Ancient cultures conflated the phallus with the plow in language and ritual

Evidence

In the same way that woman was identified with furrows, the phallus was identified with the plow, and vice versa. In a drawing representing a plow from the Kassite period, there are traces of the symbols of the generative act; afterward, the phallus-plow identity was frequently reproduced in art forms. The word lak in some Austro-Asian languages designates both phallus and plow. An Assyrian prayer addresses a god whose “plow fertilized the earth.” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 180

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier ‘woman identified with furrows’ claim and to agricultural-fertility symbolism more broadly — parallels the field-as-womb metaphor running through the chapter. — connects to: Prehistoric art centered female fertility first, then shifted to phallic imagery — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 178; Medieval genitalia fantasies persisted into colonial-era European mythology
• CANDY: The shared ‘lak’ word for both phallus and plow in Austro-Asian languages is a compact, tweetable etymology.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Prehistoric art centered female fertility first, then shifted to phallic imagery — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 178; Medieval genitalia fantasies persisted into colonial-era European mythology

Broader Connections

• Medieval genitalia fantasies persisted into colonial-era European mythology #expands (0.78)