Random Fascinating Facts About Sex In Ancient Egypt (14 items)

(#5) Incest Was Common Among Ancient Egyptian Gods, Goddesses, And Royalty

Most people in ancient Egypt didn't engage in incest, but Egyptian royalty and mythological gods often married and had children with their siblings. Seth and Nephthys, Osiris and Isis, and Shu and Tefnut are just a handful of the brother-sister couples from Egyptian mythology. And because royalty loves to emulate the gods, siblings ruling over Egypt frequently married one another.
Unfortunately, all that intermarrying led to weak family lines with a lot of genetic defects. Scholars believe King Tut, for instance, had a degenerative bone disease, a cleft palate, and a curved spine, among other disorders.
(#12) Ancient Egyptians Thought Semen Came From The Spine

Ancient Egyptians had a unique understanding of semen and where it originated. Though semen plays a lofty and spiritual role in many of their myths, Egyptians thought the spine was the part of the body that produced this hallowed substance. Specifically, they thought it came from a holy vertebra in the spinal column. And this perspective endured as accepted fact for years afterward - even Plato believed it, calling semen "a soft flow from the spine."
(#6) No One Really Cared About Virginity

The Egyptians didn't put much emphasis on virginity; marrying a virgin carried no significance. Premarital relations was openly practiced, and as long as it happened between two unmarried people, there was no stigma attached. Virginity also didn't have the same religious significance as it did for the Romans, who placed female virginity next to godliness and considered sexual restraint a virtue.
(#2) They Used Crocodile Dung And Acacia Gum For Birth Control

Like modern civilizations, ancient Egyptians wanted to have some degree of control over their family planning. It led to them creating methods of birth control. One approach detailed on ancient papyrus suggests they used gum made from acacia tree sap to "cover the mouth of the womb" during intercourse. And there is at least some corroboration for the effectiveness of this approach, as acacia gum contains lactic acid, a known spermicide.
In another method, they applied a combination of honey and sodium bicarbonate to the inside of the vagina. Another option was a diaphragm of sorts made of crocodile dung, dates, acacia, and honey.
(#9) Ancient Egyptians Produced At Least Some Adult Material

Unlike ancient Romans, the ancient Egyptians weren't particularly progressive when it came to dirty pictures. Some erotic imagery did exist, though, the most famous example being the Turin Erotic Papyrus, which contained a series of sexual vignettes. Measuring 8.5 feet long and 10 inches high, two-thirds of the papyrus depicts a disheveled man having intercourse with a young woman. It illustrates different positions, each one more bold and creative than the next, including one of the couple going at it in an improbable configuration on a chariot.

Many experts think the Turin Erotic Papyrus was the ancient Egyptians' idea of satire, not something they saw as legitimately sexy or intended for the purposes of arousal.
(#8) Divine Myths Surrounded Masturbation

Ancient Egyptian myth didn't concern itself with the biology of human birth to create its gods and goddesses. According to the cosmology, the first god, Atum, arose out of nothing, essentially creating himself from a pool of primordial ooze, then got to work on making the world. But first, he masturbated.
Immediately afterward, he spat the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut out of his mouth, and they, in turn, created more gods and goddesses and more aspects of civilization. Ancient Egyptians saw the masturbation part of this story as critical, so male self-pleasure took on an almost divine element. There are even accounts of pharaohs ceremonially masturbating into the Nile.