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

• 

  (#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.
• 

  (#1) Necrophilia Happened During The Embalming Process

  Most people know ancient Egyptians practiced mummification, but the embalmers who performed the process didn't always respect the bodies. Ancient writer Herodotus recorded rumors of at least one embalmer sleeping with the corpse of a beautiful woman, which led to worries about intercourse between embalmers and the bodies of famous or particularly attractive women.

  People frowned upon the practice, and if colleagues discovered an embalmer was using a corpse for carnal purposes, they denounced him. According to Herodotus, to guard against necrophilia, families did not immediately surrender the bodies of deceased women who had been great beauties. Instead, the families waited a few days so the corpse would be somewhat decomposed.
• 

  (#4) Bestiality Plays A Unique Role In Art

  Notably, Egyptian hieroglyphics dating as far back as 3000 BCE depict humans sleeping with animals. Egyptian gods and goddesses often took the shape of animals, so there was a divine connection to the idea of human-animal intercourse as drawn in the glyphs. Also, ancient Egyptians considered physical acts depicted between a human and an animal less visually offensive than the same between two humans.

  So some argue what looks like hieroglyphic bestiality is a coded representation of human-human intercourse.
• 

  (#10) The First Known Record Of Oral Appears In Egyptian Myth

  The Resurrection of Osiris is a classic in ancient Egyptian mythology. It is also the first known record of fellatio in history. The god Seth kills his brother Osiris and chops him into pieces, but their sister, Isis, reassembles the disparate parts in hopes of resurrecting Osiris.

  There's just one problem: His penis is missing. So Isis fashions a new penis out of clay and blows into it, and the action brings Osiris back from the dead.
• 

  (#14) Want More Ancient Egypt?

  One of the oldest and most mythologized cultures in human history, Ancient Egypt has attracted the curious and the adventurous for millennia. The land has long been revered as a place of knowledge, mystery, and unparalleled beauty -  with archaeologists still uncovering its secrets to this day. If you want to delve deeper into Egypt's history, the following books, media, and other Ranker lists are highly recommended.

  A great place to start is Toby Wilkinson's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, an enthralling one-volume work that draws upon the author's 40 years of archaeological expertise. The civilization is reviewed from its early beginnings to its ultimate fate as a vassal of the Roman Empire. 

  For those more interested in the mythology of the culture, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt is as thorough as its title promises.

  When Women Ruled the World offers a unique perspective on Ancient Egyptian culture by examining the reigns of six female rulers, including Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra.

  If you’re in the mood for a documentary, Egypt: The Series is a great tour through the New Kingdom and its lavish monuments.

  With more than 300 photographs, many of them in color, The Art of Ancient Egypt pays homage to 3,000 years of glorious architecture, tombs, wall paintings, amulets, papyri, and objects traced to multiple Egyptian dynasties. 

  For those looking to add some epic flair to their home, this five-panel wall art installation offers a glimpse of the pyramids as they appear today.

  For further reading on Ancient Egypt, Ranker's editors have selected the following lists that dive into the truths and popular misconceptions about this fascinating culture:

  • Facts We Just Learned About King Tut That Made Us Say 'Whoa'
  • The Creepiest Myths And Legends From Ancient Egypt 
  • Myths About Ancient Egypt, Debunked
• 

  (#13) One Of Ancient Egypt's Foundational Myths Involves Two Gods And Semen

  The ancient Egyptian myth of Seth and Horus has a uniquely sexual component, one that relates to the culture's larger beliefs about sex, fecundity, origins, and power. In the myth, Seth and Horus, gods with a contentious relationship, lie resting, and Seth attempts to penetrate Horus. If the other gods were to find out Horus had been on the receiving end of that coupling, they would shun him, so Horus's mother, Isis, intervenes.

  Horus catches Seth's semen in his hand before it can enter his body and throws it into the river. Then, Isis takes Horus's semen and spreads it over some lettuce, which she feeds to Seth. Because of this deception, the gods decide it was Horus who penetrated Seth, not the other way around, and look negatively upon the latter. Eventually, Horus becomes the king of Egypt.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking