The Oldest History: Sex

For some reason, every new generation thinks that sex was reinvented just for them. Understandable, I guess the first time you have sex does feel like the first time the world ever lit up, at least if it’s good. But we’re downright boring today when you look at sex in the past.

When Egyptologists first sketched drawings from the tombs, there were a LOT of images they would not bring back to Europe. Why? Because the lusty Egyptians loved sex as much as they loved life (contrary to popular belief, they were not particularly fond of death). On the walls of tombs, men were serviced by slave girls, women had very acrobatic sex with well-endowed men, and the very mythology of the country was steeped in sexual innuendo and bawdy stories.

The Minoans, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Greeks, on up to the medieval times of Europe sex has always been of critical importance to any society.

Here’s a suggestion: if you want to learn something about sex, go back and check out what the Egyptians did. A good book is the long-titled Sacred Sexuality in Ancient Egypt: The Erotic Secrets of the Forbidden Papyri; this has all the pictures you won’t see in more sedate history books, including how penises were carefully wrapped on mummies (!!) These guys knew how to enjoy their love lives, and how to be very sensual as well.

Here’s a suggestion for the more scholarly minded of you: pick up this book or another similar one (Kama Sutra, anyone) and read through it with your loved one. Or take a date out to the museum for an intellectual conversation about sex and love.

Bottom line for me, though, is that if my teachers had included this part of history, I would have listened a lot better!