figurine

Tiny figurine in blue-glazed ware, kneeling male clasping his penis which curls over left shoulder. From Panopolis (ancient Apu, or Khent-Min, in Upper Egypt, named Khemmis or Panopolis by the Greeks, north of Qena). Figurine in green glazed ware of an erotic character acquired by Wilson at the site of Panopolis. Akhmin (Greek Panopolis) was the cult centre of Min, god of fertility and procreation. The god is usually represented as an ithyphallic man holding aloft the flagellum and it may be fair to assume that this grotesque figurine was associated with the cult. Wilson would not have cared to be accused of prurience and he is usually careful to qualify descriptions of his 'meretricious' finds with some condemnation of moral degeneracy or historical-cum-philosophical explanation. 'A curious image found among the ruins and in my possession gives a very strong proof of the bestial materialism which prevailed at Chemnis or Panopolis; this phallic representation shows a luxuriance of fancy which widely distinguishes the Egyptian from the Indian worship and develops the successive signs of distortion to which the doctrine of elementary and reproductive nature were subject. The ancient worship seems to have been prolonged to the Roman period of conquest, and it no doubt chimed in with riots of Saturnalia.' Quotation from the journals of Dr Robert Wilson (1787-1871).

H: 32 mm

Wilson, Robert

faience

Wilson, Robert

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