Sex in ancient Egypt

I was at a lecture in 2008 by Karen Exell, who is the curator of the Egyptian and the Sudan collections at Manchester museum (U.K).

She gave a talk on art and sex in ancient Egypt, which was a good and fun talk, and it is that reason I started this topic to look at some of the thing's she spoke about.

She started with Hathor and things associated with birth and rebirth that can be seen through the major festivals celebrating her cult. She then went on to look at some of the things that maybe had a sexual meaning, which I have included below.

She showed us some pictures of ladies wearing wigs and explained how having big hair were seen as way to show one’s attractiveness. She quoted a saying from ancient Egypt from a lady who would not make love to her husband until she had her wig on.

We were shown some of the paintings from the tomb chapel of Nebamun, now in the British museum as an example of the symbolic sexual meaning.

First the fishing and fowling scene which can also be seen in other tombs, are depictions of rebirth, procreation and impregnation. The tilapea fish, which is often seen, was venerated as it raised it’s young in its mouth.

Then we looked at the banquet scene, have you noticed how there is not much food about however there is lot’s of beer and wine, are there are semi-naked girls with big hairdos and notice people sniffing the mandrake fruit or the lotus flower.The Lotus flower is an emblem of cyclical regeneration; it is also thought to be a narcotic when it is mixed in to drink. If you look above the heads of the girls you will often see a lotus, this could mean they were under the influence.

The mandrake fruit was also a narcotic if you sniffed the root and like the lotus these could be symbolic meanings for loosen inhibitions.

Other sexual references in ancient Egypt that weren't on the lecture were...

In the Ashmolean museum in Oxford is a Min colossi which was excavated by Petrie 1820 from Koptos.
There appears to have bean multiple examples of these Min statues at Koptos, which could mean that they marked the boundary between the scared temple and the town itself.
In one hand Min holds an erect phallus and in the other a flail; indicative of separating the 'wheat from the chaff' - of agricultural fertility.
Any one who wishes to see the Min colossi at Oxford should know that they removed the penis due to the large amount of visitors who for some reason touch it, as far as I know they have not put it back on the statue.

In the myth of Osiris, Osiris gets his penis eaten by a fish, but at Abydos in the chapel of Sokar there are wall reliefs suggesting that Horus had not been born before the death of Oisris.One wall relief shows Osiris lying on an embalming table and manually stimulating his penis and on another wall we see Isis has a sparrowhawk hovering over Osiris's penis so he could impregnate her.

Medicine and Magic

The ancient Egyptians believed that to be cured from an illness you needed medicine and magic. There is an example somewhere of somebody with a runny nose who took his medicine and said in the name of Ptah runny nose go away.

The ancient Egyptians had some funny ways of curing illness but the best one I have ever heard is, if you went to the doctor with a migraine he would sit you down and ask what side your migraine was on. When you told him what side it was, the doctor would then hit you on the other side with a dead fish. Did it work? You try it and let me know.

They also had a pregnancy test, they would insert garlic into a woman's body and if they could smell garlic a week later it meant she was pregnant.You are also free to try that to see if it is true.
There was even away to find out if a woman was having a boy or a girl, they would get the woman to urinate on two different types of grain, a masculine and a feminine. Which ever one grew quicker was the answer to the question.
I have heard that they were also right about 80% of the time but I am not sure if that is true or not.