Phallic Worship: A Description of the Mysteries of the Sex Worship of the Ancients, with the History of the Masculine Cross. an Account of Primitive Symbolism, Hebrew Phallicism, Bacchic Festivals, Sexual Rites, and the Mysteries of the Ancient Faiths.

In 1880, a Victorian scholar dared to write openly about what polite society preferred to ignore: the sexual foundations of ancient religion. Hargrave Jennings here undertakes the formidable task of documenting phallic worship across ancient civilizations, tracing how veneration of reproductive powers evolved from sacred nature rites into the elaborate mysteries of Greece, Rome, and the Near East. The book examines Hebrew phallicism alongside Bacchic festivals, investigates the masculine cross as symbol, and argues that these sexual religious practices once represented something pure before priesthoods corrupted them for power. Jennings writes with the restrained scholarly ambition of his era, presenting evidence from disparate cultures while attempting a unified theory of primitive symbolism. The work remains a fascinating artifact of Victorian anthropology, both illuminating and limited by its historical moment. It speaks to readers who wonder what our ancestors truly believed about the body, fertility, and the divine, and who understand that modern prudishness about sexuality has not always been the norm.