8 WHO INVENTED THE 'DILDO'?

Historians can’t put a finger on the ingenious and possibly horny person who invented the dildo...

.. since dildos have been discovered all over the world at different periods in history in different forms and materials!

But it has been said that the popularity of them is probably owed to the Greek port city of Miletus. Miletan dealers traded olisbos (classical term for dildo - mostly made out of stone, wood or padded leather), a hot commodity for lonely women, around the Mediterranean.  When a Greek man left his woman for a long period of time, to perhaps go off to war, he would present her with an olisbos.

Dildos have been around for a very long time. Come to think of it, sex has been around for an even longer time, so it was just a matter of time before someone invented this fine object!

First of all, the etymology of the word dildo is unclear. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) describes the word as being of "obscure origin". One theory is that it originally referred to the phallus-shaped peg used to lock an oar in position on a dory (small boat). It would be inserted into a hole on the side of the boat, and is very similar in shape to the modern toy. It is possible that the sex toy takes its name from this sailing tool, which also lends its name to the town of Dildo and the nearby Dildo Island in Newfoundland, Canada. 
Which by the way, actually originated from the late nineteenth century sex-toy boom. The fine art of dildo carving was brought to Newfoundland by visiting Nordic housewives, who had crossed the cold Atlantic to collect their husbands from the pub. For almost a hundred years thereafter, the resourceful women of Dildo created the finest recreational phalluses in the world out of leftover bits of old whales. This may be the reason why present day inhabitants of Dildo are adamantly opposed to changing the town's moniker. As one local inhabitant puts it: "If it was good enough for our forefathers, it's good enough for us."

Others suggest in Renaissance Italy, the dildo was known as a 'diletto', from the Italian word for 'delight'. Lacking Astroglide, they had to make do with olive oil for lubricant, which became known as 'dilettante'.

According to the OED, the word's first appearance in English was in Thomas Nashe's Choise of Valentines or the Merie Ballad of Nash his Dildo (c. 1593). The word also appears in Ben Jonson's 1610 play, The Alchemist. William Shakespeare used the term once in The Winter's Tale, believed to be from 1610 or 1611, but not printed until the First Folio of 1623.

The phrase "Dil Doul", referring to a man's penis, appears in the 17th century folk ballad "The Maids Complaint for want of a Dil Doul".  The song was among the many in the library of Samuel Pepys.

In some modern languages, the names for dildo can be more descriptive, creative or subtle—note, for instance, the Russian Фаллоимитатор ("phallic imitator"), the Hindi darshildo, the Spanish consolador ("consoler"), and the Welsh cala goeg ("fake penis").


Anyways, Back To The Invention Of The Dildo....


History


Dildos in one form or another have been present in society throughout history. Artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone Age, 40,000 - 10,000 B.C.), which have previously been described as batons were most likely used for sexual purposes. However, there appears to be hesitation on the part of archaeologists to label these items as sex toys: as archaeologist Timothy Taylor put it:

"Looking at the size, shape, and—some cases—explicit symbolism of the ice age batons, it seems disingenuous to avoid the most obvious and straightforward interpretation. But it has been avoided."

The earliest documented reference is in a Greek play from the third century BC called Olisbos!, a musical comedy about a young orphan who is adopted and taught to make phalluses out of leather, wood, and stone by an old puppeteer named Gepetto.

It was widely believed, during the the mid-1800s, in Victorian society, that the source of all feminine psychological ailments was a 'heavy uterus', giving rise to a condition known as 'hysteria', which could only be cured by inducing a 'paroxysm'…an orgasm. In fact, if a woman reported symptoms of restlessness, anxiety, or excessive vaginal lubrication she was sent to the physician, who would administer a vigorous massage to her genital region. The vibrator was invented to augment this technique and get the job done much faster, enabling the doctor to attend to that many more 'patients'.

20-cm phallus found
near Ulm Germany

The world's oldest known dildo is a siltstone phallus from the Upper Palaeolithic period, discovered in 2005.   The roughly 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm Germany in the Swabian Jura.

Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and etched rings around one end mean there can be little doubt as to its symbolic nature.

There are other stone objects known to science that are obviously phallic symbols and are slightly older - from France and Morocco, of particular note. But to have any representation of male genitalia from this time period is highly unusual.




(Image: J. Liptak)

The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.

Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.

It's highly polished and clearly recognisable.

Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.


A More Recent, Possible Dildo Discovered..

In July 2010, an excavation in Sweden turned up an object that bears the unmistakable look of a penis carved out of antler bone. Though scientists can't be sure exactly what this tool was used for, it's hard not to leap to conclusions.

A phallic carving out of antler bone dating from
 the Stone Age, discovered recently in Sweden.
CREDIT: Peter Zetterlund, Swedish National Heritage Board

The carved bone was unearthed at a Mesolithic site in Motala, Sweden, that is rich with ancient artifacts from between 4,000 to 6,000 B.C. The area's unique features may have allowed bone artifacts, which usually get destroyed over the millennia, to survive.

The resemblance is uncanny.

"Without doubt anyone alive at the time of its making would have seen the penile similarities just as easily as we do today," wrote Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist on his blog, Aardvarchaeology.

The dildo-like object is about 4 inches (10.5 cm) long and 0.8 inches (2 cm) in diameter.




Boy, have we come a long way since then....

The first dildos were made of stone, tar, wood and other materials that could be shaped as penises and that were firm enough to be used as penetrative sex toys. Chinese women in the 15th century used dildos made of lacquered wood with textured surfaces.

In 1966, Ted Marche pioneered the manufacturing and distributing of rubber dildos and other sex toys.

With the invention of modern materials, there appeared the possibility of making dildos of different shapes, sizes, colors and textures.  Now you can have your choice of a strap-on dildo, double-ended dildo, glass dildo, a vibrating dildo... or just a good old plain dildo.

Speaking of Dildos....

Do You Know What THIS Dildo Contraption Was Used For?

Photo credit

What you see before you is an ancient Chinese dildo saddle. Apparently it was a torture device strapped to a horse, much like a real saddle, and the person being tortured and/or punished, usually a woman, sits on top...naked.
The person is then paraded around town and thrown rocks at, all while being pleasured tortured by the saddle dildo.

The front of the saddle has a loop where her hands would be chained to keep her from escaping.

And no, lubricants were not used.     Ouch!





The possession and sale of dildos is illegal in some jurisdictions, including India.






Source(s):  wikipedia, theregister.co.uk, cassking.com, news.bbc.co.uk/, livescience.com, Aardvarchaeology