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However, the first literary appearance of the dildo may well outdate even ancient Greece. In fact, the first literary reference to dildos is believed to take place in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 16:17, God reprimands the people of Jerusalem because they “took the gold and silver” that He has given them and made “phallic images and fornicated with them”.
Around 1400 AD, the word “dildo” was first used. It derives from the Latin word “dilatare,” which means “open wide,” and the Italian word “diletto,” which means “delight.”
A 2,000-year-old phallic object, found by archaeologists in a ditch among the farthest northern fringes of the Roman Empire in England, maybe be the only known life-size Roman dildo. It is the first known example of a disembodied wood phallus recovered from the Roman world.
After an examination by researchers at Newcastle University and University College Dublin, the team proposed three theories. The first is that it could have been used as a sex toy or dildo. If this is the case, it would be the first of its kind ever unearthed from the Greco-Roman world. Though dildos have been depicted in Greek and Roman art, there have been no previous examples found.
Six-inch wooden ‘tool’ could be the first ancient Roman dildo ever discovered
