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Rare phallic ceramist stylus found in Sicily
A rare finely decorated bone ceramist stylus from the 5th century B.C. has been discovered at the ancient site of Gela in Sicily. The stylus is perfectly intact had has a rectangular handle that carved into a miniature herm: with the head of a bearded man on the top and an erect phallus at center.
The stylus was unearthed during preventative Orto Fontanelle area of Gela. It is 5.2 inches (13.2 cm) long and was carved out of bone. The size and design identify it as a stylus used by potters to draw and write inscriptions on the surface of unfired clay, but the elaborate decoration, both the herm on the handle and the stylus carved with deep circular grooves around its diameter, make it a unique example.
Gianluca Calà, director of the excavation, emphasized the delicacy and rarity of the object, noting the absence of known direct comparisons to date. He explained that, while the primary function of a stylus of these characteristics was the drawing of designs or inscriptions on clay surfaces before firing, the refined decoration and the inherent fragility of bone point to a use that likely went beyond the purely utilitarian.
Calà drew a contemporary analogy to illustrate its possible nature: it could have been an object owned and displayed for its intrinsic value, similar to a high-end fountain pen kept on a desk as a symbol of status or dedication, rather than as an everyday tool. This interpretation aligns with the hypothesis put forward by Superintendent Daniela Vullo, who suggested that the stylus may have been conceived as a votive offering intended for a deity, perhaps linked to the protection of the workshop, artistic inspiration, or creative fertility.
Herms were square pillars with a head, sometimes a bust, above the plain four-sided section and male genitals at around the right location on the pillar where they would be on a body. They originated in ancient Greece and were believed to have apotropaic powers to ward off bad luck, curses, harm or ill-health. The pillars, at first surmounted with heads representing a bearded Hermes but later featuring other deities in the Greek pantheon, were placed at boundaries like entrances, porticoes, and crossroads.
The statement from the heritage authority about the find proposes that the deity represented as a herm on the stylus is Dionysus, but their reasoning is not fully explained. There are no grape leaves in his hair or a hair tie across his forehead, as is typical in herms of Dionysus. It looks like a classical Hermes to me, depicted with a square beard and serious expression wearing a headdress.
Also, while phalluses and phallic symbols were used in Dionysian festivals, Hermes was a phallic god, in charge of good luck, fertility and protecting boundaries, with the phallus incarnating that role. He was often depicted with an oversized phallus, and the earliest herms in 6th century B.C. Athens were sometimes lone carved phalluses, as well as pillars topped by the bust of a bearded Hermes with an erect phallus at the base.
The stylus is now undergoing conservation. When that has been completed, it will go on display at a museum in Gela.
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