Sexual life in ancient Egypt II. Homosexuality

Sexual life in ancient Egypt II. Homosexuality

Ostracon no. 11198 in the Cairo Museum

The question of homosexuality in ancient Egypt has been discussed in various places. " The sources themselves mainly refer to homosexuality performed as an act of 'violence against an enemy. This phallic aggression was not merely considered as a humiliation: the implanting of semen in the Lady of another man was equivalent to gaining power over him.

Homosexual activities for pleasure are much less well attested, almost the only example being the adventure of king Neferkarf with his general's and a fragmentary reference to the feelings of Seth when being attacked by Horus for the other reason's

'Pederasty was condemned in wisdom Literature and was included in the negative confession in the Book of the Dead as well as being explicitly forbidden in some riomes of female homosexuality, commonly called lesbianism, there is but little evidence in ancient Egypt.

A text of the Book of the Dead written for a woman contains the above-mentioned negative confession, but the text was in all probability copied from a "male" version, implying an act of sexual aggression A passagc III a dream book dealing with the dreams of women runs as follows:

"If a woman has intercourse with her, she will experience a had fate", proving at least that the possibility was recognized.

Dildoes-artiftcial phalli [or sexual satisfaction I were well known in classical Greece." The Egyptian sources, however, are silent on the subject. Artificial phalli were made, but they were votive objects with a magical purpose. '' and ill His Plutarch version of the Osiris legend the phallus of Osiris was lost and replaced by "an identical image" to be honoured and carried in processions.

 It is likely that dildocs -s-rna nufnctu red or natura (i.e. suitably shaped vegetables)-were not uncommon in a country where the harim institution nourished, but there is definite evidence for their use either by couples or by individuals.

The Turin erotic papyrus, however, shows a related means of achieving sexual satisfaction.

In one of the scenes the girl is depicted painting her lips, with a mirror and a tube for lip-paint in the other hand. She is squatting with her legs apart on top of, or immediately behind, a vase with a conical bottom, the tip of which is in contact with her pudenda"

The man kneels beside her, holding the vase with one hand, while with the other he points to her private parts. There can be little doubt that the vase was meant to fulfill the purpose of a dildo.