NEW FOR July 2018
Whippings and spankings and threesomes, oh my. Orgies, gay sex, and sex work! What we call non-conforming and kinky sex today was both spiritual and serious fun in pre-Christian European cultures. The images below are well-documented works, treasured by rich and poor alike, visible to people of all ages, often prominently displayed. These works were not considered obscene or morally harmful. They were viewed as charming depictions of the exciting joys of human life.
To put the images in a modern context, we use modern terminology to describe the scenes, and not the terms art historians or people of the time would have used.
click pics to enlarge
Roman and Etruscan Mosaics
Left to right: Etruscan-era Triad using a man on the bottom as furniture – 2 Scenes from the iconic Etruscan “Tomb of Floggings”
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Left to right: Female body worship – Woman on Top with snake (?) – Leg fetishism (based on Ovid’s advice on how to make love to a woman with beautiful legs)
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Left to right: Orgy with 3 het couples – Whipping and spanking triad – Lesbians
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Left to right: Spanking scene – Nude male wrestling — Bisexual triad with double rear-penetrations
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Ancient Greek Erotic Pottery
Left to right: Golden Showers (Urolagnia) – Animal cosplay – Animal cosplay
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Left to right: Rough-sex triad – Woman in charge – an Orgiastic free-for-all
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Left to right: Detail of Greek orgy plate – Daddy/Boy relationship – (Gloria’s favorite!) phallic gay party trick with cosplay.
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Next time someone asks you when BDSM began, you can tell them that kink/fetish sex started long before people made art about it.
Recommended Free Reads on Kinky Sex in Antiquity on Other Sites
The House of Dionysus on GoodReads (m/m)
Can We Write about BDSM in Ancient Rome?
The Tomb of The Floggings/Etruscan Culture