10 Surprising Facts About Ancient Sex And Marriage

Today we will talk about the most interesting and shocking facts about marriage, love and sex that were the norm for our ancestors.

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Predecessors of Viagra

The Greeks were familiar with substances that increase potency. For God’s sake, don’t try to repeat what you’re about to learn. We are not responsible for the consequences!

To prolong the erection, they applied a mixture of crushed pepper and honey to the penis. And in order to improve potency, it was necessary to add crushed deer tail ash to wine.

An Indian plant was considered a super remedy, the name of which history has not preserved, and we think that this is only for the better. According to the records that have come down to us, under its influence, men could have sex up to 12 times in a row, and some even up to 70.

Sometimes the Greeks got tired and wanted to stop. "Pot, don’t boil!" And then the scrotum was smeared with olive oil.

male prostitution

In ancient Greece and Rome, prostitution was commonplace. And men’s too.

In Athens, the income of persons of easy virtue was even subject to city tax. It turns out that this was not only allowed, but also controlled by the state. Most of the clients of male prostitutes were, all of a sudden, also men.

And although it was a legal occupation, such "professionals" did not have civil rights. For example, they could not become members of the city council, speak at assemblies or other events. Because of this, prostitution was mostly done by slaves and foreigners.

arranged marriages

In ancient Mesopotamia, arranged marriages between parents were the norm. These were real contracts between two families. The bride and groom first met only at a wedding celebration.

In Sumer and Babylon, marriage was considered a means of producing offspring and the guardian of continuity and harmony in society. Yes, spouses could be lucky with love, but it was never a decisive factor.

"A deal is a deal."

Engagement was regulated very strictly. King Hammurabi established that if a potential father-in-law decides to break the marriage agreement, then he will have to pay compensation to the family of the failed bride or groom.

Brides Fairs

Imagine a market where instead of tomatoes and watermelons, there are young women, and the buyers are not housewives, but young men who want to start a family. Shocking? Us too. But if you believe Herodotus (and who wouldn’t believe him?), there were such markets.

He wrote that once a year, bride fairs were held in ancient Babylon. Girls of marriageable age were rounded up in front of the men and sold one by one to the highest bidder.

The richer the man, the more beautiful wife he could afford. What awaited unattractive women? They went to simple low-income people who could only take those who did not like the rich.

Harsh male world

Marriage norms in antiquity were not at all in favor of women. In ancient Israel, for example, a woman could not help but be a virgin, but there is not a single mention that men were required to remain virgin until marriage.

If the newlyweds discovered that their newly-married wife was not a virgin and the reason was not violence, she could be stoned to death.

Well, if the groom was suddenly mistaken in his suspicions, then he was flogged and forced to pay a fine.

phallic cult

In the gardens of some cities of Ancient Rome, images and statues of the god Priapus with an erect penis were placed to scare off intruders.

It was believed that God would punish them sexually. Poems have been preserved that directly stated that if the offender is a man, Priapus will punish him through the mouth, if a woman – through the vagina, and if a boy – through the anus. Cruel god, what can I say.

To this day, his name has been preserved in the name of the disease priapism, manifested in a painful prolonged erection.

Treason

All the same Mesopotamian king Hammurabi introduced the death penalty for treason. A woman with her lover was thrown into the river or impaled. If her husband forgave her, not only she survived, but also her lover. It was believed that they should share the fate together. So the main thing was to agree with the cuckold on time.

In ancient Rome, there was a law on the death penalty for a traitor, but the decision was made by her father, not her husband. And again the same story as in Mesopotamia.

In Athens, treason was a serious crime against society as a whole. At one time there was a law on the death penalty for traitors, but after a hundred years the legislators softened and replaced it with a fine and public humiliation.

Polygamy

Even in Old Testament ancient Israel, polygamy was commonplace, but only in the highest circles. After all, maintaining several wives has always been an expensive pleasure. The notorious David and Solomon are the clearest examples of those who could afford it.

According to the Bible, Solomon had about a thousand wives and concubines. David was more modest: only eight.

Temple prostitution

Every ancient Babylonian at least once in her life had to pay, ahem, a sexual debt to the goddess Militta. For money. Foreigner.

According to Herodotus, a woman came to the sanctuary of Militta and could not return home until a foreigner threw money at her and had sex with her outside the temple. The money, interestingly, the woman had to give to the temple. If a woman was not very attractive, Herodotus said, she had to wait for years.

I think they should have had sayings like: “I haven’t been to the temple – not a woman."

widows

In ancient India, it was believed that a widow should follow her dead husband. For this they had a spectacular tradition called sati. It’s simple: the widow jumped into the fire, where they burned the corpse of her faithful. If she did not agree, she was pushed there. Either way, she was burned alive.

There is another version of this tradition, less spectacular: the widow was buried alive next to him.

“Everything is so delicious. You don’t know exactly what to choose.” These barbaric customs were found in the Indian provinces even at the end of the 20th century.

What can be said about all these "cute" quirks of the ancestors? It’s good that they are in the past.

Although if you listen to some grandmothers at the entrance, it seems that they caught these traditions with their own eyes.