Studying homosexuality in ancient Egypt is a difficult task. Not a single legal text has survived from ancient Egypt (in contrast to elsewhere in the ancient Near East); and no sure evidence points to cult prostitution taking root there (until the late Roman period). In fact, sexual intercourse was viewed as ritually defiling in sacred places. Explicitly sexual motifs in art and literature are limited, and coded images and metaphors often confront the investigator. Also, as Egyptologist R.B. Parkinson puts it, “the subject [of homosexuality in ancient Egypt] is surrounded by modern as well as ancient taboos…” Edgar Gregersen noted how some Egyptologists have been embarrassed by statues of the god Min, who is always depicted with an erection; and he reported on one young museum curator who was surprised to discover a box containing over a dozen wooden phalli that had been hacked off of Min statues in the museum and then hidden away. Today more open-minded research is being done, although academic homophobia still exists. We are going to focus on four of the major sources that relate (or have been related) to homosexuality in ancient Egypt: (1) Conflict of Horus and Seth, (2) Neferkare’s Affair with General Sisene, (3) Akhenaten’s Disappearing Boyfriend, and (4) Tomb of the Two Manicurists.

Conflict of Horus and Seth
Set or Seth in Egyptian religion was the god of evil. Set was a sun god of pre-dynastic Egypt, but he gradually degenerated from being a beneficent deity into being a god of evil and darkness. In a widespread Egyptian myth he murdered his brother Osiris and was in turn defeated by Horus, the son of Osiris. Horus was the ancient Egyptian god with the head of a falcon and whose eyes were the sun and moon. The kings of Egypt were called living incarnations of Horus. During the 1st dynasty Horus was known principally as an opponent of Seth, but after about 2350 BCE he became associated with the Osiris cult and was identified as the son of Osiris. He destroyed Seth, the killer of Osiris, and became ruler of all Egypt. His left eye (the moon) was damaged by Seth but was healed by Thoth.
The conflict between Seth and Horus was an extended conflict between the god Osiris and Seth, his rival brother, who murders Osiris and then seeks to remove Horus, Osiris’ son and heir, with his claim to be king of the gods. Osiris had been murdered by Seth and cut into 13 pieces. His wife Isis found 12 of the pieces, but was never able to find the 13^th, his penis. Seth had thrown it into the Nile River, where it brought fertility to all of Egypt. To replace his penis, Isis fashioned one of wood in which she used to impregnate herself and bear their son Horus.
The story of their conflict, usually referred to as “The Contendings of Horus and Seth,” exists in different versions and dates back to the early Middle Kingdom (2040-1674 B.C.), with origins that are probably older. The basis of the story is that Seth and Horus vied for the Kingship of Egypt. Seth tries to seduce Horus, telling him what a lovely ass he has and how vital he looks. Seth gets Horus to join him in his bed and proceeds to fuck him. However, Horus does not allow Seth to ejaculate inside of him, but reaches back with his hand and catches his semen. Horus then takes the semen to his mother and shows it to her (I can’t imagine what my mother would have done), and in various versions Isis cuts off his hand and throws it into the Nile (then conjures him a new hand) or has Horus throw the semen into the Nile. Then Isis and Horus plot their revenge.
They trick Seth into eating lettuce that has been laced with Horus’s semen. (yum, yum, can you imagine how good the semen of a god tastes?) When the two gods go before the judgment of the other gods of Egypt to decide who will rule, Seth states that he has penetrated Horus and deposited his seed. Horus, says, yes he penetrated me, but his seed was deposited in my hand and I threw his seed in the Nile. Neither Seth nor the other gods believe Horus; his credibility to rule has been destroyed by the fact that he was the receptive partner. Then Horus tells the gods in judgment that Seth has ingested his seed which is even more of a horror to the gods (sexual relations could be forgiven by the Egyptian gods, but a man’s semen should only be deposited into a woman’s vagina [or in the Nile for fertility, more on that later]). So the gods decide to call forth their semen. (Can you imagine what the world would be like if someone could call forth your semen? What a white sticky mess that would make over everything.) When the gods call for the semen, Seth’s semen rises from the Nile River, while Horus’s semen emerges from Seth’s mouth. It is then decided that Horus would rule Egypt and all kings and Pharaohs after him would be seen as the earthly incarnation of Horus.
Neferkare’s Affair with General Sisene
Pharaoh Neferkare (Pepi II) and Sisene (or Sasenet), a military commander, lived during the 6th Dynasty (2460-2200 B.C.) in the Old Kingdom. In the first part of a partial text about Neferkare, it is stated that General Sisene amused (or loved) the king “because there was no woman [or wife] there with him.” A little later we read that Teti, a commoner, saw “Neferkare, going out during the night to walk on his own. Teti decided to follow him and watched as he arrived at Sisene’s house. The king threw up a stone and stamped his foot, at which a [ladder] was lowered down for him. He climbed up, and Teti waited. When the king had done what he wanted to (presumably fucked) the general, he returned to the palace. Teti then notes that the king went to the general’s house at the fourth hour of the night [10 p.m.] and spent four hours there.”(quite a love-making session). Although the narrative implies a censure of homosexuality, Neferkari is not criticized per se for having sex with another male but for being a bad ruler, because he was sneaking around at night as opposed to doing his kingly duties. Contemporaries might have looked upon such activity on the part of a king, who was an incarnation of deity, as undignified and inappropriate. He was a god on earth; he should not have been sneaking around. Yet, the pharaoh evidently had homosexual desires strong enough so that he found a secret lover and a nocturnal way to satisfy them happily, at least until he was discovered.
Akhenaton’s Disappearing Boyfriend
Was there a homoerotic relationship that existed between Akhenaten, 10th ruler (c. 1352-1338 B.C.) of the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom, and his co-regent, the youthful Smenkhkare? Akhenaten came to the throne as Amenophis IV, turned from the worship of Amon-Re to Aten (lit. “sun disk”) and changed his name accordingly, and then built a new capital in middle Egypt named Akhetaten (now known as Amarna). Also unusual was the way the king had himself portrayed, with feminine-like broad hips, swelling breasts, and large thighs, rather than normally as an ideal young man – and also with a long face, bulbous chin, and plump belly. ( It is thought that he had Marfan’s Syndrome. He is also thought to also be the father of Tutankhamen, aka King Tut and born with the name Tutankhaten). Along with his wife Queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten turned the religious life of Egypt on it’s head—partly to take some of the power from various priests of different god cults. Some Egyptologists believe that Akhenaten had himself portrayed in a bisexual way for theological reasons, e.g. to echo Hapy, the god of Nile flooding, who was deliberately portrayed bisexually to suggest both male and female fertility.
Two theories exist about Nefertiti’s fate. Some say that he ruled alongside her husband but in order to lessen her influence in Egypt (Egypt did have female pharaohs but they were never well liked), she was murdered and an attempt was made to erase her form history. If this was the case then a man known as Smenkhkare replaced Nefertiti as Akhenaten’s lover and co-ruler. It is known that at some point Nefertiti’s influence was replaced by that of Smenkhkare in every way, in the bedroom and the throne room. Some have speculated that Nefertiti actually began dressing as a man (not uncommon with female rulers of Egypt). As a man, she became known as Smenkhkare. It is unknown if Smenkhkare was Nefertiti or a male lover of Akhenaten, either way there seems to at least be some degree of gender bending going on between the two. Some even suggest that Smenkhkare was Akhenaten’s son, not his lover at all.
After Akenaten’s death, Tutankhamen became king and the Egyptian priest of other gods were restored. In an attempt to erase the religious upheaval caused by Akenaten’s rule, the restored priests attempted to erase the names of Akenaten, Smenkhkare, and Nefertiti from history. Some, however, survived for we now know the tale of Akenaten.
Tomb of the Two Manicurists

Initially dubbed the “Tomb of the Two Brothers,” this burial place was discovered (and partly reassembled) in 1964 at Saqqara, near Memphis. This tomb shows the two men who were buried there holding hands and embracing intimately, noses touching. Inscriptions reveal that both men held the title of Royal Manicurist and Chief of Palace Manicurists; and the tomb dates from the reign of Niuserre (2453-2422 B.C.), in the 3rd Dynasty in the latter half of the Old Kingdom. The two men, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, ingenuously had their names decoratively intertwined above the entrance to the inner chambers as “Niankh-Khnum-Hotep,”, which may be translated “joined in life and joined in death [or ‘peace’].” Both men are identified as hm (with the sense of “priest” here), and another inscription authorizes other priests (hm) to carry out their duties, while forbidding the men’s families from hindering them. The Egyptian hm derives from the common hieroglyph for “female,” but drops the feminine ending. This pictograph was used in a variety of senses, including “coward,” more generally “eunuch” (more in the sense of one being born a male biologically but having changed one’s gender, than being castrated), and commonly “priest” in tomb inscriptions. How these males were changed into hm is not clear, although such androgynous servants have often played a role in cultic rituals related to death and burial. Both men, as palace officials, enjoyed a high social status; and they also were counted as members of a large favored circle of priests, who performed a significant religious role. Since the inscriptions note that both men were married and had children, they were not eunuchs.

Various explanations have been offered for the relationship between Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep – that they were brothers, twins, related by marriage, close relatives, business associates, or members of the same guild – yet it has been suggested that the unique nature of the iconography (images and symbols) here and their closeness (especially their embracing) point to a more strong emotional bond. Also, both of them being called hm (a gender-ambiguous term) would be more in keeping with a homoerotic bond than any of the other relationships suggested. Egyptian art rarely depicted figures embracing, and scenes of two men doing so are virtually unknown. If these men were lovers, it would demonstrate that homosexual love did express itself on some occasions in ancient Egypt and also found some acceptance. In the outer part of the tomb, the two men are seen seated together, arm in arm, greeting offering-bearers and visitors to their burial place, and also walking, hand in hand, touring and inspecting their tomb. In the inner part is displayed a banquet scene, where the two men are entertained by dancers and musicians. Also here are three scenes of the two men embracing: one rests his arm around the other’s shoulder, while the second grasps the first man’s arm. In two of the scenes, the figures stand so close together their noses touch and even their thighs, seemingly, as well – just how the two men evidently wished to embrace each other throughout eternity.

Tiberius was Second the Roman emperor (AD 14 – 37). He was raised by Augustus, who had married his mother, Livia Drusilla. In his first military command, at age 22, he recovered Roman legionary standards lost for decades in Parthia and returned to great acclaim. He was forced to give up his beloved wife to marry Augustus’s daughter Julia (12 BC). Despite becoming tribune, he went into self-imposed exile on Rhodes (6 BC), becoming an angry recluse. By 4 BC Julia was exiled for promiscuity by Augustus, who recalled Tiberius and named him his heir. (Once Tiberius became emperor, he cut off Julia’s allowance, and she starved to death in isolation on her island of exile.) As emperor he initially ran the state efficiently and instituted some reforms, with only occasional severity, such as exiling Rome’s Jewish population on a pretext. When his son Drusus died mysteriously, he gave his trust to Sejanus and was persuaded to move to Capri (27). He became increasingly violent, killing and torturing at a whim. After Sejanus became co-consul in 31, Tiberius became suspicious of his ambition and executed him, then named Caligula his heir. In 37 the Praetorian Guard declared its support for Caligula and killed Tiberius when he was on his sickbed.


From Suetonius The Lives of the Twelve Caesars:

On retiring to Capri he devised a pleasance for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions. Its bedrooms were furnished with the most salacious paintings and sculptures, as well as with an erotic library, in case a performer should need an illustration of what was required. Then in Capri’s woods and groves he arranged a number of nooks of venery where boys and girls got up as Pans and nymphs solicited outside bowers and grottoes: people openly called this “the old goat’s garden,” punning on the island’s name.


He acquired a reputation for still grosser depravities that one can hardly bear to tell or be told, let alone believe. For example, he trained little boys (whom he termed tiddlers) to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles; and unweaned babies he would put to his organ as though to the breast, being by both nature and age rather fond of this form of satisfaction. Left a painting of Parrhasius’s depicting Atalanta pleasuring Meleager with her lips on condition that if the theme displeased him he was to have a million sesterces instead, he chose to keep it and actually hung it in his bedroom. The story is also told that once at a sacrifice, attracted by the acolyte’s beauty, he lost control of himself and, hardly waiting for the ceremony to end, rushed him off and debauched him and his brother, the flute-player, too; and subsequently, when they complained of the assault, he had their legs broken.

The “little boys to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles” were known as his minnows.
Now if you imagine these boys being of legal age, could you imagine what the island of Capri would be like during Tiberius’s life. If you were one of the fortunate few, who were on his good side and would not face his wrath. If you could partake in the pleasures of the island. The joy of walking through f forest garden, seeing a beautiful pan or nymph with hairy legs, a full bush, hairy chest, and horns, just waiting for you to fuck him. Or to swim in a pool with beautiful young men (remember we are imagining this as of legal age) touching you, gently biting you, sucking on various parts of your body…The Roman emperors had the power and the money to make their fantasies come true.
However, one bit of warning: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” You never knew when the emperor would turn on you. You never knew when this may be your last day. Even the emperors were not safe. Tiberius met his end when either his guards or Caligula himself smothered him with a pillow…

This is from a previous post on Cocks, Asses, & More, but since I mentioned empires yesterday, I thought I would continue by discussing the Roman Empire.
Homosexuality in ancient Rome features in many literary works, poems, graffiti and comments on the sexual predilections of single emperors. Graphic representations are, on the other hand, rarer in ancient Rome than in classical Greece. Attitudes toward homosexuality changed over the time and from context to context, ranging from strong condemnation to quite open acceptance. Indeed, it was also purported to be one of the cultural facts of certain provinces.

In discussing such attitudes, it is fundamental to recall that the term homosexuality is entirely problematic for the ancient world since there is no single word in either Latin or ancient Greek with the same meaning as the modern concept of homosexuality. Although it again and again becomes apparent that bisexuality was more common, even the ancient authors agree that there were ancient Roman men who had sexual relations exclusively with men.

History

Early Republic

In the early Roman Republic, pederasty with freeborn boys was considered a degenerate Greek practice and as such was generally condemned.

Mid and late Republic

As Greek attitudes gradually became accepted in Rome during the late Republic and early Empire, however, a new form of same-sex relations emerged that was quite different from homosexuality in ancient Greece, but owed much to it. As men, particularly the pater familias, wielded complete authority in Roman society, the Roman experience of same-sex relations is often characterized by master/slave-style interactions. Slaves still were considered legitimate sexual partners, often if not always regardless of their wishes. In short, an adult Roman citizen male could acceptably penetrate (whether a male or a female) but not be penetrated – catamite was commonly used as a slander.

Empire

Pederasty largely lost its status as a ritual part of education — a process already begun by the increasingly sophisticated and cosmopolitan Greeks — and was instead seen as an activity primarily driven by one’s sexual desires and competing with desire for women. The social acceptance of pederastic relations waxed and waned during the centuries. Conservative thinkers condemned it — along with other forms of indulgence. Tacitus attacks the Greek customs of “gymnasia et otia et turpes amores” (palaestrae, idleness, and shameful loves).

Other writers spent no effort censuring pederasty per se, but praised or blamed its various aspects. Martial appears to have favored it, going as far as to essentialize not the sexual use of the catamite but his nature as a boy: upon being discovered by his wife “inside a boy” and offered the “same thing” by her, he retorts with a list of mythological personages who, despite being married, took young male lovers, and concludes by rejecting her offer since “a woman merely has two vaginas.” Among the Romans, pederasty reached its zenith during the time of hellenophile emperor Hadrian. Commodus had a number of male lovers. Elagabalus also had numerous male lovers and even married one of these in a public ceremony. Philip the Arabian was also known for his fondness for young men.

Discussion

Roles and preferences

While it was common in Greece and Rome that the younger partner was passive and the older active, there is (especially from the Roman period) evidence that older men preferred the passive role. Martial describes, for example, the case of an older man who played the passive role and let a younger slave occupy the active role. Often it was also assumed that only the active participant gained pleasure from sexual intercourse. In general, the passive role was equated with the role of a woman and therefore felt to be rather low. Suetonius reported that the Emperor Nero, in taking the passive sexual role with the freedmen Doryphorus, imitated the screams and whimpering of a young woman. Men taking the passive role were often liable to be accused to take too much care of their appearance to attract and please potential active partners. Such men were usually shown in a negative light, having the word kinaidos / cinaedus applied to them (which could also be applied to eunuchs).

There are also other examples. Again Suetonius reported that Emperor Galba felt drawn to strong and experienced men. More than once it is reported that soldiers were sexually assaulted by their higher officers.

In addition to repeatedly described anal intercourse, there is also plenty of evidence that oral sex was common. A graffito from Pompeii is unambiguous: “Secundus is a fellator of rare ability.” (“Secundus felator rarus”) In contrast to ancient Greece, a large penis was a major element in attractiveness. In Petronius is a description of how a man with such a large penis in a public bathroom looked up, excited. Several emperors are reported in a negative light for surrounding themselves with men with large sexual organs.

Subculture

There are at least some signs that something approaching a homosexual subculture was already starting to develop in ancient Rome, although it certainly does not compare with modern subcultures. In Rome around 200 BC there was already a road where male prostitutes preferred staying, specialising in either the passive or active role. Other men searched for sailors in the vicinity of districts close to the Tiber. Public baths are also referred to as a place to find sexual partners. Juvenal states that such men scratched their heads with a finger to identify themselves.

Lesbianism
By the first century AD, there is a larger scope of sources on the possibility of female homosexuality. Ovid denied the possibility that such a thing ever existed. Later comments, however, are extremely hostile, and even go as far as the killing of a woman by her husband. Martial himself, who shows himself to be amused by all other kinds of ‘deviation’, has a very negative opinion of lesbian love. In Egypt, however, some love spells in Greek have been found, which were clearly written by a woman with the purpose of winning the heart of another woman, and so lesbianism clearly occurred elsewhere in the Empire outside of Rome itself, and was not always seen in such a negative light.

Moral opinions

The earliest formal record of legislation is Lex Scantinia, enacted in either 225 or 149 BC which regulated sexual behavior, including pederasty, adultery and passivity, and legislated the death penalty for same-sex behavior among free-born men, and there is evidence of punishments in earlier times. Above all, pederasty was condemned in the Republican era and dismissed as a sign of an effeminate Greek lifestyle.

In the mid Republic homosexual acts were widely accepted, if the active partner was a Roman, and the passive partner a slave or non-Roman. Deviations from this pattern were morally condemned, but apparently had few legal consequences. Martial and Plautus describe a wide range of homosexual behaviors, in part to poke fun at them like other minor standard deviations, but without too much moralizing. On the other hand, there is also from the year 108 an indictment against C. Vibius Maximus, a Roman officer in Egypt who had a sexual relationship with a young nobleman.
Juvenal condemned many forms of male homosexuality, and especially laments Roman men of high birth who show a moral front but secretly took the passive role. He found men who openly played the passive role pitiful but at least honest, and praised true love found by a man for a boy. Public speeches usually condemned all forms of homosexuality. When Julius Caesar was ambassador to Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, he was rumoured to have had a relationship with the king and played the passive role but, though this damaged his reputation, it apparently had no legal consequences. The emperor Hadrian had a relationship with the younger Antinous, although this was also criticized but not significant enough to prevent him plunging the empire into mourning following Antinous’ apparent death by drowning in 130.
Negative attitudes towards same-sex relations continued following the adoption of Christianity and in 390, laws were re-enacted, making such relations punishable by death.
According to some, the circumstances surrounding the massacre of Thessaloniki in 390 suggest that even in the late 4th century homosexuality was still accepted in large parts of the population, while officially prosecuted. When a popular charioteer was arrested for having sexually harassed an army-commander or servant of the emperor, the people of the town were calling for his release, though this is more likely due to his popularity than to the nature of the allegation.

So here begins our journey through homosexuality and the Roman Empire. I hope you will enjoy it.