SEX AND THE HISTORY

For those who do not think of sex of something taboo or dirrrty.

Sex is not always the same. Its standing in society varies depending on the culture and religion. It is an undisputed fact that sex serves not only reproduction, but also embodies lust and eroticism. The copiously illustrated book “100 000 Jahre Sex” (“100,000 Years of Sex”) outlines the most existential and at the same time most beautiful activity of mankind over the span of time.

THE IMMORAL CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Looking back on the past forty years one could assume that western society is very open-minded regarding sexuality, sometimes even without taboos. However, looking a couple of thousand years into the past, the picture changes and we find a much more open or, according to our standards, even immoral society: classical Greece.

From our modern point of view, classical Greece becomes suspect. On the one hand, it was characterised by permissiveness and sexual freedom, while on the other hand it was a culture of male domination and female repression. The sources in the book “100 000 Jahre Sex” on sexual life in classical antiquity relate, for the most part, to Athens during the sixth to fourth century BC. “Lust was not regarded as bad, forbidden or dirty,” says Charles Hupperts, an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam. “Greek thinking was uninfluenced by Christian attitudes toward morality, where carnal love and sexuality are bound to reproduction, marriage, and monogamy as well as to shame, abstinence, sin, and punishment,” he continues.

While women spent most of their lifetime within the confines of their homes, men created the structures that met their needs perfectly. In addition to the availability of women, they also had the chance to have sexual relations with boys. Homosexual relations were common between an adult, the lover, and a 12- to 18-year-old beloved. As soon as a boy started to grow a beard and become an adult, the liaison mostly stopped. Then, a role reversal took place and the former beloved became a lover who could find his own boy for his pleasure. According to Charles Hupperts, pederasty and promiscuity were quite usual in ancient Athens. It was also widespread that a lot of men used to have a young friend who even lived under the same roof with the family.

Classical antiquity confirmed the cliché that prostitution is one of the oldest professions in the world. At that time, not only girls and women sold their bodies, but so did boys. There was no law prohibiting prostitution. The only order was directed at the bourgeois boy prostitutes of Athens: They must not hold a political office later on. It was insinuated that if they sold their bodies now, later on they would also sell themselves in the political world.

While homosexuality among adults occurred too, the passive one was outlawed. Charles Hupperts states that “a man, who let himself be penetrated lowered himself to female behaviour. In comedies, the passive homosexual was stigmatised as a despicable being, a prototype of promiscuity, uselessness, decadence, inferiority, indecency, and with an inclination to corruption.”

HOW THE ROMANS DID

A sexually passive man fared no better in Rome. The book “100 000 Jahre Sex” quotes Catull, a poet who lived in the first century BC, as saying “It is normal that the man is active and penetrates. Those who are being penetrated can actually only be women.” All the same, according to Hupperts, there reigned a certain tolerance towards men who let themselves be penetrated. There are even rumours about passive emperors in man-to-man relationships. Nicomedes King of Bithynia, for example, is said to have penetrated Caesar, while Caesar is reported to have deflowered his adopted son Augustus. The peak of loose morals was reached with Nero who supposedly was married to men both as a groom as well as a bride.

Basically sexual relations with slaves were a sign of superiority and power in the Roman Empire. Sex with a free-born boys, however, was scorned – at least until the Romans started imitating the Greek lifestyle. Despite a law prohibiting love with free-born boys, pederasty with them could be noticed publicly and was almost never punished.

As of 342 AD the Romans declared war on homosexuality. At first, under Emperors Constantine and Constans, passive homosexuality was forbidden. Finally, under Justinian (527 – 565 AD) all forms of homosexual behaviour carried the death penalty. According to Hupperts, the spread of the Christian faith can be blamed for an increasing hatred of homosexuality. For Christians sexuality is God-given and solely directed towards reproduction. Everything else is regarded as unnatural and as an infringement on their moral ideas.

SODOMY IN RENAISSANCE ITALY

Paradoxically, a thousand years later, Catholic Italy was synonymous with homosexuality. Florence had a special sodomy court in the 15th century. During the following seventy years, every tenth Florentine male was taken to this court. They say most of the 15,000 cases were cleared by paying a fine. As with the Greeks and Romans, sexual relations were characterised by inequality. “A boy of twelve to eighteen years had sexual contact with an eighteen to thirty year old. The younger one played the passive role, the older one the active,” says Huppert.

Although the Christian church tried to fight it, homosexuality was a long-held Mediterranean tradition. Italy’s status at that time can be shown through the European languages. Both German and Dutch had a verb “to florence”, meaning “to conduct sodomy”, and the noun “Italian” was also used for “one who conducts sodomy.”

DANGEROUS LIAISONS

In the 17th century, it became more and more common in Northern Europe for men of the same generation to have a sexual relationship. They were, however, sanctioned as harshly as before. In England, homosexual men were put on the pillory. In the Netherlands there was a wave of arrests and executions in the 18th century. The price to be paid for same-sex love was high in those times, as it still is today in some countries.

In Iran death punishments are carried out mercilessly and ruthlessly for having homosexual contact. Only a few months ago, a 16 and an 18 year old were publicly hanged because they had consensual sex with each other at the age of 14 and 16 respectively. The Greeks were more developed 2,500 years ago.

100 000 JAHRE SEX
108 PAGES
HARDCOVER / £15 ($27)


Quelle: Mate Magazin