A student asks: Is there any evidence for this? I was under the impression that small penises were t

A student asks: Is there any evidence for this? I was under the impression that small penises were the standard of beauty in Greece and Rome. This precise quote comes from the ESPN article “NFL showers aren’t hostile to Michael Sam”. I don’t quite know what to make of it, as it’s presented as a fact without attribution in the article itself. The next sentence talks about Christopher Morris-Roberts’ book Jockocracy: Queering Masculinity and Sports, but that does not - to my knowledge - deal with Rome at all and is not likely the source of this information about well-endowed men being applauded at the Roman baths.Mark Simpson, however, wrote the following in a 2007 article for Out magazine:, which may well serve as the origin of the idea:The ancients invented the seaside resort and spent a great deal of gold on, and time in, their blessed public baths, where the men bathed and swam naked. Not because they were indifferent to nakedness, but because they esteemed virility. Every night was wet jockstrap night (without the jockstrap) at the Roman baths, and especially well-endowed bathers were likely to be greeted with a round of applause; during the reign of notorious size queen Emperor Elagabalus, those who hung low at the baths were promoted to high office.My guess is that the line about applause is hyperbolic extrapolation from our sources about Elagabalus. The Historia Augusta says that the emperor cavorted with prostitutes and “well-hung men” (bene vasati), and even:As prefect of the guard [Elagabalus] appointed a dancer who had been on the stage at Rome, as prefect of the watch a chariot-driver named Cordius, and as prefect of the grain-supply a barber named Claudius, and to the other posts of distinction he advanced men whose sole recommendation was the enormous size of their privates.All of which is to say that virtually everything about Elegabalus is painted in extremes to highlight the author’s disdain for his rule, and that we really shouldn’t be taking anything written here as indicative of fact, let alone representative of standard Roman practices.However, if someone can track down a source for well-hung bathers being applauded, I’d be extremely curious. Generally, men were depicted with small penises as an indication of their (admirable) self-control and restraint, whereas comically large penises were indicative of those wild, uncontrollable creatures like satyrs. Still, we have some literary sources in which large members are apparently appreciated, so then - much as now - tot homines tot sententiae. -- source link

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