Phallus

A phallus is a penis, especially when erect, an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis.

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 the male sexual organ, as well as the male orgasm.

Etymology

The term is a loanword from Latin phallus, itself borrowed from Greek φαλλός, 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".

Archaeology

The Hohle phallus, a 28,000-year-old siltstone phallus discovered in the Hohle Fels cave and first assembled in 2005, is among the oldest phallic representations known.

Religion

Classical antiquity

In traditional Greek mythology, Hermes, 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 a type of fertility god. Pan, son of Hermes, was often depicted as having an exaggerated erect phallus.

Phallus (fungus)

The genus Phallus, commonly known as stinkhorns, are a group of basidiomycetes which produce a phallic, often foul-scented, mushroom, from which their name is derived. The genus has a widespread distribution and, according to a 2008 estimate, contains 18 species. They belong to the family Phallaceae in the order Phallales. The best known species (and type species) is the common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus).

History and taxonomy

The genus was first mentioned in the literature by the Dutch botanist Hadrianus Junius (1511–1575), who, in 1564 wrote a short book published in Delft on the Phallus in Hollandia, describing a mushroom in the form of a penis. He was not convinced that the organism was fungal in nature:

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus used the genus name Phallus in his Species Plantarum; the named was later sanctioned by Christian Hendrik Persoon when he used it in his 1801 Synopsis Methodica Fungorum.

Some authors have considered the presence of an indusium (a lacy "skirt" that hangs beneath the cap) to be an important taxonomic characteristic, and have placed taxa with indusia in a separate genus Dictyophora. More recent publications suggest that there are close morphological similarities in Phallus species with and without an indusium, so the trend has been to merge Dictyophora into Phallus; the online taxonomic databases Index Fungorum and MycoBank consider Dictyophora synonymous with Phallus.

Primordial phallus

In embryology, the primordial phallus refers to the clitoris of a female or the penis in the male, particularly during fetal development of the urinary and reproductive organs, before sexual differentiation is evident. This is also the case for the immature male analog, the immature glans penis.

See also

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