Stephanie Ashbaugh
09/27/09
Anthropology Assignment One
Ancient Egyptian Sexuality


Sexual taboo is a common occurrence in common current day society. Really it cannot be discussed in public forums, especially not in any detail. Not to mention those who come off as more sexually expressive are seen as offensive and unseemly. However, this was not always the case and I think it has a lot to do with the stigma our religion has put on our society. The proof I wish to bring forth is that of Ancient Egypt and how passion and desire was common in their mythology.

The first god I wish to address is the first god and father of creation for the Ancient Egyptians, Atum. Atum was considered the first of all the gods and was formed on his own by his own life-force. This god was said to have created the goddess Tefnut and the god Shu from masturbating. In pyramid text the hieroglyphics wrote “took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm by means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefnut.” Another cause of the birth of Shu and Tefnut is the idea that Atum was a hermaphrodite. The myth is that when Atum masturbated he ejaculated into his mouth and impregnated himself and then gave birth to these two gods.

The wife of Atum was Nut the goddess of the horizon or the sky. However Nut was in love with Geb the god of the earth. This infuriated Atum and cursed Nut into a barren state, she was said to be unable to give birth during any of the three hundred and sixty days of the year. A hysterical Nut came to the god of wisdom Thoth and asked for his advice. Thoth came forth and took light from the moon so that it would shrink and grow, which gave Nut five more days in the year and during these five days she bore five of Geb’s children. Often the goddess Nut would be shown in blue and the god Geb would be in green and browns and often have an erect phallus pointing up towards Nut.

Four of the five children of Nut and Geb created quite the uproar in the Egyptian Mythology and opened the doors to the promiscuity we are use to in today’s society thinking back on Ancient Egypt. The four children were Isis, Osiris, Seth, and Nephtys; Osiris married Isis and Seth married Nephtys. Seth was jealous over Osiris’s wife because she was the fertile and the more beautiful of the two sisters. Because Seth had so much hatred and evil in his heart Geb brought forth Osiris as the ruler over the earth which only infuriated Seth more. In Seth’s anger he devised a plot and awaited until the opportunity presented itself. One night Osiris had a banquet and Seth was invited, making nice with his brother Osiris became weary with alcohol and foolish with his thoughts. Seth challenged him to be able to escape a large box Seth had made himself. Once Osiris was caught inside Seth filled the box with molten lead causing Osiris to drown. The box was then dumped into the Nile end sent up stream. Once Osiris was dead, Seth took over the thrown and began ruling over the land with hatred and greed. Isis called to her sister in a panic to find her husband; once she had she broke him free from the box and wept over his lifeless body. When trying to perform the resurrection incantation Seth had discovered that Osiris had been found and set forth to destroy the body. When the lifeless Osiris was found by his jealous brother Seth he was then chopped into millions of pieces and scattered across Egypt. Isis set forth to gather the pieces of her husband and brought them to Thoth the god of wisdom. The only piece that could not be found was Osiris’s penis which had been thrown into the Nile and eaten by the fish which made the water fertile. Isis formed a member for her husband out of a reed and then made love to his lifeless corpse, taking his death into her and forming the child Horus in her womb and also brought Osiris back to life.

Taking into consideration that Osiris could not reclaim his thrown on earth because he had died he sent himself to the underworld to rule over the souls that pass on. Isis kept Horus from view of Seth until Horus was old enough to avenge his father’s murder. Once Horus had come of age he came forth is search of Seth. Seth sought dominance over his nephew and proceeded to make sexual advances onto the younger man. Many of the translations have been changed here and there but essentially Seth invited Horus to a private feast and many pleasures which Horus gladly accepted hoping to get the upper hand. The two men lay together and Seth’s erect phallus pressed between Horus’s thighs. When Seth proceeded to orgasm Horus reached back and caught the semen in his hand. He then left Seth’s home and came to his mother for advice. She advised him to masturbate and they spread his ejaculate on a leaf of lettuce. Lettuce considered an aphrodisiac of the time and Seth gladly ate it unknowns to what Isis had done. Swallowing Horus’s semen gave Horus the sexual dominance over his uncle and also the power Seth once had. Seth was banished to rule over the barren deserts and is now considered the god of chaos.

Naturally if this is the behavior of the gods you worship your behavior will be justly affected. It was considered that a woman that was very attractive would be fertile which took after the goddess Isis. These women would obviously be more sought after for marriage. What we consider present day prostitution was a right of passage for young Egyptian women when they came of marital age. There is evidence to believe that premarital sex was almost required before a woman could get married. These younger women would show their eligibility by wearing fish net dresses or sometimes walking around nude with their lips painted red and tattoos or their thighs and breasts. They would often join dancing and singing groups and try to get pregnant; once they were pregnant the girl would return to her family with her pregnancy as proof of her fertility and marital worth. Because pregnancy and sex was considered more of a way to close the gap between the gods and mortals, out of wedlock pregnancy was more of an honor rather than shame.

Incest was also considered less taboo, especially for the royal family. This had a lot to do with the fact that blood lines were passed down through the women. Which of course this meant that pharaoh would have to marry his sister or half sister. This could have considerable pluses when it came to the way children were raised because often children carrying the ideas of their parents and pass them down. With the parents having the same parents they were taught the same lessons, this could be evidently seen in how long traditions and ways of thinking were passed down and kept for so many generations.

Finally considering climate most people from peasant to high ranking officials wore little to nothing. The hot desert climate made clothing less than desirable. Also shaving the body of hair became not only a trend but a necessity. If you didn’t shave you were prone to the possibility of lice and other issues of that nature. This held true especially for the priests and priestesses because hair anywhere on the body was considered impure, often the men and women would have painted symbols or markings to adorn their bodies. When an adult is mummified often they will attach a fake phallus on the men and fake nipples of the women so that they might enjoy love making in the afterlife as well.

The people in a society reflect the teachings they are given. People often want to emulate the gods they worship and this behavior as I have highlighted above is obvious in this culture. Sex was not seen was such a temptation or put in such a negative light as we give it today, back then it was something natural and something holy. After all the gods did it.