Sexuality in ancient Egypt was open and untainted by guilt. Sex was an important part of their lives - from birth to death and rebirth,,.But is the whole meaning of SEX corrupted in this GENERATION?


Photo: Gabriel D. Fox 

"If I am not beside you, where will set your desire? If you do not embrace me and seize the moment, then whom will you embrace for your pleasure? But if you woo me to touch my breasts and my thighs..."
Did you ever wonder about the old folk and erotic sex? No, I'm not talking about the cavorting s of Grandma and Grandpa or the increased activity of seniors thanks to Viagra. I'm talking about really old folk -- the ancient Egyptians. Sexuality in ancient Egypt was open and untainted by guilt. Sex was an important part of their lives - from birth to death and rebirth. In this ancient world, singles and married couples made love. And royalty made plenty of it: the pharaoh Ramses had 8 wives, over 100 concubines, hundreds of children, and all of that sex must have done him some good because he died at over 90 years of age. How do we know this? We have the papyrus and pictographs for proof.but what do we think about this generation and sex?are we full of fear and the GIFT of sex is almost not there?


  
Egyptian Women and Men

To the ancient Egyptians, the most attractive women tended to be the fertile ones. A woman who had children was seen to be more fortunate than ones without. Taking after Isis, the mother goddess of  Horus, Egyptian women strove to be intelligent, wise, mystical and mothers. Where her twin sister Nephthys was barren, Isis was fertile.

What was a beautiful, fertile woman to most ancient Egyptian men? In the Papyrus of Chester Beatty I, the writer is explicit, mentioning her beloved scent, her hair, her eyes and her buttocks. From the same papyrus, another romantic poem describes the object of his affection as being ""bright" of skin, her arm "more brilliant than gold," long-necked and "white-breasted," hair of "genuine lapis lazuli," (blue?) and fingers like lotus blooms. It also mentions her beautiful thighs and heavy buttocks. He also admired her swift walk, sweet voice and, an age old compliment from men, her ability to know when to stop talking.

In the Egyptian community, men had to prove their masculinity by fathering children, while the women had to be able to bear these sons and daughters. Being a mother meant being able to keep her marriage secure and to gain a better position in society.

Unmarried women, on the other hand, seemed to be free to choose partners as they so desired, and they enjoyed their love life to its fullest. Reports say ancient Egyptians invented a means of birth control by mixing a paste out of crocodile dung and forming it into a pessary, or vaginal insert. (Nacy Gibbs, Time, April 22 2010)

But, despite the presence of pleasure-seeking, unmarried women, adultery in Egypt was considered wrong. Women got the worst punishment for adultery - a man might just be forced into a divorce, but a woman could conceivably be killed for that crime. In The Tale of Two Brothers, the adulterous wife was found out, murdered and her body was thrown to the dogs.

The Egyptians loved their children and were not afraid to show it. But there were some advice to parents, written by scribes: "Do not prefer one of your children above the others; after all, you never know which one of them will be kind to you." (Caroline Seawright, "Ancient Egyptian Sexuality," Tour Egypt, 2010)

As it turns out, Ancient Egyptians even believed that sex was a strong part of the afterlife. So much that mummies were given prosthetic penises and nipples. The theory behind this was that these artificial parts would be re-animated in the afterlife. The Egyptians also believed in begetting children even after their death and installed fertility dolls in their graves with wide child bearing hips and paddle dolls that ended abruptly at a wide pubic area with tiny heads, arms and legs.


 ...Revel in pleasure while your life endures
And deck your head with myrrh. Be richly clad
In white and perfumed linen; like the gods
Anointed be; and never weary grow
In eager quest of what your heart desires -
Do as it prompts you...
-- Lay of the Harpist

No comments:

Post a Comment