The Ancient Greeks lived from around 1200 BCE to 323 BCE. The civilization, famed for influencing modern drama with its plays and sweeping epics, developed the heliocentric model, made major contributions to math and had a real way with chisels marble blocks.
Some of the most famous sculptures crafted by these archaic artists are still available to view today, including the marble Kritios Boy, Discobolus by Myron and The Artemision Bronze, which is thought to represent the King of the Gods, Zeus.
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Ancient statues often depicted men with small packages – but why? (Getty Stock Image)
But while these hulking statues often depict naked men with rippling muscles and powerful jawlines, they all seem to have something else in common – tiny packages.
This interesting tidbit was also noticed by TikTok creator Ruby Reign.
In a video posted to the platform, she said: “Have you ever wondered why so many of the ancient Greek statues have colossal muscular physiques and yet a tiny package? Well, I have, so I did some digging.”
The social media star admitted she originally ‘wasn’t aware the Greeks often presented their enemies, the Egyptians, the satire creatures, and even fools in comedies as having large appendages – so it was quite a negative thing to have, which is quite different today’.
“So actually, what I discovered was that big D’s bad and small D’s good in Ancient Greece. But why was this?” she said.
Reign went on to say that having a smaller penis ‘was considered a sign of virtue, of civility, or self-control or discipline’, while being of larger means meant you were ‘lustful’ with a ‘gluttonous appetite’.
It’s a question that Greek historians have also explored over the years, too.
The TikToker explained why Ancient Greek statues have small packages (TikTok/@rubysaysstuff)
“They have small to very small penises, compared to the average of humanity and they’re usually flaccid,” says art historian Andrew Lear, a specialist in Greek art and sexuality.
Many historians and classical experts have weighed in on why sculptures chose to chisel small packages on their art.
Historian Paul Chrystal is one of them, who claims in his 2016 book, In Bed with the Ancient Greeks: “The small penis was consonant with Greek ideals of male beauty.
“It was a badge of the highest culture and a paragon of civilization.”
Interestingly, the smaller male appendage has been praised throughout ancient Greek literature.
For example, in his play The Clouds (c. 419-423 DC), Aristophanes described the ideal traits of his male peers as ‘a gleaming chest, bright skin, broad shoulders, tiny tongue, strong buttocks, and a little prick’, as per the Greek Reporter.
So, it turns out it might actually be all about size after all!
