Anasyrma

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Anasyrma frightens the demon (Illustration to Jean de La Fontaine by Charles Eisen )
The double phallos brings double happiness (fresco with Anasyrma of Priapus from the Lupanar in Pompeii )

Anasyrma ( ancient Greek ἀνάσυρμα anásyrma ) describes the exposure of the genitals or the bottom in a cultic-magical context, especially as an apotropaic act . In the mythologies of numerous cultures, the belief prevails that disaster can be averted by self-determined exposure of the vulva .

The classic example is the story of Baubo , a resident of Eleusis , who takes in the goddess Demeter , who is completely exhausted from the search for her daughter . All attempts to tear the guest out of their blunt despair fail. Baubo then resorted to other means: she went and made her abdomen smooth and soft like a child (that is, probably to shave the pubic hair ), then she returned, began to joke and finally uncovered her smooth abdomen, whereupon the goddess laughing uproariously.

And Clemens of Alexandria quotes the corresponding passage from the Orphica :

Said it and pulled up the robes and showed
the whole formation of the body and was not ashamed.
And little Iakchos
Laughed and slapped Baubo's hand under the breasts.
As now the goddess noticed
then she smiled from the heart
Then took the bare vessel in which the mixed drink was served.

Arnobius expressly notes that the gesture of the Baubo is to be seen as a parallel and correspondence to the presentation of the Phallos in the cult of Dionysus .

Another well-known example of anasyrma is that of Herodotus reported exposure of on the Nile (from Herodotus to the Sanctuary of Artemis identified) Bastet in Bubastis traveling women. Herodotus relates that the pilgrims, who were very numerous, sang, clapped their hands, the men played the flute and the women made a noise with the sistras . If, however, they passed a town on the shore, one went ashore, one exchanged teasers and taunts with the women of the town , and some of the pilgrims would lift their robes and thus bare themselves.

See also

  • Flashing , the public exposure of female breasts
  • Mooning , public bum baring
  • Sheela-na-Gig , Irish-English stone reliefs of female figures presenting their vulva

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Vulva Saved the World - Taz (accessed February 5, 2012)
  2. ↑ Arnobius adversus nationes 5.25-29
  3. ↑ Clemens Protreptikus 20-21, also Orphic Fragments 52 Kern
  4. ^ Translation by Otto Stählin from: Des Clemens von Alexandreia selected writings. J. Kösel & F. Pustet, Kempten & Munich 1934 BKV
  5. ↑ Herodotus Histories 2.60