Featured Is Elagabalus Really Wearing a Desiccated Bull Phallus on his Head?

I definitely support option #2. Great post, Curtisimo.

 

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Not intending to be antisemitic, just something I had read. I'll read further.

 

Starting to read further, I decided not to open this can of worms even for myself. What I took to be a linguistic anomaly turns out not to be so interesting as it is repugnant. My apologies.

 

Don't want to derail. I used to buy my dogs pizzles every week. Covid stuffed up our supplies and something arrived to replace it/them. I won't go into detail, but it was around 2 foot long, curled up in a plastic bag. It went into the freezer until garbage day and I haven't ordered it since.

 

..hiya Pish!

 

Hi @ominus1

 

Thank you for posting your much appreciated commentary on the the thread, Curtis. I am glad you enjoyed it. I have a soft spot for the coins of Elagabalus because the first ancient coin I purchased 10 years ago was an Elagabalus ant.

I did consider putting in an “other/unknown” option (and maybe should have) but in the end decided to leave it to the theories I was aware of thinking that people could comment to add more thoughts. Seems there are lots of CTers interested in the subject.

Nice work-appropriate denarius @ominus1

Nice coins! If you do find more info or remember where you saw the article you mention discussing the bull phallus theory please post a link. I’d be interested to read any new info.

I think Krengel (and curtisclay above) makes a good case in the article [2] that Elagabalus started pushing his religious reforms hardest around the beginning of 221 and by the end of 222 either Elagabalus or someone managing on his behalf (Julia Soaemias or Julia Maesa?) started toning down the imagery on the coins that the army was likely to see.

Excellent coin @maridvnvm ! Thank you for sharing.

Well one can never have too many hats . I am glad that you decided to let this one go. I’ve been wanting to get one of these for a long time. It’s a wonderful example and I was pleased to see the 20+ year provenance. Is the tag from your collection?

The one you kept is a great coin as well. I also like that it has “Elagab” in the inscription. Plus it is a “kinked” example that tends to cause problems for the horn theory.

Once again I’m happy to have won this one. I like owning coins from fellow collectors that I know, especially as I respect your great taste in coins.

Horn or no what a great coin with nice style, especially on the portrait!

 

Great coin @svessien ! Thank you for sharing and thank you for the kind words.

It’s great to see you @Pishpash ! I’m glad you decided to post. I honestly just learned from participating in this thread that is what a dog-chew pizzle was. The scenario you allude to sounds...

 

I don’t see how this thread warrants even the threat of removal. If individual posts cross the line then I can understand to modify or remove them as is typical where rules are concerned. But to remove the whole thread?

There is nothing inherently offensive or immoral in discussing the use of a bull phallus on ancient coins, especially when it adds to the understanding of an historical event.

It seems that some of the dupondii show the “horn” on obverses with the radiate crown as well. This makes the laurel wreath possibility seem less likely.

This coin was sold by Lue Numismatists (not mine).

 

There's the understatement of the year. It does nothing less than render the laurel wreath theory untenable.

 

Black rock trivia:



This large black "rock" in San Francisco is a 1969 sculpture by Masayuku Nagare which was installed at the headquarters of the Bank of America.

Herb Caen, a local newspaper columnist, called it "Banker's Heart" and the name stuck.

Elagabalus would have been proud.

 

Option #2

Elagabalus (218-222), AR Denarius, Rome, AD 221
Obv: IMP ANTONINVS - PIVS AVG, laureate, horned, cuirassed and draped bust right
Rev: P M TR P IIII COS - III P P, emperor standing left, sacrificing out of patera over altar and holding branch on left, star above patera on his right, two standards on his left (on right side of coin)
Notes: see Son of Caracalla

 

Finally got a chance to read this post thoroughly and browse the thread. Great new coin, @Curtisimo, which I was lucky enough to see in hand! I agree this is a must-have type.

I voted for #4, amulet, as being closest to @curtislclay's unknown thingie suggestion. It's clearly connected with the worship of Elagabal, but surely the probabilities are better that it's some amulet we haven't identified than specifically a bull phallus!

Here's mine, which is the same (rare) star-behind variety as @maridvnvm's:

Like the INVICTVS examples in the OP, mine seems to show the "amulet" on the reverse as well. Another odd thing about the INVICTVS coins is the weird item behind Elagabalus's feet. What the heck is that thing? RIC calls it a horn. I guess their translation manual reads something like this:

Weird thingie Elagabalus dude has = whatever, just call it a horn​

Here's a LIBERTAS where the bearded portrait strongly suggests a late-reign issue. I guess it's dateable to 222. (Bearded-portrait LIBERTAS examples seem far scarcer than the clean-shaven ones.)


I'm a bit uncertain about the RIC number for this coin. I've tentatively assigned it as RIC 112, but as you can see below, RIC doesn't say 112 has a bearded portrait. Maybe "bearded" is only a relevant distinguishing feature for bust 5b (no cuirass), and 5d's can come either way? (I'm pretty sure mine's cuirassed, 5d.)

 

Considering the debauchery that Elagabalus is said to have engaged in, in addition to his Eastern paganism, I would not be at all surprised to find that he wore a bull phallus on his head as a sign of....something...

Remember that history tells us that Eazy-E would cross-dress as a woman, seduce courtiers, and frequent brothels dressed as a woman. He reportedly would whistle at soldiers, guards, and politicians within the palace and invite them to bed.

Now, of course I have no idea if any of that is accurate, as primary sources are few and far between, but if we take this type of activity, which even the very - let's say - sexually "free" - Romans would look down upon, it would be very fair to assume some sort of extreme conduct in regards to animal fertility.

if anything, the presence of this "bull organ" would no nothing but reinforce those relatively apocryphal legends of E's sexual preferences.

To keep it coin-related...
I only have two coins of the man, but both are cool.


A lovely snake-in-the-box. I need to take a better pic.



An awesome "dupondius" radiate of Nikopolis with Nemesis reverse. As-is, this coin is mediocre to say the least. In better grade this would definitely be a highlight.

 

Nice coin @Sulla80 ! I like the dark toning.

Thanks for the kind words SA. I was extremely pleased to get this coin from AMCC 3. It’s been a coin type on my list for a long time.

I actually saw that “horn at feet” listed on the description of the coin from my OP and remember thinking that if that were true Elagabalus must have REALLY been into horns for some reason.

I’m not very good at distinguishing between some busts that are draped and the ones that are draped and cuirassed unless the cuirass details are very obvious. Yours is one that I would have trouble deciding. Are you sure it is not just a draped bust (5b)? That would make it RIC 111 which does show a bearded portrait.

Nice coins HWE! I especially like the snake in a box

Whatever his faults actually were Elagabalus, seems to not have been a very conscientious emperor. When I read the accounts in the primary sources I got the impression the authors were using the wild sexual stories (whether true or not) to make a statement about the fear of living under someone with absolute power who had no self control. I think it’s not by accident that Dio talks about all the people Elagabalus had killed just before he starts talking about his crazy antics.

 

Please be careful with ancient historians. These are NO primary sources but just secondary sources at best.
Caligula, Claudius, and Nero were definitely not the cruel, gawky or mad persons as described by Roman historians. Historians of our time did a lot of modern research in the last centuries.

 

I agree these can be tough. In this case I'm fairly sure there are cuirass details below the fibula in the middle.