Roman approaches to sexual imagery

Occasionally, as you go about your day as an innocent museum worker, you come across objects which make you blush.

During the documentation of some Roman lamps at Hull and East Riding Museum, a certain lamp brought a few blushes to the cheeks of our curatorial team.  As you can see from the image, the lamp shows an 'erotic' scene with a two figures on a bed having sexual intercourse.

Roman lamp showing two figures having sexual intercourse:
Hull and East Riding Museum

To the modern viewer this might seem an obscene or erotic image, perhaps pornographic.  For example, when wall paintings showing sexual acts were discovered  in Ancient Roman houses in Herculaneum and Pompeii (sites in Italy) during the nineteenth century, they were thought so shocking that they were covered with metal shutters.  Only male tourists were allowed to view them, and only after paying an additional fee.

Another interpretation of this type of scene has been a brothel scene, however there is nothing to indicate this in the image.  By suggesting these images are of brothels tells us more about modern-day views of sex, as this interpretation can have sleazy or sinister connotations - it highlights our modern sensitivity and prudishness.  In contrast, the Romans were accepting of brothels and prostitution (although prostitutes had a low social status).

Chalk weight decorated with phallus:
Hull and East Riding Museum

When we look at the archaeological evidence, we can see that the Romans had very different views to us about nudity and sex.  Images of sexual activity and genitalia can be found throughout Ancient Roman art, for example in mosaics, wall paintings or architecture.  It is likely that these images had different meanings, depending on their context (where they were put).  In some cases, images might have been presenting the idea of fertility or gender virtues.

The Romans would have been surrounded by sexually explicit imagery on domestic objects which would have been used daily.  Lamps with scenes like ours were very popular which shows that people were choosing this decoration rather than images from mythology or floral designs.  

This demonstrates that rather than viewing this lamp as 'erotic', the Romans probably viewed its subject matter as commonplace.  Nudity and sexual intercourse were a part of every day life, a subject that would have been visible in public and the imagery would not have been shocking at the time.

However, next time I open that box I think my cheeks will still go a little red...