Notes on life, art, photography and technology, by a Danish dropout bohemian.
When you drink the water, remember the river.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Ancient erotica
Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing? Pompeii porn. (Home of that site.)
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?
It's been around for six thousand years eolake. It comes in many forms. I've seen images like this on old vases, plates, lamps, etc... (Many from the 1920's and 1930's era.) I like the plate by the way :)
Just wonderful, this plate, created by a talented ancient artist. Many thanks to him, after a few thousand years...
Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?
Not at all. Its been around for a hundred thousand years or so, since the first hominides started to develop a "self-conscience".
Today's animals might also have an erotic instinct, who knows. They're just unable to reflect on it - or are they? I cannot give you the answer, but anything is possible!
"Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?" It is censorship that's the newest of the two things. Thank Yahve that puritanism wasn't created BEFORE man!
Sexual art DID exist since the beginning of the human era (50-100K ago). Now, was it erotic art? Perhaps, and then maybe not. The exaggeration of the sexual attributes in prehistoric art, while these people already had a great talent in realistic depictions (animal paintings, for instance), suggest that maybe the "pornographic statues" that we found were deliberately symbolic fertility amulets, enhancing the parts meant to "attract Nature's mojo".
Also, though it is well known that the Romans weren't queasy at all about depicting sex, not everything is necessarily as it seems. The frescoes on the Pompei brothel might have been intended just to display the, um... "catalogue" of services available. And the phallus, very frequently oversized and humoristic, was known in their culture as an amulet too, a protection against evil spirits. Makes sense : what would a ghostly spirit of death and sorrow hate most, except the symbol of life, birth and pleasure?
Wikipedia has an excellent article on the topic.
I also like this plate, but allow me to say that I'd consider eating in it a sin. Well, yes : I wouldn't eat in a precious work of art! (Except my mom's kitchen : architectural art.)
And no, quit dreaming, my mom's kitchen ISN'T "adults only". Just cosy and practical. ;-)
I just read in yesterday's news that the Rodin Museum (Auguste "The Thinker" Rodin, the very same) is currently holding an exposition of the artist's erotic art. And it wasn't marginal at all! He did lots of it.
I once read, in a very serious scientific magazine, a hilarious article about what archeologists from the future might deduce from our contemporary objects. Just one example : an electronic circuit with microchips could be seen as "a three-dimentional city map".
I also read a sci-fi novel about "the mighty god Awto", a barbaric metal divinity from past times. "People used to sacrify thousands of human victims under its wheels in the middle of the streets, organize their whole life around its worship, and jeopardized their health with the pollution generated by all these mechanical animated idols. Only a divinity status can explain such aberrant behavior."
"I will claim that any assertation about the use of objects from thousands of years ago is speculation." And I will claim that your claim is speculation itself! When time travel is finally available, we'll very likely see that I was right. I'm always right.
Okay, except for the last American elections. But who knew that more than 50% of the U.S. polarized people would FINALLY see through Bush's "godly" smokescreen? Human intelligence has its limits. Stupidity doesn't.
P.S.: Are you sure that "Magic Wand" is for massaging the NECK? I could easily think of other uses, with a name like that. "Wingardium leviosa!"
"Are you sure that "Magic Wand" is for massaging the NECK? I could easily think of other uses, with a name like that."
You're playing thick again, methinks. But the joke is weakened when your making the same point as I was.
That massager has very strong vibrations, much stronger than any sexual toy. So of course it is used to great effect by many women as just that.
It was pointed out in Sex And The City, when Amanda asked in the hardware store for "that vibrator". She was told that they certainly did not sell vibrators. She asked what they really thought they were used for.
8 comments:
Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?
It's been around for six thousand years eolake. It comes in many forms. I've seen images like this on old vases, plates, lamps, etc...
(Many from the 1920's and 1930's era.)
I like the plate by the way :)
Just wonderful, this plate, created by a talented ancient artist.
Many thanks to him, after a few thousand years...
Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?
Not at all. Its been around for a hundred thousand years or so, since the first hominides started to develop a "self-conscience".
Today's animals might also have an erotic instinct, who knows. They're just unable to reflect on it - or are they? I cannot give you the answer, but anything is possible!
"Maybe erotica isn't such a new thing?"
It is censorship that's the newest of the two things. Thank Yahve that puritanism wasn't created BEFORE man!
Sexual art DID exist since the beginning of the human era (50-100K ago). Now, was it erotic art? Perhaps, and then maybe not. The exaggeration of the sexual attributes in prehistoric art, while these people already had a great talent in realistic depictions (animal paintings, for instance), suggest that maybe the "pornographic statues" that we found were deliberately symbolic fertility amulets, enhancing the parts meant to "attract Nature's mojo".
Also, though it is well known that the Romans weren't queasy at all about depicting sex, not everything is necessarily as it seems. The frescoes on the Pompei brothel might have been intended just to display the, um... "catalogue" of services available. And the phallus, very frequently oversized and humoristic, was known in their culture as an amulet too, a protection against evil spirits. Makes sense : what would a ghostly spirit of death and sorrow hate most, except the symbol of life, birth and pleasure?
Wikipedia has an excellent article on the topic.
I also like this plate, but allow me to say that I'd consider eating in it a sin. Well, yes : I wouldn't eat in a precious work of art! (Except my mom's kitchen : architectural art.)
And no, quit dreaming, my mom's kitchen ISN'T "adults only". Just cosy and practical. ;-)
I just read in yesterday's news that the Rodin Museum (Auguste "The Thinker" Rodin, the very same) is currently holding an exposition of the artist's erotic art. And it wasn't marginal at all! He did lots of it.
I will claim that any assertation about the use of objects from thousands of years ago is speculation.
Not to mention ambiguity. Take for instance the very contemporary Hitachi Magic Wand neck massager.
I once read, in a very serious scientific magazine, a hilarious article about what archeologists from the future might deduce from our contemporary objects. Just one example : an electronic circuit with microchips could be seen as "a three-dimentional city map".
I also read a sci-fi novel about "the mighty god Awto", a barbaric metal divinity from past times. "People used to sacrify thousands of human victims under its wheels in the middle of the streets, organize their whole life around its worship, and jeopardized their health with the pollution generated by all these mechanical animated idols. Only a divinity status can explain such aberrant behavior."
"I will claim that any assertation about the use of objects from thousands of years ago is speculation."
And I will claim that your claim is speculation itself! When time travel is finally available, we'll very likely see that I was right. I'm always right.
Okay, except for the last American elections. But who knew that more than 50% of the U.S. polarized people would FINALLY see through Bush's "godly" smokescreen? Human intelligence has its limits. Stupidity doesn't.
P.S.: Are you sure that "Magic Wand" is for massaging the NECK? I could easily think of other uses, with a name like that.
"Wingardium leviosa!"
"Are you sure that "Magic Wand" is for massaging the NECK? I could easily think of other uses, with a name like that."
You're playing thick again, methinks. But the joke is weakened when your making the same point as I was.
That massager has very strong vibrations, much stronger than any sexual toy. So of course it is used to great effect by many women as just that.
It was pointed out in Sex And The City, when Amanda asked in the hardware store for "that vibrator". She was told that they certainly did not sell vibrators. She asked what they really thought they were used for.
I also like this plate, but allow me to say that I'd consider eating in it a sin
CAUTION!
NEVER EAT FROM ANCIENT PLATES!
YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK!
THE PAINT USED MAY CONTAIN LEAD, MERCURY OR OTHER HIGHLY POISONEOUS SUBSTANCES!
Gen said...
CAUTION!
NEVER EAT FROM ANCIENT PLATES!
Oh yeah, that too, I forgot.
Be wary also if you have a fetish licking ancient porn. ;-)
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