#sexual history
Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum. Illustration from photograph © 1999 Greg Reeder.
Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were ancient Egyptian royal servants and are believed by some to be the first recorded same-sex couple in history. The proposed homosexual nature of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum has been commented on the popular press, and the idea seems to (partially) stem from the depictions of the two men standing nose to nose and embracing. Niankhkhnum’s wife, depicted in a banquet scene, was almost completely erased in ancient times, and in other pictures Khnumhotep occupies the position usually designated for a wife. Their official titles were “Overseers of the Manicurists of the Palace of the King”
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Believe it or not, this statue (called a “Herms”) was a common sight in London during its occupation by the Roman Empire.
This 6-foot tall column was topped with a bust of Hermes, who was a popular god among the ladies of Rome. A large, erect penis, complete with testicles, completed this figure that stood as boundary markers or at the crossroads of many Roman streets. Women would often fondle the stone penis praying for the god to make them more desirable, to arouse passion in a lover, or to aid them in becoming pregnant.
According to the Roman poet Catullus, women would hang garlands on the stone penis to indicate the number of men they had entertained the previous night. More often than not, the garlands of a single woman were enough to cover the penis from base to tip.
Source: The Sexual History of London
Picture: Courtesy of Wikimedia
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Roman oil lamp depicting coitus more ferarum
In Ancient Rome coitus more ferarum loosely translated into “sex in the matter of other animals.” The more modern term for this would be doggy style.
(Wikipedia)
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In an effort to cut down on sexually transmitted diseases among troops during World War II, these PSAs were released by the United States which warned against the dangers of syphilis and gonorrhea and reminded soldiers to use condoms.
Source:mental_floss
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Venetian chastity belt on display in the Doge’s palace. (Claimed to be 16th–17th century.)
A chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse. They may be used to protect the wearer from rape or temptation. Some devices have been designed with additional features to prevent masturbation. Chastity belts have been created for males and females, ostensibly for the purpose of chastity.
According to modern myths the chastity belt was used as an anti-temptation device during the Crusades. When the knight left for the Holy Lands on the Crusades, his Lady would wear a chastity belt to preserve her faithfulness to him. However, there is no credible evidence that chastity belts existed before the 15th century (more than one hundred years after the last Crusade), and their main period of apparent use falls within the Renaissance rather than the Middle Ages.
In any case, Renaissance chastity belts were said to have had padded linings (to prevent large areas of metal from coming into direct prolonged contact with the skin), and these had to be changed fairly frequently, so that such belts were not practical for uninterrupted long-term wear. Uninterrupted long-term wear could have caused genitourinary infection, abrasive wounds, sepsis and eventual death.
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The act of sex has had many names in the past. There’s fornication, making love, knocking boots, fucking, etc. Two of these terms, fornication and fucking, came about from the Roman Empire.
With the brothels full to bursting with whores and eager men, many couples freely copulated under the arches outside, called fornices, an activity which was later described as “fornication”.
The word “fornication” made its way to the Teutons, a Germanic tribe that lived in Jutland. The word eventually degraded into vokken, which was the origin of the modern word “fucking”.
*Note: The origins of the work “fucking” is still a mystery, and this is one of the many possible origins of the word. However, the idea that fuck stands for “Fornicate Under Consent of the King” is a myth.
Source: The Sexual History of London
Condom packaging for “Prentif Servis pak”, London, England, 1935-1945
This small packet is empty. The condom it once held – “specially packed for the forces” – may be long gone, but the remaining packaging presents clues and raises questions about the missing object. For instance, why was it important to withstand “all climates”? Why the emphasis on not leaving it in a “public place”? Why would the armed forces be issued with condoms anyway? And, apart from the obvious, what might its owner have actually used it for?
The condom is likely to date from the Second World War, when they were issued in their millions – and for good reason. Military planners were only too aware that for much of the First World War, what was hospitalising most soldiers on any given day was not war wounds but sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – then known as venereal diseases (VD). This was a historical problem and soldiers were constantly warned about the physical dangers and personal shame associated with VD.
Issuing condoms, particularly to servicemen posted abroad, was one measure aimed at reducing VD levels. Hence the need to withstand “all climates”. Those supplying condoms also knew that many sexual encounters involving soldiers inevitably took place away from their army base – perhaps in backstreets or public parks. The warning not to cause offence by leaving them in a “public place” was especially prominent. Of course, soldiers need to be highly resourceful and condoms were put to imaginative use during the Second World War. They were convenient waterproof storage for personal items or for carrying high explosives. Soldiers bartered with them and even used them as currency. And during the D-Day landings, they were used to cover rifle barrels – protecting them from salt water as soldiers waded ashore. A use echoed decades later by soldiers in Iraq who have used condoms to keep the sand out of their gun barrels.
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Many streets in London were named based on the brothels that lined them. There was Gropecunt Lane, which was later changed to Grape Street and is now known as Magpie Lane. There was also Cock’s Lane, Maiden Lane, Love Lane, Codpiece Lane (later Coppice Lane), and Sluts’ Hole, which was eventually changed to Sluts’ Well before disappearing into the Tenter Ground in 1700.
Colorful street names weren’t just restricted to London. Paris had it’s Rue Trousse Puteyne, which literally meant “the slut’s slit”.
Empress Messalina (wife of Claudius) was infamous for her voracious sexual appetite. She would often sell herself on the street like a common whore, and, still unsatisfied after the brothels closed for the night, had to be thrown out.
Her most famous exploit was when she decided to hire a prostitute famous for her stamina and challenge her to a contest to see who could have sex with the most men in one night.
Messalina won.
Source: A Sexual History of London
Picture: Messalina and her son, Britannicus- The Louvre
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- Pessaries (medical devices inserted into the vagina) made from crocodile dung (Egypt, 1300 BC)
- Swallowing 16 tadpoles fried in quicksilver immediately after intercourse (female) (China, 900 BC)
- Eating mashed pomegranate mixed with rock salt and alum (Arabian peninsula, 200 BC)
- Spitting 3 times into the mouth of a frog, or to eat bees, immediately after intercourse (female) (Dominican Church, 1100)
- Drinking raw onion juice (female) (Italy, 1400)
- Cabbage, taken orally after intercourse (France. 1600)
- Applying tobacco juice to the genitals (female) (Germany, 1650)
- Islamic women are advised to jump backward 7-9 times immediately after sex (1700)
- Condoms made from animal offal (internal organs and entrails). The original condoms were made from sausage skins by slaughterhouse workers. (Europe, 1750)
- Casanova swears by placing 3 gold balls inside his partner (1750)
- Rubber is vulcanized and will later be used in making condoms. The Japanese, however, continue to use sheaths made from leather or tortoiseshell (1843)
Source: 5 People Who Died During Sex and 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists
The Roman term for brothel, or lupanaria, is derived from lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus.
Whores were associated with she-wolves because they often advertised their services with high-pitched, wolf-like cries. The tendency for she-wolves to lick their cubs also gave rise to the notion that lupae were proficient in oral sex.
Source: A Sexual History of London
Picture: Fresco inside a brothel- Pompeii
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- Sheep’s eyelid marinated in hot tea (China, 900)
- Pigeon dung and snail excrement (France, 1400)
- Toad excrement, which was successfully employed by Madame de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV (France, 1690)
- Menstrual blood, added to food or drink (Germany, 1700)
- Lion testicles or arsenic (London, 1830)
- Live monkey brains. The monkey was forced into a tight container, the skull cut open to reveal the brain, which was then scooped out with a spoon or sucked through a straw (Malaysia, 1900)
- Animal hormone. In an effort to restore Adolf Hitler’s impaired virility, his personal physician injected him with a compound containing hormones from crushed animal genitalia. (Germany, 1943)
Source: 5 People Who Died During Sex and 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists
The 15 Most Fascinating Sex Rituals Around the World
From Nerve.com: March 27, 2014.
Do your genitals have their own chant?
BY KATE HAKALA
Here in the United States in the year 2014, we have a pretty standard set of mating rituals: mill around a bar looking for attractive strangers who then purchase alcoholic beverages for you in hopes that you engage in friendly conversation and later, some sex. To an outsider, contemporary sex rituals might seem downright bizarre, but a deep dive into history books will tell you that in times of yore, throughout the world, the things we’ve done to get it on have been downright peculiar.
1. In pre-contact Hawaiian culture, everyone had public names for their genitals. Hawaiian royalty and commoners each had their own genital chants which described their sex organs both figuratively and literally. Called mele ma‘is, the genital chants were a celebration of the future generations boys and girls would sire. Plus, naming your genitals sounds a lot better than this euphemistic va-jay-jay business.
2. In the Sambian tribe of New Guinea, young men are kept away from women for a set period of time and must fellate and then swallow the semen of the tribe’s mightiest warriors. It’s just a part of growing up.
3. In the Trobriander tribe of Papa New Guinea, children start engaging in sexual activity as early as age 6 to 12. Women are just as active as men in pursuing sexual encounters. There’s no social stigma involved.
4. Some believe that in ancient Egypt, it was thought that the ebb and flow of the Nile was caused by the creation god Atum’s ejaculation. Because of this, pharaohs ritually masturbatedinto the famous river.
5. Homosexuality was socially significant in ancient Greece(this isn’t the weird part), with a particular focus on relationships between older gentlemen and young boys, or pederasty. The real stigma was when the two men of the same age and social class were getting it on, because being the bottom was thought to be feminizing, and sex was better off between people who already had a skewed power dynamic. Yeah, it’s weird.
6. The Guajiro people of Colombia engage in a ceremonial dance in which if a young lady trips a young man while dancing, they must have sex.
7. Male homosexuality and same-sex marriages were prominent for centuries in the Siwa tribe of Egypt . If men didn’t act gay, they were considered outcasts.
8. The little island of Inis Beag, off the coast of Ireland, is considered to be one of the most sexually repressed societies ever. Adults keep their underwear on during all sexual encountersand people consider intercourse to be hard on their health.
9. Mangaia, a tiny island in the South Pacific, is home to some of the earliest and most advanced sexual education. Starting at 13, boys have sex with older women who teach them restraint andhow to last longer to please a woman. Amen.
10. In the Mehinaku village in Brazil, men compete for sex with women by giving them gifts of fish.
11. The Kreung tribe in Cambodia built love huts for their girls when they reached their mid-teens. Different boys spend a night in the hut with the young girls until she finally finds a match. Divorce is illegal here, so think of the love hut as the sexual Sorting Hat.
12. In the Middle Ages, the church dictated that the missionary position was the only proper way to have sex. Coitus a tergo (you know, doing it from behind) was, of course, listed as the most shameful.
13. The Aweikoma of Brazil play it real simple and use the same word for eating and sex, since both involve taking something into your body. Great things, might I add.
14. Some tribes in the Himalayas practice polyandry, wherebrothers all share one sex partner. It’s done so that their farm land doesn’t become overpopulated with children.
15. In the Marquesas Islands, it was considered just fine to witness your parents doing the deed.
Images via Wikipedia, History of Sex
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BuzzFeed came across our post about a 1680 sex manual called “The School of Venus” and did what they do best with it. We feel… honored?
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![appendixjournal: Before and after images from Le Livre Sans Title [The Book Without a Title] (Paris,](https://64.media.tumblr.com/302878210b7fee12f3b57f3ed5d2a3fc/tumblr_msauipRs621rl1rfao1_1280.jpg "appendixjournal: Before and after images from Le Livre Sans Title [The Book Without a Title] (Paris,")
Before and after images from Le Livre Sans Title [The Book Without a Title] (Paris, 1830), which claimed that masturbation could lead to an early death. Before masturbating (left): “He was young, handsome and the hope of his mother.” After (right): “He is corrupted! Soon he carries the pain of his fault, old before his time… His back is bent…”
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an early modern dildo shop
from the frontispiece to the school of venus, or the ladies delight, reduced into rules of practice, a sex manual printed in 1680
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Above we can see two Anti-Masturbation devices from the 1800s. The top is pretty obvious, your penis clearly doesn’t have the physical strength to bend the metal upwards. Its stuck down, so don’t even try. And if there is a penis out there that can bend this device, it would be both scary and amazing at the same time, but I would not want it near my cooch. The second image is quite a bit more sinister, if your penis swells it digs those little razor-blade teeth into the penis and that would be very painful indeed. Victorians had many pseudo-scientific ideas about masturbation. During a time of sexual “repression” there was an excessive amount of discussion on sexuality, sex and “sexual disorders” in both social and medical settings.
So what do Kellogg’s Corn Flakes have to do with this? Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was the lead physician at Battle Creek Sanitarium. It was a health “Reform” center that would not admit known masturbators, as it was the most destructive form of mental illness around. Apparently I’m more deranged than Ted Bundy, Ed Gein or Charles Manson (but they probably masturbated too so maybe I’m ok). Kellogg’s treatments for masturbators included circumcising a male without anesthesia so he would remember the pain and be “scarred” for life and for the ladies, we got a drop of acid on our clit, NBD. It was reported that he did this on at least one pre-teen girl. Corn flakes were designed to be a pleasureless form of breakfast cereal for children because sweet, spicy (or pretty much anything with more flavor than cardboard) or warm food could cause sexual corruption and the urge to masturbate. Masturbators could be pointed out because they were:
Males: Unclean, tired, acne-ridden, had cancerous lesions, died slowly
Females: Flat chested. fickle, emaciated, had memory loss, and were irritable.
Sylvester Graham (yes, Graham crackers creator) had been an infleunce on Kellogg. Graham crackers were also meant to be dull and excite-less. However, he was not nearly as extreme as Kellogg and eventually turned his focus to only include promoting a healthy diet, with only a mention here and there about how female masturbators are just the WORST, am I right?
Read more in Masturbation in the Victorian Age by Jamye Waxman, its good!
AG
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