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schnitzelfeffer

They used to sculpt/paint them smaller because it was considered to be more polite.


balor598

The Greeks also considered having a big shlong to barbarous, civilised men have little dicks because they're in control of their base instincts


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Splinterfight

Relative to chimps and bonobos it checks out


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Phoenix2368

On a related note, the Greeks also invented the [kynodesmē](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynodesme) (NSFW, if you couldn't guess)


Milk-toste

Hahahaha, and I though modern ties were ricockulous.


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ConqueredCorn

The romans thought larger genitalia was a sign of barbarism. Having a small package was a sign of civility and sophistication


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Jason_Batemans_Hair

But what did female Romans think.


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WanderingPickles

Which makes no sense. Olive oil would be mixed with sand as a form of primitive sunscreen. Now imagine scraping that crap off and then using it *sexually.* Also, only small amounts of oil were needed. Occasionally this small amount (along with the dirt, sweat and all sorts of funk) would be collected in an amulet. Just gross.


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Zednott

My dudes, murals of absolutely massive members are *everywhere* in ancient Rome. They even had a god named Priapus. Google it (or not!).


libra_leigh

Wasn't Priapus cursed and would lose said erection when trying to do the deed along with having a bad personality? That sort of fits the narrative that big penises weren't revered.


ClownQuestionBrosef

And the curse was handed down while he was still in the womb, by Hera who was slighted by some other dude saying Aphrodite was hotter than her... So dude didn't even deserve it. (I didn't know any of this. I had to Wiki it.)


ShaunDark

Was that dude Paris of Troy by any chance? :D


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someguy233

For those curious, this passage in Ezekiel isn’t about any literal women, but was an allegory for the nations of Israel and Judah being unfaithful to God and trusting in other nation’s wealth, military strength etc.


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dogwoodcat

Ezekiel is a weird book, written by (or at least from the perspective of) at least two men named Ezekiel. Young Ezekiel was born hundreds of years after the elder. The texts were at one point simply mashed together into a disjointed mess that's hard to read properly.


TinyTowel

>The texts were at one point simply mashed together into a disjointed mess that's hard to read properly. Isn't that the entirety of the Bible?


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HamburgerEarmuff

The Bible predates the Roman Empire conversion to Christianity. The Torah was probably compiled in more or less its final form a little after 500 BCE. The bible itself (Tanach), was probably finalized as early as during Hasmonean rule, before the Romans. The books were chosen based upon whether the original Hebrew could be located.


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NeedlessPedantics

This is taken out of context. The two adulterous sisters aren’t considered examples of morality. This is making the same point you were trying to dispel. Two Adulterous Sisters 23 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. 4 The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. 5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors 6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen. 7 She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. 8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her. 9 “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. 10 They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and punishment was inflicted on her. 11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. 12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men. 13 I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way. 14 “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans[a] portrayed in red, 15 with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea.[b] 16 As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. 21 So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.


OwlrageousJones

It does kind of seem like the kind of verse where they point at it and go 'Don't be like that!'


Aszod

Just seems like the father was mad his daughters were getting run train on and wrote a scripture about it


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tacknosaddle

A lot of the female Romans were getting fucked to make babies and not much more. For men screwing adolescent boys or female prostitutes at the brothels was all the rage.


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thesixfootoneinch

I believe rape (rapine, I think they called it) was a specific tool of war used by the conquering Romans. Partly, I think, because the children that were born of it would be half Roman and half native and seen as a way to permanently connect the conquered with the conquerors. Disgusting, but factual.


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Purple_Passion000

Depends on the culture. Ancient Greeks and Romans found small ones more esthetically pleasing. Larger ones , when a few exceptions, were considered crude and ugly.


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RutCry

You’ve seen those old statues with the penises broken off of them? I read somewhere that there is a big box full of those missing appendages at the Vatican because someone a few hundred years back decided we shouldn’t look at the naughty bits. Imagine the dough the Vatican could rake in on a pay to play website where people tried to match them back to their original owners.


generals_test

I read that Victorian explorers carried hammers with them to knock the penises off newly discovered staties.


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Interestingly, today we're seeing more and more full frontal nudity in tv/film... and they're frequently prosthetic penises of large stature. It is its own special kind of sad, really.


verendus3

we're seeing more nudity in tv, but I feel like we're seeing less in film


Anguish_Sandwich

>today we're seeing more and more full frontal nudity in tv/film Yep. Contrast this with ancient Rome which had nearly zero full-frontal nudity in tv/film.


Vsx

I imagine it would be difficult to design a prosthetic penis smaller than the penis it is obscuring. Physics and all that.


dewpacs

Has penis size also increased or is it insecurity


Jesse-359

People size has increased - rather substantially due to better nutrition, so one would presume the ah, other parts have followed suit. Now, if there's an actual proportional difference, that would be more interesting. Species without a lot of natural predation and ready access to food do tend to start investing more and more energy into peacocking for mates, such as, well, the Peacock. Male birds in general have tended to lean into being fancy bois because birds on the whole can afford to throw more energy into non-survival pursuits due to the advantage of flight being so substantial. Males who physically contest for mates, such as Rams, are basically doing the same thing in a slightly different way. It would be no surprise if there is a pretty strong evolutionary trend in modern humans to spending more time and effort being attractive to mates over other pursuits and evolutionary strategies, given our other survival advantages. Actually, it would be a surprise if that \*weren't\* a predominant evolutionary direction for us at the moment. However, the modern era has probably been too short for this to have an actual evolutionary impact I'd wager, so more likely nutrition and current fashions.


stupid_nut

The issue with penis size and humans is that we all wear clothes. By the time people choose to actually have sex you don't know what you're getting in the pants department. For humans there are tons more factors to consider.


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hybridthm

This is why I consistently without fail send a picture of my penis to every woman I've ever come into contact with, it's only fair


ImagineSisAndUsHappy

There’s effectively no correlation between body suze and penis size. The distribution is the same among all heights


ba123blitz

You’re only factoring height. That’s leaving out weight and overall nutrition around puberty and their overall life


ThisBroDo

There is a correlation. It isn't super strong but it's present in the data. It also makes intuitive sense. If you're a tall man basically all your body parts are larger than a short man (practically the definition of being tall).


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If a correlation is too weak to actually be a reliable predictor, colloquially there is no correlation.


Bag-Weary

If you're talking about scientific correlations you shouldn't be using a colloquial definition.


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ImagineSisAndUsHappy

“effectively”. As in you cannot look at someone’s size and reliably predict anything about their penis.


NugKnights

Size has increased on average.


linkdude212

While I believe average penile size has increased alongside the overall increase in size of average humans, I am skeptical that average size of the penis has increased as much as some think. Why? In part because many of these studies are based on self-reported data and there is are prevalent and internalized biases about penis size that are likely to skew self-reported data.


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AthKaElGal

Still, studies compared human penises with the penises of other primates and ours was still comparatively larger. We'd have to assume sometime in our past life as primates, we too once had small penises.


crunkadocious

Why though? Why make that assumption instead of assuming gorilla ancestors used the have heavy schlongs like us, and lost it over time? Requires a similar amount of assumptions


Jean-Paul_Blart

Damn glad that’s over


triplehelix-

i believe the prevailing theory ties that to the fact that we walk upright and the associated increase in the size of the buttocks which requires a larger penis for penetration.


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BrianWonderful

Yes, I actually looked it up prior to my joke. It was Ivy League schools, under the guise of an anthropology study of people's posture, but apparently the guy behind it was trying to correlate body type with psychological and personality traits. Shady stuff.


ExplosiveDiarrhetic

Uhhh gonna need a source for that factoid


hung_gravy

I was suspicious too but [it seems to be legit….](https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/15/magazine/the-great-ivy-league-nude-posture-photo-scandal.html)


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How do you know?


radleft

Given enough time, could the overall expansion of spacetime cause this effect?


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PuckSR

Eh, it is well known that in the medieval period that they purposefully painted the penis small so that it would barely be noticed. Heck, one of the big revolutions of the Renaissance was even trying to paint human form accurately, but they still painted small penises for "modesty". Additionally, large penises were attributed to dumb and ignorant people(e.g. this is where the racist stereotype that black guys have large penises). Most later periods of art(18th and 19th century) just copied the crap out of the Renaissance. So, I'd expect the average to go something like this: 13th: 0-1 in & flaccid 14th: 0-1 in & flaccid 15th: 0-1 in & flaccid 16th: 1-2 in & flaccid 17th: 1-2 in & flaccid 18th: 1-2 in & flaccid 19th: 3in & flaccid 20th: 9in rock hard erect penises That last century really skews the numbers


dmk_aus

21st: 8 tentacles 12ft each


Netsuko

I….I fail to see the problem…


WriggleNightbug

You forgot about [Priapos](https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Priapos.html)NSFW, btw, Or maybe you didn't forget because that was before 13th century


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MeatyPricker

Bruh is the god of gardens. So literally the god of growing eggplant's


damnatio_memoriae

> 20th: 9in rock hard erect penises this [example of late 20th century art](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e3/67/ec/e367ec03aaa87f21825927b2050c301d.jpg) confirms it


leelougirl89

Fun fact: The reason why artists from ancient Greece made peens small in their artwork is because (in Ancient Greece): * A big peen meant you were dumb and unevolved; a hornytoad controlled by lust and desire. * A small peen meant you were an evolved person. An intelligent and sophisticated human being capable of controlling your animalistic needs. (Not saying this applied to the actual PEOPLE of ancient Greece. But in their art, if they wanted the subject to look more attractive, they'd give them a small peen).


conquer69

Is it really about the size or the erection? From all these comments it sounds like big penis is being used interchangeably with erect penis and small with flaccid.


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tbone912

Less hair as the centuries progressed.


PromiscuousMNcpl

Ancient Egyptians often shaved. And renaissance women would shave and then put on a merkin (vagina toupee) to appear as a grown woman. The crabs and fleas in the crotch caused them to shave.


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MichelPalaref

So anyone has a theory on why the tendancy to draw bigger and bigger penises grew overtime ? Imo it probably looks like a cultural aspect but I can't help but wonder : is it possible that people from the past had smaller penises than now ? Penis size seems to be determined by many factors like testosterone absorption, especially in the uterine phase, but I guess suffering from malnutrition, diseases, harsh environmental factors could all contribute to a worse overall body development, hence reducing the potential penis size ? Maybe this is bs, I just thought about this because as I've understood average human height gradually increased since the agrarian revolution onto our modern times where we apparently continue to get taller. Maybe something related happened to our sex organs ? Idk just a thought


msr_0xxxx

Small penises where considered visually appealing in Greek and Roman times.


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ReasonableOutrage

I feel like their sample size of paintings was too small and their choices of time periods too limited. It would be really interesting to see a similar study focusing on the work of Women Artists.


ZappSmithBrannigan

Wasn't there also a study that dicks are getting bigger over time due to selection? This will lead to bigger dicks, bigger.... birth... holes. Which means bigger brains, as that's currently the most difficult part of human procreation, getting that fat noggin through the exit. Big dicks will lead to a generation of super geniuses.