Strange sex practices? Depending on time, place and culture, ‘strange’ is a movable feast. But as a subject of discourse and study, ancient sex practices sometimes have a way of making people queasy and uncomfortable.
From the early Romans to ancient China, sexual customs were often very different from what we know and accept as normal today. Often, the sober-minded modern reader may even find a few of these ancient strange sex practices shocking, if not downright repulsive.
Pedophiles and Sex Festivals
From pedophile Roman potentates to sex festivals in ancient Babylon, it’s sometimes hard to believe these stories to be true. Below are a few sex practices from the ancient past that you are likely to find either shocking or amazing.
Cleopatra and the Bees
Sex toys date back to prehistoric times. But historians credit the innovative ancient Egyptians for the invention of the clay dildo. In fact, Egypt’s Queen Cleopatra is considered by some to be among the innovators of vibrators. She is said to have pleasured herself with the buzzing created by a box full of bees.
But the Egyptians were by no means the only fans of the dildo. In an effort to improve their toys, the ancient Greeks and Romans had leather sheaths put on them. They did this to better simulate the texture of an actual penis, instead of the texture of wood or stone.
Prostitution as a Sacred Duty
The ancient Babylonians observed a custom in which all women had to perform a sacred duty to the goddess Mylitta. The Greeks called this same goddess Aphrodite.
And, as the custom goes, sex with strangers was obligatory. The tradition applied to all women, whether they be high-born or commoners. The historian Herodotus describes the practice in the paragraph below…
“They wore special headscarves and sat in a line waiting to be chosen. Men paraded up and down and when a woman took his fancy, they threw a small silver coin in her lap. No woman can refuse.”
The earnings were dedicated to the goddess. Of course, the more beautiful of the sacred prostitutes went through the ordeal rather quickly. Some of the less attractive women had to wait years before a man picked them.
The custom of sacred prostitution was popular in Paphos, a city in Cyprus. Paphos is the birthplace of Aphrodite, who was the goddess of sex and love. Ennius and Ovid corroborate each other on the idea that Aphrodite established the act of prostitution within the city.
Paphos was also famous in ancient times as the sex capital of the world. Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world were drawn to the city during the celebrations held for Aphrodite. The revelries included sex orgies and other sex rituals to appease the goddess.
Coitus Interruptus in Ancient China
Taoism is centered upon the belief of qi — or chi. This is the life force that is within everything in existence. In the human body, the chi takes the form of jing. The loss of jing may cause illness – or even death when it’s completely expended.
The one substance that is said to contain the most jing is semen. This idea led ancient practitioners of Taoism to believe that a man should not lose too much of his semen. Because of this, ancient Taoist men were advised not to ejaculate during sex. Can you imagine how difficult that would have been for a man who happened to be with a beautiful woman?
Pedophilia in Ancient Rome
While it was not common across the world, many ancient potentates exploited children for sex. The most notorious of these was Emperor Tiberius of Rome.
Known as spintriae, the children ranged from newborn babies to teenagers. Their role was to perform erotic sexual practices in groups to revive the elderly Emperor’s flagging libido. Teenagers performed debauched acts on the emperor. But it was the little children, called ‘tiddlers’, who performed the most disgusting activities.
Their job was to swim along with the emperor in his pool, chase him naked and nibble and lick his private parts. When a child exceeded Tiberius’s expectations, the emperor rewarded his or her family. They would be allowed to stay in the royal palace.
Crocodile Dung as Diaphragm
Many sexually-active women in ancient Egypt used crocodile dung for diaphragms. Documents dating back to 1850 BCE refer to this method of contraception. To avoid pregnancy, women would shove crocodile dung into their vaginas to act as a diaphragm.
Crocodile dung is actually slightly alkaline, like modern-day spermicides. This means the method may even have worked from time to time.
Gladiator Sweat as Aphrodisiac
Before aphrodisiacs and lubricants as we know them today, female fans of Roman gladiators bought their sweat for those purposes. Some women wore hairpins and jewelry dipped in gladiator blood. Some even mixed gladiator sweat into facial creams and cosmetics.
What made women covet gladiator sweat is easily explained. Roman women adored gladiators. Many fell in love with these slave warriors. Girls even wrote graffiti declaring undying love for their favorite gladiator.
Even wives of the Roman emperors were not immune to the lure of sex with a gladiator. Faustina the Younger, a wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, fell in love with a gladiator. Rumor has it that the gladiator fathered Aurelius’ son and heir, Commodus.
Strange Sex Practices – An Over-Simplification?
Of course, the idea that the ancient societies were extremely licentious is, in reality, a huge over-simplification of a complex picture. It’s an idea that has served many erotic artists, too. However, we must remember that many of these artists were unable to portray their own times as genuinely sexual.
There may be a component of religious propaganda to this image of ancient sexuality, too. Islam and the Catholic Church took hold of the world fairly recently. It was in the interests of the champions of these faiths to portray pagan societies as sinful and immoral.
Throughout the ages, different cultures have had different sexual practices. These range from the mundane to the bizarre. Like culture itself, sexuality is more than just a means to pleasure or procreation. It is an expression of the dominant ideas of the time. They can tell us much about the collective consciousness of a particular society – and ourselves – as a species.
Of course, that is our take. What’s yours?
