Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall].

  • Dingwall, Eric John.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    discovered in 1869 at Autun. According to Reinach, the statuette is “pourvu de la KvvoUfrp-o”' but from a photograph1 2 it is apparently an example of the curved form of phallus, no bands or loops being observable. Amongst followers of Dionysius it is especially common. For instance, on a pelike from Gela of which Farnell3 gives a plate, an excellent example can be seen, and Poliak describes a signed vase in which Dionysius is shown fighting, his phallus being bent up to a remarkable extent4 5 (see fig. 2, a, b). I have said how this form is often met with among the followers of Dionysius, and this is particularly the case with the Sileni, not only in the vase paintings but also in the statuettes. Thus in Naples a small bronze figure is preserved in which this feature is easily discernible, with which may be compared a figure of Pan now in a museum in Athens.6 Similarly on a red-figured lekythos from Athens, now in the Museo Civico in Bologna, Silenus is represented bald and crowned with ivy, the membrum being curiously bent round, an example which may well be compared with two other specimens in the same museum® (fig. 2, e). The fact 1 S. Reinach, AntiquiUs nationales: description raisonnde du Muste de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Bronzes (Paris, 1894), p. 206. Cf. also Mdmoires de la SocieU Eduenne: (nouv. serie, Autun, 1872-, i, p. 405.) 2 In H. Bulle’s De Schone Mensch im Altertum (2e Aufl., Miinchen, 1911-1912), p. 186, taf. 96. 3 L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States (5 vols., Oxford, 1896- 1909), v, p. 266, pi. 48; cf. also 0. M. von Stackelberg, Die Graeber der Hellenen (Berlin, 1837), taf. xl. 4 L. Poliak, Zwei Vasen aus der Werkstatt Hierons (Leipzig, 1900), p. 31, taf. v. 5 P. Arndt and W. Amelung, Photog. Einzelaufnahmen, nrs. 504 and 709. 6 G. Pellegrini, Bologna. Museo Civico. Catalogo dei vast antichi dipinti . . . descritti dal G. Pellegrini (Bologna, 1900), nr. 297, p. 51, figs. 38, 39, and the same author’s Catalogo dei vasi greci dipinti . . . (Bologna, 1912), nrs. 190, 241, pp. 71, 97. Similar phallic curvature sometimes occurs upon enormous statues. Cf. the faunes porteurs of the Louvre : W. Frohner, Notice de la sculpture antique du MusCe Imperial du Louvre Paris, 1869), p. 277; J. M. R. B- de Saint-Victor, Muste des (antiques (3 vols., Paris [1811-27], iii, pi. 13.)