A GREEK GOLD AMULET IN THE FORM OF A PHALLUS, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

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A GREEK GOLD AMULET IN THE FORM OF A PHALLUS, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D. Of compact form, worked from thin sheet gold in repoussé and modelled in the round as a stylised phallus and testes, the twin lobes swelling below a central shaft that rises between them. The upper register, flanking the shaft, is worked with scrolling volutes and pelleted ornament suggesting pubic hair rendered as a decorative frieze, while the surface of the lobes carries finer hatched and comma-shaped punchwork imitating body hair. Surmounting the amulet is a broad rectangular suspension loop, formed from a folded sheet of gold and secured by a small applied boss to the body, permitting the piece to hang as a pendant. The reverse would have been left plain or lightly worked, the whole piece hollow and light in the hand. The subject is the fascinum, the phallic amulet worn throughout the Greek and Roman world as an apotropaic charm. In this tradition the phallus was understood not primarily as an erotic image but as a protective device, its function to attract and neutralise the malevolent gaze of the evil eye. Such amulets were worn by men, women, and, most commonly, by children, for whom the danger of the evil eye was thought greatest. The type is found in bronze, bone, coral, and, at the more prestigious end of the range, in gold, and it appears both as personal ornament suspended from a cord and as fittings on harnesses, doorways, and military standards. Gold in this context is significant beyond its intrinsic value. Worked into thin repoussé sheet and suspended against the skin, gold was believed to strengthen the amulet's protective virtue, its incorruptibility mirroring the incorruptibility it was meant to confer on the wearer. The technique here, hammered sheet raised over a form and finished with fine punched detail, is characteristic of Eastern Mediterranean and Greek East goldsmithing under the Roman Empire, where a tradition of hollow-worked amuletic jewellery flourished across the second and third centuries. The economy of material, achieving substantial visual presence from a mere two grams of gold, is typical of the workshops of the period. The piece exemplifies the apotropaic goldwork of the Greek East under Roman rule, in which a frankly protective image was elevated by the medium into an object of considerable refinement. Its interest lies in the transposition of a motif more usually encountered in base materials into wrought gold of jeweller's quality, a survival of the personal amuletic tradition at its most accomplished. Dimensions: Height 2.3 cm

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