Greek Sex History

Greek Sex History

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Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author.
Films like 300 and Troy depict awesome Greek warriors slashing their enemies in battle, but did you know Leonidas and Achillies had a freaky side? Sexuality was everywhere in the ancient world, from pornography on pottery to sex with satyrs. The Greek view on sex is much different from our own today, with many seemingly bizarre practices from our modern perspective. Greek openness on sex, homosexuality, and relationships created a much different culture than our own; here are 10 weird, or weird to us, sexual things the ancient greeks did:

Today, scientific advancement has made birth control methods more effective and safe than ever. In ancient Greece, couples sought to limit family size through bizarre beliefs and pseudoscience. One popular method was having the female partner sneeze and drink something cold after having sex, I am not sure how this was supposed to work but rest assured this is not an effective method of contraception. Another method involved a woman attempting to block her cervix with a block of wood, this one doesn’t sound very pleasurable. One surprisingly effective method the Greeks used was consuming large amounts of dates and pomegranates before and after sex. Modern studies have actually shown that dates and pomegranates do in fact decrease fertility, but I recommend consulting your physician on some more modern and less nonsensical forms of protection.
In case you would prefer to use an ancient Greek method of contraception, here are some recommended instructions from the physician Soranus: “hold her breath, draw her body back a little so the semen cannot penetrate into the uteri, then immediately get up and sit down with bent knees, and this position provoke sneezes”.

In the modern world, the general consensus is that masturbation is best left to the privacy of your own home. In Ancient Greece, public masturbation was used by the infamous philosopher Diogones to fight the power. Diogones, the founder of cynicism, lived in a barrel and was called a dog by many of his critics. When someone finally scolded him for his habit of public relief, Diogones responded: “If only it were so easy to soothe hunger by rubbing an empty belly”.
In Aristophones’ famous comedy Lysistrata about women withholding sex from men in order to stop war, the Spartans are roasted for their enthusiastic engagement in self pleasure. It is fitting that the appeal of a Spartan herald with a large erection begins the peace talks. We can only wonder if the events in Lysistrata worsened the Spartan’s dependence.

With some of the strange items on this list, one may wonder why the seemingly normal practice of kissing was considered weird, at least under certain circumstances. Kissing as a form of greeting was normal, even when greeting those who you had just met. Many men would greet their peers with a kiss on the hand, the cheek, the lips prior to important business meetings. We can only imagine modern politicians swapping the traditional handshake with stealing a quick kiss on the lips.
Kissing your wife however, a common practice today, could be considered a sign of weakness for a man. The famous Athenian general Pericles was criticized for frequently kissing his wife on the lips in public. This is primarily because a kiss signified equality between two parties, and women in most Greek city-states were not equal to men. This also gave the impression that Pericles could be taken under the control of his wife, likely rooted in the sexist trope in Greek literature of the evil seductress.

It may be difficult to imagine presidential candidates debating rates in state run prostitution rings, but in ancient Greece, prostitution was legal and was in some cases run by the state. Athenian lawmaker Solon regulated prices in state sponsored brothels. These brothels had both female and male sex workers, the latter primarily servicing older male clients. These establishments would apparently offer many cheap rates compared to those prostitutes on the streets, who cleverly would wear sandals which would leave an imprint reading “follow me” on the ground. High class citizens did have some options at the public brothel however. These patrons could sign a contract with a mistress, workers who were skilled in pleasing men both physically and with their superior wit. Solon would fittingly use the tax revenue Athens gained from these public brothels to build a temple to Aphroditie, the goddess of love and pleasure.

An unfortunate reality of Spartan culture was that older men often took advantage of young boys during their military training. The prevalence and acceptance of these relationships are debated, but many young boys were taken advantage of by their training mentors. At the age of seven, Spartan boys were taken from their homes and put into state sponsored military training in the Agoge. This included rigorous military training and the boys developing skills for their lifelong profession as warriors. In many cases, these boys first sexual partners were their male peers in the Agoge. Same sex partners were normal and encouraged in Greek society, and seen as a sign of male comrodary. Accounts differ on the acceptance of male mentors engaging in relationships with students. Some state that it was considered acceptable if the relationship was not only built on physical pleasure, while others state that once a boy reached puberty all relationships were acceptable. The true prevalence and normalcy or these relationships will likely be lost in history.

Today this form of art is generally reserved for the men’s bathroom. Most people are aware of the prevalence of nudity in Greek statues, and the pride Greeks had in their art. One Athenian statesman was even executed for allegedly chopping off Hermes’ member on an important statue. Greeks would even slap a random phallus on the pillar of a bust. But statues were not the only medium of expression Greeks would use to show wangs to the world. Skilled artists would depict fallacies everywhere from public art works to wine glasses. Drunk Greeks probably found these images hilarious when drinking from such Kylixs during the famous symposium or wine drinking parties. One vase even depicted a woman tending to a crop field of phallaces. No matter how strange the Greeks were, no one can deny their sense of humor.

Greek polytheism was primarily built around practitioners paying homage to various gods through sacrifice and other methods of veneration. Aphrodite, the god of procreation and pleasure, was often appealed to for matters in the bedroom. The origin story of Aphrodite itself is strange. In Greek Myth, she rose from foam that was made in the ocean after Uranus’ genitalia fell into it, her name meaning foam-arisen. Aphroditie’s sexuality and beauty is a primary subject in Greek mythology, committing adultery with many men. She is well known for her role in the Judgement of Paris and starting the Trojan war, showing her volatile personality and vanity.
One particularly strange episode involving Aphrodite in mythology happened when a man named Glaucus insulted her. She responded by feeding his horses magic water, causing them to turn on him during a chariot race. Glaucus was crushed to death, and his horses proceeded to eat him. Nice.

With Greek sexual openness in mind, the strictness around unfaithfulness in marriage may seem strange. In fact, seducing another man’s wife was considered worse than rape. The reason for this is due to the belief that a woman was the “property” of a man. This meant that committing adultery was a form of stealing. Sexual assault was also considered immoral, but if the woman was unmarried it was not considered as serious a crime. Sexual assault is common in Greek mythology with many gods deceiving women and impregnating them. According to the historian Herodatus, adultery needed avenging by the man, while assault did not, resulting in greater severity placed on it. A man who caught another man with his wife was able to inflict any punishment on him. This ranged from public humiliation to murder.

The Greeks loved their wine. The symposium was an important part of Greek culture. Between 14 and 27 men reclined on pillowed couches in an inner room, and served as a forum for intellectual discussions. Many famous works of literature depict these complex philosophical discussions at the symposium, including Pato’s Symposium. In reality, the symposium could become far less civil than its depiction in literature. Drunken madness could ensue, with large amounts of alcohol, drinking games, and drinking songs. Musicians and other performers were often hired for the symposium, who could end up performing sexual favors for guests. Although women generally were not allowed at the symposium, high scale prostitutes were sometimes hired for guests.

As previously mentioned, Spartan boys frequently had their first relationships with other boys in the Agoge. Therefore, it is only natural that a Spartan man should force his new bride to shave her head and appear more masculine before having sex with her to appear more like those previous partners… wait what? Yes you heard that correctly, Spartan women would wear mens clothing and have their heads on their wedding days in order for their husbands to transition from same-sex to heterosexual relationships. The transformation for a woman to resemble a man was often undertaken by a bridesmaid or servant, a far cry from the modern wedding day makeover.
Men would then be forced to sneak into their wives homes in order to consummate the marriage. This was thought to increase the sexual desire between husband and wife. The bride would be laid in bed with a man’s cloak and sandals in the dark. Her new spouse would then sneak into her room during the night and capture her. With the other items on this list, kidnapping your wife dressed in male drag out of her parents house really doesn’t sound too bad.

Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex

MLA Style Citation:

Tarkovsky, Sacha "Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex."
Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex .
22 Nov. 2006 EzineArticles.com.
1 Jul. 2022 < http://ezinearticles.com/?Sex-History-Ancient-Greece---Part-1-Society-and-Sex&id=366452 >.

APA Style Citation:

Tarkovsky, S. (2006, November 22). Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex .
Retrieved July 1, 2022, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Sex-History-Ancient-Greece---Part-1-Society-and-Sex&id=366452

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Tarkovsky, Sacha "Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex." Sex History Ancient Greece - Part 1 Society & Sex
EzineArticles.com . http://ezinearticles.com/?Sex-History-Ancient-Greece---Part-1-Society-and-Sex&id=366452

By
Sacha Tarkovsky |

Submitted On November 22, 2006

More than any other ancient society (except Rome), the Greeks kept very accurate records about their daily life.
It can be understood from their literature, art (and ceramics), as well as the records of other countries that mentioned the Greeks.
The sexual history of ancient Greece is colourful and eye opening so lets look at sex in ancient greece.
Sex in ancient Greece was seen mostly from the eyes of men, as women were considered as commodities only.
Women generally were used for keeping a house (for the man to sleep only) and bearing his legitimate children.
The wives of Greek men were highly supervised, and could not move freely about, except if they were old and motherly (or grandmotherly).
Sex with wives was intended for children only, and thus performed in bed, and usually in some modified missionary position.
Fallatio was considered taboo (for a marriage), and as the sexual act was to beget children, the man wished to deposit his sperm as quickly as possible and be done with everything else.
The active form of sex in ancient Greece had the wives competing with "eromenoi" (adolescent boys) and "hetaras"(educated prostitutes) and even slaves in the home.
It appears that homosexuality (pederasty...sex with young boys) was the regular sexual choice for the men.
It shows up in education, religion, art and politics. Also Greek men were fond of prostitution, with all kinds available, from street girls to temple prostitutes (for very high fees).
Raping was also considered a norm, even in Greek religion, Zeus was seen to rape many women, such as Leda (a swan), Danae, Alkmene, and boys such as Ganymede.
Due to the high rate of homosexual relationships (always an older man with a young boy...i.e. pederasty) non-conventional sex flourished (and still to today, as custom relates).
The older man would have his young lover (but the young boy would feel no love or desire for the older man) as his sexual object. The Greeks believed that semen contained the source of knowledge, and thus depositing it in the younger man would endow him with wisdom.
The homosexual relationships of the Greeks were not strictly limited to men, as there were also lesbian relationships, and this too were pederasty in nature. Greek society frowned upon same age sexual relations.
Young unmarried women could move freely, but if they did, they would be considered as prostitutes, and thus have to sell themselves, or be raped.
The Greeks had a few sexual taboos, incest being the first among them, yet it shows up in the Greek literature as being a fact of life in those times.
Fallatio was also considered a taboo, but widely practiced. It was said that a man would normally have to beat his partner (young boy lover or prostitute) prior to the act (as a sort of Greek foreplay), to get the fallatio to be performed.
In part 2 fo this article, you can read about sexual positions in Ancient Greece and how many of them live on today as some of the most popular and effective positions that can be used in lovemaking.
On all aspects of how to get more from sex and relationships and eveerything to do with sexuality visit our website for a huge resource of articles, features and downloads and at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html
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A new exhibition at the British Museum promises to lift the lid on what beauty meant for the ancient Greeks. But while we gaze at the serene marble statues on display – straining male torsos and soft female flesh – are we seeing what the ancients saw?
The question I’m asking here isn’t a philosophical one, but rather it’s to do with our expectations and assumptions about beauty, sex appeal and sex itself. The feelings that beautiful faces and bodies rouse in us no doubt seem both personal and instinctive – just as they presumably did for the ancient Greeks who first made and enjoyed these artworks. But our reactions are inevitably shaped by the society we live in.
Greek attitudes towards sex were different from our own, but are all those myths about the sex lives of the ancient Greeks true? And how does this affect how we view the art?
Here are the facts behind four commonly held beliefs.
It was certainly the norm in ancient Greece for a man to find both sexes attractive. But the private lives of men in classical Athens – the city we know most about – were very different from anything that a “bisexual” man might experience today.
Relationships between men of the same age were not at all common: rather, the standard same-sex relationship would involve an adolescent boy and an older man. Men also used female prostitutes regularly: sex could be brought cheaply in a city that was home to countless brothels, streetwalkers and female “entertainers”. As for marital relations, men seldom married before the age of 30, and apart from the wedding night, it was common for married couples to sleep apart.
These different sexual relationships are captured in classical vase painting in strikingly different ways. For same-sex relationships, the focus is typically on the courtship; for prostitution, it’s on the sexual act; for marriage, it’s on the moment when the groom leads his new wife home.
This is largely true. A girl’s father traditionally saw it as his duty to find a suitable husband for his daughter and, importantly, would generally have played a role in finding a wife for his son as well. In Athens, a girl generally got married at about 16 – typically to a man twice her age, often a paternal uncle or an associate of her father’s. Marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath, also known as Lely’s Venus. Roman copy of a Greek original, 2nd centur
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Greek Sex History

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