The Fascinum: The Romans' Phallic Amulet Against Envy

At Pompeii and many other Roman sites one comes across phallic images in places that might seem surprising today: on house thresholds, on the walls of shops, in bakeries, on horse harnesses. These were not provocations nor, in most cases, erotic allusions. They were representations of the fascinum, the amulet with which the Romans defended themselves against envy and the evil eye, and which accompanied children, soldiers and traders in everyday life.

The name and its meaning

The Latin term fascinum, or fascinus, denoted both the phallus and the malign force it was meant to counter, fascination in the ancient sense of bewitchment. The verb fascinare itself meant “to bewitch”, “to cast the evil eye”. The phallus was considered an image of vitality and fertility so powerful that it could divert the envious gaze, which fixed on it instead of on the person or thing to be protected. In this sense the amulet worked like a lightning rod for malicious eyes.

The testimony of the authors

Pliny the Elder, in the Natural History, records that the fascinus was worshipped as a deity and that its cult was entrusted to the Vestals. He adds that it was hung beneath the chariot of generals celebrating a triumph, to protect them from envy on their day of glory, and he calls it the “physician of envy”. Varro, in On the Latin Language, mentions a small obscene object hung at children's necks so that they would come to no harm. The two testimonies thus cover the whole span of life, from infancy to triumph.

Amulets for everyone

Fascina were made of bronze, bone, coral, gold and glass paste, in tiny sizes suitable for wearing. Many combine the phallus with a clenched hand in the gesture of the fig, the thumb pressed between index and middle finger, another sign against the evil eye. In military camps along the frontiers of the empire, from Britain to the Danube, numerous pendants of this kind have been found, often attached to horse harnesses, together with crescents and decorated discs.

Particularly striking are the tintinnabula, bronze bells hung at doors or in gardens, with fanciful phallic figures, sometimes winged or with animal legs. Sound and image joined in the defence of the house, and several examples from Pompeii and Herculaneum are now kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Some threshold mosaics repeat the motif as well.

From the Romans to popular tradition

With the triumph of Christianity the cult of the fascinus disappeared, but the idea of an object capable of intercepting envy survived. Some scholars see in the lucky horn of southern Italy and in the horned-hand gesture a distant continuity with these amulets, although the historical path is hard to document precisely, and many links in the chain between the Roman and modern periods are missing.

The fascinum shows how different the Romans' relationship with the body and with images was. What we tend to confine to the private sphere was for them a public sign of vital force, set to guard children, soldiers, shops and triumphs, and welcomed without embarrassment into the space of the city.