Religion and Lust

Bremens: De Situ Daniae, p. 23; quoted, also, by the author of The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 126.

95

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 124.

96

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 127.

97

Horace: Priap. Carm., lxxxiv.

98

A well informed Jesuit priest once told me that several laws had been made about this time forbidding the worship of the female sexual organ, under the name of abricot or apricot. Rabelais used the word abricot fendu when speaking of the female genital organs. See his works. Was this term derived from the Biblical narrative of the genesis of the human race (the apple), or was it taken from the phallic symbol, the pomegranate? Did Moses get it from the Assyrians in the first place? I think he did.

99

Martène and Durand: Veterum Scriptorum Amplissima Collectio, tom. vii, p. 35. Si quis praecantaverit ad fascinum, vel qualescumque praecantationes excepto symbolum sanctum aut orationem dominicam qui cantat et cui cantatur, tres quadrigesimas in pane et aqua poéniteat.

100

As has been pointed out elsewhere in this work, ancient peoples were essentially symbolical and materialistically symbolical at that; they were very apt to typify nature, sexually, by some object or objects which bore a resemblance real or fancied, to the sexual organs. The red halves of the ripe apricot at the insertion of the stem, look very much like the external genitalia of the human female. The significance and importance of the pomegranate in the mixed religion of the Ancient Hebrews are well brought out in rules laid down for the ornamentations and embroidery of the robes of the priests, etc., etc., Vid. Old Testament.

101

D. Burchardi: Decretorum libri, lib. x, c. 49.

Some of these clerical references are taken from the Worship of Priapus, but, since this work is exceedingly rare and costly, and is not apt to come under the notice of the general reader, I have thought best to give the original authorities.

102

Martène and Durand: Veterum Scriptorum Collectio Amplissima, tom. vii, col. 1377.

103

The Chronicles of Lanercroft.

104

Herodotus: Euterpe, 102.

105

For an analogous ceremony, see Herodotus, Euterpe, 60.

106

Arnobius: Adversus Gentes, lib. v, c. 5.

107

The Worship of the Generative Powers, p. 135.

108

Knight: The Worship of Priapus, pp. 3-6,7.

109

A modification of this is seen in the derisive gesture of the street Arab who closes all of his fingers, except the middle one, on his palm. The middle finger he holds stiffly erect and the hand is then extended towards the object of his contempt. This gesture, once performed as a deeply religious rite, has now become the contemptuous sign of a boy of the street!

110

L’Estoile: Confession de Sancy, pp. 383, 391.

111

The Worship of Priapus, p. 141.

112

Ibid.

113

According to Abel de Rémusat (Nouv. Mel. Asiatiques, p. 116), the custom of tchin-than, or religious defloration, was formerly in use in Cambodia and Malabar. This custom seems to be analogous to the jus primae noctis, as practiced by many tribes, where the woman, on her bridal night, has to yield herself up to the male marriage guests—jus primae noctis, as thus practiced, must not be confounded with the seignorial right, the right of the lord, or ruler. The former right is regarded in the light of a quasi religious observance, while the latter is not. The former was in vogue in ancient times in the Balearic Isles and among the ancient Peruvians; recently among several aboriginal tribes of India, in Burmah, in Cashmere, in Madagascar, in Arabia, and in New Zealand. Vid. Teulon: Orig. de la Famille, p. 69.

114

Martène et Durand: Coll. Antiq. Can. Paenit., iv, 52.

115

Ezekiel: chap, xiv, v. 17.

116

Becan: Origines Antwerpianae, lib. i, pp. 26, 101.

117

Golnitz: Itinerarium Belgico-Gallicum, p. 52.

118

The phallic hand in some form or other is frequently found in the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The so-called maison d’ joie found in one of the streets of Pompeii is considered by some authorities to have been a minor temple to Venus where priapic rites were celebrated. The stone phallus at the entrance as well as the erotic frescoes on the wall, point to this as being true.