Ancient erotica
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 11:56, 16 January 2010 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) (→Literature) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 11:57, 16 January 2010 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
| Line 74: | Line 74: | ||
| ====Lucian==== | ====Lucian==== | ||
| :''[[Dialogues of the Courtesans]]'' | :''[[Dialogues of the Courtesans]]'' | ||
| + | |||
| + | [[Lucian]]'s '''''Dialogues of the Heterae''''' (also known as '''Mimes of the Courtesans''', '''Hetairikoi Dialogoi''' and '''Dialogue of the Courtesans''') is a series fifteen brief prose dialogues of [[courtesan]]s with friends clients and other [[courtesan]]s. The were written around 160 AD and first printed in [[1494]]. | ||
| ====Milesian tales==== | ====Milesian tales==== | ||
| :''[[Milesian tales]]'' | :''[[Milesian tales]]'' | ||
Revision as of 11:57, 16 January 2010
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
- antiquity, erotica, erotic art, Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Menippean satire, Milesian tale, Ovid, Sexuality in ancient Greece, medieval erotica, Renaissance erotica
Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings, but many cultures have created erotic art. The ancient Greeks painted sexual scenes on their ceramics, many of them famous for being some of the earliest depictions of same-sex relations and pederasty, and there are numerous sexually explicit paintings on the walls of ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii. The Moche of Peru in South America are another ancient people that sculpted explicit scenes of sex into their pottery.
The Milesian tales are the earliest instances of erotic literature in the Western world. They directly influenced Apuleius' The Golden Ass, Petronius' Satyricon in antiquity. They were mentioned in Traitté de l'origine des romans. Milesian saucy and disreputable heroes and spicy, fast-paced anecdote resurfaced in the medieval fabliaux. Chaucer's The Miller's Tale is in the Milesian tradition, as are some of the saltier tales in Boccaccio's Decameron or the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre and the later genre of the picaresque novel.
Contents |
West
Precursors: prehistoric erotica
Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings, but many cultures have created erotic art. Some of the more common images are of animals, hunting scenes and depictions of human genitalia (thought to be fertility symbols). Nude human beings with exaggerated sexual characteristics are depicted in some Paleolithic paintings and artifacts (e.g. Venus figurines). Recently discovered cave art at Creswell Crags in England, thought to be more than 12,000 years old, includes some symbols that may be stylized versions of female genitalia. However there is no indication that these were made for erotic stimulation, so it is far more likely that these were objects used in religious rituals. Archaeologists in Germany reported in April 2005 that they had found what they believe is a 7,200-year-old scene depicting a male figurine bending over a female figurine in a manner suggestive of sexual intercourse. The male figure has been named Adonis von Zschernitz. However, it is not certain that the purpose of these artifacts was individual sexual arousal. Instead, the images may have had a spiritual significance and are probably connected with fertility rituals.
Egypt
The Graeco-Roman world
Studies in ideal form from ancient erotica: La Parisienne[1], Venus Anadyomene[2], Venus Kallipygos[3] and the Barberini Faun[4]
Minoan erotica
Greek erotica
- Greek erotica, Homosexuality in ancient Greece, erotica, Greece, pederasty, Sotadic zone, male prostitution in the arts
The ancient Greeks often painted sexual scenes on their ceramics, many of them famous for being some of the earliest depictions of same-sex relations and pederasty. Greek art often portrays sexual activity, but it is impossible to distinguish between what to them was illegal or immoral since the ancient Greeks did not have a concept of pornography. Their art simply reflects scenes from daily life, some more sexual than others. Carved phalli can be seen in places of worship such as the temple of Dionysus on Delos, while a common household item and protective charm was the herm, a statue consisting of a head on a square plinth with a prominent phallus on the front. The Greek male ideal had a small penis, an aesthetic the Romans later adopted. The Greeks also created the first well-known instance of lesbian eroticism in the West, with Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite and other homoerotic works.
Baubo
Baubo is an old woman in Greek mythology who jested with Demeter when she was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone.
In his Greek Myths, Robert Graves writes that Demeter (in disguise) was the guest of King Celeus in Eleusis. The lame daughter of the King, Iambe, "tried to console Demeter with comically lascivious verses, and a dry nurse, old Baubo, persuaded her to drink barley-water by a jest: she groaned as if in great travail and, unexpectedly, produced from beneath her skirt Demeter's own son Iacchus, who leapt into his mother's arms and kissed her." Graves writes, "Iambe and Baubo personify the obscene songs, in iambic metre, which were sung to relieve emotional tension at the Eleusinian Mysteries; but Iambe, Demeter, and Baubo form the familiar triad of maiden, nymph, and crone. Old nurses in Greek myth nearly always stand for the goddess as crone."
Roman erotica
There are numerous sexually explicit paintings and sculpture from the ruined Roman buildings in Pompeii and Herculaneum but the original purposes of the depictions can vary. On one hand, in the "Villa of the Mysteries", there is a ritual flagellation scene that is clearly associated with a religious cult and this image can be seen as having religious significance rather than sexual. On the other hand, graphic paintings in a brothel advertise sexual services in murals above each door. In Pompeii, phalli and testicles engraved in the sidewalks were created to aid visitors in finding their way by pointing to the prostitution and entertainment district as well as general decoration. The Romans considered depictions of sex to be decoration in good taste, and indeed the pictures reflect the sexual mores and practices of their culture, as on the Warren Cup. Sex acts that were considered taboo (such as those that defiled the purity of the mouth) were depicted in baths for comic effect. Large phalli were often used near entryways, for the phallus was a good luck charm, and the carvings were common in homes. One of the first objects excavated when the complex was discovered was a marble statue showing the god Pan having sex with a goat, a detailed depiction of bestiality considered so obscene that it was not on public display until the year 2000 and remains in the Secret Museum, Naples, see Pompeian Pan.
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum
Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum was discovered in the ancient cities around the bay of Naples (particularly of Pompeii and Herculaneum) after extensive excavations began in the 18th century. The city was found to be full of erotic art and frescoes, symbols, and inscriptions regarded by its excavators as pornographic. Even many recovered household items had a sexual theme. The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the 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 phalluses) was in fact fertility-imagery. This 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".
Fascinum
A fascinum in Ancient Rome was a phallus-shaped amulet worn around the necks (often of children), to ward off the evil eye or to bring fertility. The word is ultimately the origin of the English verb to fascinate.
Bacchanalia
The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman and Greek god Bacchus. The bacchanalia were originally held in secret and only attended by women. Later, admission to the rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month. The term bacchanalia has become a byword for any drunken orgy.
Literature
The major writers of erotica at Rome were Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid.
Novels by Ovid, Apuleius, Petronius
Poetry by Juvenal, Martial, Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus
Plays by Plautus and Terrence, both influenced by Menander
Ars Amatoria
Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") is a series of three books by the Roman poet Ovid. Written in verse, their guiding theme is the art of seduction. The first two, written for men about 1 BC to AD 1, deal with 'winning women's hearts' and 'keeping the loved one', respectively. The third, addressed to women telling them how to best attract men, was written somewhat later.
Metamorphoses
The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world. Completed in 8 AD, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval poetry.
The Golden Ass
The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, which according to St. Augustine was referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus) by Apuleius, is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety.
Priapeia
The Priapeia is a collection of poems (ninety five in number) in various meters on the subject of Priapus. It was compiled from literary works and inscriptions on images of the god by an unknown editor, who composed the introductory epigram. From their style and versification it is evident that the poems belong to the best period of Latin literature.
Literature
Erotic literature from the Ancient World includes the Song of Songs from the Old Testament and the Roman Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter.
Lucian
Lucian's Dialogues of the Heterae (also known as Mimes of the Courtesans, Hetairikoi Dialogoi and Dialogue of the Courtesans) is a series fifteen brief prose dialogues of courtesans with friends clients and other courtesans. The were written around 160 AD and first printed in 1494.
Milesian tales
The Milesian tales are the earliest instances of erotic literature in the Western world. They directly influenced Apuleius' The Golden Ass, Petronius' Satyricon in antiquity. They were mentioned in Traitté de l'origine des romans. Aristidean saucy and disreputable heroes and spicy, fast-paced anecdote resurfaced in the medieval fabliaux. Chaucer's The Miller's Tale is in Aristides' tradition, as are some of the saltier tales in Boccaccio's Decameron or the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre and the later genre of the picaresque novel.
Sex manuals
The oldest sex manuals come from Asia. The oldest sex manual in the world is the Chinese 'Handbooks of Sex' written 5,000 years ago by Emperor Huang-Ti (2697-2598 B.C.) It is also believed that the 'Tao of Love Coupling' originated from Huang-ti. A book entitled Su-Nui Ching, became the sexual bible and medical guidebook for many generations.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, believed to have been written in the 1st to 6th centuries, has a notorious reputation as a sex manual, although only a small part of its text is devoted to sex.
In the Graeco-Roman area, a sex manual was written by Philaenis of Samos, possibly a courtesan (hetaira) of the Hellenistic period (3rd - 1st century BC). Preserved by a series of fragmentary papyruses which attest its popularity, it served as a source of inspiration for Ovid's Ars Amatoria, written around 3 BC, which is partially a sex manual, and partially a burlesque on the art of love.
See also
East
- Asian erotica, Taoist sexual practices, Kama Sutra
- Indian erotica, Sexuality in India
- Japanese erotica, Sexuality in Japan
- Chinese erotica, Sexuality in China
Additionally, there has been a long tradition of erotic painting among the Eastern cultures. In Japan, for example, shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity until the late 19th century when photography was invented. Similarly, the erotic art of China reached its popular peak during the latter part of the Ming Dynasty. In India, the famous Kama Sutra is an ancient sex manual that is still popularly read throughout the world.
There has been a long tradition of erotic painting in the East. Japan, China, India, Persia and other lands produced copious quantities of art celebrating the human faculty of love. The works depict love between men and women as well as same-sex love. One of the most famous ancient sex manuals was the Kama Sutra, written by Vātsyāyana in India during the first few centuries CE.
In Japan, the erotic art found its greatest flowering in the medium of the woodblock prints. The style is known as shunga and some of its classic practitioners (e.g. Harunobu, Utamaro) produced a large number of works. Painted hand scrolls were also very popular. Shunga appeared in the 13th century and continued to grow in popularity despite occasional attempts to suppress them, the first of which was a ban on erotic books known as kōshokubon issued by the Tokugawa shogunate in Kyōhō 7 (1722). Shunga only ceased to be produced in the 19th century when photography was invented.
The Chinese tradition of the erotic was also extensive, with examples of the art dating back as far as the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). The erotic art of China reached its peak during the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).
In both China and Japan, eroticism played a prominent role in the development of the novel. The Tale of Genji, the work by an 11th-century Japanese noblewoman that is often called “the world’s first novel,” traces the many affairs of its hero in discreet but carnal language. From 16th-century China, the still more explicit novel The Plum in the Golden Vase has been called one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The Tale of Genji has been celebrated in Japan since it was written, but The Plum in the Golden Vase was suppressed as pornography for much of its history, and replaced on the list of four classics.
South America
The Moche of Peru are another ancient people that sculpted explicit scenes of sex into their pottery. Their purpose however, was much different than that of other early cultures. The Moche believed that the world of the dead was the exact opposite of the world of the living. Therefore, for funeral offerings, they made vessels showing sex acts such as masturbation, fellatio and anal sex that would not result in offspring. The hope was that in the world of the dead, they would take on their opposite meaning and result in fertility.
