91-FRAGMENT OF A WALL PAINTING
Middle Period, Found at Trolydos
Fresco
Height: 40.5 cm. Length: 64 cm
There are also the extensive excavations of Professor Schilaneder at Draikum, a city that flourished during the latter part of the Middle Period. He discovered many objects that appear to be phallic symbols relating to sexually oriented rites – objects used perhaps for fertility, hunting, and agricultural goals. Later there were temples dedicated to phallic worship. Professor Schilaneder unearthed the mural depicting a priest from the Temple of Phallos at Draikum and the mural from the Temple of Phallos at Trolydos, showing erotic images of the principal god, Aar-Tenn. Professor Schilaneder has deciphered the wall prayer-tablets at both sites, and, though the temples were chronologically separated by several hundred years, the prayers chanted by the priests of both temples to ward off impotence were identical.
Your body is round and smooth
With stiff, red, soft feathers.
You feed in quick, cruel strokes.
You feast in wet, dark caves.
When you die, your stretched wings fold.
Oh Feeder-Devourer, lean or full
Give me one magic gift, I implore.
Give my body great wings.
Let my hunger be satisfied.
Let me carve fast and long.
Let me live to die often.
Let me, like you, find life by dying.
I fear me, hear me, Son-Father,
Oh Sacred Aar-Tenn, oh Bird of Life.
Adapted from the original catalog for The Civilization of Llhuros, ©1971-2021 Cornell University, licensed under CC BY-NC