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 The 'Venus of Willendorf' is the name that was given to a female figurine that was found in 1908 by an archeologist named Joseph Szombathy in a Aurignacian loess deposit near the town of Willendorf in Austria. It is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. The statue was carved from oolitic limestone and was colored with red orche. It measures 110 mm in height and is dated 30,000 and 25,000 BC
This statue is an important icon of prehistory. Archeologists have suggested many different ways of understanding its significance for the nomadic society which made it. The first suggestion is that it was a "Venus figure" or "Goddess," used as a symbol of fertility. Apart from being female, the statue has an enlarged stomach and breasts, its pubic area is greatly emphasized, probably serving as a representative of procreativity, and the red ochre pigment covering it has been thought to symbolize or serve as menstrual blood seen as a life giving agent. The second suggestion is that the figurine may have served as a good luck charm. Its diminutive size led archaeologists to assume that it may have been carried by the men during their hunting missions in which it served not only as a reminder of their mate back at home but also as a charm to bring them success in their hunting. This is further strengthened by the facelessness of the figurine giving it an air of mystery and anonymity which suggests that it may have been of more importance as an object rather than as a person. Also, the figurine's hair is braided in seven concentric circles, seven in later times being regarded as a magic number used to bring about good luck. A third possible significance put forth is that of the figurine serving as a mother goddess (earth mother or female deity). This comes from a suggestion that the statue was a woman whose specialness was indicated in her obesity since women in a hunter gatherer society would probably not have had the opportunity to get as obese.
[ History | 27 Jul 2005 @ 10:56 | | PermaLink ] More >
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 BBC: A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.
The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone.
Its life size suggests it may well have been used as a sex aid by its Ice Age makers, scientists report.
[ History | 25 Jul 2005 @ 17:24 | | PermaLink ]
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Eros Blog mentions the Turin Erotic Papyrus.
Here's all the juicy parts from it. The papyrus is one of the few pornographic scrolls that have survived from ancient Egypt. The original resides in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, and isn't in very good condition, but the images have been reconstructed. The scroll was painted in the Ramesside period, 1292-1075 B.C. It consists of a continuous series of vignettes drawn on a papyrus scroll about 8.5 feet long and 10 inches high. Part of it shows animals and birds carrying out various human tasks, and the rest consists of explicit depictions of sexual acts.
The erotic section of the Turin papyrus comprises 12 successive vignettes. In each vignette a grotesquely aroused, unkempt man has sexual relations with an attractive young woman. The woman, while virtually naked, is decidedly more elegant than her partner. The sexual positions are varied and extremely vivid. One vignette goes so far as to place the woman in a chariot with the man standing on the ground behind it (and her), creating an especially improbable scene.
The Turin Erotic Papyrus appears to be a satire on human manners and desires. The draftmanship is of fairly high quality, indicating that its owner and audience belonged to the elite.
Read more here
[ History | 17 Jul 2005 @ 01:25 | | PermaLink ]
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 So, who was this famous lover?
Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798)
Soldier, spy, diplomat, writer, adventurer, chiefly remembered from his autobiography, which has established his reputation as the most famous erotic hero. Casanova's memoirs are a fascinating but unreliable account of his adventures with 122 women - according to his own counts - but they also provide an intimate portrait of the manners and life in the 18th century. His countless projects, employments, and initiatives took him through the courts of Europe - in Paris he was employed to do some espionage work by Louis XV and from London he tried to sell the secret of a cotton red dye to his own country. [...]
Although his sex life was very lively, he did not enjoy orgies, which were popular among the high society. Once he said: "Real love is the love that sometimes arises after sensual pleasure: if it does, it is immortal; the other kind inevitably goes stale, for it lies in mere fantasy."
Casanova met in 1749 his great love, the young and mysterious Frenchwoman, Henriette, in Cesena. "People who believe that a woman is not enough to make a man equally happy all the twenty-four hours of a day have never known an Henriette." Henriette left him, returned to his family, and Casanova remembers it in his autobiography as one of the saddest moments in his life. "What is love?" he asked, and compared love to an incurable illness and divine monster. [...]
Casanova's freedom ended in 1755 for a year. He was arrested, his manuscripts, books, works on magic, and Arentino's book on sexual positions were seized. Casanova was denounced as a magician and sentenced for five years in lead chambers under the roof of the Doge's Palace. The dungeos is extremely hot. He managed to escape with his friend, Father Balbi. "I then turned and looked at the entire length of the beautiful canal, and, seeing not a single boat, admired the most beautiful day one could hope for, the first rays of a magnificent sun rising above the horizon..."
More here or here or here. Quite a colorful renaissance character, known in his time for much more than his sex life, although that was an important part.
[H]e found women interesting. He enjoyed talking with them and listening to them and this was a necessary part of his love making. In fact, on a couple of occasions when a language barrier prevented him and his partner from conversing fully, he chose not to make love. He couldn’t enjoy a seduction if the woman he was pursuing wasn’t enjoying it as much as he was. Indeed, he seemed to relish the fact that women could outdo him in the number of pleasurable climaxes they had during the act. He believed that pre-menstrual tension could make a woman pitiable, but he didn’t think it affected her intelligence, a belief considerably in advance of his times. And if he thought a woman was yielding to him simply because the wine had gone to her head, he preferred to wait till another day when she was sober (and could fully enjoy it) before pressing his case.
[ History | 29 Jun 2005 @ 01:02 | | PermaLink ]
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 from ancient Greece. A couple making love.
[ History | 25 Jun 2005 @ 03:14 | | PermaLink ]
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Aphrodisiacs are agents believed to increase sexual desire. The term is derived from the name of the greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Cleopatra (1st century BC), who was said to dress up as the goddess Aphrodite for her lover Mark Anthony, understood the aphrodisiac power of scents. Damascene Rose perfume scented her bath and clothing.
Dioscorides, Cleopatra's personal physician, prescribed caraway seeds believing they were a powerful aphrodisiac and recommended their use in cooking.
Pliny, 1st century Roman scholar, identified garlic in any form to be an aphrodisiac but best taken with chopped coriander leaves in white wine.
Juvenal, also 1st century, the last great Roman poet, wrote that "shameless and lascivious" women used oysters as an aphrodisiac.
Galen (2nd century), physician to the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, recommended honey taken at bedtime.
Hippocrates (4th century BC), Father of Modern Medicine, prescribes sage for increasing the sexual appetite of women.
Avicenna, the great Arab physician in the 11th century prescribed honey mixed with ginger and a little pepper to stimulate sexuality.
Sie Shonagon (14th century), the Japanese authoress, lists ginseng in warm sake, fried octopus with sesame seeds and honey as favored aphrodisiacs.
Catherine de Medicis (16th century), Queen of France, had a passion for artichokes.
John Gerard (16th century), botanist, published a herbal in 1597 which claimed, amongst other things, that carrots were helpful in "love matters".
Sheikh Nefzawi (16th century), author of the notorious sex manual, "The Perfumed Garden", confirmed that asparagus was an ideal food for lovers. Almonds too, and pine kernels mixed with honey were recommended before lovemaking. Martial (1st century), Spanish poet. In his writing he made reference to the salad vegetable "rocket", widely regarded as an aphrodisiac, "rocket" was planted around shrines dedicated to the phallic god, Priapus.
Jeanne, Marquise de Pompadour (18th century), mistress to Louis XV, was tireless in her search for aphrodisiacs to excite the king. Her favorites were a celery soup and sweet dishes made of combinations of chocolate, vanilla and cream.
Casanova, 18th century, the greatest seducer in history who once seduced two nuns simultaneously with the powerful combination of oysters and champagne also knew the power of the visual image. He regularly showed erotic pictures and engravings to women, gently guiding their thoughts in the desired direction.
Marie Comtesse du Barry (18th century), mistress to Louis XV of France, encouraged the greatest cooks of the age to prepare dishes such as soup of shrimps in chicken stock spiced with dill; roast capon stuffed with puree of chestnuts and an omelet flavored with fresh ginger.
[ History / food | 16 Jun 2005 @ 03:45 | | PermaLink ]
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 The ancient city of Angkor in the jungles of Cambodia is one of the worlds wonders. Angkor was the capital of the mighty Khmer empire between the 9th and 14th centuries and contains over 100 temple sites. At its peak, the city of Angkor helt approximately 1 million inhabitants. At the same time, the city of London claimed only 50,000 people.
The main view we have into the life of Angkor we have from "The Customs of Cambodia", written by Chinese emissary Chou Ta Kuan at the end of the 13th century.
At a lower level in Khmer society, Chou was astonished by the active part played by women. They had equal education and could become judges, professors and even royal counsellors. Wives were often married for their skills in commerce or in the barter of the market-place, where money was unknown (for the Khmer never developed a monetary system). He also tells of the deflowering ceremony for girls at about the age of nine, carried out by a priest who then received a fee from the parents. Later, these girls became lascivious to Chou's way of thinking, demanding much love-making from their husbands. He tells how he, with other Chinese visitors, would go off to watch thousands of Khmer men and women of all classes bathing naked in the great river outside the town.
[ History | 15 Jun 2005 @ 01:26 | | PermaLink ]
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Cleopatra, queen of Egypt in the 1st century B.C., was widely reknowned for her sexual skills. It wasn't even particularly scandalous, but quite fitting with the prevalent mores. See, in addition to being queen, Cleo was the High Priestess of Aset. Aset is another name for the goddess Isis. Becoming a high priestess had the requirement of having had sexual intercourse with a thousand different men. That would normally take a while, but it is said that Cleopatra did so in 10 days. The sacred rituals a priestess would carry out would often involve sex. One often went to the temple to have sex because it was seen as life-affirming, and sex was seen as bringing you closer to the gods.
One thing Cleopatra particularly was reknowned for was her fellatio skills. On one occasion she is recorded as having performed fellatio on one hundred Roman noblemen in one night. That was not only accepted by the Egyptian people but applauded by them.
Cleo is thus the most famous fellatrice in history. You know, a fellatrice is a woman, often a prostitute, who specializes in the art of fellatio - blow jobs. She was also called various other things by her contemporaries. The Greeks called her "Merichane" (Gaper), as in "she who gapes wide for ten thousand men" or "the wide-mouthed one" or "the ten-thousand mouthed woman" or "the great swallower".
[ History | 14 Jun 2005 @ 01:33 | | PermaLink ] More >
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 Interesting long historical overview, Sex and Psychological Operations, of the use of dirty pictures in wars to discourage the enemy. You know, psy-ops is stuff one does to mislead or confuse some enemy, or to drive them crazy. So, for example, all sides in WWII tried various approaches. Dropping pamphlets over enemy lines, sometimes with half-pornographic pictures. And with messages like "this is your wife at home, having a very good time with the mailman, while you're stuck in a fox hole", to get the soldiers to feel discouraged. Or, "you're gonna be dead or crippled, so no more fun with your wife". Or, "the American slackers are going to take your women, while you do the dirty work". The British once planned to drop pornographic pictures over Hitler's mountain retreat, thinking it would drive him crazy.
The conclusion seems to be that none of it worked very well. Either the soldiers who were supposed to be disillisioned actually enjoyed the entertainment. Or they got free toilet paper delivered, which was otherwise in short supply.
Where nudie pictures turned out to be most effective was to make soldiers pay attention. Like, it was important for them to always use the most recent set of maps, so if a different pin-up girl was placed on the cover of each issue, nobody would miss it. Or, if one was supposed to fill in some form for intelligence purposes, if it has a drawing of a nude girl on it, it was way more likely that the men would carry it around. Now that was in world war II. That would never happen today, as things in some way have become more prudish and politically correct.
[ History / sex | 2 May 2005 @ 01:00 | | PermaLink ]
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 Loads of pornographic pictures and statues were found in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman cities buried by volcanic ash. They've usually been hidden away because the museums didn't know what to do with them. But now you can get at them in the Naples Archaeological Museum, if you know how to find The Secret Room. The secret room in the Naples Archaeological Museum, containing sexual artifacts from excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, has been closed to all but the very rich and influential for 200 years. But despite vociferous protest, it is now open to the public. You do have to go through a few hoops to get in. After you buy your general admission ticket, you might have to ask about the secret room (camera segreta). You'll be directed to another kiosk where you'll be assigned a visitation time and given a voucher good for that time period. All tours are free and guided by someone who speaks your language but who isn't necessarily knowledgeable about the artifacts. You can hire an archaeologist to tell you more about them if you wish.
[ History | 21 Apr 2005 @ 16:28 | | PermaLink ] More >
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