Ancient Rome’s religious pantheon had hundreds of gods. One of them, One of them, Fascinus, is not that well-known today, but he was extremely popular back then. To Roman pagans, he was holy, but when Christianity spread, he came to be seen as an obscene abomination: Fascinus was a phallus with wings.
The Holy Flying Dong
Fascinus was one of the most curious and enduring symbols of ancient Roman religion and superstition. He is NSFW today, but to contemporary Romans, he was holy. A phallic representation, he embodied divine protection, virility, and good fortune. Far from being seen as obscene, the image of the erect penis was believed to possess powerful apotropaic, or evil-averting, properties. Romans inherited that belief from Italic and Etruscan traditions, and integrated it deeply into daily life, religion, and public culture. The word fascinus, plural fascina, referred both to the phallic image itself, and to the divine force it represented, often personified as the god Fascinus, a minor deity who protected individuals – especially children and victorious generals – from the evil eye or malocchio, an envious or malicious gaze believed to bring harm.
The Romans viewed envy as a tangible spiritual threat that could wither success, beauty, or fertility. The fascinus acted as a counter-charm that turned back that destructive energy with its bold and unabashed virility. Images of Fascinus appeared everywhere in Roman society. Amulets shaped like small phalli were worn by children and soldiers, sometimes carved from bronze, bone, or even precious stones. Archaeologists have found hundreds of such charms across the Roman world. They were also mounted on chariots, doorways, shop signs, and even jewelry – a blend of protection, humor, and pride. In public spaces, winged phalluses called tintinnabula were used as wind chimes. Their sound was thought to strengthen their power to repel evil. The chimes could be quite elaborate, showing flying phalluses carrying little bells or human figures.
Fascinus in Roman Mythology
As a flying hard dong who was sometimes depicted as sporting additional dongs, Fascinus was constantly on the prowl. In Roman accounts, he had a particular preference for slumbering women. Many Roman art motifs and folk tales center on sleeping maidens, usually in scenic rural settings, who wake up to discover that Fascinus had flown between their legs to bless them. The best known maiden supposedly impregnated by the flying penis god was Ocrisia, mother of Servius Tullius, Rome’s sixth king.
A foreign noblewoman captured in war, Ocrisia became a slave in the household of Rome’s King Tarquinius. She was a virgin, and as she performed the sacred rites of the Vestal Virgins one day, a disembodied winged penis flew in and impregnated her. That union produced a son, Servius Tullius, who was raised in the royal household. Although a slave, he so impressed King Tarquinius that he freed him and had him marry his daughter. After Tarquinius’ demise, he was succeeded on the throne by Servius, his son-in-law and son of the divine flying penis.
The Legacy of the Fascinus
The god Fascinus also played a formal role in state religion. According to the scholar Pliny the Elder, the sacred image of Fascinus was carried in processions during triumphs. It was supposed to protect the victorious general from jealousy and bad luck. The priests who cared for the image were known as the Fascinarii, a small but official order of religious attendants. Thus, the fascinus was not vulgar in ancient Roman eyes. It held divine sanction, and symbolized both generative power and spiritual defense.
Even the Vestal Virgins, Rome’s most sacred priestesses, guarded a phallic effigy of Fascinus in the Temple of Vesta. Its presence was believed to ensure the city’s safety through ritual. The ubiquity of the fascinus reveals much about Roman attitudes toward sexuality and the sacred. The Romans did not separate the sexual from the spiritual as sharply as later Christian culture did. To them, the erect phallus represented the vital spark of life, a force of fertility, strength, and protection. It was not shameful, but potent and divine. Humor and reverence coexisted in the same image.
After the rise of Christianity, the fascinus fell out of favor, reinterpreted as a symbol of pagan obscenity rather than holiness. Yet its legacy endured in folk traditions across Europe, where phallic charms continued to be used to ward off the evil eye. It also endures in the word “fascinate”, derived from the Latin fascinare, “to use the power of the fascinus”. The Roman fascinus stands as a reminder of a worldview in which sexuality, magic, and religion were intertwined.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – Ancient Doctors Swore by Crocodile Dung Contraceptives, and Poop as Medicine
Johns, Catherine – Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome (1982)
Ogden, Daniel – Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (2002)
