Fascinum

An artificial male phallus reportedly used in witchcraft ceremonies. Evidence of the artificiality of claimed copulation with the devil is the frequent reference to the coldness of the phallus. Centuries before the great witchcraft manias of Europe, the fascinum was used in ancient religious rituals, such as those connected with worship of the god Priapus, such phalli were also known in ancient Egypt. Probably the earliest known is that of the fertility god Min at Koptos, around 5500 B.C.E.

In ancient Roman religion and magic, the fascinus or fascinum was the embodiment of the divine phallus. The word can refer to the deity himself (Fascinus), to phallus effigies and amulets, and to the spells used to invoke his divine protection.

Phallic charms, often winged, were ubiquitous in Roman culture, from jewelry to bells and windchimes to lamps. The fascinus was thought particularly to ward off evil from children, mainly boys, and from conquering generals.

Fascinum were considered to be good luck, and a symbol of purification.

Fascinus

An early Latin divinity, and identical with Mutinus or Tutinus. He was worshipped as the protector from sorcery, witchcraft, and evil daemons; and represented in the form of a phallus, the genuine Latin for which is fascinum, this symbol being believed to be most efficient in averting all evil influences. He was especially invoked to protect women in childbed and their offspring and women wrapt up in the toga praetexta used to offer up sacrifices in the chapel of Fascinus. His worship was under the care of the Vestals; and generals, who entered the city in triumph, had the symbol of Fascinus fastened under their chariot, that he might protect them from envy (medicus invidiae), for envy was believed to exercise an injurious influence on those who were envied. It was a custom with the Romans, when they praised any body, to add the word praefiscine or praefiscini, which seems to have been an invocation of Fascinus, to prevent the praise turning out injurious to the person on whom it was bestowed.

He was a protection against demons, the evil eye and such nasties. His symbol is a phallus. One quick flash is enough to scare off almost anything.

Vesta

Vesta was the Roman goddess of (the hearth‐) fire, one of the twelve major deities. An ancient etymology linked Vesta to Greek Hestia: her cult expressed and guaranteed Rome's permanence. Vesta's main public shrine was a circular building just SE of Augustus' arch in the forum Romanum. In the late republic its form was taken to be that of a primitive house, intimating a connection between public and private cults of the hearth. In the historical period, the state cult effectively displaced private cults. There was no statue of Vesta within the shrine: it contained only the fire and, in the inner sanctum, the ‘sacred things that may not be divulged’—esp. the Palladium, and the fascinum, the erect phallus that averted evil. On being elected pontifex maximus in 12 bc, Augustus created another shrine for Vesta on the Palatine.

A graphic representation of the power of the fascinus to ward off the evil eye is found on a Roman mosaic that depicts a phallus ejaculating into a disembodied eye.