In classical antiquity , writers such as Herodotus , [1] Plato , [2] Xenophon , [3] Athenaeus [4] and many others explored aspects of homosexuality in Greece. The most widespread and socially significant form of same-sex sexual relations in ancient Greece was between adult men and pubescent or adolescent boys, known as pederasty marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age structured, with men in their thirties commonly taking wives in their early teens. It is unclear how such relations between women were regarded in the general society, but examples do exist as far back as the time of Sappho. The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier as modern Western societies have done. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated.
The shock of the old: what the sculpture of Pan reveals about sex and the Romans
World's Best Sex Sculptures Stock Pictures, Photos, and Images - Getty Images
The Greeks and Romans have left many legacies--democracy, philosophy, mathematics But they have also left a plethora of sexually explicit imagery--statues with erect penises, bestiality as garden sculpture, and drinking vessels, oil lamps and wall paintings showing scenes of rape and sexual intercourse. Some of these even had religious significance. Next time you are tempted to think the ancients "just like us," remember these images.
By Alice Vincent , Entertainment writer, online. An erotic statue has caused the British Museum to install a "parental guidance" warning in their new exhibition, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The sculpture is of the mythical half-goat, half-man Pan having sex with a nanny goat. The Times reports that the museum is determined to display the object in plain sight, rather than hidden behind a curtain or in a "museum secretum" — a restricted area for those aged over 14 in the Naples Museum.
N othing is more likely to inspire us to see for ourselves than a warning about the effects of looking. Take the media interest this month when it was revealed that the British Museum's exhibition, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, is to include a "parental guidance" notice. The reason? An ancient marble sculpture of the god Pan a part-human, part-goat figure having sex with a she-goat is not to be segregated, as it has been since its discovery in , but displayed openly with the other exhibits — a liberal move by London, if also one which dulls the object's impact.