In ancient Egypt, lovemaking was a meaningful act that went beyond reproduction and taboos.
Male masturbation was an even more important image in ancient Egypt: when performed by a god it could be considered a creative or magical act: the god Atum was believed to have created the universe by masturbating to ejaculation, in some other accounts, sneeze. Atum is one of the most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his prominence in the Pyramid Texts, where he is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king, he created his children—the first deities, out of loneliness.
In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first God, having created himself, sitting on a mound (benben) (or identified with the mound itself), from the primordial waters. Early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth. To explain how Atum did this, the myth uses the metaphor of masturbation, with the hand he used in this act representing the female principle inherent within him. Other interpretations state that he has made union with his shadow.
Let stake a deeper look at the history of ancient Egypt and the Heliopolitan creation myth according to Egyptian cosmogony: Before there was anything, there was Atum, the creator God and main deity of the Egyptian pantheon, who existed by himself. He was surrounded by nothingness, so he decided to put an end to his long solitude and created the world and the rest of the Egyptian gods through masturbation. From his ejaculation emerged the first pair of twin gods, Shu (air god) and Tefnut (moisture goddess). Atum’s semen was the origin of the world, and masturbation the act of creation.
The ancient Egyptians strong belief that male masturbation was very important and they were strongly convinced that their main source of livelihood had come from Atum’s ejaculation, and it was their duty to keep it alive. Pharaohs would perform a ceremony to thank their main god, which involved masturbating at the riverbank and making sure that the semen followed the flow of the river’s waters. This was seen as a good omen and a sign of the continuing life’s cycle, fertility, and the universal order, which would also follow their own course.
The Sacred Role Of Lovemaking And Pleasure In Ancient Egypt
Apart from being a source of procreation, sex and the pleasure it provides were also a natural source of recreation. Marriage was also the nuclear institution, but its focus was reproduction. There were no ceremonies or legal contracts for weddings. The couple was bound by a common agreement: a child’s upbringing. Logically, the most acceptable reason for divorce would be infertility.
Monogamy was the common norm among Egyptian couples, but has no transcendental quality. Most couples would marry at a young age –16 sixteen years old–, and sexual practices were diverse and not deemed as an illegitimate act to punish. The Pharaohs and ruling class resorted to incest and consanguinity to preserve the noble lineage and their power.
All evidence of this remained undiscovered for centuries, until the highly moral Victorian society made of Egyptology a trend (what an irony). Through several expeditions and archaeological works, English explorers found much more than the customs of the civilization that ruled the world thousands of years ago.
A collection of handcrafted phallic pieces, engravings, and sculptures from the Mesopotamian and Egyptian culture were carefully kept locked away for several years. Now the collection is partially displayed to the public.
References:
- Wilkinson, Complete Gods and Goddesses, pp. 18, 99.
- Ancient Egyptian creation myths – Wikipedia
- The sacred mystery of public masturbation ceremonies in ancient Egypt – Face2Face Africa
- Culture colectiva; Alejandro I. Lopez
