ABSTRACT
A sheela-na-gig (which may translate as “Síle of the breasts”) is a medieval female exhibitionist figure posed in a manner that displays and emphasizes the genitalia. Their background is to be found in European Romanesque churches, particularly those located along pilgrimage routes in France and Spain, where a range of male and female exhibitionist figures and related carvings are found that served to alert the faithful to the dangers of the sin of lust. Emphasis on the genitalia, which are usually enlarged, may relate to the church’s teaching that sinners were punished in hell through the bodily organs by which they had offended.
