3 ms·

Interesting. A thing I had heard over the years is that noses were kind of phallic (which seems pretty obvious), so if you were interested in a symbolic neuter

Interesting. A thing I had heard over the years is that noses were kind of phallic (which seems pretty obvious), so if you were interested in a symbolic neutering, taking the nose off was both physically simple to do and symbolically potent.

ordu 6y ago
I'm not sure that the obviousness of this kind could be trusted. The idea of "phallic" was popularized by Freud. It is understandable that we are now have phallic symbols and see them in any prolonged object, either it is because of our nature, or it is because Freud made us to see them. But I'd rather not to apply this very idea to people of ancient Egypt. Or at least I wouldn't trust it's obviousness. Obvious is not a synonym of a true.
- klyrs 6y ago
  This is so weird to me. Some noses are kinda triangular; some are broad and flat... I can't think of a nose shape that even remotely looks like a phallus. Freud had an obsession with phalluses, and saw them in everything. Are eyelashes phallic? Are necks phallic? Is the upper lip phallic? What about chins? I think chins are at least as phallic as noses. Freud was a dang weirdo.
- hprotagonist 6y ago
  sometimes "that's a penis!" really isn't up for debate: see U+130BA: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D053. anachronistic thinking is an ever-lurking danger, though, which is why i'm not amazingly confident in this interpretation, but brought it up out of curiosity. We do know that body-part substitutions were at least in literary use in the ancient near east, so it's not totally implausible: you can fairly confidently swap foot/thigh for genitalia in ancient hebrew texts, when contextually appropriate.
jazzyjackson 6y ago
I was a kid once too, and we would make all kinds of drawings and penis jokes, but never in my years has a nose come across as phallic. I mean, what would the purpose of that symbolism be, you have to make a nose in any case if you're sculpting a statue to give a resting place for a spirit. It makes way more sense that, the mouth being closed, the breath enters and exits the nose. To make the statue uninhabitable by the spirit, you break the nose off. So that's the theory put forth by an egyptologist. Everyone in this thread is just offering what they heard somewhere.
- eznzt 6y ago
  >I was a kid once too, and we would make all kinds of drawings and penis jokes, but never in my years has a nose come across as phallic. I agree.
  - hprotagonist 6y ago
    Cyrano de Bergerac?

ordu 6y ago

I'm not sure that the obviousness of this kind could be trusted. The idea of "phallic" was popularized by Freud. It is understandable that we are now have phallic symbols and see them in any prolonged object, either it is because of our nature, or it is because Freud made us to see them. But I'd rather not to apply this very idea to people of ancient Egypt. Or at least I wouldn't trust it's obviousness. Obvious is not a synonym of a true.

klyrs 6y ago
This is so weird to me. Some noses are kinda triangular; some are broad and flat... I can't think of a nose shape that even remotely looks like a phallus. Freud had an obsession with phalluses, and saw them in everything. Are eyelashes phallic? Are necks phallic? Is the upper lip phallic? What about chins? I think chins are at least as phallic as noses. Freud was a dang weirdo.
hprotagonist 6y ago
sometimes "that's a penis!" really isn't up for debate: see U+130BA: EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D053. anachronistic thinking is an ever-lurking danger, though, which is why i'm not amazingly confident in this interpretation, but brought it up out of curiosity. We do know that body-part substitutions were at least in literary use in the ancient near east, so it's not totally implausible: you can fairly confidently swap foot/thigh for genitalia in ancient hebrew texts, when contextually appropriate.

jazzyjackson 6y ago

I was a kid once too, and we would make all kinds of drawings and penis jokes, but never in my years has a nose come across as phallic. I mean, what would the purpose of that symbolism be, you have to make a nose in any case if you're sculpting a statue to give a resting place for a spirit. It makes way more sense that, the mouth being closed, the breath enters and exits the nose. To make the statue uninhabitable by the spirit, you break the nose off. So that's the theory put forth by an egyptologist. Everyone in this thread is just offering what they heard somewhere.

eznzt 6y ago
>I was a kid once too, and we would make all kinds of drawings and penis jokes, but never in my years has a nose come across as phallic. I agree.
- hprotagonist 6y ago
  Cyrano de Bergerac?