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Hiya

*I am trying to make this as clean as possible!*

I was reading the Egyptian version of Egypt mythology and it really shocked me!! I can't believe the sexual behaviour that they performed!! Like Seth sexually harrasing Horus in pulbic to humiliate him, I found that disturbing!

I suppose the reason why I am so shocked was because I heard the Greek version and thinking it was the Egyptian (forgetting the fact that the temples I went to were Roman/Greek ... there is a proper name for that)

So why were the Egyptians so sexual?

THE Egyptians didn't mind homosexuality, as it said in the book I read, so I assume it's ok. Obviously not when it's in the form of rape.

I much prefer the Greek version, it's more ... child friendly? Well when my Egyptologist was explaining to use about the mythology there were 2 younger kids with us (my brother being one of them) and a couple of younger teenagers.

Hundreds of years ago lesbians were not seen to exist, it wasn't possible for women to love each other. For men it was possible. Maybe they had the same views?

What I love about that tomb is that the two guys were both manicurists! Even back then... lol!

Homosexuality existed back in ancient Egypt- both between men and women (remember, women had far more freedom in ancient Egypt than their contemporaries in other cultures!), but what you're seeing in the Contendings of Hrw and Stkh is not a commentary on sexuality, but an accepted military practice of the time. It was not uncommon in those days for soldiers to rape enemy soldiers to demonstrate their dominance over them- it was not a sexual act, it was domination plain and simple and had nothing to do with the soldiers' sexual orientations. Hrw and Stkh are both warrior gods, and each of their contendings is an example of a struggle to prove their physical and military prowess over the other- which they both perceive as equivalent to their ability to rule and protect the nation. Stkh attempts to rape Hrw in order to show that he is too weak to defend himself- and therefore unquestionably too weak to defend the nation- not to show that he is homosexual. Hrw and his mother Ast then use their combined cunning to turn the tables on Stkh.

The Contendings belong to a class of literature which was far more likely to have been passed along at informal gatherings for entertainment purposes than to have been engraved upon a temple wall as sacred literature- consequently many of its themes are rambunctious and bawdy. The trick of the mis-spent semen was probably included simply because the storytellers thought the look on Stkh's face when he realized he'd been duped must have been uproariously funny. wink I suspect it got a really good response from the audience. blaugh

Homosexuality was neither condemned nor condoned- probably the main reason why anyone would have batted an eye at it was that it would not result in children, and in ancient cultures the infant mortality rate was high. The only way for a people to survive was to make a lot of kids, and homosexual couples didn't really contribute to that. However, there was no moral injunction against it, either, and the passages which are commonly interpretted as anti-homosexual in nature are actually speaking against *****- which was frowned upon.

Of course, child morality was high so they had to reproduce alot but with homosexuality it doesn't reproduce children neutral

I just found out that among those instances of homosexuality which our egyptologists have been able to identify, it seems to have been fairly common for these folks to have at least one partner of the same gender, and at least one of the opposite. Heterosexual families could also have as many spouses as their income would allow them to provide for, but by seeking partners of both genders these "homosexual" families were able to produce children and heirs. Because of this, it might be more accurate to say that these families were bisexual rather than homosexual- although without a time machine (or more relevant artifacts) it will be difficult to discern whether these folks recognized the same divisions between bisexuality, homosexuality, and heterosexuality as we do today.

I'm not sorry wink - sex and sexuality are important expressions of life, and there's no reason not to honor or enjoy them. We live in a culture which has been laden with guilt and shame over every little thing- even the design of our own bodies! Now where is the logic in that? confused

But it really is amazing how little the human race has changed over the last few thousand years. We still have more or less the same concerns, are dealing with more or less the same social issues, and enjoy more or less the same things. But we have such a different way of understanding the world around us, and how to go about addressing all these issues which involve us. I think that's one of the reasons why we can gain so much in borrowing perspectives from these other cultures- we learn a great deal about ourselves in the process! heart

Sex was very common in religion back then. One version of creation was of Atum, where he *cough* "played" with himself, and created Hermopolis. There's another version where he sneezed, but it's not as common. Also, in several tombs and scrolls, it shows Nut over Geb, and often Geb has, well, you can guess that.

There's also the story of Osiris's "member", where he was killed by Seth and his body chopped to pieces. Isis, his wife, gathered the pieces and put them back together, did the horizontal tango with him, and became pregnant with their son. There's another version where he also "played" with himself, or with Isis as a sparrow flying over him as he's doing it.