The genitals on Greek statues were considered too small for what they were supposed to be. But apparently, there is a reason behind it. Lecturer in art history at Middlesex University, Peter Webb, explains it.
"While researching my book, The Erotic Arts, I applied for permission to examine the limited collection of erotica at the British Museum," she wrote, as reported by IFL Science.
"In the Department of Greek and Roman I was shown the Museum Secretum, and among the items of interest was a selection of marble phallus. I was told these were removed from classical sculpture by 19th-century curators to make them suitable for public exhibition," he says.
Webb generously offered to return the penis to the statues, but was refused. He sees that there are differences in regulations between countries that are behind the rejection.
Some statues in a number of countries are given coverings on their sensitive areas to make them fit for exhibition. However, there are also those who choose to broaden the area.
Sculpture has its own way of presenting art. In each culture, the statues produced also have different characteristics.
"Ancient Greece was a very masculine culture," photographer Ingrid Berthon-Moine, who created a series of images of ancient sculptural testicles, told Hyperallergic.
"They like 'small and tight' genitals, not big sex organs, to show male restraint in terms of sexuality," he said.
Art historian Ellen Oredsson adds on the same topic that people with larger penises are considered 'stupid, lustful and ugly'. Meanwhile, the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote of the ideal male characteristics as 'a lustrous chest, fair complexion, broad shoulders, small tongue, strong buttocks and small penis'.