2023-12-18 05:31:36
The need to preserve what would later be called, roughly, “blue blood” and alliances between royal dynasties forced European kings to marry cousins, stretching endogamy to prohibitive levels. A demand of the reigning dynasties that finds its most remote origin in Ancient Egypt. The pharaohs allowed marriage between brothers and, in some cases, also between fathers and daughters, in order to preserve the purity of the lineage. Something that is shocking today, but that responds to the way in which the Egyptians interpreted sexuality in the period in which they lived. Incest was allowed between monarchs and circumcision, a practice later adopted by the Jews, had a ritual character in the initiation ceremony into adolescence.
The repressive era in which Egyptology was born, in full Victorian morality, postponed for more than a century the in-depth study of sex in Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians understood sex from a very pragmatic vision, with unbridled passion being something that was difficult for them to understand. Perhaps that is why rapists, that is, those who acted like animals without being able to contain their base passions, were reserved a penalty as drastic as castration.
According to the idea spread especially by literature, sexuality was something very familiar to the ancient Egyptians and they lacked many of sexual taboos who today preside over Western society, among other things because the country’s mild climate forced them to wear light clothing and sometimes they were naked (peasants appear without clothes doing their work in many representations). But neither that much nor that bald. The iconographic references to sex throughout the five millennia of this civilization are not enough to verify whether many of these sexual myths were widespread or were only specific scenes.
What is clear is that the references are quite explicit. According to Professor Jorge Roberto Ogdon in his text ‘Notes on Egyptian erotica and sexuality in Ancient Egypt’, “the sexual act, in Pharaonic EgyptAccording to the available evidence, it was represented in a natural and open manner, without any other comparable civilization. The French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), imbued with the morality of the time, found it shocking how openly these civilizations depicted sex:
“There were images of monstrous obscenity that really gave me a strange impression about Egyptian wisdom and composure.”
Specifically, it referred to to the ‘Erotic Papyrus of Turin’, one of the few documents that talk about the sexual behavior of the ancient Egyptians. On the worn surface of these papyri you can see members of the court, priests and high officials in full orgies, all accompanied by such unsubtle phrases as “Come and put it in my behind.”
religious orgies
Women enjoyed notable independence compared to other peoples – without going any further, they were not under legal dependence on their husbands – and did not suffer pressure to arrive at marriage as a virgin. Marriages took place at a very young age, in contrast to Greek society which kept men separated from women until an advanced age. They used to get married when they were fourteen and they used to get married when they were sixteen. There was no wedding ceremony or the links were sanctioned by some authority; It was understood that they were a couple when they were going to live together and a contract was made regarding the future upbringing and custody of the children.
Iconography of some farmers in Egypt. ABC
This inability to find evidence of marriage ceremonies has fascinated historians for decades. The Egyptologist Montet in his work ‘Daily life in Egypt in the time of Ramses’collects the testimony of a young woman recently married to one of the pharaoh’s sons: «They took me as a wife to Naneferkaptah house. “Pharaoh ordered that splendid gifts of gold and silver be given to me and all the people of the royal house presented them to me.” It was enough for the couple to live together for the marriage to begin.
The purpose of marriage was reproductive, while infertility was grounds for divorce. Polygamy was permitted but was not frequent, except among the ruling classes who, respecting the position of the wife in the family environment, kept several concubines. At the time of his death, at the age of 91, Ramses II claimed to have had more than 20 queens and a multitude of concubines. In ancient texts it is recorded that he was the father of more than 100 children. And the same thing happened with incestuous marriages, which were only reserved for the pharaohs.
«The men played lotus flutes, the women cymbals and tambourines, and those who did not have any instruments accompanied the music with clapping and dancing. “They drank a lot and had sex.”
About the famous orgies that evoke so much ancient greece Like Ancient Egypt, it is believed that there were religious ceremonies involving the practice of group sex related to fertility rites. An astonished Herodotus, a fifth-century Greek historian, described in detail one of the orgies held in the name of the feline goddess Sekhmet Bastet in the city of Bubastis:
«The boats, full of men and women, floated down the Nile: the men played lotus flutes, the women cymbals and tambourines, and those who did not have any instruments accompanied the music with clapping and dancing. They drank a lot and had sex. This was yes while they were in the river; When they arrived at a city, the pilgrims disembarked and the women sang, imitating those of that city.
Prostitution in ancient times
Regarding prostitution, it is difficult to know if there was an exact equivalent of what is today considered an illegal practice in Spain. In the new kingdom The so-called beer houses had women with a happy life, who identified themselves with striking wigs, perfumes and lipstick. Common prostitutes were known with the Egyptian name “kat tahut” (vulva). The study of documents such as the Erotic Papyrus of Turin seems to prove that these sex workers were also dancers and musicians.
From a religious point of view they were considered impure women and were socially stigmatized. Herodotus again tells how Pharaoh Cheops, running out of money, forced his daughter to work as a prostitute as an act of pure “evil.” Likewise, it is believed that there were those known as felatrices, who were prostitutes specialized in fellatio and were distinguished by the intense red color of their lips. An accepted practice in contrast to the conservatism of the Romans, who considered oral sex as something impure.
Engraving from the tomb of Ankhamahor depicting a circumcision with an ABC flint stone
Paradoxically, what is considered one of the first references to oral sex in history is included in an Egyptian myth. After what the god Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth (evil), his wife and daughter traveled around the world collecting all the pieces from the body of Osiris. Not finding his virile member, his wife sculpted a penis out of clay, attached it to her body and brought it back to life through fellatio.
The sacred value of sex
Another recurring myth for the Egyptians is that of the sacred value of semen. The Egyptians believed that the god Atum (“He who exists by himself”) was formed from nothing, after which he masturbated and from his semen were born the gods who would help him create and govern the universe. That is why the Egyptians considered the flow of the Nile as part of Atum’s ejaculation and appreciated that the pharaoh must also contribute to keeping the river alive. The pharaoh on duty led a ceremony every year in commemoration of the god’s act of addressing the shore of the Nile to masturbate, taking care that the semen fell into the river and not on the shore. Later, the rest of those attending the celebration did the same.
Every year the pharaoh on duty led a ceremony in commemoration of the god’s act of going to the bank of the Nile to masturbate.
Furthermore, there is evidence from the Ebers Papyrus that necrophilia was not seriously censored, as it has been in all civilizations throughout the centuries. According to this document during the reign of Amenhotep I It was discovered that the embalmers committed these practices, without any of them being punished for carrying out said paraphilia. Which does not mean that it was socially accepted: the relatives of the deceased women began to hire guards to watch over the bodies.
In this sense, the belief that the god Osiris, the first mummy, was resurrected by his wife Isis established that all the dead had to copulate with their Ba (soul) before passing to the other world. This is why the ceremony of opening the mouth that was performed in the tombs in Ancient Egypt also consisted of opening all the orifices of the body, including those related to sexual practice.
Zoophilia is also mentioned in the images that have survived to this day, which is not strange since the gods themselves were represented with animal features. It is impossible to know if this is more than satire or if this paraphilia was actually tolerated. By the way, among the strangest objects found by archaeologists is a primitive dildo made from the remains of a sperm whale’s penis.
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