Love and Sex in Ancient Egypt

Book excerpt: Sexuality in ancient Egypt was open, untainted by guilt. Sex was an important part of life, from birth to death and rebirth. Singles and married couples made love. The gods themselves were earthy enough to copulate. The Egyptians even believed in sex in the afterlife. Sex was not taboo. Even the Egyptian religion was filled with tales of adultery, incest, homosexuality and masturbation, with hints of necrophilia! Masculinity and femininity itself were strongly linked with the ability to conceive and bear children. The ancient Egyptians were aware of the function of the sex act and the purpose of the male semen in that act, but there were some misconceptions as to the semen's source, its route through the female body and its eventual fertilisation of the female ovum. It is this misconception about the female body, coupled with Egyptian religious belief, that will lead the reader to some surprising conclusions about ancient Egyptian temple practices.