Pompeiian Sexuality | National Geographic

the name Pompeii will forever be linked with two things disaster and decadence this city has been portrayed time and again as a place of sexual freedom even debauchery there is some truth in the idea the archaeologists who came here in the 19th century were scandalized by what they found this is the house of a wealthy banker a former slave made good it's here that we have the evidence for an amazing removal is the removal of a beautiful painting found by the excavator in 1875 and promptly cut from the wall and removed to the Museum in Naples dozens of pieces considered too explicit for public display were forcibly removed for much of the last century this collections been off-limits to the public and as late as the 1980s women weren't allowed to see some of its contents it's called the secret cabinet so here's the contents of a bedroom they displayed a pared they've decorated walls very much like Pompeii and bedroom and here they put the scenes of lovemaking in which the lovers are on a bed and you can even see his little marble plaque and again you've got the bed with the lovers on it this is where the bank is painting now hands it's a rather innocent representation it's not showing actual intercourse but rather kind of the dalliance that might lead up to it it's got lots of clues in it about ancient Roman sexual mores for one thing it doesn't have a sense of privacy we think that privacy is the most important thing about sexual activity but here we have a bedroom servant right in the corner on the left-hand side looking out at us and attending to the couple in the modern era it's been locked away but it hung in the bankers house for one purpose only it was to be displayed it took pride of place between a dining room and a bedroom guests were meant to see it and see their hosts as a man of taste and refinement every Wellborn Roman you but to have a proper picture collection you had to also have to find erotic paintings even if they were very explicit so what we have is a painting of luxury lovemaking not in a private place and not scrolled away somewhere but instead writing in view of all the guests were invited to the house sexual imagery wasn't only to be found in fine art you'd be exposed to it simply walking down the street here we find the representation that's almost everywhere in Pompeii and it is the phallus when excavators first found it they thought that had meant that this was a house of prostitution or more implausibly that had pointed the way to a house of prostitution but in fact this particular establishment is of all things a bakery in this bakery used the symbol of the phallus like many businesses at Pompeii to signal good fortune and to bring prosperity to the business perhaps even to make the bread rise this symbol is carved and painted on walls throughout the city it was even incorporated into everyday objects found in the home these bells they're called tintinnabulation switch sometimes is an extra phallus growing on the phallus and prominent as suspended bells really don't understand what they're for maybe some sort of doorbell good-luck charm a religious object install clean what is clear is that explicit images were also used with the simple intention of selling sex

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 4,034,242

Rating: 4.7381487 out of 5

Keywords: National Geographic, roman era, pompeii video, archeology, roman archeology, slavery, national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary

Id: QOmB3QohaPA

Length: 4min 27sec (267 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Really? Just today you learned this? Have you not ever had a history class, seen or read Caligulla, or otherwise evaded hearing about what is commonly accepted as the most decadent society that ever existed?

kids today... schools aren't teaching them enough about sex.

[u/mulone88]

You think the US is sexually free? Really? Really? Wow, you gots some learning to do, my friend.

[u/TeaspoonCanopy]

Julius Caesar was the teenage lover of Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, so that's as is. Also, Dictator Sulla was known to cavort with young men.

Mind you, the Romans still mocked homosexuality, and Caesar was also ridiculed as a dandy, for following high fashion too fastidiously in his early political career (Romans in the Republic often got into politics in their 20s, but not often becoming consul until middle age) wearing his toga long about the sleeves and ankles, growing a goatee, and wearing his belt loosely. This of course faded in his later career.

[u/LICENSE2KILLNOODDJOB]

So Rome was free first, THEN the US?

[u/malcolmlittle]

But YOU can't write a nine word sentence!

[u/VentureBrosef]

Rome was also down with sex slaves of all genders, so I imagine it was more free than the US anyday

[u/thedarkflamer]

And slavery was legal and women were property