The Ancients Were Open to Love
This chapter provides a historical analysis of romantic love among ancient civilizations. It explores how a few of the first human civilizations of Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome experience, expressed, and conceptualized love. This analysis within each of
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The Ancients Were Open to Love
3.1 Love in Ancient Africa Love and Sex in Egypt Egyptians were rather open in their attitudes to sex and erotic love in various representations. In ancient Egyptian theology, religion and sexuality were transparently related. Egyptians held casual attitudes toward sexuality and clearly did not have sexual taboos or guilt. There are textual and artistic evidences of representation of penises, breasts, sexual positions, premarital sex, adultery, masturbation, and homosexuality. Sexual references were easily incorporated in numerous aspects of Egyptian culture. In texts, the act of intercourse was denoted as “spending an hour together,” “to know,” “entering a house,” “to sleep with,” or, the most common word for sex, nk. Egyptian love poetry presents the erotic textual evidence, written in male and female voices and uses comparison and references to natural phenomena as a metaphor for love. Visual arts such as wall paintings and graffiti also powerfully portrayed sexuality. Egyptians evidently practiced and enjoyed recreational sex, evidenced in the medical papyri. Some artistic expressions attest to this recreational side of Egyptian sexuality (Howell 2007). Egyptians used personal adornment for sexual attraction. Hair, skin, clothing, and jewelry were specially treated. To increase their female sexuality, women artfully used clothing to both reveal and conceal; they even had net dresses. Dresses clung to the body to enhance the breasts, waist, hips, and buttocks. The best linen was very fine and semitransparent. The voluptuous curves were present in Egypt. Clothing and jewelry demonstrated status and desirability as always throughout history. In the Egyptian culture where nudity was common, one dressed to attract the opposite sex. Both genders applied mascara in an attractive manner and used rouge on the cheeks and lipstick to enhance appearance. Perfumes were made from aromatic plants and flowers and mixed with fat to prolong the scent. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 V. Karandashev, Romantic Love in Cultural Contexts, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42683-9_3
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Interesting to note that throughout history, men and women have responded to similar stimuli of personal adornment (Howell 2007). The goal of women was to attract the most desirable male possible. Wealth and family connections also used to supplement physical appeal. Men won their mates by their appeals of physical appearance, wealth, power, family connections, education, and prospects for advancement. Thus, ancient Egypt was a culture where sex, love, and life were naturally related. This was evident in many textual and pictorial references—particularly in the role of sexuality in myth, the portrayal of gods with highlighted genitalia, the overt or covert erotic imagery, and love poetry. Romance of Love in Ancient Egypt Besides erotic paintings and texts addressing the beauty of sexuality, Egyptians created probably the earliest love poems (Manniche 1987). During the New
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