Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum has been both exhibited as art and censored as pornography. The Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum around the bay of Naples were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, thereby preserving their buildings and artefacts until extensive archaeological excavations began in the 18th century. These digs revealed the cities to be rich in erotic artefacts such as statues, frescoes, and household items decorated with sexual themes.

The ubiquity of such imagery and items indicates that the treatment of sexual iconography in ancient Rome was more relaxed than in current Western culture. The creation of erotic art in ancient Rome is thought to have occurred over seven centuries from the first century BCE to the fifth or sixth century CE.

Much of what might strike modern viewers as erotic imagery, such as oversized phalluses, could arguably be fertility imagery. Depictions of the phallus, for example, could be used in gardens to encourage the production of fertile plants.

This clash of cultures led to many erotic artefacts from Pompeii being locked away from the public for nearly 200 years. In 1819, when King Francis I of Naples visited the Pompeii exhibition at the Naples National Archaeological Museum with his wife and daughter, he was embarrassed by the erotic artwork and ordered it to be locked away in a "secret cabinet", accessible only to "people of mature age and respected morals". Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years, the Secret Museum, Naples was briefly made accessible at the end of the 1960s (the time of the sexual revolution) and was finally re-opened for viewing in 2000. Minors are still only allowed entry to the once-secret cabinet in the presence of a guardian, or with written permission.

Phalluses

The phallus (the erect penis), whether on Pan, Priapus or a similar deity, or on its own, was a common image. It was not seen as threatening or even necessarily erotic, but as a ward against the evil eye. The phallus was sculpted in bronze as tintinnabula (wind chimes). Phallus-animals were common household items.

Priapus

A wall fresco which depicted Priapus, the god of sex and fertility, with his oversized erection, was covered with plaster (and, as Karl Schefold explains, even the older reproduction below was locked away "out of prudishness" and only opened on request) and only rediscovered in 1998 due to rainfall.

The Romans believed that he was a talisman protecting the riches of the house.

The second image, from Schefold, Karl: Vergessenes Pompeji: Unveröffentlichte Bilder römischer Wanddekorationen in geschichtlicher Folge. München 1962., with its much more brilliant colors, has been used to retouch the younger, higher resolution image here.

A statuette of Priapus in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii is from a small cubicle leading off from the kitchen. It is thought the statue used to be placed in the garden and was used as a fountain. A hole runs through its phallus allowing it to spurt like a fountain. Also in this room where the statue was located were erotic paintings.

Brothels

It is unclear whether the images on the walls were advertisements for the services offered, or if they were merely intended to heighten the pleasure of the visitors. As previously mentioned, some of the paintings and frescoes became immediately famous because they represented erotic, sometimes explicit, sexual scenes.

One of the most curious buildings recovered was the Lupanar, a brothel, which had many erotic paintings and graffiti inside. The erotic paintings seem to present an idealised vision of sex, at odds with reality. The Lupanar had 10 rooms (cubicula), 5 per floor; a balcony; and a latrina. There is no proof that the rooms in the brothel were reserved for specific sexual acts to be performed within them. In 1995, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill determined that the Lupanar possessed three elements characteristic of ancient brothels: raised stone areas that could be used as beds for performing sexual favors, erotic art, and erotic graffiti.

The Lupanar is not the only brothel in Pompeii, though it is the most famous and the first officially discovered. The town seems to have been oriented to a warm consideration of sensual matters: on a wall of the Basilica (sort of a civil tribunal, thus frequented by many Roman tourists and travelers), a piece of graffiti tells the foreigner: If anyone is looking for some tender love in this town, keep in mind that here all the girls are very friendly (loose translation). Other inscriptions reveal some pricing information for various services: Athenais 2 As, Sabina 2 As (CIL IV, 4150), The house slave Logas, 8 As (CIL IV, 5203) or Maritimus licks your vulva for 4 As. He is ready to serve virgins as well. (CIL IV, 8940). The amounts vary from one to two asses up to several sesterces. In the lower price range, the service was not more expensive than a loaf of bread.

Suburban baths

The Suburban Baths are located near the Marine Gate in Pompeii. In one room, thought to be a dressing room, there are seven wall paintings of sexual scenes and one of a figure with an enlarged scrotum.

These eight paintings are located above paintings of numbered boxes sitting on a shelf. These wall paintings were found in 1986 when the room was first excavated. The paintings are dated to 62 to 79 CE. The building that the baths are in is two stories with the baths taking up the ground floor.

The function of the wall paintings is not yet clear: some authors say that they indicate that the services of prostitutes were available on the upper floor of the bathhouse and could be a sort of advertising, while others prefer the hypothesis that their only purpose was to decorate the walls with joyful scenes, as these were in Roman culture.

Another idea is that both the paintings of sexual scenes and the paintings of boxes with numerals on them were related to the use of spintria tokens that gave people access to a locker in the dressing room.

Each wall painting of a sexual scene has a painting just below it of a box with a number on it. It is thought that there were actual boxes that were placed under these paintings. These boxes would have been placed on a wooden shelf.……

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