By Alain Daniélou

Starting with an summary of the symbolism of artistic forces in most cases, The Phallus first examines the illustration of male fertility in such kinds because the menhirs or status stones of prehistoric Europe; the Mahalinga and Svayambhu of India; and the traditional Greek Omphalos. the second one a part of the booklet surveys the presence of ithyphallic gods in archaic shamanistic religions (the Lord of the Animals), the Greek pantheon (Hermes, Priapus), and the Hindu deities (Ardhanarishvara, the androgyne). Danielou additionally explores the position of Shaivist and Dionysian initiatory rites in bringing males into communion with the artistic forces of existence. Illustrated all through with pictures and line drawings of eu and Indian paintings, The Phallus celebrates the expression of the masculine within the spiritual traditions of East and West.

Phallic imagery, in a single shape or one other, could be present in the inventive traditions of just about each international tradition when you consider that prehistoric occasions. Alain Danielou right here unveils the spiritual impulse underlying artwork that in the first place look turns out to don't have any objective past the erotic.

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"Danielou used to be some of the most wonderful modern orientalists, who introduced the wonderful thing about historic texts and track to our unlucky and more and more barbaric continent. Our debt to his scholarship and humanity is immeasurable." (Times Literary complement)

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Sample text

His different aspects are linked to the deities who rule over the directions of space and to whom an important symbolism is attributed as well as a direct and immediate effect on life. The symbolism of directions can be found in Crete and Egypt, in megalithic cultures, and in Greek and Roman religions, right up through the time of medieval Christianity. In the Ajax of Sophocles, Pan is invoked as the director of the dance of the gods, that is to say, the movements of the universe. India: Pink sandstone Shiva lingam, circa sixth century.

In popular Italian terminology the male sex organ, even today, is called uccello (bird) or pesce (fish). In the Christian myth of the Nativity, the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird. India: Phallic representations in a tapestry by the Assam tribe. Collection of Jacques Cloarec. As the phallus was synonymous with power, the royal scepter originally took the form of one. Until the nineteenth century in Italy, the character of Harlequin held a scepter from which dangled two testicles (Rawson, p.

The ancient sanctuaries of Shiva, like those for Dionysius, were located away from cities by preference. This is also the case for the megaliths in England, Brittany, and Corsica and in the whole world stretching from India to Europe's extreme western borders. The Egyptian obelisk is a phallic symbol. The same is true of steeples and minarets of later religions, during their earliest manifestations. "Diodorus of Sicily recalls that Sesostris raised columns representing male organs as a homage to those peoples who bravely defended themselves" (Payne Knight, The Worship of Priapus, p.

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