The Nose Of Osirus

I realised today that i'd missed a bit of the political commentary, in The Firesign Theatre's How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All (1969). When i first heard it, many years ago, i didn't know about the Phallus of Osirus.

When Set tore Osirus' body into pieces and cast them about, his penis fell into the Nile, and was eaten. So, when Isis reassembled him, she made him a new one, of clay and magic, so that she could conceive a child (Horus) by him. (And i thought greco-roman mythology was kinky. Apparently, the ancient egyptians had yet dirtier minds—of which this is but one small example.)

The obelisque (the tapered square shaft, topped with a pyramid—of which the Washington Monument is an example) is a symbol of this. It's not just abstract art; it is specifically the penis of Osirus. One stands prominently in the Vatican (within a circle, no less—symbolising intercourse).

So, as i woke today, the lines

"Osirus! What has happened to your nose!"
"I have just returned from Rome..."

came to mind. It hit me like a ton o' bricks. Laughed my kiester off.