One summer night in 415 BCE, on the eve of a military expedition to Sicily, the city of Athens went to sleep under the protection of the gods. Notable among these was Hermes, the god of travellers, whose statues known as Herms stood in many public places, and outside homes.
These stone guardians were simply rectangular columns, with a carved bearded head of Hermes at the top, and an erect phallus and testicles jutting out at groin level. When the Athenians rose the next morning, they discovered that persons unknown had gone through the city
in the night and hacked the genitals from the Herms. The city itself had been symbolically castrated, and its divine guardian defiled. It was as if someone in Rome today were to slip unnoticed through the city to paint indelible moustaches on every image of the Madonna.
There's a very good book on the implications of the "Mutilation of the Herms": The Reign of the Phallus, Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens by Eva C. Keuls. Just don't have it on the coffee table when the vicar comes to call.
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