Basilica
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| - | :''[[Secret Museum, Naples]], [[classic erotica]], [[House of the Vettii]]'' | ||
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| - | '''Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum''' was discovered in the ancient cities around the bay of Naples (particularly of [[Pompeii]] and [[Herculaneum]]) after extensive [[excavation]]s began in the [[18th century]]. The city was found to be full of [[erotic art]] and [[fresco]]es, symbols, and inscriptions regarded by its excavators as [[pornography|pornographic]]. Even many recovered household items had a sexual theme. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the [[Sexuality in ancient Rome |sexual mores of the ancient Roman culture]] of the time were much more liberal than most present-day cultures, although much of what might seem to us to be erotic imagery (eg oversized [[phallus]]es) was in fact [[fertility]]-imagery. This [[culture shock|clash of cultures]] led to an unknown number of discoveries being hidden away again. For example, a [[wall fresco]] which depicted [[Priapus]], the ancient god of sex and fertility, with his extremely enlarged [[penis]], was covered with plaster (and, as [[Karl Schefold]] explains (p. 134), even the older reproduction below was locked away "out of prudishness" and only opened on request) and only rediscovered in [[1998]] due to rainfall. [[The Times]] reported in 2006 "Erotic frescoes put Pompeii brothel on the tourist map". | ||
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| - | In [[1819]], when King [[Francis I of Naples]] visited the Pompeii exhibition at the [[Naples National Archaeological Museum|National Museum]] with his wife and daughter, he was so embarrassed by the erotic artwork that he decided to have it locked away in a [[Secret Museum, Naples|secret cabinet]], accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, it was briefly made accessible again at the end of the [[1960s]] (the time of the [[sexual revolution]]) and was finally re-opened for viewing in [[2000]]. Minors are still only allowed entry to the once secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian or with written permission. | ||
| - | ==Famous examples== | ||
| - | === Phalluses === | ||
| - | [[bronze sculpture|Bronze]] [[wind chime]]s of "[[phallus]]-animals" were common household items. Note the child on one of the wind chimes -- the large phallus (whether on Pan, Priapus or a similar deity, or on its own) was not seen as threatening or erotic, but as a fertility symbol or to ward off the evil eye. | ||
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| - | ====Priapus==== | ||
| - | The second image, from ''Schefold, Karl: [[Vergessenes Pompeji: Unveröffentlichte Bilder römischer Wanddekorationen in geschichtlicher Folge]]. München 1962.'', with its much more brilliant colors, has been used to retouch the younger, higher resolution image | ||
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| - | ===Brothels=== | ||
| - | It is unclear whether the images on the walls were advertisements for the services offered or merely intended to heighten the pleasure of the visitors. | ||
| - | As previously mentioned, some of the paintings and frescoes became immediately famous because they represented erotic, sometimes explicit, sexual scenes. One of the most curious buildings recovered was in fact a ''Lupanare'' ([[Prostitution|brothel]]), which had many erotic paintings and graffiti inside. The erotic paintings seem to present an idealised vision of sex at odds with the reality of the function of the lupanare. [[Lupanar (Pompeii)|The Lupanare]] had 10 rooms (''cubicula'', 5 per floor), a balcony, and a ''latrina''. It was one of the larger houses, perhaps the largest, but not the only brothel. The town seems to have been oriented to a warm consideration of sensual matters: on a wall of the [[Basilica]] (sort of a civil tribunal, thus frequented by many Roman tourists and travelers), an [[graffiti|immortal inscription]] tells the foreigner, ''If anyone is looking for some tender love in this town, keep in mind that here all the girls are very friendly'' (loose translation). Other inscriptions reveal some pricing information for various services: ''Athenais 2 [[As (coin)|As]], Sabina 2 As'' (CIL IV, 4150), ''The house slave Logas, 8 As'' (CIL IV, 5203) or ''Maritimus licks your [[vulva]] for 4 As. He is ready to serve virgins as well.'' (CIL IV, 8940). The amounts vary from one to two As up to several [[Sesterces]]. In the lower price range the service was not more expensive than a loaf of bread. Prostitution was relatively inexpensive for the Roman male but it is important to note that even a low priced prostitute earned more than three times the wages of an unskilled urban laborer. However, it was unlikely a freed woman would enter the profession in hopes for wealth because most women declined in their economic status and standard of living due to demands on their appearance as well as their health. Prostitution was overwhelmingly an urban creation. Within the brothel it is said prostitutes worked in a small room usually with an entrance marked by a patchwork curtain. Sometimes the woman's name and price would be placed above her door. Sex was generally the cheapest in Pompeii, compared to other parts of the Empire. Although an estimation of price is difficult to guess, one should suspect the prostitute's age, appearance, and skill level would play a part in the price. All services were paid for with cash. | ||
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| - | ===Suburban Baths=== | ||
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| - | These frescoes are in the ''Thermae suburbanae'' (near Porta Marina - [http://www.repubblica.it/gallerie/online/cultura_scienze/terme/6.html]). | ||
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| - | These pictures were found in a changing room at one side of the newly excavated Suburban Baths in the early 1990s. The function of these pictures is not yet clear: some authors say that they indicate that the services of prostitutes were available on the upper floor of the bathhouse and could perhaps be a sort of advertising, while others prefer the hypothesis that their only purpose was to decorate the walls with joyful scenes (as these were in Roman culture). The most widely accepted theory, that of the original archaeologist, Luciana Jacobelli, is that they served as reminders of where one had left one's clothes. The Thermae were, however, used in common by males and females, although baths in other areas (even within Pompeii) were often segregated by sex. | ||
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| - | Collected below are high quality images of erotic frescoes, mosaics, statues and other objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum. | ||
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| - | ===Venus in a Half Shell=== | ||
| - | The mural of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] from Pompeii was never seen by [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]], the painter of [[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|''The Birth of Venus'']], but may have been a Roman copy of the then famous painting by [[Apelles]] which Lucian mentioned. In classical antiquity, the [[sea shell]] was a [[metaphor]] for a woman's [[vulva]]. | ||
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| - | == Influence on the definition of pornography == | ||
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| - | [[Pornography]] is as old as [[civilization]] (and can be found painted on various ancient buildings), but the concept of pornography as understood today did not exist until the [[Victorian era]]. Previous to that time, though some sex acts were regulated or stipulated in laws, looking at objects or images depicting them was not. In some cases, specific books, engravings or image collections were censored or outlawed, but the trend to compose laws that restricted viewing of sexually explicit things in general was a Victorian construct. When large scale excavations of [[Pompeii]] were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the erotic art of the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]]s came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the [[Roman Empire]]. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of [[human sexuality|sexuality]], and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the [[Secret Museum, Naples|Secret Museum]] in [[Naples, Italy]] and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children and the working class. Soon after, the world's first law criminalizing pornography was enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1857 in the [[Obscene Publications Act 1857|Obscene Publications Act]]. The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the [[Hicklin test]] stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences." Despite their suppression, depictions of erotic imagery are common throughout history, and remain so. | ||
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| - | == See also == | ||
| - | *[[Pompeii]] | ||
| - | *[[Secret Museum]] | ||
| - | *[[Erotic art]] | ||
| + | The [[Latin]] word '''basilica''' (derived from [[Greek language|Greek]], ''[[Stoa Basileios|Basiliké Stoà]]'', Royal ''[[Stoa]]'', the [[tribunal]] of a king), was originally used to describe a [[ancient Rome|Roman]] public building (as in [[Greece]], mainly a tribunal), usually located in the [[Forum (Roman)|forum]] of a Roman town. In [[Hellenistic]] cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC. | ||
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The Latin word basilica (derived from Greek, Basiliké Stoà, Royal Stoa, the tribunal of a king), was originally used to describe a Roman public building (as in Greece, mainly a tribunal), usually located in the forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC.
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