Historical Sex

[MatthewVett]

I had a fun time writing about some of the sex practices of Sparta in another thread, so I decided to try and start a thread dedicated to interesting historical sexual facts. Share your anecdotes and stories of ancient and foreign cultures' sexual proclivities. I'll start with another one about Sparta.

According to Polybius, sometimes several men, occasionally brothers, shared a single wife, and all of her children were considered to belong to all of them equally. Fun arrangement, I can imagine... Additionally, if a man had sired enough children, it often happened that he lent his wife to a friend of good fitness, so that he could produce more children, as well.

 

[Handley_Page]

I had a fun time writing about some of the sex practices of Sparta in another thread, so I decided to try and start a thread dedicated to interesting historical sexual facts. Share your anecdotes and stories of ancient and foreign cultures' sexual proclivities. I'll start with another one about Sparta.

According to Polybius, sometimes several men, occasionally brothers, shared a single wife, and all of her children were considered to belong to all of them equally. Fun arrangement, I can imagine... Additionally, if a man had sired enough children, it often happened that he lent his wife to a friend of good fitness, so that he could produce more children, as well.

A bit rough on the breeding machine, mind.

 

[robertreams]

A bit rough on the breeding machine, mind.

There is a culture somewhere, I don't remember where or what it was called, but there were a few adults whose position in the culture it was to teach young people how to have sex, so they would be properly prepared for marriage. When kids reached a certain age, it was pretty young, maybe 13 or so, they would go live with the sex trainer for a period of time and then graduate and be ready for marriage.

 

[Darkniciad]

There is a culture somewhere, I don't remember where or what it was called, but there were a few adults whose position in the culture it was to teach young people how to have sex, so they would be properly prepared for marriage. When kids reached a certain age, it was pretty young, maybe 13 or so, they would go live with the sex trainer for a period of time and then graduate and be ready for marriage.

One of the religions in my fantasy world ( the goddess Venissa ) actually has this as a tenant, although it's a matter of exclusively educating the males in how to do things right.

I probably read what you're talking about somewhere in the far-flung past, and that's where I came up with the idea.

 

[damppanties]

According to Polybius, sometimes several men, occasionally brothers, shared a single wife...

Reminded me of Draupadi. However, apparently this was not a conventional arrangement.

 

[JackLuis]

I was looking at Mesopotamian history, and it seems to me that they had integrated into their society a more public role for sex.

I expect that sex was not an issue in population control as they were able to add productive acreage easily for several Thousands of years.

It is not clear to me that their culture was completely patrimonial, in fact women had rights to property and personal effects, 5,000 years ago.

Their culture predated the biblical flood and was poly theist, which would mean that their cultural sexual practices would not have survived the Patriarchal Monotheistic culture that later developed.

I bet they were a lot more open about sex and sexual practices than even Literary types on Porn Sites!

We can only conjecture what their actual practices were, however, as there is little written record of day to day life of a citizen of those times.

I find it an interesting period.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I really apologise for not being able to contribute. I did go to the British Museum while the exhibition about the Romans was on, which apparently has lots of good stuff in it about sex. Unfortunately I had my piglet in tow, so I restricted us to attempting to get through the shoving crowds round the Rosetta Stone (in the end we decided to make do with a teatowel - it has the same writing on it and you can use it to dry dishes as well).

Here is an article about the exhibition from a disgusting rag of a tabloid newspaper; there were others in respectable broadsheets but I thought this one might have more useful research material. (It has 'interesting' piccies!)

 

[MatthewVett]

When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand were retreating back from Persia after the death of Cyrus the Younger (read the Anabasis, it's awesome), one of the cultures they passed through were the Mossynoecians. They used dolphin blubber in place of olive oil, and nuts made up a large part of their diet. They tattooed their breasts with floral patterns, and were said to be extremely pale. Xenophon considered them to be the most barbaric of all the societies they had encountered, though, due to their extremely unGreek sexual habits. They had sex in public, even on the ground outdoors, without any concern for being seen. Would have been an interesting place to visit, I think...

 

[MatthewVett]

There is a culture somewhere, I don't remember where or what it was called, but there were a few adults whose position in the culture it was to teach young people how to have sex, so they would be properly prepared for marriage. When kids reached a certain age, it was pretty young, maybe 13 or so, they would go live with the sex trainer for a period of time and then graduate and be ready for marriage.

I wish I could find which culture this is, but I can't think of any possible combination of search terms I could Google that wouldn't produce something I most definitely do not want to see. If you remember it, let us know.

 

[MatthewVett]

Writing about Spartans the other day inspired me, so I wrote up the rest of what I know about their sexual practices: http://matthewvett.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/spartan-sex/

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever tried intercrural sex, i.e. thrusting the penis between one's thighs until orgasm?

 

[desertslave]

It seems helpful to share this here:

 

[damppanties]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever tried intercrural sex, i.e. thrusting the penis between one's thighs until orgasm?

I had no idea there was a name for it!

And to answer the question, well, no. I don't have a penis. My thighs weren't involved either.

 

[SandraMustard]

I should have put on my glasses BEFORE I clicked Post Reply. I thought this topic was about histerical [sic] sex.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Oh Matthew, I was MIA for a short while, enduring, I mean enjoying a wild and woolly Welsh half term holiday. I managed to write this blogpost, and now I can't remember if I posted about it. I particularly thought of you of course, as I know you were wondering about The Iliad. Forgive me if I already posted about it somewhere.

Classical Hot Totty (Review of the Iliad)

(I have helpfully extracted a juicy sexy segment from the gory accounts of fighting which make up most of The Iliad).

 

[MatthewVett]

Oh Matthew, I was MIA for a short while, enduring, I mean enjoying a wild and woolly Welsh half term holiday. I managed to write this blogpost, and now I can't remember if I posted about it. I particularly thought of you of course, as I know you were wondering about The Iliad. Forgive me if I already posted about it somewhere.

Classical Hot Totty (Review of the Iliad)

(I have helpfully extracted a juicy sexy segment from the gory accounts of fighting which make up most of The Iliad).

How's The Asian Mystique going?

 

[NaokoSmith]

How's The Asian Mystique going?

Ah, unfortunately there was half term - and the FAWC. And now I have the chance to present a paper - not at an academic conference but to participants in my previous study. I'm so keen to see them again. It means I'll have to do some other reading, so poor Asian Mystique is languishing by my bedside at the moment.

 

[Handley_Page]

I believe that the Ancient Egyptians (, say, round the time of Rameses the Great?) were quite tolerant.