Fascinus

What it is

Fascinus is the Latin name for a divine phallus in ancient Roman religion and magic. The same term, often written fascinum, also covers images of the phallus, small amulets and the spells that called on its guard. Pliny described it as a defence against invidia, the envious look or evil eye. In public cult the image was one of the sacred guarantees of the state's safety and was associated with the Palladium. In private life phallic charms were ordinary objects. Romans held that the sign turned harm aside, particularly for children and for commanders celebrating a triumph.

Where it comes from

The word is Latin. English fascinate is traced to fascinum and to fascinare, to use the power of the fascinus, meaning to work magic or bewitch. Catullus, in a poem addressed to Lesbia, uses the verb for a malicious tongue that might put a spell on his kisses. Ancient writers gave two possible roots for Fescennine verses, the lewd and satirical songs of Roman social life: one from fascinum, the other from Fescennia, a town in Etruria. They did not settle the question. Roman myth about the begetting of Servius Tullius ties a phallus to the hearth and to sacred male generative power. The Vestal Virgins kept the state image.

How it is done

Use took several outward forms. Varro records a phallus charm hung at a baby's neck, and rings bearing the shape were made small enough for children. At a triumph the Vestals fixed an effigy beneath the general's chariot. During the feast of Father Liber an obscene member on a small trolley was shown first at rural crossroads and then brought into the city, so that the god might be honoured and the fields guarded from fascinatio. Some charms were winged. Others joined the phallus to a fist, sometimes making the fig sign. A first-century BC terracotta groups two phallus figures around an eye they are cutting in two.

Tools and materials

The surviving objects are mostly small and portable: pendants, finger rings, carved reliefs, lamps and tintinnabula, the wind chimes Romans hung in and around buildings. Many phalli are winged. A common soldier's type joins a phallus to a clenched fist, and some examples form the manus fica, or fig sign, a luck-bringing gesture. Rare versions add vulvar forms as a further guard. The club of Hercules could stand in for the phallus, so the protective sign was not always anatomical. A 2017 experimental archaeology project argued that some pendants were shaped to point outward, along the wearer's path.

What it is for

The main purpose was protective. People held that the phallus met invidia, the harmful look, before it could settle on a person. The charm was thought especially needful for the young, boys above all, and for commanders returning in victory. Farmers sought the same guard for seed and crops during Liber's festival. Soldiers wore fist-and-phallus pendants, and the fig gesture on them was taken as lucky. Roman writers also tie the charm to the male generative power of an erect phallus, but they add that the shame or laughter provoked by an obscene image was often what was believed to turn the eye aside. A phallus aimed at a disembodied eye makes the contest visible.

Who does it

Public care of the fascinus populi Romani belonged to the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses of the state cult. They kept the image and, at a triumph, fixed an effigy to the general's chariot. Private use belonged to the household: a charm hung at a baby's neck, and a soldier wore a pendant or ring. Pliny, Varro and Augustine describe these customs; Augustine drew on Varro's lost theological books. The power was called on through the charm itself and through spells. The state image was in priestly hands, while smaller versions were in ordinary ones.

Peoples and places

The cult and the charms are Roman. Varro places rites of Liber in Italy, and Roman writers treat the fascinus as part of state religion. The motif travelled with soldiers and settlers. Reliefs showing a phallus aimed at an eye come from Leptis Magna, in what is now Libya, and from Hadrian's Wall. The largest known group of fist-and-phallus amulets comes from Camulodunum. The same Roman habit of protection repeats across the empire, from North Africa to the northern frontier.

What people believe

Behind the charm lies a Roman idea of the harmful eye. Envy, invidia, was pictured as a look that could fasten on good fortune, and fascinatio was a magic compulsion or bewitchment. The phallus was a divine sign, not only a rude shape: Fascinus was a personified power, and the state's image was kept among Rome's sacred guarantees. The figure was linked with Mutunus Tutunus, another Roman phallic deity with a shrine traditionally dated to Rome's earliest period, and with Priapus, a Greek god adopted at Rome. The obscene image was thought to work through shame or laughter as much as through male potency.

When it is done

The public calendar gave the fascinus a place at the festival of Father Liber, when a phallic image was carried from country crossroads into the city. Augustine, quoting Varro, says the rite sought healthy seed and protection for the fields. A triumph was another set occasion: the Vestals fixed an effigy under the commander's chariot. Beyond those public moments, the charm belonged to ordinary life. Varro records one hung at a baby's neck, and rings too small for adults point to children wearing them. Soldiers wore pendants on campaign.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Pliny's phrase and Varro's account are written witnesses. Augustine preserves Varro's report on Liber, which is why the festival is known. A 2017 experimental archaeology project tested how some pendants sat when worn and proposed that their outward direction was deliberate, so the charm faced danger ahead. That study is an interpretation, not a Roman statement of intent. Very few Roman images show people wearing a phallic charm, although the objects survive in number. The motif of a phallus against an eye may picture the charm overcoming the harmful look.

Compare and confuse

Fascinus is often placed beside two other phallic gods: Mutunus Tutunus, an old Roman deity, and Priapus, brought from Greece. The club of Hercules could serve as an alternative protective sign. The word fascinum covers both the divine phallus and the object or spell, so English fascinate, meaning to bewitch, keeps a trace of the Roman term. Winged phalli, fist-and-phallus pendants and the eye-cutting terracotta show the same idea in different shapes.

Today

The word survives in English through fascinate, which recalls the Latin verb for working magic or bewitching. Modern study continues through experimental archaeology: a 2017 project examined how some pendants were positioned when worn. The largest known group of fist-and-phallus amulets comes from Camulodunum. The eye-cutting terracotta and the Leptis Magna reliefs show the visual motif in different Roman settings.

Questions people ask about Fascinus

Good reading and sources

• Fascinus on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data