Sex in Ancient Egypt -- Nking On the Nile

“So seize the day! hold holiday!
Be unwearied, unceasing, alive
you and your own true love;
Let not the heart be troubled during your
sojourn on Earth,
but seize the day as it passes!”

– The Harper's Song for Inherkhawy (Excerpt)

Those ever-loving ancient Egyptians are well-known for their active sex lives. Archeologists have uncovered much evidence of their relaxed attitudes about sex between single, consenting adults. Sexuality in ancient Egypt was considered just another aspect of life on earth – a staple on a par with eating and sleeping. Reading about the lusty exploits of these inhabitants of the lower Nile Valley reminds one of the Tina Turner lyric “What's love got to do with it?” Just how free and sensually insatiable were these ancient people?

Let's begin at the beginning. In fact, the oldest depiction of sex on record, painted sometime in the Ramesside Period (1292-1075 B.C.E.), is known as the “Turin Erotic Papyrus.” It is so named because of its “discovery” in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. The papyrus portrays frank versions of ancient sex in a number of sexual positions – twelve in all.

The illustrative depictions on the papyrus “fall somewhere between impressively acrobatic and unnervingly ambitious,” one even involving a chariot. Maybe those sexual gymnastics can be partly attributed to popular aphrodisiacs of the time – mandrake and pomegranate juice mixed with wine. Or perhaps those ancient Egyptians in their linen garments, which clung to their skin and were usually translucent, faced ever-present desires.

Talk about sex? The Egyptian language had many words for sexual intercourse, with the most common being “nk” used to describe the male agent of the sexual act. The term was perfectly acceptable in daily parlance. Other sexual euphemisms include “to unite oneself with” and “entering a house.” Poetry is a readily available source for learning about the way sexual intercourse was discussed in ancient Egypt.

“My sister (commonly a word for 'lover') is unique – no one can rival her,

for she is the most beautiful woman alive.

Look, she is like Sirius,

which marks the beginning of a good year.

She radiates perfection and glows with health.

The glance of her eye is gorgeous.

Her lips speak sweetly, and not one word too many.

Long-necked and milky breasted she is,

her hair the colour of pure lapis.

Gold is nothing compared to her arms

and her fingers are like lotus flowers.

Her buttocks are full but her waist is narrow.

As for her thighs – they only add to her beauty.”

(From the Chester Beatty Papyrus)

Or how about this deletable, and admittedly extended slice of poetic erotica?

“My beloved met me,

Took his pleasure of me, rejoiced as one with me.

The brother brought me into his house,

Laid me down on a fragrant honey-bed.

My precious sweet, lying by my heart,

One by one "tongue making,” one by one,

My brother of fairest face did so fifty times …”

There were no taboos concerning sex and no stigma attached to any aspect of it except for infidelity, and, among the lower classes, incest. In both of these cases, the stigma was far more serious for a woman than for a man because the bloodline was passed through the woman. However, men were not granted a free pass: it has been recorded that in some communities cheating husbands would experience social stigma for such actions.

Why would the royalty of such an advanced ancient civilization engage in incest? Evidence supports that the rulers of ancient Egypt believed they descended from the gods; therefore, they were very interested in keeping their bloodlines "pure.” One of the most famous names of ancient Egypt, King Tut, was believed to be a product of incest. His parents were brother and sister and it's thought that Tut also married his sister Ankhesenamun.

Temporary marriage was known as a “year of eating” and enabled the couple to try out the marriage and providing a quick exit should there be no children during this time or if they decided it was not working. For the majority of the population, actual marriage was undocumented. The couple simply started cohabiting. However, wealthy couples would often draw up contracts outlining the financial consequences of a divorce.

The sex itself? Ancient Egyptians apparently had no concept of virginity or any sort of expectation for it. They possessed no particular stigma against illegitimate children. And, they frequently used contraception such as acacia gum, which when compounded essentially became a spermicide. A nasty reference is even made about using other substances inside of the vagina, including pessary (small soluble block) made of crocodile dung.

It is written that the ancients even employed primitive sex toys. On the Turin Erotic Papyrus one can see a woman seated on a vase to pleasure herself while it is believed that Cleopatra, with her excessive sexual appetites, may have created a vibrator for herself employing a hollow gourd full of angry bees.

After all, Cleo was known as "Meriochane" by the Greeks – a term that literally translates to "she who gapes wide for 10,000 men." According to legend, she "fellated 100 men" in a single night. She supposedly used her affinity for this act to seduce Julius Caesar. But, late research throws great doubt on Cleo's “whorelike” qualities and posits claims exalting Cleopatra's sexual prowess are less true to her nature than those acknowledging her intellectual gifts. Was she even the beautiful object of desire depicted in Hollywood films?

Sally Ashton, a Cambridge Egyptologist, painstakingly researched ancient artifacts and records in order to reconstruct Cleopatra's facial features. And after a year of research, the following is the culmination. You decide for yourself.

Prostitution was common. As in ancient Babylon, prostitution was seen as a divine and respectable act done for the gods. Prostitutes were afforded a relatively high social status in ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian prostitutes, however, were able to work openly and freely and would tattoo themselves and wear red lipstick and other makeup to signify and differentiate themselves from non-prostitutes. Pimping ancient Egyptian-style certainly has modern fashion parallels.

The important role of sex in Egyptian life didn't stop with death. Archeologists have found prosthetic genitals attached to mummies (false penises to male mummies and false nipples to female ones), as they believed that in the afterlife these could be re-animated.

And, there are reports of necrophilia. The Greek writer Herodotus (Who also famously alluded to suggestions that Greek tyrant Periander had defiled the corpse of his wife, employing a metaphor: "Periander baked his bread in a cold oven.") said that in ancient Egypt, one would want to let the bodies of their loved ones sit out for three or four days in order to dissuade the embalmers from having sex with the corpses, as embalmers wouldn’t want to have sex with a body that was already beginning to rot. So, apparently, it happened at least frequently enough for Herodotus to mention it.

Interesting Note – In 2012, Egypt's parliament denied reports that husbands would soon be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives. The subject grabbed headlines across the world after Egypt's state-owned newspaper Al Ahram ran an article stating that Mervat el-Tallawy, the head of Egypt's National Council for Women, had complained the country's parliament was considering a piece of legislation sponsored by Islamists to allow men to have sex with their wives after their death.

Admission of Guilt

First of all, allow me to admit this is a shameful post to attract readers in the name of padding my blog page views. On September 29, 2010, I posted an entry titled “Ancient Egyptians and Erotic Poetry.” That writing is most most popular blog entry by far with 55,763 page views to date.

Writing an editorial blog is a not lucrative hobby. For example, this month I have earned a whopping $1.13 and this is the 25^th day of August. By the way, my other two biggest entries are “How Women Flirt: A Non-Verbal Guide For Men (32,817 page views) and “Five Suicides in One Year at SOCF Corrections (30,238 page views).

Sex sells. Who can deny that obvious truth? We continue to have a fascination with the mysterious, alluring, ancient Egyptian culture. Perhaps we envision ourselves alive in those times as part of a culture with openly relaxed sexual norms. For whatever reason, of all the topics I have discussed on the blog, erotic ancient Egypt continues to top the the list of 21^st century readership. I wonder who will read this latest adventure.