep's statue has six columns of text, naming his titles and duties, with columns three and six, each ending with his name, Ra-Hotep. Nofret has identical texts, one column both right and left. Her name appears at the bottom, with the determinative for 'women'. Her complete name is "Nsw-r(kh)-t, Nfr-t". The last, nfr-t means "beautiful woman" (the t being the bread bun for feminine); nsw-r(kh)-t, means "King's Acquaintance". Curiously, her likeness is depicted with blue eyes, rare among Egyptian artwork as it almost always portrays Egyptians as having dark eyes; it's possible she may have been a Berber as her appearance bears heavy resemblance as to how Ancient Egyptians portrayed Libyans in murals. ... " Wikipedia
Princess Nofret had blue eyes! - maybe they were an inter-racial couple - my guess is Nofret is from the mythical Troy
The roman (ie Trojan) model probably applies to ancient Egypt - i.e. you have to pay attention to the wife and mother of the king to understand the power dynamics of the situation
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 239
Princess consort Nofret - 4th dynasty Egypt - that was probably Rahotep's "key-holder" - circumcision was practiced in Egypt , but it seems to have been restricted to the priestly class:
" ... The Greeks were highly skeptical about any of the religious rationales used by certain foreigners in an attempt to justify their blood rites of penile reduction. The History of Herodotus (484–420 B.C.E.) is the earliest Greek text reporting the practice of genital mutilation of various degrees, such as circumcision. Herodotus ascribes circumcision to the Colchians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Macrones, as well as to the Egyptian priestly caste. He also reports, however, that the salutary influence of Greek culture induced the Phoenicians to abandon circumcision. In an oft-repeated passage, always quoted out of context, Herodotus describes the topsy-turvy world of the Egyptian priestly caste with obvious disapproval:
Everywhere else in the world, priests have long hair, but in Egypt they shave their heads. In times of mourning, it is the norm elsewhere for those most affected by the bereavement to crop their hair; in Egypt, however, in the period following a death, they let both their hair and their beards grow, when they had previously been shaved. Everywhere else in the world people live separately from their animals, but animals and humans live together in Egypt. Other people live off barley and ordinary wheat, but Egyptians regard it as demeaning to make those grains one's staple diet; their staple is hulled wheat, or "emmer" as it is sometimes known. They knead dough with their feet and clay with their hands, and they pick up dung with their hands too. Other people, unless they have been influenced by the Egyptians, leave their genitals in their natural state, but the Egyptians practice circumcision.
Later in the following paragraph, Herodotus repeats the revelation about the circumcision of the priests and places it in the context of their impenetrable cultic fastidiousness:
Because they are exceedingly religious, more so than any other people in the world, they have the following customs. Everyone, without any exceptions, scrubs clean the bronze cup he uses for drinking every day. The linen cloaks they wear are always freshly washed; this is something they are very particular about. Their concern for cleanliness also explains why they practise circumcision, since they value cleanliness more than comeliness.
The ironic tone of this passage, which has hitherto been poorly appreciated, underscores Herodotus's dismay at the Egyptian priestly caste's illogical notions of cleanliness and religiosity and their unfathomable disregard for physical beauty. Clearly, he is emphasizing that the notions of genital cleanliness that he ascribes to a people who routinely handle dung bare-handed and prepare food with their bare feet are necessarily at variance with those of the civilized Greeks. ...
An important clue to the Greeks' assumptions about the association of circumcision with the Egyptian priesthood is to be found on the fifth-century B.C.E. Attic red-figure pelike by the Pan painter, depicting Herakles overthrowing Busiris, a mythological priest-king of Egypt, and his bald-headed priestly attendants who have attempted to make of Herakles a human sacrifice. The painter has taken great pains to depict the priests as having fat, ugly, wrinkled, circumcised penises with a bulbous externalized glans, which contrast sharply with the neat and attractive penis of Herakles, with its elegantly long and tapered prepuce. Likewise, the snubbed noses and monkey-like faces of the Egyptians could hardly be more dissimilar to the heroic Greek profile of Herakles. To paraphrase K. J. Dover, if a circumcised penis goes with a hideous face and a long and tapered prepuce goes with a handsome face, it is the long and tapered prepuce that was admired.
Later Greek writers, such as Strabo (b.64 B.C.E) and Diodorus Siculus (first century B.C.E, horrified their readers with accounts of the genital mutilation practices of various primitive, sometimes cave-dwelling tribes living around the Red Sea, as well as those of the Hebrews and Egyptians. While some of these tribes amputated only the prepuce, others amputated the glans, and still others amputated the entire penis. Strabo also provides a secular account of the origin of circumcision among the Hebrews. He writes that they are partly descended from Egyptians who left their homeland to follow an apostate priest named Moses, who was displeased with the state of affairs in Egypt and sought to worship his "Divine Being" divorced from animal imagery. Moses led his followers to Judaea and established an autocratic theocracy at what is now Jerusalem:
His [Moses'] successors for some time abided by the same course, acting righteously and being truly pious toward God; but afterwards, in the first place, superstitious men were appointed to the priesthood, and then tyrannical people; and from superstition arose abstinence from flesh, from which it is their custom to abstain even to-day, and circumcisions and excisions [of females] and other observances of the kind.
Strabo's statement that the Hebrew priesthood imposed male and female circumcision for tyrannical and superstitious reasons supports Wilhelm Reich's theory of circumcision as a mechanism of social control. Additionally, these Greek accounts of the bodily mutilations practiced by some primitive Near Eastern tribes underscore the association between circumcision and more severe penile mutilations. They also highlight the association between the circumcised penis (and, therefore, the exposed glans) and the linked concepts of primitiveness, barbarity, backwardness, superstition, and oppression. ... " The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome. HODGES (2001)
- The counter argument is the beautiful Greek uncircumcised penis was also a form of social control - in this case by the "key-holder" which for most men was the wife! The circumcised man was the king of his own penis, while the Greek surrendered that to the females ...
Towards the end of the roman empire only Jews and Egyptian priests were allowed to circumcise, and even they were prohibited to force their slaves to follow the practice:
" ... Considering that the name of the part being cut off—posthe—could also designate the whole penis, the idea of circumcision might well have evoked the same feelings aroused by penile castration. Freud points out the widespread tendency to equate penile castration with circumcision, which, he maintained, must have been a relatively milder substitute that was designed to take the place of penile castration in primeval days. Thus, to the Greeks and Romans, both mutilations must have seemed to be the ultimate in mindless, barbaric irreverence, excess, and depravity. In this context, it is immediately understandable why the Seleucid and later the Roman imperial administrations, charged with the self-imposed task of civilizing the known world, unhesitatingly criminalized the ritualized disfigurement of the penis.
For instance, in the Hellenistic era, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–165 B.C.E.) consolidated the empire of Alexander and, according to Tacitus, "endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization." Although the corroborative accounts of Josephus and the first book of Maccabees are afflicted with a bias that undermines their value as historical sources, it is notable that one product of superstition that these sources name as being banned by Antiochus was the ritual circumcision of infants. Clearly, the Hebrew religious element emphatically disagreed with the Greeks' positive evaluation of the prepuce. Although it is most likely a convenient post hoc rationalization of ritual male circumcision rather than the original reason for its introduction into Hebrew religious ritual, there can be no escape from the devastating cultural implications of the Talmudic dictum, echoing the Mishnah: "The foreskin is disgusting." Here we witness one of the fundamental and irreconcilable points of discord between the Greek and Hebrew views of the body.
With evident hostility, Josephus and the authors of 1 Maccabees also report that circumcised Hebrew males during this era voluntarily sought foreskin restoration therapies, interpreting this as an illicit attempt at assimilation into Greek culture. It is regrettable that, if any Hellenophile Israelites committed alternative perspectives to writing, nothing of this nature seems to have survived. What has survived, however, is documentary evidence that the Romans picked up where the Greeks left off in the campaign to rid the world of sexual disfigurements of all degrees. Upholding a standard of beneficence all their own, the Romans united the Greeks' high regard for the intact body with a greater gift for administration. Accordingly, Emperor Domitian (81–96 C.E.) and his successor Nerva (96–98) issued proscripts against the castration of citizens and slaves. Although there remains no direct and indisputable contemporary Roman legal or literary confirmation for it, Hadrian's late biographer, Aelius Spartianus, as well as modern scholars, have argued convincingly that, around 132 C.E., Hadrian issued a universal decree outlawing circumcision, under penalty of death.There is, however, conclusive documentation that Hadrian reiterated the ban on castration, and he and his successors seem not to have made any ethical distinction between castration and circumcision, for the wording of the laws as well as the extreme penalties for both crimes are nearly identical: forfeiture of all property and execution of the perpetrators—or, for those of higher rank, deportation to an island.The fact that circumcision was punished with the maximum penalty allowed under the law attests to the strength of Greek and Roman views on the subject.
Taking into account the compassionate spirit of the almost identically framed laws banning castration, the ban on circumcision was most certainly motivated by humanitarian and ethical considerations rather than by a purely theological discord with those groups, such as the Hebrew priesthood, whose rationale for the ritualized circumcision of infants was defended (ineffectively, as far as the Greeks were concerned) by an appeal to the supernatural. Yet, of the various peoples affected by this ruling, apparently only the conservative religious element among the Hebrews took umbrage, leaving behind a series of elaborated, mythologized, and, not untypically, contradictory accounts, alleging the interdiction to have been religiously motivated. It is interesting to note, however, that the abundance of special rules and regulations regarding the cultic activities of "uncircumcised" Hebrew priests, as preserved in the Talmud, strongly hints that even in the highest circles of the Hebrew ruling classes there existed, for a period, a measure of active pluralism on the question of infant circumcision that was independent of Roman legal persuasion.
The Digest of Justinian (a legal compilation collected by learned jurists at the behest of Justinian in 533), however, documents that, around 140, Emperor Antoninus Pius at least modified the ruling of Hadrian to allow only the Hebrews to circumcise their children, while upholding the legal protections from circumcision for all other peoples:
Jews are permitted to circumcise only their sons on the authority of a rescript of the Divine Pius; if anyone shall commit it on one who is not of the same religion, he shall suffer the punishment of a castrator.
While Pius limited the exemption to Hebrews, papyrological documents in Greek, dating from 155 to 189 C.E. indicate that complex bureaucratic mechanisms were provisionally established to grant individual exemptions to this edict for certain members of the Egyptian priestly caste. Few such exemptions, however, appear to have been granted. The widespread approval for the abolition of circumcision was limited by neither space nor time, for by the end of the third century, Pius's interdiction against circumcision was enhanced by the enactment of an additional legal prohibition:
Roman citizens, who suffer that they themselves or their slaves be circumcised in accordance with the Jewish custom, are exiled perpetually to an island and their property confiscated; the doctors suffer capital punishment. If Jews shall circumcise purchased slaves of another nation, they shall be banished or suffer capital punishment.
The incorporation into the Digest of Pius's more recent revisions of the law banning circumcision would explain why the sixth-century compilers of the Digest did not include the obsolete original decree of Hadrian. The two rescripts of Pius, coupled together, were reenacted under Constantine the Great in the fourth century, and, of course, under Justinian in the sixth century. Simultaneously, the church adopted these as well as additional bans on circumcision into canon law and into its regional legal codes. Furthermore, the secular Roman law of the Byzantine Empire and the countries of Western Europe, at least through the Middle Ages, preserved and enhanced laws banning Hebrews from circumcising non-Hebrews and banning Christians or slaves of any religious affiliation from undergoing circumcision for any reason.
It is important to note that one of the reasons for the seemingly continuous need to reenact laws banning Hebrews from circumcising non-Hebrews stems from the unavoidable conflict that arose over the issue of Hebrew religious freedom. From the pagan reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius and through the Christian imperial administrations of the Middle Ages, with a few notable and isolated exceptions, the freedom of the Hebrews to practice Judaism was guaranteed by law.Hebrew law, however, requires that Hebrews circumcise their slaves and servants, although this circumcision does not constitute a conversion to Judaism. The Torah, the Talmud, and the later Schulchan Aruch all attest to the Judaistic imperative for forcibly circumcising non-Hebrews in this context. Although the periodic need to reenact anticircumcision laws indicates that they were frequently violated (and specific instances of violation have been preserved), Roman and church law agreed in principle that the absolute freedom of the Hebrews to practice Judaism ended at the beginning of the preputial epidermis of non-Hebrews. ... " The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome. HODGES (2001)
Roman Hermaphrodite 240
The Lillebonne Apollo
Female with a penis to me - the dog-leash effect!
It's literally true - the roman wife "bound and belted " her husband upon marriage. She, not he controlled the erection process ... Rome and Greece were in a permanent erotic tension
" ... Discovered in 1823, near the ancient theater in Lillebonne, this is the largest bronze statue of a deity to have survived from ancient Gaul. Apollo, considered a beneficent god, held a lyre in his left hand - a configuration that was particularly favored in northern and central-eastern Gaul. The proportions and balance of the figure, and the way the hair is arranged, testify to the strong influence of Greek forms from the fourth century BC on Gallo-Roman artists. ... " Louvre
Roman Hermaphrodite 241
Apollino - Roman art, 1st century AD, Uffizi Gallery
" ... This sculpture was moved to Florence from Villa Medici in Rome, together with the statues of the Medici Niobe Group, in 1770. Since its arrival in Florence, the Apollino has always remained in the Tribuna by Buontalenti, where a singular accident occurred around 1840: a painting fell on it and sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini was charged with restoring it. The right hand is also a modern reintegration, as well as the left arm from below the elbow, part of the base, the nose and the hair.
The graceful, naked male figure of the young god, gently leaning against a trunk and with his right hand on his head, is a Roman copy - dating back to the middle of the 1st century A. D., the so-called Lycian Apollo (Lykeios), attributed to late-classic sculptor Praxiteles of Athens, who worked during the 4th century b. C. The name “Lycian” can be traced back to the root of the Greek word for “light” and to the fact that the newly born Apollo was taken by his mother, Leto, to Lycia (a peninsula to the east of the island of Rhodes, now part of the Turkish province of Adalar), or to the god’s fame as a slayer of wolves (since “Lykos” is the Greek word for “wolf”). As for the statue in question – or better, for the original on which it is based – the name “Lycian” would seem to be due to the fact that it was thought to have been placed in the “Lyceum”, the school founded by Aristotle on the southern slopes of Mount Lycabettus in Athens around 335 b. C., near a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo.
The sinuous pose of the figure has been recognised as a characteristic of Praxiteles’ work: and it is not by chance that it can be seen in another of his works, perhaps the most copied statue in the ancient world, the famous Aphrodite of Knidos, also in the Tribuna, in the famous variation known as the Medici Venus.... " Uffizi
Woman with a penis to me ... What was going on back in the days of Aristotle for all this phallic display of female form?
-My answer is the caged penis and its (or her?) mirror the female phallus....
Roman Hermaphrodite 242
Lycian Apollo, Roman copy of Greek original by Praxiteles. 2nd - 1st century BC
Woman with a penis to me
Those are speculated to be the shields of vanquished Gauls beneath Apollo's foot
Roman Hermaphrodite 243
Roman sculpture of Dionysus and a satyr, after a Hellenistic original (marble) Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps, Rome, Italy
To me thats the young Bacchus and his companion Ampelus, the amazon with a penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 244
Ionic dances - Pompeii
Note the deep tan on the male dancer - that's the dog-leash effect
Roman Hermaphrodite 245
Fresco scene Pompeii - probably Oedipus Rex from the tiny sphinx on armchair of seated woman
Note the deep tans on the men - the "dog-leash" effect"
The current attribution is : "Hippolytus and Phaedra"
" ... The most common legend regarding Hippolytus states that he was killed after rejecting the advances of Phaedra, his stepmother, the second wife of Theseus. Spurned, Phaedra deceived Theseus saying that his son had raped her. Theseus, furious, used one of the three wishes given to him by Poseidon to curse Hippolytus. Poseidon sent a sea-monster—or, alternatively, Dionysus sent a wild bull—to terrorize Hippolytus's horses, who dragged their rider to his death. ..." Wikipedia
Roman Hermaphrodite 246
Apollo Citharoedus - Roman copy of Greek original by Praxiteles - Vatican
Woman with a penis to me.
Roman Hermaphrodite 247
Apollo Sauroktonos - Uffizi Gallery
Roman marble copy of a bronze by Praxiteles from around 360 BC, the Apollo Sauroktonos (“lizard-killer”).
Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 248
Dionysus and panther - source unknown
Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 249
Apollo Sauroktonos (“Lizard-killer”).Marble. Roman copy after a bronze original ca. 360 BCE by Praxiteles. Rome, Vatican Museums, Pius-Clementine Museum, Gallery of statues, 62
Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 250
" ... Roman imperial period, 2nd - 3rd century AD. Bronze cast, H with base 24cm. Naked Apollo putting his left foot on the Omphalos. The left elbow rests on the raised leg so that the upper body is slightly bent forward and the head is slightly extended. The long hair is tamed by a bandage and forms the typical curl motif over the forehead. The large base is richly profiled and decorated on the front with garlands, palm fronds and other decor in cold work. Somewhat provincial style, right arm broken. Delightful, velvety, dark green patina. ... " gmcoinart
Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 251
" ... A ROMAN BRONZE APOLLO
CIRCA LATE 1ST-EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
The tall youthful god depicted nude, standing with his weight on his right leg, leaning to his left with his left foot resting atop the omphalos, his left forearm on his knee, his wrist hanging languidly, holding his right hand out before him with his fingers curled around a now-missing attribute, presumably a laurel branch, his long center-parted hair bound in a twisted band of copper and silver and tied in an elaborate top-knot, with long curling tresses falling in back onto his shoulders, his articulated eyes in silver, his phallus also in silver, the omphalos patterned with crosshatching, on a tall pedestal base with raking moldings ... " Christie's
Woman with a penis to me
Not sure what's going on here - but it probably ties in to the "female phallus" and the Fon "rainbow serpent" and the roman male caged penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 252
Sitting Dionysus. Neo-Attic relief. Marble. 1st cent. A.D.... Naples, National Archaeological Museum
Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 253
" ... The II-century Roman statue is a replica after the bronze original of the celebrated Greek artist Praxiteles from 365-350 BC, representing Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer). In XVI century the statue looked very much fragmented and an extensive integration intervention was necessary. The scholars at the Medici Court of Cosimo I interpreted the god as Apollo Citharoedus, that is playing the lyre.
The only ancient part of the sculpture is the torso with the thighs, whereas head, arms and legs are the result of the XVI-Century restoration, as well as the lyre with the soft elegant drape and the refined polychromatic tripod with the embossed griffin. A coeval document attests the colored marbles acquired for the making of the tripod were assigned to the Florentine sculptor and restorer Giovan Battista Caccini, who also sculpted the other missing parts. ... " friendsoftheuffizigallery
The original head was probably like earlier examples of Apollo Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer) posted above - female with a penis
Egyptian Hermaphrodite 254
Female Egyptian Apollo - King Akhenaten - that's what Moses was rebelling against
Note the serpent in the sun ! That's the "female phallus"
Roman Hermaphrodite 255
" ... So-called “Apollo Barberini”. The musician god holds in his left arm the “kithara” and in his right one a cup .... Eyeballs in white stone and lashes in bronze (iris and pupils, lost, were made in colored materials). Probable copy of the cult statue in the temple of Apollo Palatinus in Rome (free reproduction of a work from 4th century BC). 1st–2nd century CE. ... " Wikipedia
Woman with a lyre to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 256
Apollo statue, 2nd century, Roman copy from a Greek original.
That's a woman's dress being lowered to reveal a penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 257
" ... Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Marble statue of Apollo holding a lyre ... It was found on the site of the round Temple of Venus (tholos) by the 18th century owner of the Villa, Conte Giuseppe Fede.
The god is depicted with his attributes; the lyre and the sacred snake Python. The tree trunk around which the snake is wrapped is inscribed with the words “Apollonios made it”.
Apollo, from the Temple of Venus (Casino Fede) at Hadrian’s Villa, Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket
The statue dates to circa AD 150 (during the reign of Antoninus Pius) and was restored circa 1790 ... " followinghadrian
Roman Hermaphrodite 258
Apollo Kitharoedos, Antonine, 100 AD - 199 AD, Parian marble, Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
Looks like a woman with a lyre to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 259
" Apollo Sauroctonos ... Statue of the type of Apollo Sauroctonus (lizard-killer) Roman copy from the AD 1st century ... after a Greek original of ca. 350 BC with 17th and 18th century restorations... Found in Rome, 17th century ... " Wikipedia (Louvre)
My analysis is Greece was not that different from Egypt - the sun god was female, not male. - The evidence from the artefact's seems overwhelming to me. The penis does not mean male - it's the female phallus ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 260
Apollo Saettante; detail, Roman, 100 B.C.–before A.D. 79; found in Pompeii, Italy, in 1817–18 Bronze - Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
" ... In the centre of Naples, Italy, the 16th-century Palazzo degli Studi houses the National Archaeological Museum, which holds one of the most important collections of classical antiquities, including ancient sculptures uncovered at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. The trio of cities were buried in the most violent eruption of Mt Vesuvius in Campania on a fateful day, August 24, 79 AD.
... For those not familiar with the Greek God Apollo, he was the ancient Greek God of archery, music, poetry, oracles, the sun, prophecy, medicine and knowledge. From all the images we have of him he was a handsome beardless athletic and radiant youth, a favourite of the rest of the gods, who were all meant to represent harmony, order and reason.
... In 2009 and 2010 the Getty Villa Museum in America, undertook analysis, conservation and re-stabilisation of the statue in consultation with the now re-named Museo Archeologico Nazionale at Naples as part of a cultural exchange program.
Processes in archaeology and conservation of important artefacts have changed a great deal over the years and artistic license is not something embraced any more, so a number of changes were made.
Getty conservator Erik Risser found that during the 1835 restoration Apollo had been reconstructed and re-assembled around an internal iron armature inserted through his left leg.
The most considered change that took place had been major adjustments to the drapery, which had been found to have dramatic ends added possibly in the 1860’s, although documentary evidence is yet to be found.
They had however compromised the ongoing integrity of the piece because of the added weight, which would add a considerable strain for the future.
So the joint decision was made between the two institutions to remove them and for the drapery to be put back as original sketches made when it was first found and restored indicated it should be.
A replica of the statue stands in the courtyard of the Temple of Apollo at Pompeii, while the original statue with its 19th century additions and 21st century removals, ... is held in trust for the nation of Italy in the National Archaeological Museum at Naples. ... "
Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle, 2013
That's a female head to me ....
Roman Hermaphrodite 261
Apollo Saettante; detail, Roman, 100 B.C.–before A.D. 79; found in Pompeii, Italy, in 1817–18 Bronze - Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
Roman Hermaphrodite 262
Apollo Saettante; detail, Roman, 100 B.C.–before A.D. 79; found in Pompeii, Italy, in 1817–18 Bronze - Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples
Roman Hermaphrodite 263
Statue of Young Centaur signed by Aristeas and Papias, Hadrianic period (117-138 AD)
Lucullan marble, From Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa (1736)
He's carrying a lagobolon (stick to catch hares) - which is usually associated with companions of the female Dionysus
Roman Hermaphrodite 264
Statuette of Apollo, 100–1 B.C. - Bronze, The Getty Center and Villa
-Looks female to me - with a penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 265
Virgil Mosaic, 3rd century AD - Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia.
" ... Virgil,wearing a toga and holding a scroll on his lap is attended by two Muses; Clio (history),stands on his left holding a scroll. Melpomene (tragedy),stands to the right with a tragic mask. The scroll is open at Aeneid I,line II: :O Muse! the cause and the crimes relate,What Goddess was provoked,and whence her hate!"
Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC),usually called Virgil or Vergil in English,was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. Virgil is ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey,the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy. According to the tradition,Virgil traveled to Greece around 19 BC in order to revise the Aeneid. While there he caught a fever and died in 19 BC. The mosaic,which dates from the 3rd Century AD,was discovered in Hadrumetum and is now on display in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. ... " Alamy
- Note the tan - probably the "dog-leash" effect
- Virgil might also be of African descent ... That's Troy - Asia minor blended with the world of 18th dynasty Egypt - or Negro Egypt
Roman Hermaphrodite 266
Dionysus and Ampelos c. 1st Century BC - 1st century AD - Christie's
Although Christie's has wrongly identified Dionysus as the tall figure and the small guy as the Satyr Ampelos
- It's the other way around. Ampelos - the "female Dionysus" is a tall woman with a penis - as is proven by he Algerian mosaic above.
Roman Hermaphrodite 267
Bacchic mosaic, Seville, Spain
That's probably an adult Dionysus in a chariot driven by his childhood companion Ampelos
Roman Hermaphrodite 268
Getty Center Statuette of Apollo (Getty Museum)
Statuette of Apollo, Greek, about 100 B.C.
" ... This Hellenistic silver statuette depicts Apollo, the Greek god of music and prophecy. He originally held a lyre in his left arm; the right hand may have held his lyre's pick. The god appears with long, wavy hair tied in a knot on the top of his head and locks escaping down onto his shoulders, a hairstyle also favored by the goddess Aphrodite. Apollo had always been represented as young and beautiful in Greek art, but in the Hellenistic period, his image became much softer and more effeminate.
Statues of the gods in precious metals such as gold and silver were popular among the wealthy for display in household shrines. Such statues were also found in temple treasuries, to which they had been given as elaborate and expensive gifts to the gods. ... "Getty Museum
- Woman with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 269
Triumph of Bacchus. Roman mosaic, 3rd century, Sousse Museum (Tunisia).
That's Ampelos in the chariot and one of the tanned, nude and leopard-skinned men in front of and behind her chariot is probably Dionysus - or maybe the infant riding a lion and carrying a lagobolon (stick to catch hares).
The tan on the men is caused by the penis "dog-leash"
Roman Hermaphrodite 270
Mosaic of the Triumph of Bacchus, 3rd century AD, from Ecija (Roman Astigi), Museum of Archaeology, Seville, Spain
The source for this got it wrong - thats not Dionysus on women's clothing - that's Ampelos with the nude Dionysus in the rear of the chariot
Roman Hermaphrodite 271
Tomb of the Bulls, detail from an interior. Tarquinia (Lazio). Etruscan civilization, 6th Century BC
Etruscans (Rome before Rome) had the female with a penis category - although its read as trans in modern discourse
- Those are two Amazons. The one on the left is a female nearly nude soldier and the one on the right is a female with a phallus riding a stallion
Roman Hermaphrodite 272
Tomb of the Bulls, detail from an interior. Tarquinia (Lazio). Etruscan civilization, 6th Century BC
In Etruscan erotica, the darker "dog-leashed" is usually the penis - but in this case, we have a dark-skinned female with a penis penetrating a light -skinned man.
The established reading of this scene is of homosexual love - but to me thats a woman with a penis - She has long blond hair - but deeply tanned skin
- My reading of this is a futa or goddess "binding" a male - the dog-leash tan comes after this initiation
Roman Hermaphrodite 273
Ritual Dance. Detail of a wall painting from the back wall of the Tomb of the Lionesses, Tarquinia. Ionian-Etruscan phase of the Etruscan Archaic style (c. 700-475 BC.) c. 530 BC, Paris.
The darker skinned dancer is usually read as male, but to me that's a phallic female - from the hair and details of the head and body. On the left is a regular dancing female or male
Roman Hermaphrodite 274
Etruscan Feast of Velthur Velch. 3rd—2nd centuries BC. Tarquinia, Tomb of the Shields
Lyre playing before sex. All men are tanned - ie. dog-leashed.
Roman Hermaphrodite 275
Tomb of the Bulls, detail from an interior. Tarquinia (Lazio). Etruscan civilization, 6th Century BC
Tanned, i.e. dog -leashed men servicing light skinned women.
The secret Rome - ie rule by the female phallus clearly flows from the previous Etruscan world.
That's not the same as rule by women - American households are ruled by women - but that's not the same thing ... The phallus has been ghettoized to the point of non-existence in modern corporate culture
It's probably fair to say the top layer of Roman society was etruscan:
" ... The Greeks gradually pushed the Etruscan border back toward the north. Rome expelled its last Etruscan king in 510, and a century later began capturing towns in Etruria. As they colonized the country, its cultural influence remained colossal. Many Roman clans were known to be of Etruscan origin, including the Julii that Caesar came from. They adopted the fasces symbol (birch rods wrapped around an axe) and many Etruscan deities, notably the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva (Tinia, Uni, Menrva). Likewise Nethuns shifted to Neptunus, Maris to Mars, Velchans to Vulcanus. They adopted Etruscan technologies of stone-working, architecture, hydraulics and engineering, and their letters were derived from the alphabet as it was used in Etruria. Where the Romans differed most dramatically was in the status of women, with one exception that may be attributed to Etruscan influence: they retained women’s right of inheritance. ... " Women of Etruria by Mark Cartwright and Max Dashu
- Another Etruscan inheritance that Rome received was the open or "poly" marriage - since property rights of women were protected, Roman marriages were easily dissolved.
The one exception Rome had from Etruscan society was the control of children. In Rome and Greece - the father had absolute control. Etruscan woman were able to inherit both property and children after the dissolution of a marriage. Etruscan society has been mythologized as a true matriarchy in this sense
Roman Hermaphrodite 276
Tomb of the Triclinium - Tanned - or dog-leashed lyre player and two women dancers:
" ... Scenes of dancers occupy the flanking left and right walls. The left wall scene contains four dancers—three female and one male—and a male musician playing the barbiton, an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre.
Common painterly conventions of gender typing are employed—the skin of females is light in color while male skin is tinted a darker tone of orange-brown. ... " Jeffrey A Baker
The lyre - to me signals sex is about to begin - with the sex object being the tanned music maker ....
Roman Hermaphrodite 277
Tomb of the Triclinium - Tanned - or dog-leashed lyre player
Roman Hermaphrodite 278
Dancers from the walls of the Etruscan Tomb of the Triclinium, Tarquinia, central Italy. c. 470 BCE.
Scantily clothed male - clothed female - the Etruscan pattern was females chasing males
Theopompus of Chios, 4th cent. BC (Histories Book 43)
" ... Sharing wives is an established Etruscan custom. Etruscan women take particular care of their bodies and exercise often, sometimes along with the men, and sometimes by themselves. It is not a disgrace for them to be seen naked. They do not share their couches with their husbands but with the other men who happen to be present, and they propose toasts to anyone they choose. They are expert drinkers and very attractive.
The Etruscans raise all the children that are born, without knowing who their fathers are. The children live the way their parents live, often attending drinking parties and having sexual relations with all the women. It is no disgrace for them to do anything in the open, or to be seen having it done to them, for they consider it a native custom. . .. "
That's polyandry! - probably caused by the dog-leash... And the futa or earth goddess that "bound" Etruscan men
Theopompus has been criticized by comparing the fully clothed women from the Etruscan tombs to his descriptions - but I think he was describing a basic truth - the "females with a penis" examples from Rome above back this up
Roman Hermaphrodite 279
Etruscan girl tuning a lyre
To me that's a pre-sex ritual
Roman Hermaphrodite 280
Nearly naked and dog-leashed male flutist from the walls of the Etruscan Tomb of the Triclinium, Tarquinia, central Italy. c. 470 BC.
Roman Hermaphrodite 281
Nearly naked and dog-leashed male dancer from the walls of the Etruscan Tomb of the Triclinium, Tarquinia, central Italy. c. 470 BC.
Roman Hermaphrodite 282
Bronze Etruscan votive figure with inscription c. 3rd century BC - Christie's
Probably a female with a phallus
Roman Hermaphrodite 283
Painted terracotta funerary urn lid of an Etruscan woman with a leaf shaped fan, from Chiusi, ca. 150-120 BC, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany
Roman Hermaphrodite 284
Etruscan Sarcophagus c. 150BC-140BC
" ...Painted terracotta sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, her name inscribed on the chest. She reclines upon a mattress and pillow, holding an open lidded-mirror in her left hand and raising her right hand to adjust her mantle. She wears a chiton with high girdle, a bordered mantle, and jewellery comprising a diadem, ear-rings, necklace, bracelets and finger-rings. ... " Wikimedia
Roman Hermaphrodite 285
Etruscan Feast of Lars Velch, the Tomb of The Shields, Necropolis of Tarquinia
Original in the Tomba degli Scudi (Tarquinia, after 350 B.C.). Larth Velcha and his wife Velia Seitithi, identified by inscriptions, are banqueting accompanied by a young girl with a fan. Above a dark wall several rows of inscriptions. Under the figure frieze a row of black wave pattern. (NY Carlsberg Glyptotek Catalogue)
Note the tanned husband - the dog-leash effect! - This seems to be much more common in Etruscan art than in Roman art. In Roman art only a small percentage of men have the deep tan. I read that Pompeii is a purely Etruscan town - we can infer that Eros was the overlord of the Etruscan world- and specifically the erect female phallus
Roman Hermaphrodite 286
Etruscan Komos scene/ komasts and hetaera in explicit and acrobatic positions, two kraters on the floor. Attic black-figure neck-amphora, ca. 560 BC. From Vulci
Tanned dog-leashed men entertaining pale skinned women
These appear and disappear on the internet - like the African Legba's
Roman Hermaphrodite 287
Roman Basalt statue of Hermaphrodite Eros
2nd - 3rd century AD, Syria
" ... A young naked standing figure sculpted in the Roman Province of Syria - characterised in the oriental taste. The left arm, folded on his chest, is encircled by an armilla. The body has a prominent belly, voluptuous hips and bottom, with tapering legs and to the rear the remainder of wings.
Provenance: Property of an Italian Noble family since 1980s ...
Dimensions: H 44cm (with stand 66cm) ... " Toad Gallery
- That's not a man - its a female with a phallus
- Syria seems to have been that mysterious in-between space between Rome and Islam - The world of "She" and the queen of Sheba .... Syria and Carthage
Roman Hermaphrodite 288
Labeled: "Pan on the hoof, Bronze, Roman 1st to 3rd century AD, from southern Italy. On display at the British Museum"
Really Faunus on the hoof though
Faunus is not ambiguous to the believing Christian - that's Satan!
Not to the Romans though - Faunus gave Roman wives a functioning penis ... With all that implies
- The male chastity "dog-leash" that Roman women placed on their husbands penis was a transfer of penis in literal sense ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 289
"Alchemy: Woodcut of hermaphrodite from Barthelemy Aneau, Picta Poesis, 1552. An Alchemy artwork."
and: " On the top of the image two Pelicans nourishing their young ones with blood from their own breasts, a symbol both of the alchemical stage of 'cibation', or the nourishing of the Philospher's Stone born of the chemical wedding. " guity-novin.blogspot
I mistook this for a Tarot card. But many of the themes of this page are condensed here - notably the hermaphrodite and Faunus - but in 1552 Faunus would have been the devil. That's why I initially called this the Devil Tarot card ...
To the left is what I presume is the Magus.
The hermaphrodite is in the shape of a living tree - which has parallels to the Haitian Potomitan, which has been described as the world tree or Axis Mundi.
Another association for me is Bacchus and his tall female/male companion Ampelus - who died and was transformed into the grapevine.
- In todays sacred plant culture - like Ayahuasca and Marijuana - the plant or weed is sometimes described as a vine growing out into the whole world ... And the vine is usually referred to as a "great mother" - a female spirit
- The Roman's were probably closer to the mark, Mother Ayahuasca probably has a penis - a phallic goddess ... That's what's missing in the present day discourse - the female phallus ...
Roman Hermaphrodite 290
Apollo Citaredo, Roman-age replica of an original dating from the late 2nd - early 1st century. B.C. - Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Italy
Female with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 291
Drunken statuary group of Dionysus who leans with one arm around the neck of a satyr , Roman period / imperial age; original to be copied was in Athens - National Archaeological Museum of Venice
Bacchus and his childhood companion, the Amazon with a penis Ampelus to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 292
Etruscan Bronze statuette of Selvans. Third century BC. Cortona, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca, Italy
" ... A bronze statuette of an athlete ... has the following inscription
:ecn:turce:avle:havrnas:tuθina:apana:selvansltularias
,‘‘This gave Avle Havrnas [tuthina apana,meaning unknown] to Selvans of the Boundaries.’ ... "
The Religion of the Etruscans - Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon, Editors (2006)
Looks like a female with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 293
Bronze mirror from Volaterrae with Hercle nursing at Uni’s breast. 325–300 BC. Florence, Museo Archeologico, Italy
" ... Bronze Mirror from Volaterra. Clearly religious in character is an engraved bronze mirror from Volaterrae (whose inscription, a legal-religious document, has important implications. An imposingly regal, enthroned female figure, Uni, is pictured nursing a full-grown Hercle, while four gods stand by as witnesses. Among these are Apollo, recognizable by his laurel branch, and an older god holding a trident or lightning bolt, either Nethuns or Tinia. He points to a tablet on which the Etruscan Inscriptions significance of the scene is explained
:eca: sren: tva: iχnachercle:unialclan:θra:sce,
‘‘This picture shows how Hercle became Uni’s son (or: drank milk).’’
This mother goddess, Uni,is carrying out an adoption ritual witnessed by four other gods.While Greek myth tells the story of the nursing of Herakles by Hera, his jealous stepmother, in the context of the conflict between the goddess and the hero, the story is not illustrated in the Greek art that has come down to us, in contrast, there are a number of representations of this mythological nursing scene: as on this mirror, Uni is reconciled with Hercle by means of a ritual familiar from the Near East and Egypt but downplayed in Greece. It is in fact the Etruscan version that best illustrates for us the meaning of his name in Greek, ‘‘Glory of Hera.’’ ... "
The Religion of the Etruscans - Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon, Editors (2006)
Apollo and the other witness god on the left seem to be female to me - but phallic female ... female hair, no beard
My guess is the other female goddess with a penis is the Etruscan Dionysus - Fufluns or Pacha based on comparison with the necklace around her neck
Roman Hermaphrodite 294
Etruscan Votive terracotta statue showing incision and internal organs, 300–200 B.C. , Terracotta, Getty Museum
That's a vagina on a male torso - I suppose an offering to a goddess with a penis
Roman Hermaphrodite 295
Apollo Liceo, 2nd to 3rd century AD, Imperial Roman
" ... APOLLO LICEO DATING: II-III sec. d. C. MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUE: medium grain white marble, sculpted and polished PRODUCTION: Roman culture A slightly smaller size than the natural statue that depicts the naked god, with his right arm raised and resting on his head, his torso turned to the left, the weight resting on the right leg, while the other is flexed at the knee. Apollo is depicted young, with the characteristic hairstyle of the hair knotted at the top of the head and combed into large locks that join in a bun on the nape of the neck. The young god is pictured here with his body and musculature as a teenager still in training. ... " ITINERIS auction house
Female with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 296
Apollo Licio
" ... The Apollo Licio or Apollo Liceo (in Greek language ... Apollon Lukeios) is a sculpture attributed to Praxiteles and today only exists through copies of the Roman era of the first century BC and depictions on coins . The fame of the statue gave way to a whole type of statuary known precisely as "Apollo Licio type". ... " Wikipedia
Looks like a female with a penis to me
Roman Hermaphrodite 297
Apollo Licio - Roman copy attributed to Praxiteles, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Italy
Looks like a woman with a penis to me
- Roman Hermaphrodite 298
Statue of Apollo - From Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa. 2nd cent. AD. Pergamon Museum, Berlin - Lyre added in 18th century
Woman with a me a penis to me
- Roman Hermaphrodite 299
Contest of Apollo and Marsyas. Relief from Mantineia, Greece. c. 350 BC. National Museum, Athens.
" ...In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas is a central figure in two stories involving music: in one, he picked up the double oboe (aulos) that had been abandoned by Athena and played it; in the other, he challenged Apollo to a contest of music and lost his hide and life. In antiquity, literary sources often emphasise the hubris of Marsyas and the justice of his punishment.
In one strand of modern comparative mythography, the domination of Marsyas by Apollo is regarded as an example of myth that recapitulates a supposed supplanting by the Olympian pantheon of an earlier "Pelasgian" religion of chthonic heroic ancestors and nature spirits. Marsyas was a devoté of the ancient Mother Goddess Rhea/Cybele, and his episodes are situated by the mythographers in Celaenae (or Kelainai), in Phrygia, at the main source of the Meander (the river Menderes in Turkey)..." Wikipedia
- Not sure about that! The mother godess's were Athena and Apollo!
I suppose there was a shift from earth mothers to sky mothers - but Apollo is a phallic mother ...
The seated figure of Apollo with a lyre is female
- Roman Hermaphrodite 300
Apollon Kitharodos - Heykeli Burdur Müzesi, Turkey
Seated woman to me
- Roman Hermaphrodite 301
The restored Antonine Nymphaeum, erected ca. 160-180 AD, Sagalassos, Turkey - Carole Raddato
" .... A nymphaeum or nymphaion, in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs.
These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habitations to the local nymphs. They were sometimes so arranged as to furnish a supply of water, as at Pamphylian Side. A nymphaeum dedicated to a local water nymph, Coventina, was built along Hadrian's Wall, in the northernmost reach of the Roman Empire. Subsequently, artificial grottoes took the place of natural ones. ... " Wikipedia
That's a replica of female Dionysus on the right - Ampelus - the goddess (with a penis) of the grape vine...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 302
The restored western tabernacle of the Antonine Nymphaeum with replica statue of Dionysus and Satyr, erected ca. 160-180 AD, Sagalassos, Turkey - Carole Raddato
That's Bacchus and Ampelus
- Roman Hermaphrodite 303
Marble statue of Dionysus and Satyr, from the eastern tabernacle of the Antonine Nympheum, 160-180 AD, Burdur Museum © Carole Raddato
That's Bacchus and Ampelus
- Roman Hermaphrodite 304
Nemesis, from the Antonine Nymphaeum, 160-180 AD, Burdur Museum, Turkey - Carole Raddato
" ... In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous"), is the goddess who enacts retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods) ... " Wikipedia
- Roman Hermaphrodite 305
Apollo citaredo. Late 2nd century AD. Bardo Museum, Tunis, Tunisia
Thats a phallic woman
- Roman Hermaphrodite 306
Statue of Apollo - Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Netherlands
Thats a woman with a penis - Bacchus and Ampelus on other side
- Roman Hermaphrodite 307
Marble statues of Apollo Citaredo and four muses - frigidarium of the Baths of Faustina, Miletus, Turkey. Roman Civilization, 2nd century AD. Istanbul, Arkeoloji Muzerleri (Archaeological Museum)
-Dreamt of 4 massive coiled serpents where the four muses are lined up - The Baths of Faustina, Turkey were almost certainly a power sex place
Second from the right is Melpomene:
- " ... initially the Muse of Chorus, she then became the Muse of Tragedy, for which she is best known now. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song." She is often represented with a tragic mask and wearing the cothurnus, boots traditionally worn by tragic actors. Often, she also holds a knife or club in one hand and the tragic mask in the other.
Melpomene is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Her sisters include Calliope (muse of epic poetry), Clio (muse of history), Euterpe (muse of lyrical poetry), Terpsichore (muse of dancing), Erato (muse of erotic poetry), Thalia (muse of comedy), Polyhymnia (muse of hymns), and Urania (muse of astronomy). She is also the mother of several of the Sirens, the divine handmaidens of Kore (Persephone/Proserpina) who were cursed by her mother, Demeter/Ceres, when they were unable to prevent the kidnapping of Kore (Persephone/Proserpina) by Hades/Pluto.
In Greek and Latin poetry since Horace , it was commonly auspicious to invoke Melpomene. ... " Wikipedia
- Roman Hermaphrodite 308
Nemesis - replica, at the restored the Antonine Nymphaeum, 160-180 AD - Sagalassos, Turkey
" ... The Nerva–Antonine dynasty was a dynasty of seven Roman Emperors who ruled over the Roman Empire from AD 96 to 192. These Emperors are Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. The first five of them (excluding Lucius Verus) are commonly known as the "Five Good Emperors". ... " Wikipedia
Trajan expanded Rome into Arabia - there is also probably an east African component to his rule - those are the dream images from long ago - Roman power moving into the "dark continent"
" ... Sagalassos , also known as Selgessos and Sagallesos , is an archaeological site in southwestern Turkey, about 100 km north of Antalya (ancient Attaleia), and 30 km from Burdur and Isparta. The ancient ruins of Sagalassos are 7 km from Aglasun (as well as being its namesake) in the province of Burdur, on Mount Akdag, in the Western Taurus mountains range, at an altitude of 1450–1700 metres. In Roman Imperial times, the town was known as the "first city of Pisidia", a region in the western Taurus mountains, currently known as the Turkish Lakes Region.
... Under the Roman Empire, Sagalassos became the important urban center of Pisidia, particularly favoured by the Emperor Hadrian, who named it the "first city" of the province and the center of the imperial cult. Contemporary buildings have a fully Roman character.
Around 400 AD Sagalassos was fortified for defence. An earthquake devastated it in 518 and a plague circa 541-543 halved the local population. Arab raids threatened the town around 640 and after another earthquake destroyed the town in the middle of the seventh century, the site was abandoned.. ... " Wikipedia
- Roman Hermaphrodite 309
Apollo Citharoedus, Turkey - copy of the sculpture from 350 BC made by Scopas
That's a woman to me
- Roman Hermaphrodite 310
Roman statue of a Dancing Woman . Marble. Perge. 2nd century AD. Antalya Archaeology Museum; Turkey.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 311
Roman woman with a penis in center - or "The statue of the Great God Mamblasenos/Apollo."
" .... The statue is about 85cm in height .... The
standing God bearing a chlamys on his shoulders
exposes his naked body. He holds the laurel branch in
his partly extended right hand. His left arm is resting on
a pillar forming the support, which has evidence of
ancient repairs with iron drift and lock pins. His right leg
is resting on a tree trunk while the left leg is set somewhat backwards. He is somewhat feminine in posture; his hair, lightly curled, flows in ringlets down his neck and rises to the summit of his cranium with a double flaring knot, which recalls the lampadion hair style .... On the inscribed base of the statue: “Pauleinos dedicated (it) to the Great God Mamblasenos” is written ... . According to this inscription the statue was sculpted as a votive to the great God Mablasenos which sounds absolutely native in its phonetic. However the typological features of the Arpalik Tepe statue definitely identifies the God Apollo. ... " The Great God Mamblasenos, Gul Isin
On left a woman inhabited by Faunus with an erection and fruit basket on the right
Antalya Archaeology Museum; Turkey.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 312
Augusta Julia Domna Pisidian coin 193 - 211 AD
" ... Obverse: IVLIA AVGVSTA. Draped bust right.
Reverse: ANTIOCHEN COL CA. Genius standing left, wearing modius and holding cornucopia and branch.
Very nice exemplar of provincial bronze issued in the pisidian (Asia Minor) city of Antioch. ... " ma-shops
Julia Domna was an Arab Augusta - this suggests Roman power in 211 AD extended into Arabia - and probably Africa
- "She" and the "Queen of Sheba" probably link up with the power of the Augusta's. When you read accounts of the Queen of Sheba, there is usually an urban core where she was based - I have never been able to place this urban core in Africa - but even the Arab vision is lacking - most images of these lands are of nomadic settlements not cities with running fountains for example. But there are probably massive urban settlements in Africa and Arabia waiting to be discovered.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 313
Three Graces Statue - Roman marble. Antalya Archeological Museum, Turkey
- Roman Hermaphrodite 314
Statue of a Genius with cornucopia ( Genius of Emperor Domitian 81-96 AD ) Roman Capitoline Museum , Italy
That's what's on the Julia Domna coin - a genius with a cornucopia - but that's probably a woman with a penis
- Roman Hermaphrodite 315
Apollo with Kithara, Roman Empire, mosaic, 1st/2nd century AD, House of Dionysus, Paphos, Cyprus.
Probably female from lack of dog-leash tan and the female robes, and lack of a beard
- Roman Hermaphrodite 316
Mosaic Apollo and Daphne, The Western Portico, Room 16, Archaeological park, Paphos, Republic of Cyprus
Apollo is famous for being put under a love spell for the nymph Daphne by eros. This probably proves Apollo was male - but ancient depictions of this event never show Apollo as a fully dog-leashed and bearded male:
" ... Apollo, the Greek/Roman god of music, poetry, art, the sun and a great warrior, mocked the god of love, Eros (Cupid), for his use of bow and arrow, as Apollo is also patron of archery. “What are you doing with powerful weapons, naughty boy?” he said. "That equipment of yours is fitting of our shoulders, which are able to give certain wounds to wild animals, and to enemies, I who recently killed the swollen Python, who was pressing down so many acres with his disease-bearing belly, with countless arrows! You will be content to provoke some loves by your fire, not to lay claim to my honors.” This is the context behind the story.
The insulted Eros then prepared two arrows: one of gold and one of lead. He shot Apollo with the gold arrow, instilling in the god a passionate love for the river nymph Daphne. He shot Daphne with the lead arrow, instilling in her a hatred for Apollo. Having taken after Apollo’s sister, Artemis (Diana), Daphne had spurned her many potential lovers, preferring instead woodland sports and exploring the forest. Due to her identity as an “aemula Phoebes” (female rival or emulator of Artemis), she had dedicated herself to perpetual virginity. Her father, the river god Peneus, demanded that she get married and give him grandchildren. She, however, begged her father to let her remain unmarried; he eventually complied.
Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued to reject him. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened, helping Apollo catch up to Daphne. Seeing that Apollo was bound to reach her, she called upon her father, "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!" And with that, Peneus answered her plea and “a heavy numbness seizes her limbs; her soft breasts are surrounded by a thin bark, her hair changes into foliage, her arms change into branches; her foot, just now swift, now clings to sluggish roots.” She turned into a laurel tree.
In spite of Daphne's terror and fervent insistence that he leave her alone, Apollo vowed to honor her forever: “Always my hair will have you, my lyres will have you, my quivers will have you, laurel tree. You will be present for the Latin leaders when a happy voice will sing a triumph and the Capitoline Hill will see long processions.”
Apollo also used his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render Daphne evergreen ("you also, wear always the perpetual honors of your foliage!"). For this reason, the leaves of the Bay laurel tree do not decay. ... " Wikipedia
- Roman Hermaphrodite 317
Mosaic Apollo and Daphne, Hatay Archaeology Museum, Antakya. Turkey
- Roman Hermaphrodite 318
Bronze Apollo statue - Roman period, circa 2nd c AD - Christie's
Female with a penis to me
- Roman Hermaphrodite 319
Colossal Roman Apollo Citharoedus - found in 1670. Restored by Giuseppe Giorgetti - Piazza Barberini, Rome
Female head - androgynous body - that seems to be the pattern with Apollo.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 320
Sarcophagus of the musical contest between Apollo and the satyr Marsyas - Cose Italy to 290-300 AD, marble
This seems to have been when the Amazons began to rule the Greco-Roman world. There is only one standing bearded figure and at the end he is flayed ...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 321
Detail - Sarcophagus with Marsyas and Apollo. Marble. From Sidon, Lebanon. C. 200-210 A.D. Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum. Copenhagen. Denmark
The seated Apollo has a penis, but no beard. That's an amazon to me. The other women - no beards, also have a set of horns - probably Faunus horns - which means they probably have a penis under those gowns ...
Sarcophagus is from Lebanon during the days of Julia Domna - an Arab Augusta. Rome probably had a secret female ruling cult in the 200's
- Roman Hermaphrodite 322
Sarcophagus with Marsyas and Apollo. Marble. From Sidon, Lebanon. C. 200-210 A.D. Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum. Copenhagen. Denmark
- Roman Hermaphrodite 323
Mosaic of the musical contest between Marsya, and the god Apollo - House of the Aion, Archaeological park of Paphos, Republic of Cyprus / Pafos
Seated Apollo is in female robes and has no beard ...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 324
Marble sarcophagus with the contest between the Muses and the Sirens.
The deities Athena, Zeus, and Hera, assembled at the far left, preside over a musical contest, 3rd century AD, Late Imperial period, Metropolitan Museum of Art
" ... Of all the Olympic deities, none occupy a more distinguished position than the Muses, the nine beautiful daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.
In their original signification, they presided merely over music, song, and dance; but with the progress of civilization the arts and sciences claimed their special presiding divinities, and we see these graceful creations, in later times, sharing among them various functions, such as poetry, astronomy, etc.
The Muses were honoured alike by mortals and immortals. In Olympus, where Apollo acted as their leader, no banquet or festivity was considered complete without their joy-inspiring presence, and on earth no social gathering was celebrated without libations being poured out to them; nor was any task involving intellectual effort ever undertaken, without earnestly supplicating their assistance.
They endowed their chosen favourites with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding; they bestowed upon the orator the gift of eloquence, inspired the poet with his noblest thoughts, and the musician with his sweetest harmonies. Like so many of the Greek divinities, however, the refined conception of the Muses is somewhat marred by the acerbity with which they punished any effort on the part of mortals to rival them in their divine powers. An instance of this is seen in the case of Thamyris, a Thracian bard, who presumed to invite them to a trial of skill in music.
Having vanquished him, they not only afflicted him with blindness, but deprived him also of the power of song. Another example of the manner in which the gods punished presumption and vanity is seen in the story of the daughters of King Pierus. Proud of the perfection to which they had brought their skill in music, they presumed to challenge the Muses themselves in the art over which they specially presided.
The contest took place on Mount Helicon, and it is said that when the mortal maidens commenced their song, the sky became dark and misty, whereas when the Muses raised their heavenly voices, all nature seemed to rejoice, and Mount Helicon itself moved with exultation. The Pierides were signally defeated, and were transformed by the Muses into singing birds, as a punishment for having dared to challenge comparison with the immortals. Undeterred by the above example, the Sirens also entered into a similar contest.
The songs of the Muses were loyal and true, whilst those of the Sirens were the false and deceptive strains with which so many unfortunate mariners had been lured to their death. The Sirens were defeated by the Muses, and as a mark of humiliation, were deprived of the feathers with which their bodies were adorned.
The oldest seat of the worship of the Muses was Pieria in Thrace, where they were supposed to have first seen the light of day. Pieria is a district on one of the sloping declivities of Mount Olympus, whence a number of rivulets, as they flow towards the plains beneath, produce those sweet, soothing sounds, which may possibly have suggested this spot as a fitting home for the presiding divinities of song.
They dwelt on the summits of Mounts Helicon, Parnassus, and Pindus, and loved to haunt the springs and fountains which gushed forth amidst these rocky heights, all of which were sacred to them and to poetic inspiration. Aganippe and Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and the Castalian spring on Mount Parnassus, were sacred to the Muses. The latter flowed between two lofty rocks above the city of Delphi, and in ancient times its waters were introduced into a square stone basin, where they were retained for the use of the Pythia and the priests of Apollo.
The libations to these divinities consisted of water, milk, and honey, but never of wine. Their names and functions are as follows:
CALLIOPE, the most honoured of the Muses, presided over heroic song and epic poetry, and is represented with a pencil in her hand, and a slate upon her knee.
CLIO, the muse of History, holds in her hand a roll of parchment, and wears a wreath of laurel.
MELPOMENE, the muse of Tragedy, bears a tragic mask.
THALIA, the muse of Comedy, carries in her right hand a shepherd's crook, and has a comic mask beside her.
POLYHYMNIA, the muse of Sacred Hymns, is crowned with a wreath of laurel. She is always represented in a thoughtful attitude, and entirely enveloped in rich folds of drapery.
TERPSICHORE, the muse of Dance and Roundelay, is represented in the act of playing on a seven-stringed lyre.
URANIA, the muse of Astronomy, stands erect, and bears in her left hand a celestial globe.
EUTERPE, the muse of Harmony, is represented bearing a musical instrument, usually a flute.
ERATO, the muse of Love and hymeneal songs, wears a wreath of laurel, and is striking the chords of a lyre.
With regard to the origin of the Muses, it is said that they were created by Zeus in answer to a request on the part of the victorious deities, after the war with the Titans, that some special divinities should be called into existence, in order to commemorate in song the glorious deeds of the Olympian gods ... ".
From: Berens, E.M. The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome. New York: Maynard, Merril, & Co., 1880. Text in the public domain.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 325
Roman Apollo with a lyre, copied from an earlier 4th century BC Hellenistic statue, from a group of Muses found in Villa de Cassius at Tivoli - Vatican Museum Rome
Female playing a lyre to me (with a flayed Marsyas on it) - Zeus had a 10th daughter in addition to the 9 muses: Apollo
Reminds me of the 9 daughters of Gikuyu who founded the 9 clans of the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya. According to myth, women were the traditional rulers of the tribe ...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 326
Bronze statue of Apollo Citharoedus, House of the Citharist, Pompeii - the original in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples
That's a woman with a penis - no beard, female hair
- Roman Hermaphrodite 327
Original Bronze statue of Apollo Citharoedus, House of the Citharist, Pompeii - the original in th National Archaeological Museum of Naples
That's a female head; - down below is a caged penis ....
Zeus also had a caged penis - his "key-holder" was Hera - Etruscans worshiped Hera as the prime deity ...
Not only was Zeus "caged" - but he practiced male birth from his thigh - when he birthed Dionysus ...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 328
Labeled "Electra and Orestes" 1st cent BC- but probably a goddess and a mortal
" ... Orestes and Electra, Roman Sculpture, 1st cent. BC, marble
This sculpture was found in the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi in Rome and is ascribed to the sculptor Menelaus. Guesses have been made concerning the figures represented in this sculpture. The comparative size and protecting demeanor of the female figure have led some to believe that this might be the representation of a mother and son -- perhaps Penelope and Telemachos -- rather than brother and sister.
In any case, the sculpture is thought to depict a moment of anagnorisis, a recognition scene, such as the one of Orestes and Electra in Aeschylus' Libation Bearers. ... " Columbia College
- Roman Hermaphrodite 329
Roman Sarcophagus with Apollo and the Muses - Piedmont Canavese Agliè - The Castle - sabauda residence -Tuscolana room
Nude Apollo and the 9 muses plus a helmeted goddess - No beards and all female hair.
Zeus was the king of the gods - but most of the Greco Roman deities after the fall of Saturn are female - usually females with a phallus ..
- Roman Hermaphrodite 330
Sarcophagus relief - Muses and Poet. Octagonal Courtyard Pio Clementino ( Vatican Museum Rome Italy )
- Roman Hermaphrodite 331
Apollo and the satyr Marsyas compete in a musical contest
Apollo has a female head - no beard and female hair on an androgynous torso plus a caged penis
Attic Red Figure Krater - Attributed to the Pothos Painter c. 430 - 410 B.C. - British Museum, London
- Roman Hermaphrodite 332
" ... Sarcophagus of a married couple. About 240 AD. The couple extending hands to each other also appear in the side panels. He as a Greek orator, she as a muse, a cultural ideal. Glyptothek. Munich. Germany. ... " Alamy
- That's probably where the female phallus comes from - the caged penis
- Roman Hermaphrodite 333
Marble Sarcophagus with Dionysus and Ariadne. c. 200 A.D. From Vigna Casali, Rome. Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum. Copenhagen. Denmark.
That's the female Dionysus center left or Ampelus - from the hair. Bacchus is probably the nude with the lagobolon or stick to catch hares third from right. On both ends you can see women occupied by the spirit of Faunus - that's a male head on a female body - under the gowns are almost certainly a female phallus
- Roman Hermaphrodite 334
Ancient Roman Republic silver coin, denarius, 66 BC,
left - head of Apollo,
right - Terpsichore the Muse of dance with cithara;
moneyer Quintus Pomponius
Head of Apollo seems female to me - Apollo was a phallic woman to the Roman Republic
Shot blocked - used workaround
- Roman Hermaphrodite 335
Sarcophagus of Julius Longinus, head of the decurions at Misenus, with depictions of Apollo, Minerva, and the nine Muses, Roman, 3rd century AD . Castellammare Di Stabia, Antiquarium Stabiano (Archaeological Museum)
No beards - one penis on a nude Apollo - that's a phallic woman. The muses seem to have two horns on their heads - probably related to Faunus
- Roman Hermaphrodite 336
Sarcophagus relief with Apollo, Minerva, and the Muses, Rome, Italy - Marble, around 200 AD Altes Museum, Berlin
No beards - nude Apollo with a penis on left
- Roman Hermaphrodite 337
Sarcophagus of the Muses, c. 150 B.C. From Rome, Italy. , Musée Du Louvre
- Roman Hermaphrodite 338
Sarcophagus of the Muses. White marble. Rome, 180—200 AD. Vienna, Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum)
"Nine Muses and their divine patrons — Athena and Apollo.
Athena leaning against an oil-tree stands in the center of composition. She wears a helmet and holds a spear. Her aegis is seen by her feet. There is a snake on the tree and an owl on the ground near the goddess — her attributes symbolizing her wisdom.
A naked figure of Apollo Musagetes is the last on the right. A small Gryphon — winged mythical creature whose rider was Apollo — sits on the ground by the god." Vienna, Museum of Art History
Apollo Musagetes has a penis but is not a god - she's a goddess. A god would have a beard unless he was an infant
- Roman Hermaphrodite 339
Sarcophagus lid with five Muses, Galleria Borghese
Probably 4 muses and a semi nude Apollo with lyre in the middle
Not sure what the original sources call Apollo - god or goddess, but the images from ancient Greece a clearly female - on Wikipedia we read that the Amazons even had a temple dedicated to Apollo:
"Amazonius: Pausanias at the Description of Greece writes that near Pyrrhichus there was a sanctuary of Apollo, called Amazonius with image of the god said to have been dedicated by the Amazons. " Wikipedia
Apollo must have been one of the deities of the Augusta and perhaps a similar office in Greece - a woman with a penis
- Roman Hermaphrodite 340
Lamp-bearer/ Hermaphrodite
Five wrecks dating from the period 150-50 BC
Musée national du Bardo, Tunis
inv. no F 109. © Exhib. Bonn, 1994 / Das Wrack. Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, pl. 21.
Plato on Androgyny:
W. Hamilton considers that Aristophanes' speech, which comes next, is one of Plato's most brilliant literary achievements. The speech has become a focus of subsequent scholarly debate, as it has been seen as mere comic relief, and sometimes as satire: the creation myth Aristophanes puts forward to account for sexuality may be read as poking fun at the myths concerning the origins of humanity, numerous in classical Greek mythology.
Before starting his speech, Aristophanes warns the group that his eulogy to love may be more absurd than funny. His speech is an explanation of why people in love say they feel "whole" when they have found their love partner. He begins by explaining that people must understand human nature before they can interpret the origins of love and how it affects their own times. This is, he says because in primal times people had doubled bodies, with faces and limbs turned away from one another. As spherical creatures who wheeled around like clowns doing cartwheels, these original people were very powerful. There were three sexes: the all male, the all female, and the "androgynous," who was half male, half female. The males were said to have descended from the sun, the females from the earth and the androgynous couples from the moon. These creatures tried to scale the heights of Olympus and planned to set upon the gods . Zeus thought about blasting them with thunderbolts but did not want to deprive himself of their devotions and offerings, so he decided to cripple them by chopping them in half, in effect separating the two bodies.
Ever since that time, people run around saying they are looking for their other half because they are really trying to recover their primal nature. The women who were separated from women run after their own kind, thus creating lesbians. The men split from other men also run after their own kind and love being embraced by other men. Those that come from original androgynous beings are the men and women that engage in heterosexual love. He says some people think homosexuals are shameless, but he thinks they are the bravest, most manly of all, as evidenced by the fact that only they grow up to be politicians, and that many heterosexuals are adulterous and unfaithful. Aristophanes then claims that when two people who were separated from each other find each other, they never again want to be separated. This feeling is like a riddle, and cannot be explained. Aristophanes ends on a cautionary note. He says that men should fear the gods, and not neglect to worship them, lest they wield the ax again and we have to go about hopping on one leg, split apart again. If a man works with the god of Love, they will escape this fate and instead find wholeness. ... " Wikipedia
- Roman Hermaphrodite 341
Lamp-bearer: winged Eros/Hermaphrodite
Five wrecks dating from the period 150-50 BC
Musée national du Bardo, Tunis
inv. no F 216. © Exhib. Bonn, 1994 / Das Wrack. Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, pl. 20.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 342
Winged Hermaphroditus chasing a hare
Apulian (Etruscan) Red Figure (Gnathian) c 340 B.C.,
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, New York"...
Hermaphroditus is depicted as a winged love-god (an Eros) with a combination of male and female attributes--the breasts and hair-style of a woman, and male genitalia. He/she chases a hare, an animal which symbolized sexual desire. ..." theoi
- That's a sexually aggressive Etruscan woman with a penis
Another alternative is Agdistis.
" ... Agdistis was a deity of Greek, Roman and Anatolian mythology, possessing both male and female sexual organs. She is closely associated with the Phrygian goddess Cybele.Her androgyny was seen as symbolic of a wild and uncontrollable nature. It was this trait which was threatening to the gods and ultimately led to her destruction. ...
According to Hesychius and Strabo, Agdistis is the same as Cybele, who was worshiped at Pessinus under that name. In many ancient inscriptions, Agdistis is clearly distinct from Cybele, but in many others she is listed as merely an epithet of Cybele.
Although primarily an Anatolian goddess, the cult of Agdistis covered a good deal of territory. By 250 BC it had spread to Egypt, and later to Attica: notably it could be found in Piraeus as early as the 3rd or 4th century BC, Rhamnus around 80 BC (where there was a sanctuary of Agdistis), and Lesbos and Panticapeum some time later on. Inscriptions honoring her have been found at Mithymna and Paros. In the 1st century BC, her shrine in Philadelphia in Asia Minor required a strict code of behavior. At that location and others she is found with theoi soteres. Inscriptions found at Sardis from the 4th century BC indicate that priests of Zeus were not permitted to take part in the mysteries of Agdistis.
Scholars have theorized that Agdistis is part of a continuum of androgynous Anatolian deities, including an ancient Phrygian deity probably named "Andistis" and one called "Adamma", stretching all the way back to the ancient kingdom of Kizzuwatna in the 2nd millennium BC. There is also some epigraphic evidence that in places Agdistis was considered a healing goddess of wholly benevolent nature. ... "Wikipedia
Theoi Soteres. :
" Soter is a frequently used cultic epithet of Greek gods, as is its feminine form, Soteira. The epithets describe a superhuman agent who saves a human worshiper in a crisis that often involves a threat not just to one's well-being, but one's life." researchgate
The top layer of Roman life was Etruscan - this was probably their greatest secret - the goddess with a penis ....
- Roman Hermaphrodite 343
Relief of an Archigallus making sacrifices to Cybele and Attis, Museo Archeologico Ostiense, Ostia Antica.
" ... A gallus (pl. galli) was a eunuch priest of the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis, whose worship was incorporated into the state religious practices of ancient Rome. ...
The first galli arrived in Rome when the Senate officially adopted Cybele as a state goddess in 204 BC. Roman citizens were prohibited from becoming galli, which meant that either the galli were Asian or they were slaves. Under Claudius, this ban was lifted.
In Rome, the head of the galli was known as the archigallus, at least from the period of Claudius on. A number of archaeological finds depict the archigallus wearing luxurious and extravagant costumes. The archigallus was always a Roman citizen chosen by the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, whose term of service lasted for life. Along with the institution of the archigallus came the Phrygianum sanctuary as well as the rite of the taurobolium as it pertains to the Magna Mater, two aspects of the Magna Mater’s cultus that the archigallus held dominion over.
Eventually Domitian reaffirmed that Roman citizens were forbidden to practice eviratio (castration).
The galli castrated themselves during an ecstatic celebration called the Dies sanguinis, or "Day of Blood", which took place on March 24. At the same time they put on women's costume, mostly yellow in colour, and a sort of turban, together with pendants and ear-rings. They also wore their hair long, and bleached, and wore heavy makeup. They wandered around with followers, begging for charity, in return for which they were prepared to tell fortunes. On the day of mourning for Attis they ran around wildly and disheveled. They performed dances to the music of pipes and tambourines, and, in an ecstasy, flogged themselves until they bled.
Being a Roman citizen, as well as being employed by the Roman State, meant that the archigallus had to preserve the traditions of Cybele's cult while not violating Roman prohibitions in religious behavior. Hence, some argue that the archigallus was never a eunuch, as all citizens of Rome were forbidden from emasculation. However, under Claudius Roman citizens were permitted to be castrated up until the reign of Domitian. The signs of their office have been described as a type of crown, possibly a laurel wreath, as well as a golden bracelet known as the occabus. ...
" ...Attis was the consort of his mother, Cybele, in Phrygian and Greek mythology. His priests were eunuchs, the Galli, as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis and castration. Attis was also a Phrygian god of vegetation. In his self-mutilation, death and resurrection he represents the fruits of the earth which die in winter only to rise again in the spring.
... In the late 4th century BC, a cult of Attis became a feature of the Greek world. The story of his origins at Agdistis, recorded by the traveler Pausanias, have some distinctly non-Greek elements: Pausanias was told that the daemon Agdistis initially bore both male and female attributes. But the Olympian gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ and cast it away. There grew up from it an almond-tree, and when its fruit was ripe, Nana, who was a daughter of the river-god Sangarius, picked an almond and laid it in her bosom. The almond disappeared, and she became pregnant. Nana abandoned the baby (Attis). The infant was tended by a he-goat. As Attis grew, his long-haired beauty was godlike, and his mother, Agdistis as Cybele, then fell in love with him. But the foster parents of Attis sent him to Pessinos, where he was to wed the king's daughter. According to some versions the King of Pessinos was Midas. Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis/Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals. Attis' father-in-law-to-be, the king who was giving his daughter in marriage, followed suit, prefiguring the self-castrating corybantes who devoted themselves to Cybele. But Agdistis repented and saw to it that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay.
... As neighboring Lydia came to control Phrygia, the cult of Attis was given a Lydian context too. Attis is said to have introduced to Lydia the cult of the Mother Goddess Cybele, incurring the jealousy of Zeus, who sent a boar to destroy the Lydian crops. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself, were killed by the boar. Pausanias adds, to corroborate this story, that the Gauls who inhabited Pessinos abstained from pork. This myth element may have been invented solely to explain the unusual dietary laws of the Lydian Gauls. In Rome, the eunuch followers of Cybele were known as Galli.
Julian the Apostate gives an account of the spread of the orgiastic cult of Cybele in his Oratio 5. It spread from Anatolia to Greece and eventually to Rome in Republican times, and the cult of Attis, her reborn eunuch consort, accompanied her.
The first literary reference to Attis is the subject of one of the most famous poems by Catullus but it appears that Attis was not worshipped at Rome until the early Empire. ... " Wikipedia
- Not sure about a literal castration . They are probably writing about the "dog-leash". The orgies associated with Cybele cult do not make sense without a penis.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 344
Altar dedicated to Cybele and Attis. Relief portraying Cybele on a wagon pulled by lions and Attis leaning on the sacred pine . Roman civilization, 295 A.D. Museo Della Civiltà Romana
" ... KYBELE (Cybele) was the great Phrygian mother of the gods, and goddess of motherhood, fertility and the mountain wilds.
Her orgiastic cult dominated the central and north-western regions of Anatolia and was introduced to Greece via the island of Samothrake and the Boiotian town of Thebes.
Kybele was identified with a number of Greek goddesses including Rheia (in mainland Greece), Demeter (in Samothrake), Aphrodite (on Mt Ida) and Artemis (in Karia).
In sculpture she was depicted as a matronly woman with a turret-crown, seated on a throne flanked by lions. ...
... The Orgia (Orgiastic festivals) of the Phrygian Mother of the Gods were introduced to Greece by way the island of Samothrake. They were closely connected with the Orgies of the god Dionysus, whose Phrygian counterpart, Sabazios, was described as a son of the goddess.
The Phrygian Orgia were overseen by eunuch priests called Gallai who led devotees in nocturnal mountain rites involving much drinking, and frantic dancing accompanied by the music of rattles, kettledrums, flutes and castanets and the ritual cry "evoe saboe," "hyes attes, attes hyes." Young men armed with shield and sword also performed the high-footed, shield-clashing Korybantic dance (which Greek legend described as the dance of the Kourete-protectors of the infant Zeus). The rites also involved ritual mutilation, ranging from flagellation to the act of self-castration performed by the Gallai priests.
The Orgies introduced into Greece and Rome were toned down somewhat to accommodate local sensibilities. ...
... Plato, Euthydemus 277 (trans. Lamb) (Greek philosopher c. 4th B.C.) :
"Like the celebrants of the Corybantic rites, when they perform the enthronement of the person whom they are about to initiate. There, as you know, if you have been through it, they have dancing and merrymaking."
... Virgil, Aeneid 3. 111 (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) :
"The Great Mother, the patron of Cybele, the cymbals of the Corybantes, the grove of Ida, the hush of the faithful which belong to Cybele's cult." ... " theoi
- Roman Hermaphrodite 345
Hermaphroditus. 3nd century B.C., Pergamon. Istanbul Archaeological Museum , Turkey
Speculation online that this is Agdistis/Cybele - there is also speculation that the winter nude male angel (left) in the season sarcophagus on page 59 of this site is Attis
The image suggests that Cybele was able to re-generate Attis and even give him a set of wings
That's a version of the Isis/Horus myth - and there is one example above of an Egyptian goddess with penis
- Roman Hermaphrodite 346
Patera of Parabiago in silver gilt portraying the Triumph of Cybele and Attis. Roman civilization, 4th century A.D.
From Parabiago, Milan. Civiche Raccolte Archeologiche E Numismatiche, Civico Museo Archeologico
- Roman Hermaphrodite 347
Cybele enthroned, with lion, cornucopia, and mural crown. Roman marble, c. 50 AD. Getty Museum
" ... Magna Mater (Cybele)
Magna Mater ("Great Mother") was the Roman version of Cybele, an Anatolian mother goddess that may date back to 10,0000-year-old Çatalhöyük, the world's oldest town, where statues of plump women, sometimes sitting, have been found in excavations. She is Phrygia's only known goddess, and was probably its state deity. Her Phrygian cult was adopted and adapted by Greek colonists of Asia Minor and spread to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies around the 6th century B.C.. Some scholars say the cult of Cybele was brought to Rome in 205 or 204 B.C.. The Roman state adopted and developed a particular form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle recommended her conscription as a key religious ally in Rome's second war against Carthage. Roman mythographers reinvented her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas. With Rome's eventual hegemony over the Mediterranean world, Romanized forms of Cybele's cults spread throughout the Roman Empire. The meaning and morality of her cults and priesthoods were topics of debate and dispute in Greek and Roman literature, and remain so in modern scholarship. Source: Wikipedia
According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “In 204 B.C., during the Second Punic War, the Romans consulted the Sibylline Oracles, which declared that the foreign invader would be driven from Italy only if the Idaean Mother (Cybele) from Anatolia were brought to Rome. The Roman political elite, in a carefully orchestrated effort to unify the citizenry, arranged for Cybele to come inside the pomerium (a religious boundary-wall surrounding a city), built her a temple on the Palatine Hill, and initiated games in honor of the Great Mother, an official political and social recognition that restored the pax deorum. Source: Claudia Moser, Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2007
“After Cybele and the foreign ways of her exotic priesthood were introduced to Rome, she became a popular goddess in Roman towns and villages in Italy. But the enthusiasm that accompanied the establishment of her cult was soon followed by suspicion and legal prohibitions. The eunuch priests (galli) that attended Cybele's cult were confined in the sanctuary; Roman men were forbidden to castrate themselves in imitation of the galli, and only once a year were these eunuchs, dressed in exotic, colorful garb, allowed to dance through the streets of Rome in jubilant celebration. Nevertheless, the popularity of the goddess persisted, especially in the Imperial period, when the ruling family, eager to emphasize its Trojan ancestry, associated itself with and publicly worshipped Cybele, a goddess whose epithet, Mater Idaea, designated her as Trojan and whose cult was deeply connected with Troy and its origins." ... "
- Roman Hermaphrodite 348
Taurobolium Altar 360-370 AD with relief depicting the goddess Cybele enthroned with Demeter (right) flanked by Persephone Kore and Iacchus, Probably from Chalandri, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece.
This tells us nothing about the orgies and why the cult was so popular. My intuition is Cybele's priests were the mirror of the vestal virgins - no sex for 30 years. But that probably did not mean literal castration. It probably meant an unremovable fibula on their penis that prevented sexual activity.
That was a Trojan theme - the "dog leash" gave Trojan women a penis and made them dominant partners in Trojan family structures.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 349
Marble relief of the goddess with her consort Attis; a female worshiper and her daughter approach on the right.
From Asia Minor, 2nd Century BCE. Venice/ Archaeological Museum.
- Castration of the Attis priests was probably literal - My inner vision is something like the "Sith" in Star Wars. A super-powerful late Roman fraternity
- Roman Hermaphrodite 350
Sun god crowned by solar rays, the Moon goddess bearing a crescent on her hair, and an old man, perhaps Jupiter Dolichenus. 150 - 200 AD From the area of the barracks of the Equites Singulares, via Tasso, Rome. - Wikimedia
" ... The worship of Attis dated back centuries in Phrygia (aka Anatolia= modern Turkey) before it was imported to Rome in 204 BCE. Roman writers mentioning the religion include: Lucretius (lived 98 - 54 BCE), Catullus (86 -40 BCE), Varro (116 - 28 BCE), and Dionysus Halicarnasensis (first century BCE).
Attis predated Christ. Before and during the years the Christian Gospels were written (from the reign of Claudius, 41 – 54 CE) the Festival of Joy, celebrated Attis' death and rebirth was celebrated yearly in Rome. A Christian writer of the fourth century CE, recounted ongoing disputes between pagans and Christians over the remarkable similarities of the death and resurrection of their two gods. The pagans argued that their god was older and therefore original. The Christians admitted Christ came later, but claimed Attis was a work of the devil whose similarity to Christ, and the fact he predated Christ, were intended to confuse and mislead men. This was apparently the stock answer -- the Christian apologist Tertullian makes the same argument.
1) Attis was born of the Virgin Nana on December 25th.
2) He was both the Father and the Divine Son.
3) The Festival of Joy—the celebration of Attis' death and rebirth
On March 22 a pine tree was brought to the sanctuary of Cybele, on it hung the effigy of Attis. The God was dead. Two days of mourning followed, but when night fell on the eve of the third day, the worshippers turned to joy. "For suddenly a light shone in the darkness; the tomb was opened; the god had risen from the dead ...[and the priest] softly whispered in their ears the glad tidings of salvation. The resurrection of the God was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave." [for more see Frazer, Attis, chapter 1]
4) Attis' worshipers ate a sacramental meal of bread and wine. The wine represented the pagan god's blood; the bread became the body of the savoir.
They were baptized in this way: a bull was placed over a grating, the devotee stood under the grating. The bull was stabbed with a consecrated spear. "It's hot reeking blood poured in torrents through the apertures and was received with devout eagerness by the worshiper...who had been born again to eternal life and had washed away his sins in the blood of the bull." [for more see Frazer, Attis, chapter 1]
5) Called "the Good Sheppard," the "Most High God," the "Only Begotten Son" and "Savior."
[In Rome the new birth and the remission of sins by shedding of bull's blood took place on what is now Vatican Hill, in our days the site of the great basilica of St. Peter's] ... " sacredwicca
- And on March 24, initiates into the cult castrated themselves
- Roman Hermaphrodite 351
Cybele drawn in her chariot by lions towards a votive sacrifice (right). Above are the Sun God and heavenly objects.
Plaque from Ai Khanoum, Bactria (Afghanistan), 2nd century BC. Gilded silver
- Bactria was the Aryan homeland - the world of the fusion of Ionic Greek and the Buddhist world
- Roman Hermaphrodite 352
Relief of the Archigallus, depicting a priest and the instruments for the orgiastic ritual. 1st-2nd century AD. Rome, Museo Della Civiltà Romana
" ... A bas-relief from the Musei Capitolini, depicting an archigallus; he has no beard at all and, like a woman, wears earrings and a dress, the sleeves of which hang right down to the wrist; in reality they would have been purple. His head is covered with a veil and crowned with a crown decorated with three medallions, in which one should probably see the Magna Mater between two Attis figures; Taeniae (straps) dangle on both sides. On his chest prosthêdthídion (chest pendant), in the form of an aedicula, decorated with another Attis figure, who, with a finger on his mouth, asks silence from the initiates. A chain hangs around the neck; in which one undoubtedly sees the occabus, which together with the crown was the sign of his dignity as archigallus. In his right hand he is holding a poppy head and three leaves. in his left hand he has a basket filled with fruit, including the pinecone, which is dear to Cybele. Higher up we see the bone-adorned with which the galli thrashed himself, and finally we see ordinary attributes of the cult around the niche of the archigallus: the cymbals, the tympanon, the flutes and the mystical cista. ... " Wikimedia
- Purple robes - that was an imperial cult!
- Roman Hermaphrodite 353
"Attis with his attributes. The primitive stone knife in his left hand indicates his self castration and death while the fruits in his right are tokens of his annual revival. " - Alamy
" ... Statue of a reclining Attis. The Shrine of Attis is situated to the east of the Campus of the Magna Mater in Ostia.
In the apse is a plaster cast (the original is in the Vatican Museums) of a statue of a reclining Attis, after the emasculation. In his left hand is a shepherd's crook, in his right hand a pomegranate. His head is crowned with bronze rays of the sun and on his Phrygian cap is a crescent moon. This suggests astrological aspects: Attis was regarded as a solar deity and identified with the moon-god Men. He is leaning on a bust, probably the personification of the river Gallos, where he had died. His posture is reminiscent of river gods (the river Gallos), but the statue also brings to mind sarcophagi, with a depiction of the deceased on the lid. The statue is a dedication by C. Cartilius Euplus ... " Wikipedia
***
There is a school of thought that the emasculation of the galli was transferred to a Bull during a bloody religious ritual- with the unremovable "dog-leash" substituted instead. Roman law did not allow castration:
" ... But the main innovation of Claudius (according to Turcan) to the Cybele cult may be the ‘adoption’ of the taurobolium procedure by cult of Cybele!:
“Claudius did not stop at incorporating the deeds of Attis into the calendar. He may also have reformed the official priesthood by instituting the office of archigallus, if one agrees with the reasoning of J. Carcopino. There is no reliable mention to be found of an archigallus before the Antonine era, at lest in epigraphy. As high priest (summus sacerdos) of the Mother-worship cult, the archigallus was a Roman citizen. He thus had an official duty that was incompatible with castration, which Roman law forbade its nationals. The galli consecrated themselves to Cybele by sacrificing their manhood to her. How, therefore, could an archigallus be ‘ordained’ without breaking the law? Here we meet and have an explanation for the taurobolium which, in ancient documentation, is often the accompaniment of the archigallic title…The first epigraphic attestation of a Mother-cult taurobolium is dated to AD 160….A man descends into a pit or trench, wearing a toga of which one fold covers his ribbon-adorned head. The pit is covered with an openwork platform or flooring with many holes in it. A bull is then brought and its chest hacked with blows from a spear.
‘The huge wound spouts a flood of hot blood…which seethes in all directions…Through the countless channels provided by the perforations a stinking torrent falls. The priest enclosed in the pit gets the full force of it, exposing his befouled head to every drop; his robe and his whole body reek. Worse is to come! He tilts his head backwards, exposing his cheeks, his ears, his lips and nostrils, even his eyes. Without sparing his palate, he soaks his tongue in it, until his whole body is impregnated with this horrible, dark blood. ...
“The victim is removed, the cover taken off, and the ‘the pontiff, dreadful to see’ is extracted from the pit. He is hailed ‘with the idea’ that vile blood…has purified him while he was hidden in these shameful depths.’…in the Roman era the process consisted of being immersed in the spilt blood in order to identify oneself ritualistically, though imaginarily, with the victim. It was a substitution sacrifice. Inscriptions inform us that the slaughtered bull’s testicles were cut off and buried beneath an altar, just as the vires of the castrated galli were ritually interred. Prudentius quite rightly makes the martyr denouncing the repugnant performance say: ‘It is my blood that you see, not that of an ox’ (Hymns, X, 1007). Now the subject of the taurobolium of which he speaks is the summus sacerdos consecrandus ...: the one who is to be consecrated as high priest, or in other words, the archigallus. So he was hailed and worshipped, and ended with the conviction that he was ‘purified’. The Great Mother was given satisfaction by the castration of the sacrificed bull. Henceforth, the archigallus wore the crown and the occabus or heavy gold bracelet.” ...
“Concurrently, the cult of Cybele became associated with the ritual of the slaying of the sacred bull (taurobolium), which Prudentius interpreted as a baptism of blood. The ritual was performed for the prosperity of the emperor or the Empire and, more frequently, for the benefit of private individuals. Normally it was considered valid for twenty years, which makes it questionable whether it was meant to confer immortality on the baptized.” ..." christianthinktank
- Roman Hermaphrodite 354
"Io (on the left, with horns) is welcomed in Egypt by Isis (sitting, holding a snake and with a crocodile at her feet).
Io is carried by a river god, setting her down at Kanopus near Alexandria.
Roman fresco from the temple of Isis in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples)..." Wikipedia
Basic Roman themes - the "dog-leash" tan on the river god lifting a horned goddess to meet the a phallic goddess - Isis
Isis probably got her penis the same way Cybele did - through male sexual restraint.
Io's horns also signal a female phallus - probably through Faunus
Restraint did not mean no sex though - it heightened female sexual appetites and opened the way for poorly documented events like the state-sanctioned orgies of the Cybele cult
- Roman Hermaphrodite 355
Temple of Isis Fresco, Pompeii. Egyptian Isis ritual. 1st century BC.
Brown and black women - rare for Roman art ... Egypt was still a separate Greek ruled state in the 1st century BC
- Roman Hermaphrodite 356
Cast of an Antique relief of two Corybantes found near Palestrina in 1788 - Vatican Museums
" ... Over deep seas Attis in His fast boat bourne,
so that on swift foot He eagerly could reach the Phrygian forest
and approach the shaded, wreathed by trees places of the Goddess,
roused then by a wild frenzy, raving with the spirits,
He plucked out there on the spot the weights with a sharp flint,
and so when She sensed (Her Self being without) Her disposed-off
body parts, without manhood,
indeed, staining the soil with fresh blood,
She quickly with snow-white hands grabbed the light drum,
Your drum, Cybele, Your rites, Mother,
and beating the hollow bull's hides with tender fingers,
She dared to sing this tremulously to Her Companions:
"Drive on, go, Gallae, to Cybele's high woods together,
go together, Dindymenian Domina's roving cattle,
Who like exiles seek to find foreign places,
and as My following have imitated Me - Companians to Me
You've endured the wild sea and its deadly dangers
and emasculated the body out of immense hatred of Venus.
Amuse the Mistress with Your headlong tresspasses.
Let's not tarry any longer, go together, follow Me
to Cybele's Phrygian House, to the Phrygian woods of the Goddess,
where cymbals make their clashing sound, where drums resonate,
where the Phrygian piper plays melancholically the curved reed,
where the ivy-wearing Maenads shake Their heads violently,
where They do Their offerings wailingly,
where that roving crowd is used to flutter about for the Goddess,
for Whom it's right that We speed up the quick three-step dance."
Together with the Companians this Attis sang, the imitation-woman.
Suddenly the Celebrants start wailing with oscillating tongues,
promptly the drum bangs in return, the cymbals resound with a ring.
To green Ida the swift Chorus goes in hot haste.
In rapture, out of breath and unsettled She walks on more dead than alive.
While banging Her drum through the shadowy woods Attis is Leader.
Just like an untamed heifer that tries to avoid the burden of the yoke,
the wild Gallae follow the swift-footed Leader.
Therefore, as soon as They reached Cybele's House,
They out of enormous exertion go to sleep without having eaten.
Because of this trying exertion slothful Sleep covers the eyes.
Their minds at pleasant repose the wild rapture passes off.
But as the gold-faced Sun with His shining eyes
brightened the immaculate sky, the hard ground, the wild sea
and dispelled the night's shadows with His sprightly horses,
Sleep left wide-awake Attis quickly forgetting all past exertion.
Into fearful bosom the Goddess of all Gods and Goddesses
So after pleasant repose without the wild frenzy
and likewise Her heart Attis recollected Her actions,
and saw without all that with clear mind and where She'd been,
at Her wit's end full of regret ran to the waters.
There Her eyes full of tears beholding the vast sea
the sad One addressed Her Country with a voice so wretchedly:
"Country, O Creatress of Me, O My Country, Birthgiver,
I such a wretch forsaking masters like fugitive
slaves do, ran away to the woods of Ida,
to be close to the snow and the ice-cold lairs of wild animals
and go in rapture to all their hiding places,
where somewhere You, Country, after all can also be found, I imagine ?
The same poplars long to direct their sharp tops to You,
[or: The same piercing eyes long to direct them to You,]
intend to keep aloof from wild frenzy, as long as life is short.
Weren't I driven from My home to these far away woods ?
Country, won't I be absent from good people, from friends and parents ?
Absent from the forum, the wrestling arena, the running course and
Wretched ah wretched, it's forever to be deplored, Soul.
Truely, what do I look like, aren't I therefore damned ?
Am I a woman, a youth, a husband-to-be, a boy ?
I was in top form, the attraction of the wrestling school:
many people frequently visited Me, Many kept Their houses cool for Me,
My house was adorned with garlands for Me,
people stood up for Me, where a seat faced the Sun rise.
Am I now driven to be a servant of gods and Cybele's slave ?
Am I to be a Maenad, am I to play that part, to be a sterile man ?
Am I to live in the cold, snow-coated place of green Ida ?
Am I to spend My life under the high mountain tops of Phrygia,
where the hind is a forest dweller, where the boar is a wood rover ?
What I've done, distresses Me now, now I'm sorry."
When She made a quick loud noise with Her rose lips, She left,
the new messenger addressing Her Self to the ears of the gods.
Then, as Cybele takes the joined yokes off the lions
and incites the hostile animal on the left, thus She speaks:
"Go," She says,"go, wild one, make this One like crazy,
make it so, that She through an attack of frenzy runs back to the woods,
She Who so very fearlessly wishes to flee at My command.
Go, beat Her skin with your tail, She must be exposed to your chastenings,
make it so, that the whole place resounds of your thundering roaring,
shake your ruddy mane, wild one, with your muscular neck."
This asserts dangerous Cybele and loosens the yokes with Her hand.
The wild animal itself urging itself takes off with all its courage,
it wades, hullabaloos, breaks the underbrush on unsteady foot,
but as it nears the damp bright-white parts of the beach
and sees the tender Attis near the marble (of the) sea,
it makes its attack. That crazed One, She flees into the wild woods.
There for always and the whole space of Her life She was a Servant.
Goddess, great Goddess, Cybele, Goddess, Domina of Dindymon,
may all Your Fury be far away from Me, Mistress, and far from home.
Drive Others frantic, drive Others into rapture.
Carmen 63 - Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by M. van Wevelingen)
***
- I've seen that imagery - it's the Nietzschean "sunlit uplands" - the Aryan ideal - I just never dreamed they were ruled by a goddess.
" ... You've endured the wild sea and its deadly dangers and emasculated the body out of immense hatred of Venus. "
- Roman Hermaphrodite 357
Colossal bust of Attis,Phrygian god and companion of Cybele,who,in an orgiastic frenzy,is said to have emasculated himself.
Imperial Rome. Ludovisi Collection, Cat,239 Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy
- Roman Hermaphrodite 358
Mithras: Tauroctony scene
That's almost identical to the bull sacrifice scene on March 24 during the Roman rites of the resurrection of Attis - the blood baptism.
This is probably the origin of the roman "dog-leash" - The galli consecrated themselves to Cybele by sacrificing their manhood to her : instead of a literal cutting, the phallus of a bull was offered instead along with the "dog-leash" fibula closing off the penis from self-pleasure
Attis surrendered his penis to Cybele as the roman man surrendered his penis to his wife - that's my intuition : the roman man was the servant of his wife ...
- Roman Hermaphrodite 359
Cybele, Artemis, with mutiple breasts, marble statue,
Ephesus Museum, Selcuk, Turkey.
" ... Cybele's religion was a bloody cult that required its priests and priestesses as well as followers to cut themselves during some rituals. The cult was a mystery religion, which meant that it's inner secrets and practices were revealed to initiates only. The priests castrated themselves at their initiation; there was wild music, chanting, and frenzied dancing. Cybele's retinue included many priestesses, including Amazonian, transgendered female priests as well as traditional masculine functionaries such as the dendrophori (tree-bearer) and cannophori (reed-bearer), and transgendered males known as the Gallae.
During the Republic and early Empire, festival days in March and April were celebrated with eunuchs preceding the goddess through the streets, banging cymbals and drums, wearing bright attire and heavy jewelry, their hair long and 'greased'.
Priests and priestesses were segregated, their activities confined to their temples, and Roman citizens were not allowed to walk in procession with them. Neither Roman citizens nor their slaves were allowed to become priests or priestess in the cult. No native-born Roman citizen was to be allowed to dress in bright colors, beg for alms, walk the streets with flute players or worship the goddess in 'wild Phrygian ceremonies'.
Attis was worshipped as the god of vegetation and fertility and was seen as consort of Cybele.
At its peak, the Cult of Cybele was rivaled only by that of Isis, and there were temples in all provinces of the Empire.
Her dedication day or dies natale is celebrated on 10 April (IV ID APR) as the culmination of the Megalensia festival.
Cybele was sometimes referred to as Dindymene or Dinymenian Mother because she was born on Mount Dindymus. Zeus had ejaculated on the ground somewhere around Mount Dindymus, where an offspring sprung out of the ground, with both male and female sex organs.
The gods fearing this creature upon reaching adulthood had the hermaphrodite being castrated, thereby causing the creature to become a female being. The creature became the mother goddess, named Cybele. The gods threw away the severed phallus, and instantly an almond tree grew on that spot.
Cybele is known by serveral epithets, such as Magna Mater and Mater Deum (deum = deorum, a syncopated poetic form). Her home was said to be Mount Ida, near the city of Troy. ... " Carnaval
- Roman Hermaphrodite 360
Statue of the goddess Kybele (Cybele), c. 60 BC. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. From Formia, (in present day Lazio), Italy. Marble.
Before Zeus emasculated Cybele she was a hermaphrodite - that's probably why the cult of the hermaphrodite was so popular in Rome. By surrendering his penis to Cybeline, Attis was making her whole ...
In addition to the castrated male priests of Cybele, there was also a separate order of Amazon Cybele priestesses - apparently they managed the annual orgies of the Cybele cult which involved mass promiscuity and the breaking of the fibulae that bound Roman men - However, information here is very, very thin ...
" ... Cybele became a vital part of the religious life of everyday Romans. She was integrated into the pantheon of gods and was considered the protectress of the city of Rome to whom she brought peace and plentiful harvest. Her cult was supported not only by the ordinary people but also by the government and enjoyed aristocratic patronage. As Tripolitis explains, “(Cybele’s) cult continued to gain great popularity and spread to every part of the known world…Cybele’s severe and rigorous demands provided a deep religious experience and a psychological exhilaration.”
This time was the heyday of the mystery cults of Rome, and Cybele became one of the chief deities. She was called Augusta, the Great One; Alma, the Nourishing One; Sanctissima, the Most Holy One. Roman emperors considered her to be the highest deity of the Empire and Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, took his title from her epithet. Emperor Julian, who ruled from 361–363 AD, wrote a hymn in which he called her a Virgin, “Wisdom, Providence, Creator of our Souls.” However, as popular as Cybele was, there were still certain Phrygian elements to her cult worship which the Roman authorities could not accept, which led to limited participation in the cult for Roman citizens.
The Romans found the extravagance of the ceremonies, the enthusiasm of the Galli to castrate themselves, their hypnotic dances accompanied by loud flutes and the tympanum/timbral which were played as the Galli castrated themselves, to be repugnant. Early on the Roman authorities confined the rites of the Megalensia to the temple on the Palatine Hill, except for the procession and the public games. During this time, Romans were not allowed to participate in the rites, serve as priests/priestesses, play music on the sacred instruments, or join the orgies which included the Galli. This restriction was lifted in the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD).
Under Emperor Claudius, the cult acquired a new vigor and became one of the most popular and favored of the foreign cults. By the end of the first century CE the popularity of Cybele’s cult had spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Western world. The restrictions barring Roman citizens from participation in the cult were removed. Roman men and women were then able to take part in the processions, and Roman men could join the Galli. Under Claudius, a new annual cycle of festivals was established. The new festival, held from March 15 through March 27, introduced Attis as the consort of Cybele and raised him to prominence, which he had not previously held until this Roman cult. It is thought that this “new” festival was simply the previous Phrygian festival of Attis which had been forbidden under Roman rule.
As with all mystery cults, the specific ritual practices of the Cybelines were not recorded. However, there were numerous references in ancient poems and stories which, when taken together they give us a picture of what the rituals of Cybele in ancient Rome may have entailed. One phrase continually reappeared in Latin, Greek, and Phrygian refers to the rite called the taurobolium. A Cybeline priestess says this phrase “I have eaten out of the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have carried the Kernos: I have entered (stole into) the bridal chamber.” Another version more specific to the Galli is “I have eaten from the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have become a mystic votary of Attis.” In the taurobolium the novitiate, after having eaten and drunk, goes to a chamber underneath the ritual area and stands under a grating. A bull is led in and stands on the grating, it is then stabbed to death with a sacred spear, and the initiate is washed and reborn from the blood. ... " Cybele, the Patron Deity of Rome by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.
- Roman Hermaphrodite 361
Goddess of Ephesus Artemis/Cybele - National Archaeological Museum of Naples
There is speculation online that those are the testicles of a Bull ...
Shocking, but not so when you know a little about the Cybele cult
" ... IT’S THE FIRST QUESTION anyone would ask after seeing a picture of Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus, one of the four largest cities in the Roman Empire.
What are those bumps sticking out in front?
Here’s the answer: Only the dead know.
I have heard many guesses over the years.
“Eggs” was popular for a while. The theory was that eggs symbolized her fertility – and her ability to produce stuff. Artemis, also known by her Roman name of Diana, was portrayed as the virgin goddess who helped women through childbirth – as though a virgin would know what childbirth is like.
“Breasts” was another popular guess, for the same reason. It symbolized fertility.
One scholar explains why many Bible experts don’t like that guess.
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