PHALLUS

MYSTERIA
THE SEEDS OF BACCHIC ECSTATIC HYSTERIA

“Now as to the rites of Liber, whom they have set over liquid seeds, and therefore not only over
the liquors of fruits, among which wine holds, so to speak, the primacy, but also over the seeds
of animals… Varro says that in Italy, at the places where roads crossed each other, the rites of
Liber were celebrated with such unrestrained turpitude, that the private parts of a man were
worshipped in his honour.” (Augustine)1

THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

“As to the superstition of the Eleusinian Mysteries, what they conceal is the shame of them.
Therefore they make the admission tortuous, take time in the initiation, set a seal on the
tongue, and instruct the epoptae for five years, to raise a high opinion of them by delay and
expectation. But all the divinity in the sacred domes, the whole of what they aspire to, what
sealeth the tongue, is this: simulacrum membri virilis revelatur. But for a cover of their sacrilege,
they pretend these figures are only a mystical representation of venerable nature.” (Tertullian)

On the Day of Blood, during the rites of Attis, the Galli castrated themselves in a frenzy of ecstasy and
offered the severed parts to the goddess. These parts were symbolized by the pomegranate with its
blood-red flesh that encased the multiple seeds.

“These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards reverently wrapt up and buried in the earth or in
subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of blood, they may have been deemed
instrumental in recalling Attis to life and hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then
bursting into leaf and blossom in the vernal sunshine. Some confirmation of this conjecture is furnished
by the savage story that the mother of Attis conceived by putting in her bosom a pomegranate sprung
from the severed genitals of a man-monster named Agdestis, a sort of double of Attis.” 2

The vernal equinox of spring marked the resurrection of Attis from the underworld. Human fertility is
linked with the process of nature’s cycle of decay and rebirth. This is the basis for human resurrection in
the rites that were performed in Eleusis.

The pomegranate formed a central part of the Eleusinian Mysteries where the concept of natural
mortality is followed by resurrection in the spring. In these myths Persephone consumes pomegranate
seed and is compelled to inhabit the underworld for the duration of the gestation of the seed.

In the archaic ‘Hymn to Demeter’ the goddess demands to know if Persephone has tasted the food of
the underworld during her imprisonment there.

“... but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to
dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the other
deathless gods. But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then
from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and
mortal men… Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus… he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a
pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.”

Thus in the Eleusinian Mysteries the pomegranate is equated with human fertility and represents the vial
containing human seed. The concepts of violent castration and resurrection also formed part of the
myths of Dionysus. These relate that, in similar fashion to Osiris, the body of the god was brutally torn
apart. From the blood shed by the act pomegranates spring to life.

“Pomegranates were supposed to have sprung from the blood of Dionysus, as anemones from the blood
of Adonis and violets from the blood of Attis: hence women refrained from eating seeds of
pomegranates at the festival of Thesmophoria.”3

The pomegranate came to symbolize the rituals of Attis and Dionysus and pomegranate seeds formed
the core of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The pomegranates are linked in concept to the symbolism of the
lily-formed columns of Egyptian temples. The architectural form of the column capital with the lily flower
in an open or closed state was intrinsic to Egyptian temples. The stalk of the plant was represented by
the shaft of the column.

The Nymphaea caerulea water lily (often referred to as the blue lotus) was sacred to Egyptian myth. The
flower tracked the course of the sun by opening in the morning and closing at night. It visually
represented the sun in the sky by being constructed with a yellow centre contrasting with a surround of
blue petals. By being both immersed in water and blooming above the surface, the plant symbolized an
existence both in the temporal and underworld realms.

“For everything pertaining to the lotos (lotus), both the forms in the leaves and the appearance of the
seed, is observed to be circular. This very energy is akin to the unique circle-like motion of the mind,
manifesting it in like manner according to the same forms, in a single arrangement, and according to one
principle.”4

The psychoactive properties of the Nymphaea caerulea were used in the temple rites to gain access to a
passage to the afterlife. The water lily was evidently food for the gods since depictions in Egyptian
temples show the lily being offered to the gods and suggest that it was consumed in the afterlife. The
Nymphaea caerulea is believed to be the lotus that is referred to by Homer in the ‘Odyssey.’

“... what they did was to give them some lotus to taste, and as soon as each had eaten the honeyed fruit
of the plant, all thoughts of reporting to us or escaping were banished from his mind. All they wished for
was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget that they had a
home to return to.”

At Hierapolis the castration rituals were performed before the monumental phallic pillars that stood in
front of the temple. Their dual presence linked the monumental phallic forms to the castration rituals of
the eunuch priests. The two giant phalli framed the entrance to the temple.

“In this entrance those phalli stand which Dionysus erected: they stand thirty fathoms high. Onto one of
these a man mounts twice every year, and he abides on the summit of the phallus for the space of seven
days. The reason of this ascent is given as follows: the people believe that the man who is aloft holds
converse with the gods, and prays for good fortune for the whole of Syria, and that the gods from their
neighbourhood hear his prayers.”5

The pomegranate as the metaphorical container of human seed can be compared to Egyptian temple
columns whose lily-shaped capitals also encase the human seed. In these temples the phallic columnar
forms based on the water lily contained in their bulbous capitals the seeds of creative generation.

“... from under the body of the serpent springs the lotus or water lily… The figures of Isis, upon the Isiac
Table, hold the stem of this plant, surmounted by the seed-vessel in one hand, and the cross,
representing the male organs of generation, in the other; thus signifying the universal power, both active
and passive, attributed to that goddess. On the same Isiac Table is also the representation of an Egyptian
temple, the columns of which are exactly like the plant which Isis holds in her hand, except that the stem
is made larger, in order to give it that stability which is necessary to support a roof and entablature.
Columns and capitals of the same kind are still existing, in great numbers, among the ruins of Thebes, in
Egypt …”6

In this Arcadian garden infused with the spirit of Dionysus/Osiris and Pan existed the fauns and satyrs.
Part human and part animal the satyrs were formed with the legs and hooves of the goat with an equine
tail and an equine phallus. By being part human and part animal the satyrs allowed the human mind to
gain access to this archaic magical world.

“These mixed beings are derived from Pan, the principle of universal order; of whose personified image
they partake. Pan is addressed in the Orphic Litanies as the first-begotten love, or creator incorporated in
universal matter, and so forming the world. The heaven, the earth, water, and fire are said to be
members of him; and he is described as the origin and source of all things, as representing matter
animated by the Divine Spirit.”7

It was these entities that witnessed the slaying and dismemberment of Osiris and communicated the
event to the world. They are thus inextricably bound to his cult and gave to us the concept of human
panic.

“According to legend it was Isis which was responsible for the phallic worship of Osiris. After killing Osiris
his brother Typhon dismembered the body and scattered the various parts around Egypt… The first to
learn of the deed and to bring to men’s knowledge an account of what had been done were the Pans
and Satyrs who lived in the region around Chemmis, and so, even to this day, the sudden confusion and
consternation of a crowd is called a panic…”8

The image of the phallus relates back to Osiris and the myth of his death and resurrection. In Egyptian
myth Typhon divided the body of Osiris into multiple parts and scattered them. Plutarch explains why
the phallus of Osiris became the object of veneration. “Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which
Isis did not find was the male member… But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and
consecrated the phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the present day celebrate a festival.” 9
The genital parts that Isis could not find had been thrown into the Nile. The foaming and inundating
waters of the river thus contained the divine semen. Phallic rituals were therefore related to the life-
giving substance of water. According to Diodorus Siculus “... the privates (of Osiris), according to them,
were thrown by Typhon into the Nile… Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine honours as the other
parts, for, fashioning a likeness of them, she set it up in the temples, commanded that it be honoured,
and made it the object of the highest regard and reverence in the rites and sacrifices accorded to the
god. Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies
and the festivals connected with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the initiatory
rites and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’” 10

Plutarch states that everywhere the Egyptians worshipped the phallus of Osiris and that this veneration
was associated with the power of the sun. “Everywhere they point out statues of Osiris in human form of
the ithyphallic type, on account of his creative and fostering power; and they clothe his statues in a
flame-coloured garment, since they regard the body of the Sun as a visible manifestation of the
perceptible substance of the power for good.”11

This idea is contained in the oil lamps that have been excavated from Pompeii/Herculaneum which
display a phallic form with the flame arising from the head of the phallus. The oil lamps show an
association between the flame of the burning oil and the phallic form.

The phallus was infused with the generating fire of the sun and contained magical powers. The word
‘fascinate’ derives from the Latin fascinum and fascinus. The related Latin verb fascinare means ‘to use
the power of the fascinus’ and the meaning is therefore ‘to practise magic’ or ‘to enchant and bewitch’
and contains the concept of warding off the evil eye. The Vestal Virgins tended the cult of the Fascinus,
the sacred image of the phallus that secured the safety of the state, the Sacra Romana.

According to legend the birth of Romulus and Remus and consequently the founding of Rome is caused
by a fiery phallus. The phantom phallus of fire appears in the hearth of Tarchetius and is understood to
be the phallus of Mars. This deified phallus impregnates a virgin who gives birth to Romulus and Remus
who are then cast off on the river to be discovered and suckled by a wolf.

“... they say that Tarchetius, king of the Albans, who was most lawless and cruel, was visited with a
strange phantom in his house, namely, a phallus rising out of the hearth and remaining there many days.
Now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany, from which there was brought to Tarchetius a response
that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom, and she should bear a son most illustrious for his
valour, and of surpassing good fortune and strength.” 12

Plutarch also describes another version of this myth in which a Vestal virgin gives birth to the twins. The
myth therefore incorporates the fire that is famously tended by the Vestals. These sacred flames in the
temple of the Vestals symbolize the hearth of Rome itself. The fiery phallus of the deity protects the city
and wards off evil. In the words of Plutarch the phallus of fire confers “surpassing good fortune and
strength.”

The fire that was tended by the Vestals had itself originated from the sun. Plutarch describes the
elaborate ritualistic process that was followed in order to capture this pure fire.

“... the altar was demolished and the fire extinguished, then they say it must not be kindled again from
other fire, but made fresh and new, by lighting a pure and unpolluted flame from the rays of the sun.
And this they usually effect by means of metallic mirrors… the sun’s rays now acquiring the substance
and force of fire. Some, moreover, are of the opinion that nothing but this perpetual fire is guarded by
the sacred virgins; while some say that certain objects, which none others may behold, are kept in
concealment by them…”13

In the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii the images are interpreted as illustrating a Dionysian ceremony
and potentially referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries. The revelation of the mysteries revolves around the
unveiling of the phallus. This unveiling is the central depiction at the end of the series of images in the
Villa of the Mysteries.

Also revealed is the mystica vannus, the winnowing fan or basket, that formed part of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. This separated the corn from the chaff and functioned as a metaphor for the capture of
human seed.

“It was from producing this separation, that the universal Bacchus, or double Apollo, the creator and
destroyer, whose essence was fire, was also called the purifier, by a metaphor taken from the winnow,
which purified the corn from the dust and chaff, as fire purified the soul from its terrestrial pollutions.
Hence this instrument is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus.” 14

The generating and purifying power of the sun is contained in the body of the phallus. Its erect form is
the pure expression of the element of fire. Fire is emblematic of the sun and infuses the form of the
phallus. The path of the sun starts with its resurrection at the beginning of every day and its decline into
a state of repose at the end. The shape-shifting nature of the phallus must have held a magical
fascination for humans from the earliest dawn of their existence. This was related to the procreative
power of the sun.

“In the sacred hymns of Osiris they call upon him who is hidden in the arms of the Sun… On the waning
of the month Phaophi they conduct the birthday of the Staff of the Sun following upon the autumnal
equinox, and by this they declare, as it were, that he is in need of support and strength, since he
becomes lacking in warmth and light, and undergoes decline, and is carried away from us to one side.” 15

In this garden of unearthly delights the phallus formed of blood and fire forms the central pillar of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. Fire was the element that was embodied by the phallus. Therefore, in the words of
Iamblichus, “we remark that the planting of ‘phallic images’ is a special representing of the procreative
power by conventional symbols, and that we regard this practise as an invocation to the generative
energy of the universe. On this account many of these images are consecrated in the spring, when all the
world is receiving from the gods the prolific force of the whole creation.” 16

In this magical garden exists the field of beans that forms part of the history of Pythagoras as it is related
by Iamblichus. In the myth a band of persecuted Pythagoreans flee the soldiers of the tyrant Dionysius
but come across a field of beans that bars their path. The Pythagoreans “might have escaped but a field
of well-grown beans lay ahead of them and being unwilling to violate the command that they should not
touch beans, they halted…”17

The significance of beans in Egyptian religious ritual is supported by Herodotus. Their surpassing unclean
nature underlies their significance. “The Egyptians sow no beans in their country; if any grow, they will
not eat them either raw or cooked; the priests cannot endure even to see them, considering beans an
unclean kind of legume.”18

There are therefore immortal secrets that surround the field of beans. Porphyry also emphasizes the
central importance of the beans in his telling of the life of Pythagoras. In this version of the myth more
about the symbolism behind the beans is revealed.

“Beans were interdicted, it is said, because the particular plants grow and individualize only after (the
earth) which is the principle and origin of all things, is mixed together, so that many things underground
are confused, and coalesce; after which everything rots together. Then living creatures were produced
together with plants, so that both men and beans arose out of putrefaction whereof he alleged many
manifest arguments.”19

The synthesis of vegetative fertility and human reproduction is a known feature of the Eleusinian
Mysteries. We can recognize these mysteries in the description of the ritual process of burying the beans
in an earthen container which then gives birth to human infants or human sexual organs.

“For if anyone should chew a bean, and having ground it to a pulp with his teeth, and should expose that
pulp to the warm sun, for a short while, and then return to it, he will perceive the scent of human blood.
Moreover, if at the time when beans bloom, one should take a little of the flower, which then is black,
and should put it into an earthen vessel, and cover it closely, and bury it in the ground for ninety days,
and at the end thereof take it up, and uncover it, instead of the bean he will find either the head of an
infant, or the pudenda of a woman.”20

The secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries were protected by a code of death that was enforced on any one
who revealed them. In his text Iamblichus refers directly to this command. “For it is not lawful to extend
to every casual person, things which were obtained with great labours, nor to divulge the mysteries of
the Eleusinian Goddesses to the profane.”21
It can therefore be inferred that the Pythagoreans were protecting a secret that is linked to the
Eleusinian Mysteries. Iamblichus reveals that many Pythagorean concepts are derived from the
mysteries. “Many of the mandates of the Pythagoreans were introduced from the Mysteries.” 22

Today the term ‘Egyptian Bean’ is still used in relation to the sacred lotus that is prevalent in eastern
Asia. However in the context of this myth the lotus seed is more likely that of the Nymphaea caerulea
that was native to Egypt.

In these myths Pythagoras travels to Delos and so creates a confluence of concepts that ties the
Eleusinian Mysteries to those of Delos. This reveals an underground network of beliefs that united the
various threads of the mysteries. Pythagoras “was the author of a compound divine philosophy and
worship of the Gods; having learned some things from the followers of Orpheus; some from the
Chaldeans and Magi, and some also from the Mysteries performed in Eleusis, in Imbrus, Samothracia
and Delos, as well as in Iberia and by the Celtae.” 23

In contrast to Eleusis physical evidence of the cults on Delos survives in the monumental phallic forms
that dominate the Stoibadeion. These must be related to the mysteries performed in Delos and by
extension also those of Eleusis.

These Dionysian phallic monuments are partially destroyed but retain the seed-shaped testicles from
which the phallus rises. The relationship between the plant and the human therefore has a monumental
physical presence that is made explicit by the stylized rounded shape of the testicles.

New research into the treatment for erectile dysfunction has now revealed the true secret behind the
phallic symbolism of the Nymphaea caerulea. This also reveals the role of this plant in the celebrations of
the Delian and Eleusinian Mysteries. Apomorphine, the chemical component contained in the
Nymphaea caerulea, was recently approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for
erectile dysfunction.

Apomorphine can therefore be used to enhance and prolong the sexual experience even when there is
no underlying erectile dysfunction. This then explains the use of this plant in the orgiastic celebrations of
the mysteries. It also explains the numerous depictions in Egyptian temples that show serpents springing
erect from the lotus.

There is therefore a direct relationship between the plant and human sexuality since the chemicals
within it can induce an erection. This quality demonstrates a far more substantial symbiosis between the
plant and the human than a purely symbolic association. The consumption of the lotus leads to a real
observable physical effect that unites the human to the plant and opens the human mind to the
mysteries of the universe.

In the Dionysian rites ritualistic orgies were performed beside the sacred lake that was believed to mark
the entrance to the underworld. Dionysus descended into the underworld in order to raise his mother
Semele from the unfathomable depths. “The local Argive tradition was that he went down through the
Alcyonian lake; and his return from the lower world, in other words his resurrection, was annually
celebrated by the Argives, who summoned him from the water by trumpet blasts, while they threw a
lamb into the lake as an offering to the warder of the dead.” 24

Dionysus had made an oath to the ancient mariner that was tasked with guiding him down into the
underworld. When this oath was called in Dionysus was required to have carnal relations with the guide.
During the descent of Dionysus into the underworld the guide had died and the sexual act therefore
assumed an immortal staus.

According to the accounts Dionysus created or fabricated a simulation of a phallus from the branch of a
tree in the sacred grove. Onto this he mounted in recognition of the oath that he had made to his guide.
This was the foundation myth that explained the proliferation of phallic sculptures in Dionysian worship.

This worship was accompanied by frenzied orgiastic rituals that celebrated the resurrection of the
deified phallus from the depths of the lake. Dionysus as a phallic god was represented by depictions of
his immortal phallus by the celebrants of these nocturnal rituals. There is therefore a syncretism
between the Dionysian, Samothracian and Egyptian mysteries.

“They call him (Dionysus) up out of the water by the sound of trumpets, at the same time casting into
the depths a lamb as an offering to the Keeper of the Gate. The trumpets they conceal in Bacchic wands,
as Socrates has stated in his treatise on The Holy Ones. Furthermore, the tales regarding the Titans and
the rites celebrated by night agree with the accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his
revivification and regenesis.”25

The Alcyonian Lake from which Dionysus is summoned has an equivalence to the lake at Sais in Egypt
which was central to the Egyptian mysteries and the resurrection of Osiris. Herodotus identifies the
nocturnal rites performed there with the Egyptian mysteries. “There is also at Sais the burial-place of
one whose name I think it impious to mention in speaking of such a matter; it is in the temple of Athena,
behind and close to the length of the wall of the shrine. Moreover, great stone obelisks stand in the
precinct; and there is a lake nearby, adorned with a stone margin and made in a complete circle; it is, as
it seemed to me, the size of the lake at Delos which they call the Round Pond. On this lake they enact by
night the story of the god’s sufferings, a rite which the Egyptians call the Mysteries.” 26

THE SAMOTHRACIAN MYSTERIES

“These customs, then, and others besides, which I shall indicate, were taken by the Greeks from the
Egyptians. It was not so with the ithyphallic images of Hermes; the production of these came from the
Pelasgians, from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others…
The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this
because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set
forth in the Samothracian mysteries.” (Herodotus) 27

This archaic sacred myth, according to Clement of Alexandria, was the phallus of Bacchus/Dionysus
which was brought to Lemnos and this rite was celebrated by the Cabeiri. These entities were the
ministers to the deified phallus and performed ritualistic orgiastic performances in its honour.

“Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery.
For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in which the phallus of Bacchus
(Zagreus/Dionysus) was deposited, took it to Etruria - dealers in honourable wares truly. They lived there
as exiles, employing themselves in communicating to precious teaching of their superstition, and
presenting phallic symbols and the box for the Tyrrhenians to worship.” 28

Zagreus was a deity associated with the Orphic Mysteries but the myth of his dismemberment by the
Titans was fused with those surrounding Dionysus/Bacchus and Osiris. The phallus of this deity was
recovered by the Cabeiri and enshrined in a cave on the island of Samothrace. This sacred myth became
the central inspiration of the Samothracian Mysteries.

Herodotus describes the Cabeiri as being formed in the shape of pygmies and being related to
Hephaestus. They were therefore associated with the forging of metals and were the denizens of the
labyrinthine substrata from which the ores were mined.

“Cambyses committed many such mad acts against the Persians and his allies; he stayed at Memphis,
and there opened ancient coffins and examined the dead bodies. Thus too he entered the temple of
Hephaestus and jeered at the image there. This image of Hephaestus is most like the Phoenician Pataici,
which the Phoenicians carry on the prows of their triremes. I will describe it for anyone who has not
seen these figures; it is the likeness of a dwarf. Also he entered the temple of the Cabeiri, into which no
one may enter save the priest; the images here he even burnt, with bitter mockery. These also are like
the images of Hephaestus, and are said to be his sons.” 29

These pygmies or dwarfish-formed deities had apotropaic powers and were phallic in nature. Depictions
show their oversized phalli that dominate their diminutive bodies and define them as phallic entities.
The rituals are described by Strabo as being equivalent to those of the Dionysian satyrs that engage in a
‘Bacchic frenzy.’ The Cabeiri perform a type of war-dance to the accompaniment of the noise of cymbals,
drums, flutes and chanted exhortations. This frenzy can be deduced as informing the spirit of the
Samothracian Mysteries.

“... those accounts which, although they are called ‘Curetan History’ and ‘History of the Curetes,’… are
more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Tityri; for the Curetes, like these, are called
genii or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and Phrygian traditions,
which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others connected in part with the
rearing of the child Zeus in Crete and in part with the orgies in honour of the mother of the gods which
are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida… they represent them, one and all, as a kind
of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy…” 30

Depictions of orgiastic rituals that are related to the Samothracian Mysteries can be seen in images that
have been excavated from Pompeii. In the House of the Physician/Doctor a depiction of pygmies
engaged in an orgy is presented as a voyeuristic spectacle.

The oil lamps excavated from Pompeii/Herculaneum extend the theme of phallic pygmies into a
sculptured form. In some examples these pygmies are involved in a dance that matches the description
of the war-dance described by Strabo. These entities with their monstrous phalli engage in a war-like
dance with the potential aim of creating an ecstatic Bacchic state.

This establishes a visual image of the mysteries that confirms their central phallic character. In the words
of Strabo the revellers are “subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at
the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and
cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way
regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in
Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same.” 31

Another depiction from Pompeii creates a vision of the pygmies engaged in Nilotic orgiastic celebrations.
The Nile is identified by the inclusion of hippopotami and crocodiles alongside the copulating pygmies.
The orgiastic pygmies from Pompeii are therefore linked to the mysteries in Egypt. The dismemberment
of Osiris is related to that of Zagreus/Dionysus/Bacchus and this supports the text of Clement of
Alexandria that posits the severed phallus as being at the centre of the Samothracian Mysteries.

One form of representation of this magical staff or wand was the caduceus which was carried by
Hermes/Mercury. Around the caduceus were entwined two writhing or copulating snakes or serpents.
These writhing snakes/serpents wrap around the central phallic shaft or wand. The two mirrored snakes
therefore represent the concept of polarity.

“That under the form of Mercury (Hermes) the Sun is really worshipped is evident also from the
Caduceus which the Egyptians have fashioned in the shape of two dragons (asps), male and female
joined together, and consecrated to Mercury. These serpents in the middle parts of their volume are tied
together in the knot called the Knot of Hercules; whilst their upper parts bending backwards in a circle,
by pressing their mouths together as if kissing complete the circumference of the circle; and their tails
are carried back to touch the staff of the Caduceus; and adorn the latter with wings springing out of the
same part of the staff.”32
The snake was revered both for its ability to signal resurrection by shedding its skin but also because of
its ability, especially manifested in the cobra, to rear up in the manner of an engorged phallus. In
addition it was evident that this cold-blooded reptile was infused and energized by the power of the sun.
The wings also express the ability of the snakes and the implied phallus to rise erect. They thus
symbolize the concept of resurrection.

Outside the gate of the temple complex in Samothrace stood two male statues in bronze. There are
strong indications that these were phallic in nature. Herodotus connects the mysteries, especially in their
phallic aspect, to Hermes. The caduceus is composed of two copulating snakes on either side of the staff
that mirror each other and symbolize polar opposites.

“This is, he says, the great and ineffable mystery of the Samothracians, which is allowable, he says, for us
only who are initiated to know. For the Samothracians expressly hand down, in the mysteries that are
celebrated among them, that (same) Adam as the primal man. And habitually there stand in the temple
of the Samothracians two images of naked men, having both hands stretched aloft towards heaven, and
their pudenda erecta, as with the statue of Mercury (Hermes) on Mount Cyllene. And the aforesaid
images are figures of the primal man, and of the spiritual one that is born again, in every respect of the
same substance with that man.”33

According to Pausanias the image of Hermes that was worshipped on Mount Cyllene and is referenced
by Hippolytus above was the pure form of a phallus. “In Cyllene is a sanctuary of Asclepius, and one of
Aphrodite. But the image of Hermes, most devoutly worshipped by the inhabitants, is merely the male
member upright on the pedestal.”34

An original source for the contention that there were two phallic statues at the gates of the temple in
Samothrace is a rare surviving text by Varro. He describes them as virilis which in the context of the
proceeding text on the nature of semen does imply that they were phallic. The two male statues are
described as male and female. This would seem impossible unless the modern terms of positive or
negative polarity are understood as the basis for this male/female duality. Like the caduceus with the
two mirrored snakes the two male statues form a positive and negative polarity at the gate.

“For Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of the Samothracians teach, are Great Gods, and these whom I have
mentioned under many names, are not those Great Gods whom Samothrace represents by two male
statues of bronze which are set up before the city-gates (ante portas statuit duas virilis species aeneas
dei magni), nor are they, as the populace thinks, the Samothracian gods, who are really Castor and
Pollux; but these are a male and a female, these are those whom the Books of the Augurs mention in
writing as potent deities for what the Samothracians call powerful gods.”35

Varro states that these great gods which he describes as powerful and potent represent the duality of
heaven and earth. The sky or sun is male and fertilizes the earth which is female and moist. “Therefore
the conditions of procreation are two: fire and water. Thus these are used at the threshold in weddings,
because there is union here, and fire is male, which the semen is in the other case, and the water is the
female, because the embryo develops from her moisture, and the force that brings their vinctio ‘binding’
is Venus ‘love.’”36

Archaeological evidence links these myths to magnetized iron rings that have been found on Samothrace
which are undeniably connected to the mysteries. Iron rings appear to have been a central feature of the
cult and probably became souvenirs upon initiation. In addition the advanced metallurgy of the island is
shown by the reported invention of a new type of gilding that was applied to iron rings. They were
known as ‘Samothracian rings’ and Pliny speaks of them.

“At the present day, too, the very slaves even, encase their iron rings with gold (while other articles
belonging to them, they decorate with pure gold), a licence which first originated in the Isle of
Samothrace, as the name given to the invention clearly shows.” 37

The magnetic power of the lodestone is well documented in antiquity. Numerous references to the
phenomenon, when combined with the archaeological evidence of the magnetized iron rings, enable an
understanding of the concepts behind the Samothracian Mysteries. It appears that the rings were strung
in a chain with only magnetic power as the binding force. This magical chain can be imagined as a
prototype of the initiation.

According to Plato, in the words of Socrates, this magnetic attraction was “... a divine power, which
moves you like that in the stone which Euripides named a magnet, but most people call ‘Heraclea stone.’
For this stone not only attracts iron rings, but also imparts to them a power whereby they in turn are
able to do the very same thing as the stone, and attract other rings; so that sometimes there is formed
quite a long chain of bits of iron and rings, suspended one from another; and they all depend for this
power on that one stone. In the same manner also the Muse inspires men herself, and then by means of
these inspired persons the inspiration spreads to others, and holds them in a connected chain.” 38

Lucretius makes explicitly clear that these texts are referring to the Samothracian Mysteries. He
describes brazen bowls that hold iron filings which are excited by the action of the lodestone beneath
the bowl. The brazen bowls therefore perform the same symbolic function as the winnowing fan in the
Eleusinian Mysteries.

“Those Samothracian iron rings leap up,

And iron filings in the brazen bowls
Seethe furiously, when underneath was set
The magnet stone.”39

This force is described by Pliny as animating the iron rings and propelling them to leap towards the
magnetic stone as if they possessed hands and feet. “What is there more stubborn than hard iron?
Nature has, in this instance, bestowed upon it both feet and intelligence. It allows itself, in fact, to be
attached by the magnet, and, itself a metal which subdues all other elements, it precipitates itself
towards the source of an influence at once mysterious and unseen. The moment the metal comes near
it, it springs towards the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s embraces.” 40

Lucretius compares the force being exerted on the iron filings to a ‘tide.’ This demonstrates an awareness
that magnetic forces can exert a powerful attracting force equivalent to the gravitational pull of the
moon on the tides.

“In these affairs

Marvel thou not that from this stone the tide
Prevails…
That there the tide streams through without a break…” 41

There is also a developing awareness of the atomic structures that are affected by these forces. The
mysterious and unseen forces are seen to exert an attraction on the interior atoms of the seemingly inert
objects.

“Therefore, when iron (which lies between the two)

Hath taken in some atoms of the brass,
Then do the streams of that Magnesian rock
Move iron by their smitings.”42

Magnetic attraction is likened to a sexual force that propels semen from the body. This force is unseen
but drives the semen so that it “spews forth from itself.”

“With its own current against the iron’s fabric

To dash and beat; by means whereof it spews
Forth from itself…”43

This is also equivalent to the force that is exerted by the gods on humans driving the participants in the
mysteries into various ecstatic states. There is a similar equivalence to the forces that drive the lyric
poets to create works that are inspired by the pull of the gods. Plato compares this momentum to the
forces that lie within the magnetic stone. These unseen forces drive the souls of both the bacchants and
the poets.

“... just as the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses, so the lyric poets do not
indite those fine songs in their senses, but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin
to be frantic, and it is under possession - as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses, when
they draw honey and milk from the rivers - that the soul of the lyric poets does the same thing, by their
own report.”44
The concept that iron was the fiery semen of the gods is evident in the mysteries of Egypt. One of the
most revered items in the tomb of Tutankhamun, as defined by its placement in relation to the body, was
an iron dagger. The blade of this dagger was crafted from iron that had come from a meteorite.

Meteorites that were found on earth were believed to be mediums between the gods and humans and
contained the living gods. The stones were thus animated by the spirits of the gods and functioned as a
type of extraterrestrial relic that contained magical powers. They were termed baetyls, a Semitic word,
that expressed the concept that the stone was the house of the god.

A coin from Emesa clearly shows the conical Baetyl of El-Gabal. Herodian says that the shrine containing
the sacred conical stone was dedicated to the sun god and was worshipped under the Phoenician name
of El-Gabal. A great temple was erected to this god and lavishly decorated in gold and silver.

“No statue made by man in the likeness of the god stands in this temple, as in Greek and Roman
temples, the temple does, however, contain a huge black stone with a pointed end and round base in the
shape of a cone. The Phoenicians solemnly maintain that this stone came from Zeus; pointing out certain
small figures in relief, they assert that it is an unwraught image of the sun, for naturally this is what they
wish to see.”45

In reference to the shrine of Astarte at Byblos, and her cult there, Philo of Byblos states that “Astarte set
the head of a bull upon her head as a mark of royalty; and in travelling round the world she found a star
that had fallen from the sky, which she took up and consecrated in the holy island of Tyre. And the
Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite.”

Aphrodite was represented by a black conical stone that was believed to be animated by the spirit of the
goddess. The black baetyl was believed to be a meteorite that had come from the stars and to be a gift
from the gods. Thus the baetyl was the body of the star that enclosed the spirit of the deity.

Uranus, the god of the vault of the heavens, sent the meteorites or baetyls to seed the earth. Urania, the
daughter of Uranus, also symbolized the heavens and by extension these sacred stones. She was
combined with Aphrodite to form a deity that encapsulated the qualities of the fallen stars.

Aphrodite Urania was worshipped across Asia Minor and the sanctuary on Cyprus was one of the most
celebrated in antiquity. The Phoenicians identified her with their own Baalath or Astarte. “If two deities
were thus fused in one, we may suppose that they were both varieties of that great goddess of
motherhood and fertility whose worship appears to have spread all over Western Asia from a very early
time. The supposition is confirmed as well by the archaic shape of her image as by the licentious
character of her rites; for both that shape and those rites were shared by her with other Asiatic
deities.”46

Varro alludes that this goddess was worshipped in Samothrace by referring to her myth in close textual
proximity to the section describing the Samothracian statues. He also states that the goddess was born
from fiery seed that fell from the sky. “The poets, in that they say the fiery seed fell from the Sky into the
sea and Venus (Aphrodite) was born ‘from the foam-masses,’ through the conjunction of fire and
moisture, are indicating that the vis ‘force’ which they have is that of Venus. Those born of this vis have
what is called vita ‘life’...”47

The use of the expression ‘foam-masses’ clearly indicates that Varro is speaking of the myth recited by
Hesiod about the birth of Aphrodite Urania. In this vision the stars become the semen of the gods filling
the night sky with a shining heavenly foam. Aphrodite Urania emerged from the foam surrounding the
severed genitals of Uranus. According to Hesiod this seminal foam formed the heavenly body of the
goddess.

“And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea,
they were swept away over the main a long time; and a white foam spread around them from the
immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden… Her gods and men call Aphrodite and the foam-born
goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam…” 48

Aphrodite Urania was therefore an archaic deity that represented a period when the deities were closely
associated with the meteorites that seeded the earth. The myth that Hesiod is relating is very ancient
and is believed to have been inspired by myths associated with the archetypal Mesopotamian deity Anu.

In the creation myth of Hephaestus and Athena the semen from the gods in the heavens impregnates
the earth (Gaia) below. Hephaestus ejaculates his fiery semen over Athena who casts it down upon
earth, so impregnating it. Human life is therefore formed by the Demiurge, Hephaestus or Vulcan,
moulding his creations from the fiery heat. “She (Athena) founded your city a thousand years before
ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race…” 49

This fiery semen can be seen as the meteorites that fall to earth. Lightning fulfils the same purpose by
being the fiery phallus of the gods as it strikes the earth and by extension the goddess. The creative
action of the gods therefore replicates the sexual actions of humans on earth.

The place or building that was struck by lightning thrown by the god assumed a sacred status. Lightning
was a manifestation of heavenly phenomena that included meteorite strikes. Pliny places meteorites
(baetyli) and stones that had been struck by lightning in the same magical category.

“Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one black and the other red; and he says that
they resemble axes in shape. Those which are black and round, he says, are looked upon as sacred, and
by their assistance cities and fleets are attacked and taken: the name given to them is baetyli, those of
an elongated form being known as cerauniae. They make out also that there is another kind, rarely to be
met with, and much in request for the practises of magic, it never being found in any place but one that
has been struck by lightning.”50
The idea that a stone that was struck by lightning could accrue magical powers seemed until recently an
ancient superstition. But this magical quality now lies at the forefront of scientific research. Magnetite
naturally exhibits a low level of magnetism but the high level of magnetic polarity in rare examples was
unexplained. New scientific research has revealed that a lightning strike on magnetite creates a powerful
magnetic field that magnetizes the stone giving it a potent magnetic polarity.

Given the strong magnetic polarity that is attested by ancient texts documenting the Samothracian
Mysteries it appears that this was the type of stone that was used. The magnetic stone or lodestone of
Samothrace was therefore a magnetite rock that had been struck by lightning. Varro refers to the
‘potent’ deities that determined the mysteries. “... these are those whom the Books of the Augurs
mention in writing as ‘potent deities,’ for what the Samothracians call ‘powerful gods.’” 51

Some of the baetyls were carved to make them more anthropomorphic. The cult object at Ephesus was
believed to have been carved from a meteorite. The Nabataeans similarly carved baetyls to emphasize
certain cult features. The magnetic stone of the Samothracians could likewise have assumed a phallic
shape either through design or imagination. A phallic object that had been struck by lightning, thus
acquiring magical magnetic powers, would have been a potent invocation of the phallus of the gods.

The concept that processes such as lightning, meteor and comet strikes could have seeded life on this
planet lies at the limit of our current understanding and yet is expressed in the mysteries of antiquity.

“Ignis ‘fire’ is named from gnasci ‘to be born,’ because from it there is birth, and everything which is
born the fire enkindles; therefore it is hot, just as he who dies loses the fire and becomes cold. From that
fire’s vis ac violentia ‘force and violence,’ now in greater measure, Vulcan (Hephaestus) was named.
From the fact that fire on account of its brightness fulget ‘flashes,’ come fulgur ‘lightning flash’ and
fulmen ‘thunderbolt,’ and what has been called fulmine ictum ‘hit by a thunderbolt’ is called
fulguritum.”52

“Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies and
the festivals connected with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the initiatory rites
and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’” 53

“Dionysus:
I, the son of Zeus, have come to this land of the Thebans - Dionysus, whom once Semele,
Kadmos’ daughter, bore, delivered by a lightning-bearing flame.”

(Euripides - Bacchae 1)
1. Augustine - The City of God 7.21
2. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
3. Ibid.
4. Iamblichus - Theurgia 7.15
5. Lucian of Samosata - De Dea Syria
6. Richard Payne Knight - A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
7. Ibid.
8. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 14
9. Ibid. 18
10. Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.22
11. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 51
12. Plutarch - The Life of Romulus 2
13. Plutarch - The Life of Numa
14. Richard Payne Knight - A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
15. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 52
16. Iamblichus - Theurgia 1.4
17. Iamblichus - The Life of Pythagoras
18. Herodotus - Histories 2.37
19. Porphyry - Life of Pythagoras 44
20. Ibid.
21. Iamblichus - The Life of Pythagoras
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
25. Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 35
26. Herodotus - Histories 2.170-171
27. Ibid. 2.51
28. Clement of Alexandria - Exhortation to the Heathen 2
29. Herodotus - Histories 3.37
30. Strabo - Geography 10.3.7-9
31. Ibid. 10.3.8-9
32. Macrobius
33. Hippolytus - Refutation of All Heresies 5
34. Pausanias - Description of Greece 6.26.5
35. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58
36. Ibid. 61
37. Pliny - Natural History 33.6
38. Plato - Ion 533
39. Lucretius - De Rerum Natura 6
40. Pliny - Natural History 36.25
41. Lucretius - De Rerum Natura 6
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Plato - Ion 534
45. Herodian - History of the Roman Empire 5.3:4-5
46. James Frazer - The Golden Bough
47. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.63
48. Hesiod - Theogony 176-180
49. Plato - Timaeus 23
50. Pliny - Natural History 37.51
51. Varro - On the Latin Language 5.58
52. Ibid. 5.70
53. Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.22