If you’ve visited Athens or wandered through an Ancient Greece gallery, you may have had to peer closely at some statues to spot their anatomy.
The sculpted bodies display impressive musculature and perfectly carved abdomens.
Greece isn’t known for cold weather, so why are the genitals so small?
The statue often identified as Poseidon (or Zeus) dating to 46 B.C. sits in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Scholars still debate whether the figure represents the sky god Zeus or the sea god Poseidon.
Either way, the statue shows you do not need large “cojones” to portray a powerful warrior.
Many historians have long noticed the modest phalluses on classical sculptures of gods, emperors, and elite men.
Around 400 B.C., artists and patrons preferred small, non-erect genitals; these signified purity and restraint rather than virility.
As Cosmopolitan notes, stonecutters believed modest genitalia suggested a man compensated for physical smallness with a strong, disciplined intellect.
They deliberately sculpted smaller genitalia to indicate rational self-control and mental strength.
The one notable exception is the fertility god Priapos, famously depicted with exaggerated genitalia.
By contrast, figures representing lust, depravity, or villainy were often shown with large, erect genitals.
These portrayals symbolised a loss of restraint; mythic hybrids that were part-man, part-beast lacked self-discipline.
Modern attitudes have shifted significantly: many now equate larger genitalia with masculinity and success.
Stanford University research last year suggests male genital size has been increasing.
An article in the World Journal of Men’s Health reports an average growth of 24% in male genital size across several regions over the last 30 years.