Were the statues made this way as a form of self-censorship or were there women tracking down and taking home such formidable phallics as a form of self-entertainment while their men were off slaughtering the masses or posing for statues?
Erect or large phalli were uncommon on Roman statues! However on Greek pottery and the entry hall murals of rich Roman homes, in the cities, were there male erect members of considerable length. That seems to be the custom.
The door knockers in Pompei on one street all had sacks with exactly 2 handy brass nuts to whack on a plate on the door.
In clay pipes brought up from wrecked 4.000 old ships off the coast of Southern Turkey by the port of Bodrum, it was in thee form of the erect mail member with adequate duo of accompaniment.
Only since the advent of Christianity, with the transfer of worship to the Roman Goddess who had "Virgin Birth" did the female take dominance over the male forms central in Roman art. With the Heresy of the Virgin Birth being accepted as "dogma", the female form seems to have totally overtaken the male genital representations, so common before that in Western "civilizations".
The extensive white marble facing of the Massive Roman Colosseum, was stripped to build St Peters and then the marble homoerotic male statues, (of cavorting beautiful men), renaming them "Virtue" and the like, stole them for the Vatican art collection and eventually the Vatican Museum.
Asher
