The “Victorian” lifestyle, the desire for ideals that were cultivated by moralists with the support of the church and the failure of medicine in aspects related to gynecology, led to the fact that husbands tried to protect their wives from reality, thereby turning them into some kind of angel-like creatures. At the same time, the wife was recognized with the right to consider her husband as lord and master, despite the fact that the woman could be intellectually and morally superior to her husband. Through printed materials, women were convinced that their main adornment was modesty, and their main pastime was idleness. Middle-class women suffered the most from a modern point of view, since their husbands worked, leaving them free to shop and visit each other, which created boredom, fatigue, melancholy and migraines. And the desire for modesty deprived women of qualified medical care.

Medicine in general was still in its infancy, and the sanctimonious desire of women to hide their real physical condition from strangers did not contribute to rapid progress. The woman went to see a doctor accompanied by a companion, spoke allegorically about the nature of the pain that was bothering her, and showed the areas of pain on a mannequin. The gynecological examination took place in a darkened room, the woman was covered with a sheet, in general, the conditions were not very favorable.

All this contributed to the positioning of the woman as an asexual object. To a greater extent, the above concerns the middle class. The proletariat, peasants and lower classes of society, the so-called lumpen, due to their social status and historically established way of life, had a simpler attitude towards marriage and sexual relations; in this regard, they were more liberated than the bourgeoisie. As for aristocratic circles, the situation there was similar to that of the middle class, but due to the established way of life, the lack of need to work and society’s leniency towards misdeeds or violations of the conventions of aristocrats, relations were more relaxed.

In the literature of the late 19th century, erotic overtones slip through, either explicitly or implicitly. Oscar Wilde, Ritter Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Herman Melville, Henry James... Homoerotic poems by Verlaine and Rimbaud, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Moby Dick", "Venus in Fur", some works by Friedrich Nietzsche... Zola, Maupassant, Daudet...

Thus, a conflict was brewing in society.

Women

The position of the church was clear: sexual intercourse between husband and wife should be carried out solely in order to produce offspring. At the same time, it was forbidden to have sex if a woman was pregnant, as well as if she was menstruating. In general, there was a rather cruel attitude towards menstruation - debates were held in all seriousness about whether, for example, a woman could touch... ham during such a period. Moreover, the woman herself considered menstruation to be something dirty. All this happened due to the fact that medicine at that time was still poorly aware of the mechanisms of conceiving a child, as well as the role of a woman in the reproductive process. At the same time, the process of gynecological examination not only did not allow the doctor to perform his job competently, but the woman also did not receive information about her physiology and anatomy. As a result - awareness of orgasm, clitoral function, etc. did not have.

Sex education for girls often came down to euphemisms or advice like “lie down and be patient.” There are known cases when, after the first wedding night, a young wife ran away to her father’s house, because... her husband insulted her by trying to undress her. The first few years of marriage, due to the woman’s ignorance and the already mentioned position of the church, the spouses rarely slept together. Etiquette ordered a woman to allow her husband access to her body and tolerate his actions, but to receive pleasure from this was considered indecent. The man accepted this position and himself sought to reduce the fulfillment of marital duty - who could like the fact that his wife only tolerates you?

Unlike aristocratic circles, where the presence of lovers among wives was not encouraged, of course, but was not stigmatized, in the bourgeois environment it automatically made women fallen, they were deprived of their rights and became outcasts. If a child was born from a love affair, he also became an outcast. The same applied to unmarried girls becoming mothers. The relatives sought to get rid of the daughter who had disgraced them.

Rules of behavior, standards of morality and ethics were reflected on the pages of books and fashion magazines, as well as in the works of artists who created instructive and highly moral paintings that showed the direction of thought of that time.

Reproduction of Redgrave's painting "Outcast"

It is difficult to judge what the moral is in this story. On the one hand, the whole family is hysterical while the father kicks his daughter out into the cold, where she will very likely die. The father does not look like a noble pater familias; frankly speaking, he is an unsympathetic comrade. And the young mother has such a sad and spiritual face. On the other hand, this picture can be seen as a message to young people - if you walk around, this is what will happen to you. The child's father is not mentioned at all. All this is reminiscent of the story with Frida from "MiM".

Men

With that level of information content, due to upbringing and rules imposed by society, a woman rarely experienced real satisfaction in bed. Her pleasure was directly dependent on her husband's experience and desire to give her such pleasure. But often men, due to their own worries, agreed to visit their wives less often rather than make any efforts to somehow satisfy her. At the same time, some particularly ardent opponents of sex cultivated the opinion that a man who demands sex from a woman without the intention of conceiving a child turns her into a whore. This, of course, is an extreme; the majority did not adhere to such a categorical point of view. The average Victorian family had five or six children, so the wife could not complain about complete neglect of herself. But due to the above-mentioned prohibitions on intercourse during pregnancy and menstruation, the man received satisfaction much less often than he could have. And society was very loyal to the fact that a man used the services of prostitutes. The man himself believed that he was doing this for the benefit of the family - after all, he did not want to offend his wife with his harassment, and it was difficult to argue with nature, therefore, prostitution was the best way out. It is not surprising that during those times this business flourished.

Reproduction of Brown's painting "Take your son, sir"

A completely different mood - the woman looks like Madonna, the mirror near her head resembles a halo. The child looks sad and reproachful. The child's father also has a place to be - reflected in the mirror. He is clearly higher in position, since the heroine calls him “sir”. It’s also a sad picture, but instead of blaming the woman for debauchery, the artist emphasizes the man’s guilt - after all, this is HIS son.

Prostitution

The church and medicine were unanimous: if a man visits a prostitute a couple of times a week, then there will be no particular harm to him, but from the point of view of religion, he has
there were justifications in the writings of St. Augustine: without love, passion, lust, intercourse is not only possible, but even recommended for strengthening mental health. Police chronicles are unreliable, but even with a rough estimate it can be said that for every 12 men in a large city like New York or London there is one prostitute. And in Vienna, recognized as the capital of debauchery in the middle of the century, there was one prostitute for every seven men. People became prostitutes in different ways. Young women, widows or single mothers, received poverty stipends and were very often forcibly separated from their children. Such women became prostitutes in order to somehow strengthen their financial situation. For the same reason, factory workers, dressmakers, and women who did heavy physical labor on an equal basis with men, but received half as much for the same work as men, became prostitutes. Women who wanted to achieve something more in this life, to open their own business, but lacked funds, also worked as prostitutes. As a rule, having collected the required amount, such women left the porn business, went to another city and opened their own shops, stores, and got married. The vast majority of prostitutes became prostitutes forcedly. As a rule, such women previously worked in the service sector: maids, secretaries, traders, etc., and were seduced or experienced violence by an employer or client.

There were relatively few brothels as such. A girl registered in a particular brothel essentially became a prisoner due to police restrictions. More common were dating houses, where they not only offered girls, but also furnished rooms for love pleasures, where, for example, a man could bring someone else’s wife for a love date. Often in such houses there were living rooms and billiard rooms. According to unspoken rules, prostitutes looked for clients in certain places: theater lobbies, certain clubs or gambling houses. Prostitutes of lower rank looked for clients on the streets, in certain areas. Addresses of brothels, entertainment establishments, a list of prostitutes with descriptions of appearance and skills were published openly - in special publications under the heading “Notes on Courtesans” or in respectable magazines under the heading “City Vices”. Similar publications could be found in hotels, kiosks, and railway stations.

A successful courtesan, even without a brilliant appearance, but being ambitious and ambitious, could achieve heights: rich and noble clients showered her with jewelry, gave her mansions, and bathed her in champagne. The freest morals reigned in Paris, where ladies of the demimonde were allowed into high society. In London, for example, this would be difficult if the lady did not maintain outward respectability.

Street prostitutes looked for clients at their own peril and risk; they were often deceived, they could be beaten or raped. There was no law to protect them. Clients rarely rented a room, and prostitutes rarely brought a client to their home; the service often took place right in the open air, somewhere in an alley. It was very rare that a street prostitute could change her status for the better.

There was another category of women providing intimate services. It is almost impossible to count non-professionals. Young flower girls, governesses, seamstresses agreed to sleep with wealthy gentlemen - and often not for money, but for gifts or payment for entertainment.

Erotic and pornographic photographs were practiced in brothels and visiting houses. Clients often chose girls for the night based on photographs. In addition, photographs served the same purposes as porn sites and erotic magazines in our time.

Sexually transmitted diseases and contraception

Since ancient times, humanity has been looking for ways to protect against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. In the Victorian era, with the spread of prostitution on a huge scale, methods of protection against sexually transmitted infections came to the fore.

Doctors of the time believed that gonorrhea was an earlier stage of syphilis, not knowing that they were two different diseases. Naturally, prostitutes were the main carriers of disease. It was impossible to understand whether a woman had gonorrhea in the early stages, while a man already on the second or third day realized that he had become infected, starting to experience problems with urination. But the symptoms of syphilis at the initial stage appear and disappear suddenly, so it is very easy to miss the moment. The ignorance of men in this matter led to the fact that, being infected, he could infect other women with whom he had sexual relations, including his wife, who could in turn pass the disease on to future children. Prostitutes, out of necessity, often underwent medical examinations and were able to recognize illness with professional accuracy. By the end of the 19th century, chronicles claim that every third or fourth European male resident suffered from gonorrhea at least once in his life. Pessimistic Americans claim that almost half of the male population in their country is infected. In 1879, the microbe that causes gonorrhea was discovered, after which it became much easier to determine whether a patient was cured. But effective treatment began only with the discovery of sulfonamides (1935) and penicillin (1941). The causative agents of syphilis were discovered only in 1905 by the German Fritz Schaudinn.

After the discovery of the rubber vulcanization process, condoms began to be made from rubber. The problem was that the condom was often used more than once. It helped against unwanted pregnancy, but did not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.

The condom has been known since ancient times. The court physician Count Condom, a colonel of His Majesty's royal army, at the request of Charles II, concerned about the problem of preventing disease, made a cap from butter and bovine intestines. At the request of the nobles, small-scale production was established. The caps began to be called condoms, although previously similar means of protection were called “receptacle” (English: “container, storage”). According to another version, the name comes from the Latin "condus", used in the genitive case - "condum". According to the third version, the word is derived from the name of the city of Condom in France, where a museum of these products is now open. In Russian, the word “condom” is used, derived from the Latin “praeservare” (“to protect”).

In 1843, Goodyear in the USA and Hancock in England discovered the process of vulcanization of rubber. In 1844, Goodyear patented the invention, after which the production of condoms became widespread. Condoms were washed after use, placed in special boxes and hidden in bedrooms. Of course, condoms were not discussed in general conversations. In 1853, the Russian-American Rubber Manufactory Partnership was founded in St. Petersburg. At the end of the 19th century, the plant became known as the Triangle Rubber Manufactory; it had its own research center, which became a leader in the study of rubber properties.

Perversions

The rise in sexually transmitted diseases has led to an increased demand for virgins. In addition, some men received additional pleasure from the process of defloration, which in their imagination was associated with pain, some form of violence, etc. Some brothels specialized exclusively in innocent girls, looking for them in the provinces, in the families of peasants and the poor. Often the girls did not understand the purpose for which they were brought to the brothel. Their parents happily got rid of the extra mouth, thereby turning the process of filling brothels into a slave trade. A girl who lost her virginity almost automatically became a prostitute. The loss of innocence is irreplaceable by nature. Therefore, the girls resorted to tricks. The signs of virginity - a narrow vagina and blood from the rupture of the hymen - girls have learned to imitate. For example, a piece of sponge soaked in blood was placed in the vagina. Surgeons already knew how to restore the hymen, and this service became widespread at the end of the 19th century. Some prostitutes visited doctors more than once.

There were clients who needed not just virgins, but very young girls. In France there was a fairly strict law against the corruption of minors, but in England, for example, there were entire children's brothels. However, 14-15 year old teenagers were considered almost adults. Sometimes girls had their virginity restored, and sometimes clients liked to deal with vicious and, despite their young age, experienced prostitutes.

Spanking as a form of punishment was very, very often practiced in England. A teenager, being in the stage of puberty, often unconsciously began to consider spanking an integral attribute for sexual arousal.

The famous psychiatrist Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing published the book “Psychopathy sexualis” in 1886, in which he explored various sexual perversions. He translated the most poignant details into Latin. The book has become a reference book for strawberry lovers. The Baron suggested that the experience of receiving sexual gratification by being hurt and humiliated should be named after the Austrian Ritter Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who in 1870 began publishing a series of works in which he described relationships between men and women, in which the woman had a dominant role and caused harm to the man. pain.

A new image of a woman is being formed - a vamp woman, whom Sacher-Masoch endowed with perfect beauty, dressed in furs and gave in her hands a whip.

In addition, voyeurism, sadism, orgies, etc. flourish. and so on.

Pornographic photograph distributed among amateurs

Homosexuality

Until the 19th century, same-sex relationships were punishable by death. France under Napoleon I abolished “crimes against nature” by actually allowing same-sex relationships - private, of course. England, always more conservative than other countries, replaced execution with 10-year imprisonment only in 1861. Although the British have always been condescending towards famous people who were rumored to prefer men to women. Condescension ended where publicizing the relationship began. Condescension did not apply to foreigners, whom the British generally regarded with suspicion, and also did not apply to people who opposed themselves to society.

Pederasty, also known as sodomy, was considered a sin and a crime. In 1808, the term psychiatry appeared, becoming a separate branch of medicine, and from that moment on, homosexuality began to have a psychological basis. Thus, from a criminal, a sodomite becomes a sick person. And if the criminal could repent, then the patient, especially the psychopath, was practically not subject to treatment. Unfortunately, doctors dealt with truly socially dangerous types, whose homosexuality was just an addition to other inclinations. Treatment offered primarily was hypnosis. It was only in the early 20th century, when doctors began to study diverse populations, that they began to change their opinions about homosexuals.

The main problem of homosexuals was self-identification. Public censure, silence, medical and legal persecution did not contribute to the development of a correct attitude, first of all, towards oneself. Victorians often repressed homosexuality. They got married, had children, but at the same time did not experience satisfaction in bed or noticed that, from their point of view, an unnatural inclination towards representatives of the same sex. It was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Richard von Krafft-Ebing published a series of first-person stories of people talking about their same-sex relationships, that homosexuals began to come to an understanding of themselves.

In aristocratic circles there were no problems with accepting one's own homosexuality; the main thing was to hide it from the public. The lower strata also did not experience complexes about sexual contacts with representatives of the same sex. If for the former homosexuality was, so to speak, a family trait, then for the latter homosexuality was conditioned by living conditions. When there are many children in the house, and there is only one bed, there is no time for shame. Of course, this does not mean that everyone became homosexual; we are talking about the absence of an inferiority complex among those who are prone to homosexuality.

Homosexual relationships flourished, of course, in the navy and army. But closed schools for boys - Eton, Cambridge, Oxford, etc. - served as especially fertile ground for the emergence of "hazing" relations. Full board, separate education, students of different ages, all this led to the fact that it was rare for a graduate to say that he did not have any sexual relations with other students or teachers. At the same time, as long as the relationship did not go beyond platonic, they did not see anything wrong with it. Moreover, male friendship was cultivated in every possible way, supported by examples from antiquity (teaching was carried out with strong censorship, texts were cruelly proofread and all kinds of sexual details were removed from them), and romanticized. This entailed a conflict between passionate but innocent friendship and sexual attraction.

The end of the 19th century was marked by a number of scandals. The most notorious was the trial initiated by Wilde under pressure from his lover Alfred Douglas to prosecute Alfred's father for libel (he called Wilde a sodomite in a letter), which turned into a trial of Wilde himself, when the Marquis's lawyers presented the court with evidence of the writer's homosexuality. The big event, of course, was the love relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, which lasted two years.

Homosexual relationships among women were kept silent. The fact that women's sexual relations do not lead to the conception of a child and occur without the male sexual organ gave men the false impression that what was happening was just entertainment. The emergence of attachments between women was facilitated, as in the case of men, by closed boarding schools for girls, as well as, for example, monasteries. Until the beginning of the 20th century, society did not take relationships between women seriously, so strong was the belief in the myth of women’s asexuality. In literature, men described sexual encounters more freely, while female authors preferred to encrypt the lesbian subtext, and it was often possible to decipher it only by knowing the biography of the writer.

Reproduction of Toulouse-Lautrec's painting "Two Friends"

Toulouse-Lautrec painted pictures from the life of Parisian bohemia; he is not characterized by moralizing, he accurately conveys bright moments.

The end of the 19th century was full of contradictions and brewing conflicts. Developing medicine, the increasing social activity of women, the growth of industry, and urbanization helped to shake the position of the Victorian way of life. However, all of the above receded into the background if the spouses loved each other, respected and sought to understand each other, to know and give pleasure.

Used materials:
1. Tennehill R. Sex in history. M., 1995.
2. Kon I. Faces and masks of same-sex love. M., 2003
3. Korkhov V.V. Medical aspects of the use of contraceptives. - St. Petersburg: Special lit.. - 172 pp., 1996

If you ask the average person what he knows about eroticism in the culture of Ancient Egypt, then most likely he will only shrug his shoulders in bewilderment. Sexuality in ancient cultures is traditionally associated with Greek, Indian and Chinese civilizations, against the background of which, according to a common cliché, Egypt appears monolithic, sacred, chaste and far from everything connected with the sensual world. Meanwhile, this opinion is deeply erroneous. What could be more sensual than Egyptian images of noble ladies in translucent robes sitting at a feast, or sculptural portraits of queens with bare breasts, on whose nipples golden cups in the form of lotus flowers were glued? However, behind the external pomp, secularity, and sometimes overt eroticism, there were always other, deeper meanings, because according to Egyptian ideas, sexuality is the main driving force of the divine development of the universe, in which the sexual act of the creator god was the beginning of the life of all things.

Married couple. Relief from the tomb of the vizier Ramose. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Luxor. 14th century BC. (c) Victor Solkin

Egyptian sexuality is inherently sacred. According to the ancient doctrine of the city of Iunu, called Heliopolis by the Greeks, the solar creator Atum creates the first gods through masturbation; his female complement, taking the form of his hand, his wife, his creative energy - Hathor Nebethetepet, the goddess of love and ecstatic intoxication, joy in all its forms, but at the same time the patroness of death as transformation and the guarantee of existence, new life in another world. She is the embodiment of universal femininity, regenerating the deceased in her womb. The sexual attractiveness of the goddess of love was a stimulus for the development of the world, the eternal renewal of the male deity, and his immortality. Together with the goddess Maat, who embodies the world order, the principles of male creative power and female sexuality, which conceives and regenerates the world anew, were the foundations of the existence of the world in Egyptian ideas.

Goddess Hathor. Cedar tree. 4th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (c) MMA

Osiris, the ruler of the world of the dead, who conquered death, was depicted with an erect phallus as a sign of his endless fertile power, which fertilizes the world along with the flood of the Nile waters, after which the first grain sprouts from the ground, providing food. Cut into pieces by the enemy and reassembled by his wife - the mistress of magic and motherhood Isis and sons - Horus and Anubis, Osiris restores its integrity when, according to legend, Isis collects his body together, and the phallus, lost in the waters of the river, is created again from the Nile silt; Only by regaining the phallus can Osiris be reborn, trample death, and then become the guarantee of the rebirth of any deceased. During mummification, likening the deceased to Osiris, the Egyptians swaddled male bodies with the genitals in an elevated position: sexual power was capable, in their opinion, of defeating death. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, enters into battle with Seth, the god of chaos and desert sands, who killed his father; During the multi-stage battle, the Chorus subjugates Seth, tearing out his testes, thereby depriving the enemy of not only his masculinity, but also the ability for his own rebirth and power over the world. Before this, Seth was often associated in Egyptian mythology with aggressive sexuality, which was often used by goddesses. Isis, wanting to help Horus in the great confrontation, takes the form of a beautiful virgin, who ultimately deceived the voluptuous god of the sands, or a magical bird, behind which Seth, taking the form of a mighty bull, rushes unsuccessfully along the Nile Valley and, having missed it, spills his seed on the ground in exhaustion , becoming the object of ridicule of the goddess and the progenitor of the beddetkau plants - melons that grew from his seed. Finally, trying to subdue Horus, Seth tricks him into his bed and rapes his rival. It was only by cunning that Horus, who placed his palms under Seth’s genitals and thus remained virgin, was not sexually subjugated by his rival, and therefore did not miss the right to universal power. Isis, planning to take revenge, collected the seed of Horus in a vessel, and secretly poured it over the lettuce, according to the Egyptians, a powerful aphrodisiac and the favorite food of the depraved Seth, growing in his garden. After eating lettuce, Seth found himself impregnated by Horus and again became the object of ridicule of the other gods, unsuitable for kingship over the world.

Pharaoh kneeling before the statue of the god of fertility Amun-Min. Karnak, 20th century BC. (c) Victor Solkin

Male sexuality is necessary for power over the world: massive limestone statues of the god of fertility Min, squeezing his phallus with his hand, were created by the Egyptians at the dawn of civilization, approximately in the 32nd century. BC. and are kept in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The iconography of the god who commands the harvest has remained virtually unchanged over the subsequent millennia of Egyptian history.

Musicians at a feast. Painting of the tomb of Nebamon. 14th century BC. London, British Museum. (c)TBM

Female sexuality was extremely attractive, but dangerous: the “golden” goddess of love Hathor in anger transformed into the enraged lion-headed Sekhmet, the mistress of flame and rage, trampling humanity. The process of the ritual “sekhetep Sekhmet” - the pacification of the goddess - was one of the main ones in temples dedicated to the wrathful form of the heavenly mother. The key to peace was intoxication with sacred wine and beer, as a result of which the furious lioness became either the cat Bastet, the patroness of femininity, fertility and exquisite eroticism, or, finally, Hathor herself - “sweet love.” In the 5th century BC. “the father of history,” Herodotus wrote about the famous festival of the cat goddess, held in the city of Bubastis, the center of her cult, located in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta: “when the Egyptians go to the city of Bubastis, they do this. Women and men sail there together, and on each barge there are many of both. Some women have rattles in their hands that they rattle. Some men play flutes all the way. The rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands. When they approach a city, they land on the shore and do this. Some women continue to rattle the rattles, as I said, others call the women of this city and mock them, others dance, others stand and lift up their clothes. They do this in every riverside town. Finally, upon arrival in Bubastis, they celebrate the holiday with magnificent sacrifices: during this holiday they drink more grape wine than during the rest of the year. According to local residents, up to 700 thousand people of both sexes, except children, gather here.”

Participant in the feast. Painting from the tomb of Menna. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Luxor. 15th century BC. (c) SCA

The festival symbolized the pacification of the goddess, the revival of her attractiveness and sexual power, divine copulation and, finally, the subsequent pregnancy and birth of the divine child. Aggressive, orgiastic sexuality was transformed by temple rituals into motherhood and true femininity. Another legend tells of Horus, who marries perhaps the most aggressive form of the goddess, “Lady Thabitit,” a huge fiery scorpion, whom the texts, as if ironically, call “the little one in the arms of Ra,” the sun god. A successful first wedding night becomes the key to the pacification of the goddess, the return of her true appearance, in which she is revered as “the mistress of what is in a woman’s heart.” In return, the terrible poison of the goddess, penetrating the body of her husband, is transformed and becomes a panacea for all diseases and any evil that could previously be in his body.

Fragment of the statue of Queen Teye. Yellow jasper. 14th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (c) MMA

What about the earthly world? The “Great Royal Consort” was revered as the earthly incarnation of Hathor, just as the pharaoh was Hora. Under the control of the main queen or queen-mother there was a huge female house of the king, very different from the stereotypical eastern harem, in which lived the younger queens and “nefrut” - beautiful concubines, direct servants of Hathor, called upon to continuously revive the vitality and sexual energy of the king. Dressed in robes of the finest linen, tinkling beaded nets, or naked, with only belts around the hips, but certainly in massive wigs, necklaces, bracelets, they are depicted playing musical instruments and singing, dancing and even playing a game with the king. Senet" is similar to checkers. It is worth remembering that, for example, the countless wives and concubines of Pharaoh Ramesses II were the mothers of 111 sons and 67 daughters. We are talking only about those children who were officially recognized by the royal father.

Pharaoh kissing his concubine. Limestone. From El Amarna. 14th century BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum. (c) SCA

Nudity was common and was in no way considered shameful. On reliefs and paintings in Egyptian tombs we see completely naked fishermen on the Nile, publicly collecting their catch, sobbing mourners, sprinkling sand and ashes on their chests as a sign of grief, and again naked and attractive young maids shaking a tambourine and playing the lute at a feast in a noble house. . The true Egypt of the pharaohs was far from the puritanical appearance that is sometimes attributed to it today, but sexuality here was always at least partly sacred. One of the famous tales of the Westcar Papyrus tells of King Snofru, who was “tired”, i.e. died. He becomes the Sun in another world, sailing on his boat, surrounded by charming companions - “nefrut”. One of the girls, dressed only in ritual nets, loses a turquoise fish - a “decoration” for her hair and the entire flotilla stops: we are symbolically talking about a pilot fish, followed by the sunny “Boat of Millions of Years” across the waters of the sky. For the uninitiated eye, meanwhile, the text speaks only of the entertainment of the “boredomed king,” to whom the court sage Jajaemankh gives truly invaluable advice: “Let your Majesty go to the lake of the pharaoh’s palace... Equip yourself a boat with a crew from all the beauties of the inner chambers of your palace, and your Majesty’s heart will be refreshed when you admire how they row back and forth without ceasing.” The king happily agrees, “I’ll really give myself a boat ride! Let them bring me twenty oars of ebony, trimmed with gold, with handles of sekeb wood, trimmed with light gold. Let them bring to me twenty women who have a beautiful body, beautiful breasts, hair braided, and whose wombs have not yet been opened by childbirth. And let them bring me twenty nets. And let these nets be given to these women after their clothes are removed!” The king's heart, in the end, rejoices, i.e. he is reborn to life. Echoes of sacred, ritual sexuality have always been an integral part of the everyday life of the palace.

Behind the walls of the royal residence, things were much simpler. Love poetry and some secular texts, among which a special place is occupied by the Ramessida papyrus Chester-Beatty I and the Harris papyrus 500, tell of a meeting of lovers, at which the trees of the garden spy on, telling each other about what they saw. “Nedjemmit” - attraction and “merut” - love are presented here as something akin to a serious illness if passion is not satisfied, and the city beauty spends hours at the mirror, completing the necessary makeup to attract the military leader Mekhi, the future pharaoh, passing through the square. Even a crocodile lying on the shallows cannot become an obstacle for lovers standing on different banks of the river, and so it happened: a man is like a “goose caught in bait” in an ebony snare, which is like the hands of his beloved. By the way, it was Egyptian women who were considered the most beautiful women of the Mediterranean in ancient times.

Queen Ankhesenamun holding out bouquets of mandrakes to her husband, Tutankhamun. Scene on the lid of the casket. Bone, painting. 14th century BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum. (c) SCA

We don’t know how marriage was performed in Egypt, but one thing is clear: the woman had enough rights, confirmed by the marriage contract, while, as often happens in the East, the bride was often still almost a girl - and this is in the general mass, not to mention numerous conditional dynastic “child” marriages in royal families. Marriages between relatives were common and legalized: uncles and nieces, brothers and sisters. According to surviving statistics, for every 161 marriages there were about 38 weddings between brother and sister. However, such was the legendary marriage of Osiris and Isis... “I took you as my wife when I was still a young man. I was with you... I didn’t upset your heart... I didn’t hide my income from you... I never neglected you...", a husband writes to his wife in one of the papyri of the Leiden Museum. Family in Egypt was always revered; infidelity of a spouse was punishable by death. “Beware of the woman who goes out secretly! - advises the sage Ani. - Don't follow her; she will claim that it was not her. A wife, whose husband is far away, sends you notes and calls you to her every day when there are no witnesses. If she lures you into her network, it is a crime, and death awaits her, even if she does not enjoy her betrayal.” Male infidelity was not prosecuted, but in case of violence by a man against a woman, the perpetrator was liable to trial, and the one who repeatedly beat his wife faced a punishment of 100 strokes of the cane.

A celebration of intoxication. Painting on a fragment of a canopy. Leather. 15th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the publication: Roehrig C. (ed.) Hatshepsut. From Queen to Pharaoh. New York, 2006. P. 46.

Prostitution was active in the capitals, numerous references to which were preserved in legal documents and on ostracons - pieces of limestone or fragments of vessels that were used for records and, sometimes, for artistic sketches. Often, the ladies of the most ancient profession were maids and slaves, brought during military operations from Syria or Nubia and completing their journey in secluded rooms of taverns, pubs or special establishments “for entertainment”. The experience gained from visiting these dens was sometimes associated with sexually transmitted diseases, in particular gonorrhea, which is mentioned several times in Egyptian medical papyri. The careers of secular musicians and singers sometimes bordered on prostitution: the British Museum contains a figurine of a standing harpist leaning on an instrument and showing her genitals. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York there is a painted piece of leather from the Temple of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri, on which, on the contrary, a harpist playing chastely under a vine has her genitals shown by a naked man, carried away by an orgiastic festival of the goddess. Male prostitution is passed over in silence in classical texts, but already under the Ptolemies it became very widespread and, most likely, was not introduced by the Greeks, but existed from the beginning. Homosexuality was condemned in classical Egypt, but let us remember King Pepi II, who, according to one surviving text, visits the military commander Sisene in the barracks at night, not noticing a servant peeking at him, or the famous Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, hairdresser and manicurist of the Fifth Dynasty king Niuserra, buried in one tomb. On one of the walls the owners were depicted kissing and hugging. In the Late Period, and especially in the Hellenistic era, male and female homosexuality was almost never condemned. In marriage contracts of the 1st century. BC, found among a mass of papyri in the famous city of Tebtyunis, it is often specified that a man, taking his chosen wife as his wife, promises her not to bring either a concubine or a young lover into the house and not to drive her out for the sake of passion for anyone . Among the magical papyri of this time there are love texts directed from one woman to another, and individual pairs of women lead a joint household, like ordinary heterosexual couples.

Dancers at a feast. Painting of the tomb of Nebamon. 14th century BC. London, British Museum. (c)TBM

Acrobatic. Painting on the ostracon. 13th century BC. Turin, Egyptian Museum. (c) Victor Solkin

Yet sexuality in Egypt, even if it involves a brothel, is sacred. The famous erotic papyrus, kept in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, preserves images of 12 different positions of sexual intercourse, in which a man and girls from the establishment participate. Papyrus of the 12th century. BC, found in the 20s of the 19th century and badly damaged, at one time created a sensation in the scientific community, was, alas, considered “obscene” and therefore was not published for a long time. This is by no means just an ancient pornographic scroll, but again an image of ritual intercourse: the man’s special hairstyle reveals him to be a “shaven-headed” priest of the goddess Hathor. The man has a huge genital organ, with which he manages to satisfy women not only on the bed, but also standing at the chariot in which the woman is standing, lying on the floor or depressing the lady with a truly acrobatic pose when she stands on her head and hands (!). Sometimes a man holds a vessel with beer or an amulet of the goddess of love. Next to the women are also depicted objects of the cult of Hathor - her ritual musical instruments, mirrors, and constant lotuses. In the last scene, the man, who has lost the strength and hardness of his phallus, is carried by the maids in their arms. Between the images there are inscriptions that comment on what is happening, or contain remarks from the participants in the action: “Don’t be afraid, what will I do to you?”, “come on, enter me from behind with your love”, “oh, my robber!”, “my big penis is already it hurts from the inside." The scroll also contains instructions about its owner, who was “the bearer of the fan on the right of His Majesty,” “the royal scribe,” and “the military leader.” Alas, the name of the ancient Egyptian erotomaniac has not been preserved. The document is unique in its integrity, but not at all in its content: on the ostracons of the 16th-12th centuries. BC. Similar scenes survive, depicting a man entering a woman from behind or in a “classical” position. They could not depict something like this in the royal house; The sensuality between the king and his wife was shown by symbols, by the fact that he holds his wife by the wrist, in exceptional cases, sits her on his knees, or walks with her in the garden, receiving from his beloved a bouquet with mandrake fruits - a well-known symbol of sexuality in the East.

Symplegma. Limestone, painting. 1st century BC. New York, Brooklyn Museum. From the publication: Fazzini R., Bianchi R., Romano J., Spanel D. Ancient Egyptian Art in the Brooklyn Museum. New York, 1989. No. 82.

In the Hellenistic era, along with the penetration of Greek influences into Egypt, erotica became increasingly popular. In places dedicated to the gods of fertility, and some temples were dedicated, as before, numerous terracotta images of phalluses or dwarfs, equipped with giant genitals, which were supposed to bring durability of potency to men and fertility to women. The collection of the Brooklyn Museum in New York contains a "symplegma", or group of connected, intertwined figures, the largest Egyptian erotic sculpture of its kind known today. The central place in it is occupied by a large naked figure of a woman in a short wig, leaning on the giant phalluses of four men of different heights, whose heads are decorated with “locks of youth.” In front of the group sit two more smaller male figures holding a tied oryx antelope on their laps. Interpreting the meaning of symplegma is not easy; in general, the monument is closely associated with the Osiric cult: the central male figure, probably personifying the funeral priest, impregnates a woman, possibly a goddess, who will give birth to Horus, the son-heir of Osiris, symbolizing the continuation of the life cycle. The oryx, the sacred animal of the chaos god and murderer Osiris Seth, is depicted as a sacrificial animal, defeated and prepared for destruction. The emphasized sexual power of male images is associated with ideas about the inexhaustible fertility of Osiris and the Egyptian land, which is the material embodiment of his body.

The monument dates back to the Greco-Roman era, when introduced sexual freedom gave rise to new types of monuments of erotic art in Egypt, and especially in Alexandria. However, one should not see only Greek influence in the simplegma; evidence of this is the numerous ancient Egyptian monuments and texts that elevate sexuality to the rank of a cult and are practically forgotten by modern culture.

Electronic media "Interesting World". Issue No. 40 dated 02/07/2012

Dear friends and readers! The Interesting World project needs your help!

With our personal money we buy photo and video equipment, all office equipment, pay for hosting and Internet access, organize trips, write at night, process photos and videos, type up articles, etc. Our personal money is naturally not enough.

If you need our work, if you want project "Interesting World" continued to exist, please transfer an amount that is not burdensome for you to Sberbank card: Mastercard 5469400010332547 or at Raiffeisen Bank Visa card 4476246139320804 Shiryaev Igor Evgenievich.

Also you can list Yandex Money to wallet: 410015266707776 . This will take you a little time and money, but the magazine “Interesting World” will survive and delight you with new articles, photographs, and videos.

"Playing Go" was awarded the Goncourt Prize by French lyceum students in 2001, and in the UK it was recognized as the best foreign book of 2003. The events of the novel develop in Manchuria in the 30s. XX century. The Japanese army conquers China. In an ancient city, a young Chinese woman and a Japanese samurai play Go. There will be no victory in this game. At the last black and white intersection, love meets death. *** "Playing Go" is a book of pain and love. In Russia, Go players loved it very much, but this game (more complex and interesting than chess) is only the background of the novel. 30s of the twentieth century.…

Zen Flesh and Bone Paul Reps

The book is a collection of ancient texts of Zen Buddhism, telling about the life of laymen and monks of ancient China and Japan, as the embodiment of high aspirations for a moral ideal. Being a valuable monument of the culture and history of these countries, it reveals the origins of their spiritual heritage, facilitates understanding of the character of their peoples, contributing to the further rapprochement of East and West.

History of Japan. Between China and the Pacific Ocean Daniel Eliseev

We bring to your attention a book written by a modern French researcher, Danielle Eliseev, dedicated to such an attractive and mysterious eastern country as Japan. A country where, on the one hand, everything that exists is all history and tradition, on the other hand, it is a completely urbanized culture, formed in less than two generations. Japan is a world of paradox. The image of this country is always painted in bright contrasting colors: on the one hand, it is a culture of aristocratic, sophisticated femininity, embodied...

Sutra of the Fundamental Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva… Author unknown - Buddhism

The sutra, now offered to the reader’s attention, is one of the most revered texts of the Mahayana, or great vehicle, that direction of Buddhism that historically turned out to be most attractive to the peoples of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet and Mongolia. This is the author's translation from Chinese and comm. Popovtseva D.V. When translating the text, the edition of the sutra in Chinese was used, carried out under the guidance of the modern Chinese Buddhist mentor Zhi Ding and supplied with his commentary.

Russia, Japan and pre-communist Tibet: ... Alexander Berzin

The nineteenth century marked the decline of the Manchu Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1911. Many countries tried to take advantage of the weakness of the Manchus to achieve territorial concessions or favorable terms for trade. These countries included not only Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, but also Russia and Japan. Original article: www.berzinarchives.com/web/ru/archives/advanced/kalachakra/shambhala/russian_japanese_shambhala.html

The Samurai Cookbook or Damn Those... Kitya Carlson

You won't find a single recipe in The Samurai Cookbook. This is not a culinary reference book, but a kind of survival guide in Japan, notes from Russian blogger Kitty Carlson. He dropped out of college without knowing the language, went to study and work in the unfamiliar country of Japan and... spent seven years there to his advantage. As a result, he came up with these vivid everyday sketches - unusually colorful and amazing in their details, a kind of inside look at the morals, customs, habits, and characters of the Japanese.

Russia and Japan: pit them against each other! Sergey Kremlev

In the Far East, the interests of many peoples and powers have long been tied into a tight knot... Russia, Japan, China, Korea, the USA and Western countries... The interconnection of their destinies, the “Far Eastern” “tangle” of problems of world history of the 19th century - the topic of a new study by Sergei Kremlev (Sergei Brezkun), author of the books “Russia and Germany: Play Off!”, “Russia and Germany: Together or Apart?” etc. Particular attention in the book is paid to the relations between Russia and Japan, the initial history of which goes back to the time of Catherine the Great... Ideologist of Victorian Britain Homer Lee...

Everyday life in China during the Ming era Vladimir Malyavin

The reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was a time of summing up the three thousand years of development of Chinese civilization. During this era, all its forms reached their highest development - poetry and theater, painting and architecture, court etiquette and folklore. However, grace increasingly turned into a dead template, and the search for new forms turned into degeneration of content. Trying to overcome the crisis of tradition, philosophers rethought the dogmas of Confucianism, artists “with one movement of the brush crossed out what had been done before,” and the authorities exercised ideological control over...

Non-Children's Fairy Tales of Japan Miyazawa Kenji

The works of the Japanese storyteller Kenji Miyazawa are rightfully considered one of the most popular in Japan. Miyazawa's deep philosophical and religious tales, in which the worlds of living and inanimate nature, intricately intertwined, speak to the reader about the eternal: about love and friendship, vices and virtues, death and separation. These fairy tales teach you to dream, teach you to look at the world differently. Fairy tales will be interesting to readers of any age.

Non-Children's Fairy Tales of Japan Kenji Miyazawa

The works of the Japanese storyteller Kenji Miyazawa are rightfully considered one of the most popular in Japan. Miyazawa's deep philosophical and religious tales, in which the worlds of living and inanimate nature, intricately intertwined, speak to the reader about the eternal: about love and friendship, vices and virtues, death and separation. These fairy tales teach you to dream, teach you to look at the world differently. Fairy tales will be interesting to readers of any age.

Chok-chok. Philosophical-erotic novel by Friedrich Gorenstein

Friedrich Gorenstein. “Chok-Chok”, Philosophical and erotic novel. St. Petersburg, “Library “3 Stars”, 1992. – 288 pp. The novel by one of the most famous writers of the Russian diaspora combines free frankness in the description of the sexual relationships of the characters with the depth of psychological elaboration of their characters and the scale of philosophical generalizations. CR and editing: Alexander Belousenko , February 2006.

The defeat of Japan and the samurai threat Alexey Shishov

The geopolitical aspirations of the two empires - Russian and Japanese - led to the fact that at the end of the 18th century they became neighbors. However, good neighborly relations began to develop with difficulty. By the beginning of the 20th century, the samurai empire, which was gaining strength, began to strive to expand its state borders at the expense of its neighbors. History shows that the problem of territorial claims against Russia by the Japanese side was resolved primarily from a position of strength, and not at the diplomatic negotiating table. After complete defeat in World War II...

An Invitation to Slavery, or Girls Wanted... Yulia Shilova

During the entire flight from Vladivostok to Tokyo, Irina and Natka were tormented by doubts: did they do the right thing by deciding to work as dancers in Japan? On the other hand, what to lose? There are no good jobs, the “new Russians” were quickly dismantled, the lack of money is absolutely disgusting. I want to live beautifully. And, as it turned out later, I also want to live, I just want to live! Illusions disappeared in an instant: “Russian girls” are for sexual pleasures, “Russian managers” are traders in human goods, and pride and honor are all that remains. Friends fight to the last...

From Kyakhta to Kulja. Journey to Central... Vladimir Obruchev

In the book, Academician V. A. Obruchev describes the impressions of his trip to Mongolia and China, which was organized by the Russian Geographical Society and carried out in 1892–1894. The head of this expedition was the ethnographer G.N. Potanin. The author was entrusted with geological research in western Central Asia, especially in the Nan Shan and Vostochny mountain systems. Tien Shan, as well as the eastern outskirts of Tibet. Thus, the impressions and observations collected during the trip were very diverse, and what is presented in the book will help you get acquainted with nature...

Whale Road Robert Lowe

The Scandinavians called the road of whales the expanse of sea into which their long ships - longships - rushed. Along the way of the whales, experienced, seasoned warriors - and youngsters who dreamed of military feats, wealth and glory - went on campaigns and raids. Orm, the son of Rerik, also entered the path of the whales, joining the Vowed Brotherhood - a detachment of Vikings welded together by the bonds of a common oath. The road of whales leads Orm across the sea and over land, through blood, sweat and tears, through the fury of battles and the pain of loss - all these are the tests that All-Father Odin sends to people. Welcome to the road...

Tale and stories from the collection “Modern... Lev Kuklin

The collection “Modern Erotic Prose” includes erotic works by writers from St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as Russian-speaking foreign prose writers - works that are traditional and innovative, lyrical and harsh, aesthetically beautiful and shocking, funny and tragic. But they are all united by psychological authenticity, the skill of the authors, the absence of any moralizing and a high degree of erotic tension. This book includes the story “Humanitarian Aid” and stories by Lev Kuklin. The collection once again confirms that...

Whale - biting fish Nikolay Polivin

The writer Nikolai Georgievich Polivin has traveled a difficult and interesting path. While still very young, he took an active part in the Great Patriotic War. And after the war, he traveled a lot around the country as a correspondent, and was interested in hunting, tourism, and fishing. That is why the heroes of his works are so spiritually rich and attractive. Nikolai Polivin entered literature as a poet; his turn to children's literature is not accidental - he has something to tell young readers. The published book includes the stories “The Whale - a Biting Fish” and “The Ship's Side”. Young...

Look at the harlequins! Sergey Ilyin

"Look at the harlequins!" (English: Look at the Harlequins!) is the last completed novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Written in 1973-1974 in English. First published in 1974 in New York. The novel is structured as a pseudo-autobiographical one. The main character is Vadim Vadimovich, a Russian-American writer (like Nabokov himself). Despite the large number of parallels between the author and the hero of the novel, it should not be perceived as Nabokov's autobiography, but rather as a parody of autobiography. The comments (in curly brackets) are made by Nabokov himself and are part of the novel.…

Green Shadows, White Whale Ray Bradbury

The novel “Green Shadows, White Whale” was born from the Irish impressions of Ray Bradbury, who came to this country in 1953 at the invitation of the famous Hollywood director John Huston to work on the script for the film “Moby Dick”. The Emerald Isle, or rather, rain-lashed, dank Ireland, became one of the writer’s favorite “ethnic” themes (along with his Latin American cycle). Over the years, he dedicated many stories to her. And in 1992, a novel finally appeared, which the author called a “belated” declaration of love to people, country and people, with whom...

It's time to remember the sexual and erotic side of the ancient world - how things were with this in Ancient Egypt.

The opinion that the culture of Ancient Egypt is far from sensuality is erroneous. Overt eroticism is present in many of the images that have come down to us. According to the Egyptians, sexuality is the main driving force in the development of the universe.

If you ask the average person what he knows about eroticism in the culture of Ancient Egypt, then most likely he will only shrug his shoulders in bewilderment. Sexuality in ancient cultures is traditionally associated with Greek, Indian and Chinese civilizations, against the background of which, according to a common cliché, Egypt appears monolithic, sacred, chaste and far from everything connected with the sensual world. Meanwhile, this opinion is deeply erroneous. What could be more sensual than Egyptian images of noble ladies in translucent robes sitting at a feast, or sculptural portraits of queens with bare breasts, on whose nipples golden cups in the form of lotus flowers were glued? However, behind the external pomp, secularity, and sometimes overt eroticism, there were always other, deeper meanings, because according to Egyptian ideas, sexuality is the main driving force of the divine development of the universe, in which the sexual act of the creator god was the beginning of the life of all things.

2.


The universe in the form of combinations of masculine and masculine and feminine principles. Fragment of a vignette from the mythological papyrus of the priestess Khentuttaui. 10th century BC. London, British Museum.

Egyptian sexuality is inherently sacred. According to the ancient doctrine of the city of Iunu, called Heliopolis by the Greeks, the solar creator Atum creates the first gods through masturbation; his female complement, taking the form of his hand, his wife, his creative energy - Hathor Nebethetepet, the goddess of love and ecstatic intoxication, joy in all its forms, but at the same time the patroness of death as transformation and the guarantee of existence, new life in another world. She is the embodiment of universal femininity, rebirthing the deceased in her womb. The sexual attractiveness of the goddess of love was a stimulus for the development of the world, the eternal renewal of the male deity, and his immortality. Together with the goddess Maat, who embodies the world order, the principles of male creative power and female sexuality, which conceives and regenerates the world anew, were the foundations of the existence of the world in Egyptian ideas.

3.


Votive figurine of Osiris with phallus. Clay. X-VII centuries BC. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Osiris, the ruler of the world of the dead, who conquered death, was depicted with an erect phallus as a sign of his endless fertile power, which fertilizes the world along with the flood of the Nile waters, after which the first grain sprouts from the ground, providing food. Cut into pieces by the enemy and reassembled by his wife - the mistress of magic and motherhood Isis and sons - Horus and Anubis, Osiris restores its integrity when, according to legend, Isis collects his body together, and the phallus, lost in the waters of the river, is created again from the Nile silt; Only by regaining the phallus can Osiris be reborn, trample death, and then become the guarantee of the rebirth of any deceased.

During mummification, likening the deceased to Osiris, the Egyptians swaddled male bodies with the genitals in an elevated position: sexual power was capable, in their opinion, of defeating death. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, enters into battle with Seth, the god of chaos and desert sands, who killed his father; During the multi-stage battle, the Chorus subjugates Seth, tearing out his testes, thereby depriving the enemy of not only his masculinity, but also the ability for his own rebirth and power over the world. Before this, Seth was often associated in Egyptian mythology with aggressive sexuality, which was often used by goddesses.

4.

Pharaoh kneeling before the statue of the god of fertility Amun-Min. Karnak, 20th century BC. (c) Victor Solkin

Isis, wanting to help Horus in the great confrontation, takes the form of a beautiful virgin, who ultimately deceived the voluptuous god of the sands, or a magical bird, behind which Seth, taking the form of a mighty bull, rushes unsuccessfully along the Nile Valley and, having missed it, spills his seed on the ground in exhaustion , becoming the object of ridicule of the goddess and the progenitor of the beddetkau plants - melons that grew from his seed. Finally, trying to subdue Horus, Seth tricks him into his bed and rapes his rival. It was only by cunning that Horus, who placed his palms under Seth’s genitals and thus remained virgin, was not sexually subjugated by his rival, and therefore did not miss the right to universal power. Isis, planning to take revenge, collected the seed of Horus in a vessel, and secretly poured it over the lettuce, according to the Egyptians, a powerful aphrodisiac and the favorite food of the depraved Seth, growing in his garden. After eating lettuce, Seth found himself impregnated by Horus and again became the object of ridicule of the other gods, unsuitable for kingship over the world.

5.

Statue of the god Min: archaic colossus from Koptos. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Male sexuality is necessary for power over the world: massive limestone statues of the god of fertility Min, squeezing his phallus with his hand, were created by the Egyptians at the dawn of civilization, approximately in the 32nd century. BC. and are kept in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The iconography of the god who commands the harvest has remained virtually unchanged over the subsequent millennia of Egyptian history.

6.

Statue of the god Min: a sculptural group of Min and King Horemheb. 14th century BC. London, British Museum.

Female sexuality was extremely attractive, but dangerous: the “golden” goddess of love Hathor in anger transformed into the enraged lion-headed Sekhmet, the mistress of flame and rage, trampling humanity. The process of the ritual “sekhetep Sekhmet” - the pacification of the goddess - was one of the main ones in temples dedicated to the wrathful form of the heavenly mother. The key to peace was intoxication with sacred wine and beer, as a result of which the furious lioness became either the cat Bastet, the patroness of femininity, fertility and exquisite eroticism, or, finally, Hathor herself - “sweet love.”

7.

Goddess Hathor. Cedar tree. 4th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (c) MMA

In the 5th century BC. “the father of history,” Herodotus wrote about the famous festival of the cat goddess, held in the city of Bubastis, the center of her cult, located in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta: “when the Egyptians go to the city of Bubastis, they do this. Women and men sail there together, and on each barge there are many of both. Some women have rattles in their hands that they rattle. Some men play flutes all the way. The rest of the women and men sing and clap their hands.

8.

Participant in the feast. Painting from the tomb of Menna. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Luxor. 15th century BC. (c) SCA

When they approach a city, they land on the shore and do this. Some women continue to rattle the rattles, as I said, others call the women of this city and mock them, others dance, others stand and lift up their clothes. They do this in every riverside town. Finally, upon arrival in Bubastis, they celebrate the holiday with magnificent sacrifices: during this holiday they drink more grape wine than during the rest of the year. According to local residents, up to 700 thousand people of both sexes, except children, gather here.”

9.

Hathor is the mistress of love, the heavenly prototype of the “great royal wife.” Relief from the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings, fragment. 13th century BC. Paris, Louvre.

The festival symbolized the pacification of the goddess, the revival of her attractiveness and sexual power, divine copulation and, finally, the subsequent pregnancy and birth of the divine child. Aggressive, orgiastic sexuality was transformed by temple rituals into motherhood and true femininity. Another legend tells of Horus, who marries perhaps the most aggressive form of the goddess, “Lady Thabitit,” a huge fiery scorpion, whom the texts, as if ironically, call “the little one in the arms of Ra,” the sun god. A successful first wedding night becomes the key to the pacification of the goddess, the return of her true appearance, in which she is revered as “the mistress of what is in a woman’s heart.” In return, the terrible poison of the goddess, penetrating the body of her husband, is transformed and becomes a panacea for all diseases and any evil that could previously be in his body.

10.

Seti I and Hathor - the mistress of love, the heavenly prototype of the “great royal wife.” Relief from the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. 13th century BC. Paris, Louvre.

What about the earthly world? The “Great Royal Consort” was revered as the earthly incarnation of Hathor, just as the pharaoh was Hora. Under the control of the main queen or queen-mother there was a huge female house of the king, very different from the stereotypical eastern harem, in which lived the younger queens and “nefrut” - beautiful concubines, direct servants of Hathor, called upon to continuously revive the vitality and sexual energy of the king. Dressed in robes made of the finest linen, ringing beaded nets, or naked, with only belts around the hips, but certainly in massive wigs, necklaces, bracelets, they are depicted playing musical instruments and singing, dancing and even playing a game with the king “ Senet" - similar to checkers. It is worth remembering that, for example, the countless wives and concubines of Pharaoh Ramesses II were the mothers of 111 sons and 67 daughters. We are talking only about those children who were officially recognized by the royal father.

11.

Nude dancers at a feast. Painting from the tomb of the nobleman Nebamon. 15th century BC. London, British Museum.

Nudity was common and was in no way considered shameful. On reliefs and paintings in Egyptian tombs we see completely naked fishermen on the Nile, publicly collecting their catch, sobbing mourners, sprinkling sand and ashes on their chests as a sign of grief, and again naked and attractive young maids shaking a tambourine and playing the lute at a feast in a noble house. . The true Egypt of the pharaohs was far from the puritanical appearance that is sometimes attributed to it today, but sexuality here was always at least partly sacred.

12.

Ostrakon with the image of a lute player. 13th-12th centuries BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum.

One of the famous tales of the Westcar Papyrus tells of King Snofru, who was “tired”, i.e. died. He becomes the Sun in another world, sailing on his boat, surrounded by charming companions - “nefrut”. One of the girls, dressed only in ritual nets, loses a turquoise fish - a “decoration” for her hair and the entire flotilla stops: we are symbolically talking about a pilot fish, followed by the sunny “Boat of Millions of Years” across the waters of the sky. For the uninitiated eye, meanwhile, the text speaks only of the entertainment of the “boredomed king,” to whom the court sage Jajaemankh gives truly invaluable advice: “Let your Majesty go to the lake of the pharaoh’s palace... Equip yourself a boat with a crew from all the beauties of the inner chambers of your palace, and your Majesty’s heart will be refreshed when you admire how they row back and forth without ceasing.” The king happily agrees, “I’ll really give myself a boat ride! Let them bring me twenty oars of ebony, trimmed with gold, with handles of sekeb wood, trimmed with light gold. Let them bring to me twenty women who have a beautiful body, beautiful breasts, hair braided, and whose wombs have not yet been opened by childbirth. And let them bring me twenty nets. And let these nets be given to these women after their clothes are removed!” The king's heart, in the end, rejoices, i.e. he is reborn to life. Echoes of sacred, ritual sexuality have always been an integral part of the everyday life of the palace.

13.


Fragment of the statue of Queen Teye. Yellow jasper, 14th century. BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Behind the walls of the royal residence, things were much simpler. Love poetry and some secular texts, among which a special place is occupied by the Ramessida papyrus Chester-Beatty I and the Harris papyrus 500, tell of a meeting of lovers, at which the trees of the garden spy on, telling each other about what they saw. “Nedjemmit” - attraction and “merut” - love are presented here as something akin to a serious illness if passion is not satisfied, and the city beauty spends hours at the mirror, completing the necessary makeup to attract the military leader Mekhi, the future pharaoh, passing through the square. Even a crocodile lying on the shallows cannot become an obstacle for lovers standing on different banks of the river, and so it happened: a man is like a “goose caught in bait” in an ebony snare, which is like the hands of his beloved. By the way, it was Egyptian women who were considered the most beautiful women of the Mediterranean in ancient times.

14.


Married couple. Relief from the tomb of the vizier Ramose. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Luxor. 14th century BC. (c) Victor Solkin

We don’t know how marriage was performed in Egypt, but one thing is clear: the woman had enough rights, confirmed by the marriage contract, while, as often happens in the East, the bride was often still almost a girl - and this is in the general mass, not to mention numerous conditional dynastic “child” marriages in royal families. Marriages between relatives were common and legalized: uncles and nieces, brothers and sisters. According to surviving statistics, for every 161 marriages there were about 38 weddings between brother and sister. However, such was the legendary marriage of Osiris and Isis... “I took you as my wife when I was still a young man. I was with you... I didn’t upset your heart... I didn’t hide my income from you... I never neglected you...", a husband writes to his wife in one of the papyri of the Leiden Museum.

15.

Pharaoh kissing his concubine. Limestone. From El Amarna. 14th century BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum. (c) SCA

Family in Egypt was always revered; infidelity of a spouse was punishable by death. “Beware of the woman who goes out secretly! - advises the sage Ani. - Don't follow her; she will claim that it was not her. A wife, whose husband is far away, sends you notes and calls you to her every day when there are no witnesses. If she lures you into her network, it is a crime, and death awaits her, even if she does not enjoy her betrayal.” Male infidelity was not prosecuted, but in case of violence by a man against a woman, the perpetrator was liable to trial, and the one who repeatedly beat his wife faced a punishment of 100 strokes of the cane.

16.


A piece of leather from Deir el-Bahri. 15th century BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Prostitution was active in the capitals, numerous references to which were preserved in legal documents and on ostracons - pieces of limestone or fragments of vessels that were used for records and, sometimes, for artistic sketches. Often, the ladies of the most ancient profession were maids and slaves, brought during military operations from Syria or Nubia and completing their journey in secluded rooms of taverns, pubs or special establishments “for entertainment”. The experience gained from visiting these dens was sometimes associated with sexually transmitted diseases, in particular gonorrhea, which is mentioned several times in Egyptian medical papyri. The careers of secular musicians and singers sometimes bordered on prostitution: the British Museum contains a figurine of a standing harpist leaning on an instrument and showing her genitals. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York there is a painted piece of leather from the Temple of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri, on which, on the contrary, a harpist playing chastely under a vine has her genitals shown by a naked man, carried away by an orgiastic festival of the goddess.

17.


Men's hugs. Relief from the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep at Saqqara. 24th century BC.

Male prostitution is passed over in silence in classical texts, but already under the Ptolemies it became very widespread and, most likely, was not introduced by the Greeks, but existed from the beginning. Homosexuality was condemned in classical Egypt, but let us remember King Pepi II, who, according to one surviving text, visits the military commander Sisene in the barracks at night, not noticing a servant peeking at him, or the famous Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, hairdresser and manicurist of the Fifth Dynasty king Niuserra, buried in one tomb. On one of the walls the owners were depicted kissing and hugging. In the Late Period, and especially in the Hellenistic era, male and female homosexuality was almost never condemned. In marriage contracts of the 1st century. BC, found among a mass of papyri in the famous city of Tebtyunis, it is often specified that a man, taking his chosen wife as his wife, promises her not to bring either a concubine or a young lover into the house and not to drive her out for the sake of passion for anyone . Among the magical papyri of this time there are love texts directed from one woman to another, and individual pairs of women lead a joint household, like ordinary heterosexual couples.

18.


Turin erotic papyrus. Drawing. 12th century BC.

Yet sexuality in Egypt, even if it involves a brothel, is sacred. The famous erotic papyrus, kept in the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, preserves images of 12 different positions of sexual intercourse, in which a man and girls from the establishment participate. Papyrus of the 12th century. BC, found in the 20s of the 19th century and badly damaged, at one time created a sensation in the scientific community, was, alas, considered “obscene” and therefore was not published for a long time. This is by no means just an ancient pornographic scroll, but again an image of ritual intercourse: the man’s special hairstyle reveals him to be a “shaven-headed” priest of the goddess Hathor. The man has a huge genital organ, with which he manages to satisfy women not only on the bed, but also standing at the chariot in which the woman is standing, lying on the floor or depressing the lady with a truly acrobatic pose when she stands on her head and hands (!).

19.


Turin erotic papyrus. Photo. 12th century BC.

Sometimes a man holds a vessel with beer or an amulet of the goddess of love. Next to the women are also depicted objects of the cult of Hathor - her ritual musical instruments, mirrors, and constant lotuses. In the last scene, the man, who has lost the strength and hardness of his phallus, is carried by the maids in their arms. Between the images there are inscriptions that comment on what is happening, or contain remarks from the participants in the action: “Don’t be afraid, what will I do to you?”, “come on, enter me from behind with your love”, “oh, my robber!”, “my big penis is already it hurts from the inside." The scroll also contains instructions about its owner, who was “the bearer of the fan on the right of His Majesty,” “the royal scribe,” and “the military leader.” Alas, the name of the ancient Egyptian erotomaniac has not been preserved. The document is unique in its integrity, but not at all in its content: on the ostracons of the 16th-12th centuries. BC. Similar scenes survive, depicting a man entering a woman from behind or in a “classical” position.

20.

Queen Ankhesenamun holding out bouquets of mandrakes to her husband, Tutankhamun. Scene on the lid of the casket. Bone, painting. 14th century BC. Cairo, Egyptian Museum. (c) SCA

They could not depict something like this in the royal house; The sensuality between the king and his wife was shown by symbols, by the fact that he holds his wife by the wrist, in exceptional cases, sits her on his knees, or walks with her in the garden, receiving from his beloved a bouquet with mandrake fruits - a well-known symbol of sexuality in the East.

21.


Ritual intercourse - so-called. "symplegma". 305-30 BC. New York, Brooklyn Museum.

In the Hellenistic era, along with the penetration of Greek influences into Egypt, erotica became increasingly popular. In places dedicated to the gods of fertility, and some temples were dedicated, as before, numerous terracotta images of phalluses or dwarfs, equipped with giant genitals, which were supposed to bring durability of potency to men and fertility to women. The collection of the Brooklyn Museum in New York contains a "symplegma", or group of connected, intertwined figures, the largest Egyptian erotic sculpture of its kind known today. The central place in it is occupied by a large naked figure of a woman in a short wig, leaning on the giant phalluses of four men of different heights, whose heads are decorated with “locks of youth.” In front of the group sit two more smaller male figures holding a tied oryx antelope on their laps. Interpreting the meaning of symplegma is not easy; in general, the monument is closely associated with the Osiric cult: the central male figure, probably personifying the funeral priest, impregnates a woman, possibly a goddess, who will give birth to Horus, the son-heir of Osiris, symbolizing the continuation of the life cycle. The oryx, the sacred animal of the chaos god and murderer Osiris Seth, is depicted as a sacrificial animal, defeated and prepared for destruction. The emphasized sexual power of male images is associated with ideas about the inexhaustible fertility of Osiris and the Egyptian land, which is the material embodiment of his body.

22.


Symplegma. I century BC. Brooklyn Museum.

The monument dates back to the Greco-Roman era, when introduced sexual freedom gave rise to new types of monuments of erotic art in Egypt, and especially in Alexandria. However, one should not see only Greek influence in the simplegma; evidence of this is the numerous ancient Egyptian monuments and texts that elevate sexuality to the rank of a cult and are practically forgotten by modern culture.

Public lecture “The Sacred Erotica of Ancient Egypt”, given by Viktor Solkin live on the Dozhd channel, 2011:

A copy of the video.