Including discussions of prostitution, concubines, adultery, homosexuality, intercourse with animals, necrophilia, incest, and polygamy, this pathbreaking work introduces readers to the erotic life that flourished along the banks of the Nile from the Old Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman period.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is a pioneering book... which could be subtitled 'Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex in Ancient Egypt.'Without being prurient, the author touches on every aspect of her subject in an easily readable and highly informative manner." -- Classical World
"A splendid collection of what has survived about sexual life and practices in ancient Egypt... The collection and translation of the love poetry are eternally in the debt of Lise Manniche" -- Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This slim volume by Lise Manniche sheds some light onto a topic seldom addressed in Ancient Egyptian studies. Manniche gleans a great deal of information from the slender remains surrounding this subject, but proves by the evidence, that the ancient Egyptians were no prudes, but like all peoples had a sexual side, sometimes joking and pruient, sometimes romantic - often concerned with fertility and health issues. It is illustrated with rare glimpses of objects that are often hidden away in museum basements and private collections due to their sexual nature.
It leads me to wonder how many of these objects were lost or destroyed by Victorian adventurers upon discovery - most of them are small: amulets and ostraca, showing the very personal nature of the topic. While ancient Egyptians seem to have been frank (consider their hieroglyphs dealing with parts of the body and the god Min), their remains are mainly concerned with their afterlife beliefs. Glimpsing this more humble human aspect was intriguing and satisfying.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
On the positive side, Lise Manniche has her bases covered as far as evidence goes. In her book Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt she has found and photgraphed rarely seen artifacts, and she quotes texts from archaeological sites that are hardly ever used due to their content. This book is excellent for the Manniche's support alone.
In contemporary Western society we tend to look down upon the sexual practices of other cultures, excusing what we don't like as a "strange" cultural practice, and openly mocking what we feel comfortable with. I see a little of this in Lise Manniche's book. By taking two examples of homosexuality in ancient Egypt, she writes it off entirely, falling prey to Western sex hierarchies. She also fails to take into account that the authors of many texts she uses, and the artisans behind the sculptures are men. Regarding Egyptian love poetry she makes the comment that it is young men and women writing to each other, when it is more likely that it is older, more learned men, writing what they would have the ideal woman respond as. And the pictoral representations which she uses frequently are also idealized from a male perspective, a fact that I don't recall her mentioning with any emphasis.
Her sources are good, but her theories are highly suspect. I recommend reading this book after reading a book like "Archaeologies of Sexuality."
In contemporary Western society we tend to look down upon the sexual practices of other cultures, excusing what we don't like as a "strange" cultural practice, and openly mocking what we feel comfortable with. I see a little of this in Lise Manniche's book. By taking two examples of homosexuality in ancient Egypt, she writes it off entirely, falling prey to Western sex hierarchies. She also fails to take into account that the authors of many texts she uses, and the artisans behind the sculptures are men. Regarding Egyptian love poetry she makes the comment that it is young men and women writing to each other, when it is more likely that it is older, more learned men, writing what they would have the ideal woman respond as. And the pictoral representations which she uses frequently are also idealized from a male perspective, a fact that I don't recall her mentioning with any emphasis.
Her sources are good, but her theories are highly suspect. I recommend reading this book after reading a book like "Archaeologies of Sexuality."
Format:Hardcover
I would say that the book has been mistitled as the emphasis is on love rather than sex with the central chapter being on love poems.
In a sense this is quite important as it lays the myth that our concepts of romantic love come from the Troubadours of medieval France. Clearly they predate it, and have
Oh my god, my Lotus flower
It is lovely to go out and ..
I love to go and bath before you ..
I allow you to see my beauty in a dress of finest linen drench with fresh unguent
I go down to the water to be with you
and come up tp you again with a red fish
looking splendid on my fingers
I place it before you ...
Come! Look at me! these ideas predated the troubadours by centuries
I don't feel the book has sufficient information for the price it now attracts.
In a sense this is quite important as it lays the myth that our concepts of romantic love come from the Troubadours of medieval France. Clearly they predate it, and have
Oh my god, my Lotus flower
It is lovely to go out and ..
I love to go and bath before you ..
I allow you to see my beauty in a dress of finest linen drench with fresh unguent
I go down to the water to be with you
and come up tp you again with a red fish
looking splendid on my fingers
I place it before you ...
Come! Look at me! these ideas predated the troubadours by centuries
I don't feel the book has sufficient information for the price it now attracts.
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