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39-542: A phallus ( pl. : phalli or phalluses ) is a penis (especially when erect ), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic . Any object that symbolically—or, more precisely, iconically—resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic (as in " phallic symbol "). Such symbols often represent fertility and cultural implications that are associated with
78-402: A prepuce when not erect. Mammals have either musculocavernous penises, which expand while erect, or fibroelastic penises, which become erect by straightening without expanding. Preputial glands are present in some prepuces. The penis bears the distal part of the urethra in placental mammals . The perineum of testicond mammals (mammals without a scrotum ) separates the anus and
117-469: A 28,000-year-old siltstone phallus discovered in the Hohle Fels cave and reassembled in 2005, is among the oldest phallic representations known. The phallus played a role in the cult of Osiris in ancient Egyptian religion . When Osiris' body was cut in 14 pieces, Set scattered them all over Egypt, and his wife Isis retrieved all of them except one, his penis, which a fish swallowed; Isis made him
156-598: A calendar printed in St. Gallen omitted the genitals from the heraldic bear of Appenzell , nearly leading to war between the two cantons. Figures of Kokopelli and Itzamna (as the Mayan tonsured maize god) in Pre-Columbian America often include phallic content. Additionally, over forty large monolithic sculptures ( Xkeptunich ) have been documented from Terminal Classic Maya sites, with most examples occurring in
195-514: A fertility god. Pan , son of Hermes , was often depicted as having an exaggerated erect phallus. Priapus is a Greek god of fertility whose symbol was an exaggerated phallus. The son of Aphrodite and Dionysus , according to Homer and most accounts, he is the protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. His name is the origin of the medical term priapism . The city of Tyrnavos in Greece holds an annual Phallus festival ,
234-606: A figure in human form are ithyphallic, for example, in coins of the Kushan Empire . Some figures up to about the 11th century AD have erect phalluses, although they have become increasingly rare. According to the Indonesian chronicles of the Babad Tanah Jawi , Prince Puger gained the kingly power from God by ingesting semen from the phallus of the already-dead Sultan Amangkurat II of Mataram . The phallus
273-459: A penis, no one can possess the symbolic phallus. Jacques Lacan 's Ecrits: A Selection includes an essay titled The Signification of the Phallus in which sexual differentiation is represented in terms of the difference between "being" and "having" the phallus, which for Lacan is the transcendent signifier of desire. Men are positioned as men insofar as they wish to have the phallus. Women, on
312-404: A penis. Most male birds (e.g., roosters and turkeys ) have a cloaca (also present on the female), but not a penis. Among bird species with a penis are paleognaths ( tinamous and ratites ) and Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans). The magpie goose in the family Anseranatidae also has a penis. A bird penis is different in structure from mammal penises, being an erectile expansion of
351-475: A preputial sheath in the male's urogenital sinus when not erect. Monotremes and marsupial moles are the only mammals in which the penis is located inside the cloaca. Male turtles and crocodilians have a penis, while male specimens of the reptile order Squamata , which are snakes and lizards , have two paired organs called hemipenes . Tuataras must use their cloacae for reproduction. Due to evolutionary convergence , turtle and mammal penises have
390-403: A similar structure. In some fish, the gonopodium, andropodium, and claspers are intromittent organs (to introduce sperm into the female) developed from modified fins. Harvestmen are the only male arachnids that have a penis . In male insects , the structure analogous to a penis is known as an aedeagus . The male copulatory organ of various lower invertebrate animals is often called
429-432: A traditional event celebrating the phallus on the first days of Lent . The phallus was ubiquitous in ancient Roman culture , particularly in the form of the fascinum , a phallic charm. The ruins of Pompeii produced bronze wind chimes ( tintinnabula ) that featured the phallus, often in multiples, to ward off the evil eye and other malevolent influences. Statues of Priapus similarly guarded gardens. Roman boys wore
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#1732780460317468-478: A wooden replacement. The phallus was a symbol of fertility, and the god Min was often depicted as ithyphallic, that is, with an erect penis. In traditional Greek mythology , Hermes , the god of boundaries and exchange (popularly the messenger god), is considered to be a phallic deity by association with representations of him on herms (pillars) featuring a phallus. There is no scholarly consensus on this depiction, and it would be speculation to consider Hermes
507-445: Is a male sex organ that is used to inseminate female or hermaphrodite animals during copulation . Such organs occur in both vertebrates and invertebrates , including humans, but not in all male animals. The term penis applies to many intromittent organs , but not to all. As an example, the intromittent organ of most Cephalopoda is the hectocotylus , a specialized arm, and male spiders use their pedipalps . Even within
546-399: Is a plural divinity. In Bulgaria, a ritual spectacle of spring (a sort of carnival performed by Kukeri ) takes place after a scenario of folk theatre, in which Kuker's role is interpreted by a man attired in a sheep or goat-pelt, wearing a horned mask and girded with a large wooden phallus. During the ritual, various physiological acts are interpreted, including the sexual act, as a symbol of
585-689: Is commonly depicted in its paintings . Wooden phalluses, with white ribbons hanging from the tip, are often hung above the doorways of houses to deter evil spirits. Khalid Nabi Cemetery ( Persian : گورستان خالد نبی, "Cemetery of the Prophet Khaled") is a cemetery in northeastern Iran 's Golestan province . Touristic visitors often have perceived the cylindrical shafts with the thicker top as depictions of male phalli. This gave rise to popular hypotheses about pre-Islamic fertility cults . The Mara Kannon Shrine ( 麻羅観音 ) in Nagato , Yamaguchi prefecture
624-892: Is one of many fertility shrines in Japan that still exist today. Also present in festivals such as the Danjiri Matsuri ( だんじり祭 ) in Kishiwada , Osaka prefecture , the Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki , and the Hōnen Matsuri ( 豊年祭 , Harvest Festival) in Komaki , Aichi Prefecture , though historically phallus adoration was more widespread. Kuker is a divinity personifying fecundity, sometimes in Bulgaria and Serbia it
663-452: The bulla , an amulet that contained a phallic charm until they formally came of age. According to Augustine of Hippo , the cult of Father Liber , who presided over the citizen's entry into political and sexual manhood, involved a phallus. The phallic deity Mutunus Tutunus promoted marital sex. A sacred phallus was among the objects considered vital to the security of the Roman state, which
702-567: The Devonian , about 410 million years ago, when tetrapods began to abandon the aquatic environment. In fact, the necessity to overcome the absence of a liquid phase in which to release the gametes was achieved through the transition to internal fertilization . Among amniotes, the development of an erectile penis occurred independently for mammals , squamates ( lizards and snakes ), testudines (turtles), and archosaurs ( crocodiles and birds ). Over time, birds have lost this organ, with
741-685: The Vertebrata , there are morphological variants with specific terminology, such as hemipenes . The word "penis" is taken from the Latin word for " tail ". Some derive that from Indo-European *pesnis , and the Greek word πέος = "penis" from Indo-European *pesos . Prior to the adoption of the Latin word in English, the penis was referred to as a "yard". The Oxford English Dictionary cites an example of
780-607: The bulbus glandis . During copulation, the spotted hyena inserts his penis through the female's pseudo-penis instead of directly through the vagina , which is blocked by the false scrotum. The pseudo-penis and pseudo-scrotum, which are actually a masculinized vulva , closely resemble the male hyena's genitalia, but can be distinguished from the male by the female's greater thickness and more rounded glans . Domestic cats have barbed penises, with about 120–150 one millimetre long backwards-pointing spines . Marsupials usually have bifurcated penises that are retracted into
819-433: The cirrus . In 2010, entomologist Charles Linehard described a new genus of barkflies called Neotrogla . Species of this genus have sex-reversed genitalia: females have penis-like organs called gynosomes that are inserted into vagina-like openings of males during mating. A similar female structure has also been described in the closely related Afrotrogla . Scientists who study these insects have occasionally called
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#1732780460317858-432: The phallōs was a symbol of the real penis in its erect imaginary form. Norbert Wiley states that Lacan's phallus is akin to Durkheim's mana . In Gender Trouble , Judith Butler explores Freud's and Lacan's discussions of the symbolic phallus by pointing out the connection between the phallus and the penis. They write, "The law requires conformity to its own notion of 'nature'. It gains its legitimacy through
897-634: The 1980s in Montreal, Quebec, by D. F. Cassidy, it has a following mainly among homosexual men in Canada and the United States. Semen is also treated with reverence, and its consumption is an act of worship. Semen is esteemed as sacred because of its divine life-giving power. The symbolic version of the phallus, a phallic symbol, is meant to represent male generative powers. According to Sigmund Freud 's theory of psychoanalysis , while males possess
936-704: The 20th century with the rise of Sigmund Freud , the founder of modern psychoanalysis of psychology . One example is " Princess X " by the Romanian modernist sculptor Constantin Brâncuși . He created a scandal in the Salon in 1919 when he represented or caricatured Princess Marie Bonaparte as a large gleaming bronze phallus. This phallus likely symbolizes Bonaparte's obsession with the penis and her lifelong quest to achieve vaginal orgasm. Penis A penis ( / ˈ p iː n ɪ s / ; pl. : penises or penes )
975-474: The Puuc region of Yucatán (Amrhein 2001). Uxmal has the largest collection, with eleven sculptures now housed under a protective roof. The largest sculpture was recorded at Almuchil measuring more than 320 cm high with a diameter at the base of the shaft measuring 44 cm. St. Priapus Church (French: Église S. Priape ) is a North American new religion that centres on the worship of the phallus. Founded in
1014-399: The binary and asymmetrical naturalization of bodies in which the phallus, though clearly not identical to the penis, deploys the penis as its naturalized instrument and sign". In Bodies that Matter , they further explore the possibilities for the phallus in their discussion of The Lesbian Phallus . If, as they note, Freud enumerates a set of analogies and substitutions that rhetorically affirm
1053-404: The cloacal wall (in ducks) and being erected by lymph , not blood. It is usually partially feathered and in some species features spines and brush-like filaments, and in a flaccid state, curls up inside the cloaca. As with any other bodily attribute, the length and girth of the penis can be highly variable between mammals of different species . In many mammals, the penis is retracted into
1092-473: The course of evolution. An erection is the stiffening and rising of the penis, which occurs during sexual arousal , though it can also happen in non-sexual situations. During ejaculation , a series of muscular contractions delivers semen, containing male gametes known as sperm cells or spermatozoa , from the penis. Ejaculation is usually accompanied by orgasm . The last common ancestor of all living amniotes (mammals, birds and reptiles) likely possessed
1131-417: The exception of Paleognathae and Anseriformes . The penis is an intromittent organ used to transfer sperm into the female genital tract (i.e., vagina or cloaca ) for potential fertilization and, in the case of placentals , also for the excretion of urine . The penises of different animal groups are not homologous with each other, but were created several times independently of each other in
1170-414: The fundamental transferability of the phallus from the penis elsewhere, then any number of other things might come to stand in for the phallus. The phallus is often used for advertising pornography , as well as the sale of contraception . It has often been used in provocative practical jokes and has been the central focus of adult-audience performances. The phallus had a new set of art interpretations in
1209-530: The god's sacred marriage, while the symbolical wife, appearing pregnant, mimes the pains of giving birth. This ritual inaugurates the labours of the fields ( ploughing , sowing ) and is carried out with the participation of numerous allegorical personages, among which are the Emperor and his entourage. In Switzerland , the heraldic bears in a coat of arms had to be painted with bright red penises , otherwise, they would have been mocked as being she-bears. In 1579,
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1248-416: The gynosome a "female penis" and insisted to drop the definition of penis as "the male copulatory organ". Motivations for using the term "female penis" include that such a term "is easier to understand and much more eye-catching" and that the gynosome have "analogous features" with male penises. Meanwhile, critics have argued that it does not fit the intromittent organ definition of "a structure that enters
1287-477: The male sexual organ, as well as the male orgasm . The term is a loanword from Latin phallus , itself borrowed from Greek φαλλός ( phallos ), which is ultimately a derivation from the Proto-Indo-European root * bʰel - "to inflate, swell". Compare with Old Norse (and modern Icelandic ) boli , " bull ", Old English bulluc , " bullock ", Greek φαλλή , " whale ". The Hohle phallus,
1326-524: The old temples and in museums in India and abroad, which are often more clearly phallic than later stylized lingams. The famous "man-size" Gudimallam Lingam in Andhra Pradesh is about 1.5 metres (5 ft) in height, carved in polished black granite, and clearly represents an erect phallus, with a figure of the deity in relief superimposed down the shaft. Many of the earliest depictions of Shiva as
1365-471: The other hand, wish to be the phallus. This difference between having and being explains some tragicomic aspects of sexual life. Once a woman becomes, in the realm of the signifier, the phallus the man wants, he ceases to want it because one cannot desire what one has, and the man may be drawn to other women. Similarly, though, for the woman, the gift of the phallus deprives the man of what he has and thereby diminishes her desire. It should be remembered that
1404-432: The penis is the subject of many slang words and euphemisms for it, a particularly common and enduring one being "cock". See WikiSaurus:penis for a list of alternative words for penis. The Latin word " phallus " (from Greek φαλλος) is sometimes used to describe the penis, although "phallus" originally was used to describe representations , pictorial or carved, of the penis. The external genital organs appeared in
1443-407: The penis. A bone called the baculum is present in most placentals but absent in humans, cattle and horses. In mammals, the penis is divided into three parts: The internal structures of the penis consist mainly of cavernous, erectile tissue , which is a collection of blood sinusoids separated by sheets of connective tissue (trabeculae). Canine penises have a structure at the base called
1482-505: The word yard used in this sense from 1379, and notes that in his Physical Dictionary of 1684, Steven Blankaart defined the word penis as "the Yard, made up of two nervous Bodies, the Channel, Nut, Skin, and Fore-skin, etc." According to Wiktionary , this term meant (among other senses) "rod" or "bar". As with nearly any aspect of the body involved in sexual or excretory functions,
1521-620: Was in the keeping of the Vestal Virgins . Sexuality in ancient Rome has sometimes been characterized as " phallocentric ". Shiva , one of the most widely worshiped male deities in Hinduism pantheon, is worshiped much more commonly in the form of the lingam . Evidence of the lingam in India dates back to prehistoric times. Although Lingam is not a mere phallic iconography, nor do the textual sources signify it as so, stone Lingams with several varieties are found to this date in many of
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