The invention of the "dual resonance model" N-point functions BN motivated
the development of current string theory. The simplest of these models, the
four-point function B4, is the classical Euler Beta function. Many standard
methods of complex analysis in a single variable have been applied to elucidate
the properties of the Euler Beta function, leading, for example, to analytic
continuation formulas such as the contour-integral representation obtained by
Pochhammer in 1890. Here we explore the geometry underlying the dual five-point
function B5, the simplest generalization of the Euler Beta function. Analyzing
the B5 integrand leads to a polyhedral structure for the five-crosscap surface,
embedded in RP5, that has 12 pentagonal faces and a symmetry group of order 120
in PGL(6). We find a Pochhammer-like representation for B5 that is a contour
integral along a surface of genus five. The symmetric embedding of the
five-crosscap surface in RP5 is doubly covered by a symmetric embedding of the
surface of genus four in R6 that has a polyhedral structure with 24 pentagonal
faces and a symmetry group of order 240 in O(6). The methods appear
generalizable to all N, and the resulting structures seem to be related to
associahedra in arbitrary dimensions.