Fertility

The concept of fertility has been a fundamental concept in many civilisations in Antiquity and Classical Times. Statuettes in the shape of the female goddess Astarte were extremely popular in Old Babylon. An equivalent can be traced to Ancient Greek culture with the worship of Aphrodite. During the Roman Empire, amulets of the phallic deity Fascinus, otherwise named Priapus, were very common. As well as representing the embodiment of the generative masculine power, the Fascinus amulet, often a winged penis, was also regarded as apotropaic, able to ward off evil spirits and cast protection upon the wearer.