Religions Influence on Human Sexuality(Multi part Blog)

This was a paper that I wrote in college for my Family Studies class, otherwise known as sex ed.

Ancient Egyptian Religion

The religion and lifestyle of ancient Egyptians was very sexual in nature with sex carrying over into the afterlife as well. 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(Seawright, 2001). The Egyptian religion was filled with tales of masturbation, adultery, incest, and homosexuality. The god Anubis was thought to be the child of an affair between the god Osiris and the goddess Nephthys, while the sun god Ra(in the form of Atem) was
said to have masturbated Shu and Tefnut into existence. However, even though the gods often practiced adultery, it was wrong for mortals to commit adultery, with the women once again receiving the harshest punishment of death for committing this sin. However prostitution was an acceptable profession in ancient Egypt. Prostitution then is not the same as now, prostitutes in ancient Egypt worked in the temples of the gods;these prostitutes were mostly likely highly guarded because of their close associations with the gods and goddesses. Prostitutes also did not receive money for these rights of fertility. Incest was also considered an acceptable practice in ancient Egypt.

Incest in Egypt was a way to maintain the bloodlines in royal families. The royal family blood came from the female and not the male. To become pharaoh, a man had to marry a royal princess...which would be his sister or half sister(Seawright, 2001). Also many of their gods practiced incest among themselves. Nut, the goddess of the night sky, and her brother Gen, the of the earth were thought to be in a constant state of love making (Seawright, 2001). In the mythology of ancient India the stories are also replete with tales of sex, and the of gods and goddesses who mate.

Seawright, C.(2001) Ancient Egyptian Sexuality, 1-7.
http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/sexuality.html