Ancient Egypt: Drink, drugs and sex.
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Drink, drugs and sex |
DrinkDrinking alcohol was widespread. Children indulged as well, even if it was just the somewhat weak Egyptian beer. Actually beer may have been safer for them than water or even milk which were often infected by germs. But a scribe warned his pupil:I hear that you are neglecting your writing and spending all your time dancing, going from tavern to tavern, always reeking of beer...If only you realized that wine is a thing of the devil...You sit in front of the wench, sprinkled with perfume; your garland hangs around your neck and you drum on your paunch; you reel and fall on your belly and are filthied with dirt.Religious holidays were often occasions for joyous public celebrations which included drinking, at times to excess, but which was not frowned upon on these occasions: Drink till drunk while enjoying the feast day! 
There were inns and bordellos where men could indulge and which were not frequented by respectable women. These had to pursue their pleasure in their own home.
Both men and women were known to get intoxicated. In one tomb picture a woman is seen vomitting, in Pahery's tomb at el Kab a man is depicted saying Give me eighteen jugs of wine - I want to get drunk, my insides are as dry as straw. 
Royalty did it too, at least in the eyes of a student learning how to draw: A drawing on limestone shows a New Kingdom king with what seems to be a six o'clock shadow, looking much the worse for wear.
Pharaoh wearing the Blue Crown He drank a great amount of wine, for the pharaoh had a desire for the Egyptian qlbj-wine. That night the pharaoh lay down to rest by the shore of the lake. He slept under a vine in the north. In the morning the pharaoh could not rise because of his great hang-over.The New Kingdom scribe Any, seemingly a paragon of middle class rectitude, warns potential drunks of what will happen to them: Don't indulge in drinking beer,One effect of excessive alcohol consumption is the headache the morning after. The Roman Dio reported that the Egyptians used boiled cabbage and cabbage seeds against hang-overs. The addition of a small amount of sea water to the wine was also practiced in order to improve the taste (according to Pliny) and prevent headaches (in the opinion of Athenaeus). |
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Drugs
In many scenes blue lotus flowers (Nymphaea caerulea, a water lily) are depicted with the revellers ostensibly sniffing them. This has led some researchers to suspect that they might be psychoactive. Their investigations were inconclusive.
What drugs apart from alcohol were used is unclear. Traces of tetrahydrocannabinol [13] have been found in mummies. The properties of mandrake and opium were certainly known during the Late Dynastic Period and psychoactive plants are (or at least seem to be) depicted since early times [2]. Dr Svetla Balabanova of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Ulm found traces of cocaine and nicotine in 21st dynasty mummies [1], but it is unclear whether these are remains of drug use, stem from plants of the same families or are modern contaminations. SexNudity was an accepted part of Egyptian life and had little to do with sex. According to tomb depictions children were often naked and even grown ups removed their clothes in public when the work they were doing required it.Representations of phalli are not infrequently found in temples as part of fertility scenes rather than sexual activity. The purification rites priests had to undergo before entering their temple point to there having been a taboo on sex in sacred grounds. While there were many depictions of the act of creation by sex or self-impregnation, in Egypt, not like in some Middle Eastern countries, there was apparently no 'temple prostitution' [5]. Even entering a tomb after having intercourse was forbidden: As concerns any person entering this tomb, having eaten something abominable abominable to the akh-spirit, and having slept with a woman, I shall have him judged before the tribunal of the dead before the great god.Virility and sex are closely connected with power. In the papyrus of Nu, part of a New Kingdom Book of the Dead, the deceased rejoices: The inhabitants lower their heads because of me. 
Little is known about the sexual mores, and the rarity of any mention of sex has been variously interpreted as being the result of prudish attitudes or, conversely, of it being an accepted, natural phenomenon not worthy of a special mention [8]. Depictions of a sexual nature [11] have been described as satires or as symbols of the creation acts of the gods [4]. The fact that there was what looks suspiciously like pornography [3] might be interpreted as there having existed at least periods when sexuality was repressed.Rape was, according to Ptahhotep, not acceptable, any opposition to having intercourse should be respected. On the other hand, paedophilia was not evil by itself, nor should one behave in a way that could be interpreted wrongly or arouse expectations one did not have the intention of satisfying: You should not copulate with a woman (or) a child, (if) you have recognized opposition to the water (i.e. the seminal fluid) on her forehead. There is no cooling for what is in one's body. How widespread prostitution [9] was cannot be verified; that there would have been customers of such services we can be sure of. As Ankhsheshonq said in his demotic Instruction: Man is even more eager to copulate than a donkey; his purse is what restrains him.To the fictitional Setne Khamwas, son of Pharaoh Usermare, one hour with Tabubu, the daughter of the prophet of Bastet, was worth 10 pieces of gold: Setne said to the servant: "Go, say to the maid, 'It is Setne Khamwas, the son of Pharaoh Usermare, who has sent me to say, "I will give you ten pieces of gold - spend an hour with me....In the story Tabubu was less offended by the proposition itself but rather that she was being treated like a low woman of the street, though it may be doubted that a street walker would have been remunerated in such a handsome way. While there was little explicit sex in literature, erotic love poetry was widespread in Ramesside times at least. The terms 'brother' and 'sister' generally referred to one's beloved. My heart desires to go down to bathe myself before you, 
Dancing too could often be titillatingly erotic, when scantily clad young women performed sinuous dances at banquets [6]. The preferences of ancient Egyptian men were remarkably similar to those of modern Westerners. In a story from the Westcar papyrus Pharaoh Snofru decides to go on an outing: Indeed, I shall go rowing! Have brought to me twenty ebony oars worked in gold with handles of skeb wood worked in fine gold. Have brought to me twenty women with beautiful bodies and breasts and hair who have not given birth. And have brought to me twenty nets and give these nets to these women in place of their clothes. Generally speaking - and as has been the case throughout most of history and in most societies - men had much more social and sexual freedom than women [10]; but, at least in theory, wives of other men were out of bounds. Beware of a woman who is a stranger,How much men could and did permit themselves with their female servants and slaves is not known. Apparently, they often did not restrain themselves as this mourner did: Three years have passed since that day (since his wife died). I do not enter another house, and a man of my rank does not have to abstain from this... The sisters who dwell in the house, I did not visit any of them. 
As to homosexual behaviour, of which there is very little testimony [7], it was, at least in certain quarters, frowned upon. Sexual misconduct, which in the various versions of the Book of the Dead included homosexual relations, ranked high in the list of misbehaviour men were at pains to distance themselves from when confronted with their judges in the other world.
Hail, Qerrti, who comest forth from Amentet, I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men [12].The general tone of the story of King Neferkare and General Sasenet, describing what appears to be a clandestine homosexual relationship between Pepi I and his general, is not approving, but, according to the Contendings of Horus and Seth, the Egyptian attitude towards homosexuality may have been similar to that of the Greeks who considered the man performing the part of submissive to be inferior but did not attach opprobrium to homosexuality per se. The story relates that Seth caused his phallus to become stiff and inserted it between Horus's thighs. Then Horus placed his hands between his thighs and received Seth's semen. When Horus told Isis what Seth had done, she let out a loud shriek, seized the copper (knife), cut off his hand(s) with which he had received Seth's semen. Seth clearly considered Horus to be unworthy to rule, as did the other gods: Said Seth: "Let me be awarded the office of Ruler, l.p.h., for as to Horus, the one who is standing (trial), I have performed the labor of a male against him." The Ennead let out a load cry. They spewed and spat at Horus's face.It was only thanks to the trickery of Isis that the gods came to believe that Seth and not Horus was the effeminate one, unfit to rule. |
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Picture sources: [ ] Couple with blue lotus flower: [ ] Excerpt from the Turin erotic papyrus [ ] Dancing girls: [ ] Photograph of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep embracing: Jon Bodsworth Footnotes: [5] 'Temple prostitution' is a most unfortunate term we owe our Victorian ancestors with their warped minds. By the first century BCE the mores may have changed a bit, if we are to believe Strabo But to Zeus (i.e. Amen) whom they worship especially, the most beautiful virgin belonging to the noblest family is dedicated, called by the Hellenes Pallades. She also indulges in fornication offering herself to any she wants to, until the natural purification of her body occurs. After her purification she is given to a man; but before she is given to him, obsequies are held after her period of fornication has ended.[6] Nubian dancing girls were much sought after in the Roman empire and their ancient dancing tradition is still alive today in the remoter parts of the Sudan. [8] According to a 20th dynasty letter the discovery of an extramarital sexual relationship caused quite a commotion among the villagers who would have beaten up the man (and his relations for good measure), trying to force him to commit himself publicly. The composer of the Insinger Papyrus did not go as far as the later Christian moralists to whom gluttony and lust were deadly sins, but he did not have a good opinion of bodily urges: [The] evil that befalls the fool, his belly and his phallus bring it.On the other hand, sex was one of the things the deceased looked forward to, some, such as milling, a drudge, but all of them necessary for a full existence and most of them pleasurable: I furnish your field, Hotep, which you love, your produce, lord of the winds.[9] A number of Egyptian words have been interpreted as 'prostitute': xnm.t, xnm.tj, kAj, ms.t. [10] From this rule we apparently must exclude a woman called Hel and her daughter Webkhet who lived at Deir el Medina and seem to have been rather generous with their favours. (cf. Man and Woman) [11] According to Marc Orriols speaking at the Congreso Ibérico de Egiptología, September 11 - 14, 2006 (¿Cómo eran los egipcios en la cama?) we have only some thirty-odd depictions of sexual activity between humans dating to pre-Graeco-Roman times. (Cf. the intercourse scene in a grotto above the chapel of Hatshepsut, which–on the flimsiest of grounds–has been interpreted by some as depicting Senenmut and Hatshepsut [14]) [12] n nk=j nkk which the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website translates somewhat quaintly "Ich habe nicht mit einem Buhlknaben gebuhlt" ("I have not copulated with a rentboy" or the like). nk (copulate) was used for humans, animals and deities, e.g. it is said of the ba of Re in pKairo CG 51189: nk =f jm =f (He copulates with himself.) [13] Tetrahydrocannabinol occurs in hemp and frankincense. It may have been used for pain relief (cf. Nerlich, 1995), but could also have entered the body during religious ceremonies when frankincense was burned. The Egyptian term SmSm.t is often translated as hemp because it was also used in rope making: Unas has tied the ropes of hemp (?) (SmSm.t)Some experts doubt that hemp was used in Egypt, either in rope making or as a drug. |
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 | [3] Papyrus 55001 |
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| These are just suggestions for further reading. I do not assume any responsibility for the availability or content of these websites. | ||
 | [1] The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies | |
| [2] Art and Artifact as Ethnobotanical Tools in the Ancient Near East with Emphasis on Psychoactive Plants by William A. Emboden, Jr. | |
| [4] The Turin erotic papyrus: Eros in Egypt by David O’Connor | |
| [7] La sexualidad by Manuel Crenes | |
| [14] Senenmut and Hatshepsut | |
| La droga en el Antiguo Egipto | |
| Apuntes sobre las Erótica Ægyptiaca y la sexualidad en el Antiguo Egipto | |
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