We decided to make our jildos from wood because both Mike and I love to work with wood and I love my sex toys.  We knew that with traditional methods of finishing food utensils and modern coatings, we could make a safe, beautiful toy.  We didn't know at the time, though, that we would be just the New Age equivalent of a long history of dildos made from wood (and other materials).

On line research and a scad of other esoteric resources have taught me a lot.  For more information, I as always recommend Wikipedia.

ANCIENT AGES 

As with wars and politics, the revisionists write history.  Obvious depictions of phalluses which date back to the Upper Paleolithic era are referred to as batons or wands.  The UP era dates back to 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.  The latter part of this era has been delightfully described by Jean Auel in her Earth's children series, which includes The Clan of the Cave Bear.  She doesn't include dildos in her historical fiction but her books present much education and surmise as to how things might have been.

Supposedly the oldest -- or at least the oldest recognized as such by modern historians -- dildo is a phallus made of siltstone, 20 centimeters tall, which was found in Germany and dates back some 30,000 years.

Dildos of this time period were made with goods at hand, and all my research indicates that along with stone, wood was a popular material.   I have read (perhaps humorously) that early dildos were even made of resin-coated camel dung!

Phalluses depicted and found were used in fertility rites of the BCE (Before Christian Era) and to bring good luck for crops.  The hillsides of the British Isles are still dotted with Shelia na gigs, person size stone phallus which stood in fields and gateways so that the sheep and cattle would be blessed and fertile.  They even found on the lintels of doorways to the burgeoning Christian churches.  Some research indicates that this was actually a female spirit dedicated to the traveler. 

Statues with erect phallus, made with or attached to, are indicated to have been used for 'deflowering' and other ritual purposes.  Priapus, a Greek God, was especially favored for these purposes.

The city of Miletus of ancient Greece was known for its olisbos, a term for dildos, which seems to come from a play written in th 3rd century BCE of the same name.  In this story, a young orphan boy was adopted by a crochety old puppeteer named Gepetto and taught to make dildos of leather, wood, and stone.  (Kinda makes you wonder what Pinocchio REALLY did with his nose.)

MIDDLE AGES, more or less

As Eastern culture thrived, Europe and the British Isles suffered the birth pangs of Christianity.  Propitiating the gods with male symbols and sexual rites of passage and fertility became cause for excommunication. 

Nevertheless, brave Celtic women would dance in freshly plowed field using their broomsticks, allegedly sometimes coated with pschotropics, as mastubatory devices.  This gives new meaning to my favorite (well, my only) dirty joke:  Why do witches ride naked on brooms?  To get a better grip!

Chinese women of the time were using art quality dildos made of lacquered wood with textured surfaces, jade, and other precious and semiprecious materials.  Concubines were given dildos to calm their hysteria, a popular term for sexual deprivation.   Olive oil was the lubricant of choice.

In the ultra conservative Victorian era of the 1800s, women were given 'widow's friends' to help them overcome this hysteria.  Theirs were also made of materials at hand, including wood.  

The word 'dildo' itself is old and its origins are not entirely agreed upon.  There is a beautiful town in Newfoundland, Canada, which has been at the receiving end of many jokes as its name is Dildo.  Legend has it that it was known for making dildos to help the Nordic women through the night while their husbands were at sea.  It may be more likely that these seafaring folks built ships, including the part called a 'dildo', which is a peg -- coincidentally (or subliminally) phallus shaped -- used to lock an oar into position on their small boats, or dories.  We have long been a people of euphemisms!

The first well known appearance of the word 'dildo' occurs in a play by Ben Johnson in 1610, called The Alchemist.  Shakespeare uses the term in his play, The Winter's Tale, published also in the early 1600s.

A few years later, while England was still raunchy, "Signoir Dildo (You Ladies of All Merry England)" was written to respond to protests of the marriage of Mary of Modena, an Italian Catholic Princess, to the Anglican, or Episcopal James, Duke of York and heir to the British throne.

A bit later, the 'dil doul', which refers to a man's penis, appears in a 17th century ballad, "The Maid's Complaint for Want of a Dil Doul'.

MODERN TIMES?

Despite antiquated laws that still remain on the books (more about this later), the South was introduced to modern dildos (originally introduced in Europe in the late 1800s) by travelling salesmen of the 1930s and 1940s, who sold 'marital aids', the new euphemism, and Sears & Roebuck, which did the same.  These dildos were made from rubber, with a steel rod or screw to lend firmness.  While the 'latest thing' in modern materials, they tended to crack and expose the metal, proving themselves less worthy than their natural predecessors. 

The Smithsonian Museum, by the way, actually has a collection of antique dildos on display. 

Natural materials, though, went the way of herbal medicine and meditation for several generations after the turn of the century, as manufacturers experimented with new materials.  Next came firm PVC dildos, with a soft PVC filler.  These grew in popularity and lowered in cost but, like cigarettes and sacharrin, were discovered to be dangerous to one's health.  They contain pthalates, which have been linked to prenatal defects and certain kinds of cancer.  They also cannot be sterilized.

Silicone dildos more or less came next, in the 1990s, and increased in popularity as their price decreased.  They do not contain phthalates and can be sterilized.

The so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s, and the boom in the porn industry that came with it, further popularized and helped to destigmatize the sales and use of dildos.  The glass industry hit its stride with an HBO program exemplifying them, and steel is catching up.  Both of these can be sterilized, while the newest material on the market, cyberskin, cannot.

But laws remain woefully behind in standardizing the manufacture of any type of dildo.  Neatly sidestepping the issue of safety by referring to them as 'novelty items', makers are relatively free of any precautionary standards.  Dildos can be made from anything, in any kind of manufacturing environment, and it is a matter of Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).  Approximately 90% are made in China, where even children's toys can't be trusted to be safe.

Did I mention antiquated laws?  I truly love and miss the rural south, where people still say 'yes ma'am' and mean it when they inquire about your health.  But laws still exist in Georgia and Alabama preventing the sales of pornographic items, which a dildo is considered, and in Texas you have to call them something else.  Euphemisms again!

No matter what you call them, not only are dildos here to stay -- they never left!

At WoodPeckers Roost, we make our jildos with the most time-honored, natural materials and the most modern, safe, hypoallergenic, and sterilizable finishes.  Be a part of history and get with the times -- enjoy a jildo!

Ciao for now,

Jilda