The Greek heteterae (or hetaerae) where kept women, courtesans, or prostitutes.  In The Dialogue and old courtesa  is giving advice to a younger one who is just coming out of her teens.   She tells her young protege that a man is not in love unless he sometimes sometimes beats her, slaps her, and tears her clothing in a fit of jealousy.

The young courtesan complains that if she so much as “walks in the shadow of another man” her lover is overcome with an “insane fury.” The old courtesan tells her this is a good sign, because it means the man is in love with her, and money will follow.

“Had you seen him beating me last night, would you but see the marks of his lash on my body now, you would not think him such a lover. Lover indeed! He whips me with more fury than the meanest slave.” (1928 translation, full text here , quoted under fair use doctrine)

ANALYSIS:  This passage is not about beating for sexual pleasure as are the passages from the Kama Sutra which I quoted in an earlier post.   The young prostitute complains that she doesn’t like being whipped by her lover, and the older one advises her to enjoy it as a sign that she has captured her lover’s heart.  There is no mention of  either of these heterae getting sexual pleasure from the whip.  What about the lover who wields the whip.  He does so in a fit of irrational jealousy.  We might say he whips her to establish his possession of her. He tears her clothing and leaves marks on her body.  Certainly this an act of domination on his part, motivated by his sexual intoxication with her and his need to control her.  Whether the lover obtains sexual excitement specifically from the act of whipping her is never stated.

NOTE:  Alternate translations of the work’s title are Mimes of the Courtesans, and Dialogues of the Courtesans  .   This literary format, in which an older woman gives erotic advice to a younger woman, became a popular erotic genre during the Renaissance, known as whore dialogues, which some scholars consider the beginning of “modern” pornography.

Flagellation was also considered an aphrodisiac, or stimulant of sexual desire.  A man might be flagellated by a courtesan to restore his waning desire, as depicted in Fellini’s movie “Satyricon.”  Greco-Roman art often depicts a sandal being used for erotic spanking or slapping.   It can be surmised that much of this activity was consensual, since the person being whipped was seeking to get something out of it — arousal or fertility.

There are other depictions of the infliction of pain for erotic purposes, that was one-sided or non-consensual.  These images involve slaves, or female prostitutes who were motivated primarily by payment for their participation.

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For example in Book 4 Encolpius is given an aphrodisiac to drink.  His hands are bound behind him and the servant girl Psyche fondles his penis, trying to arouse him.  Psyche also pricks his cheeks with her hair pin to silence him when he tries to cry for help.

A bit later the man Encolpius and the woman Quartilla are forcibly bound together, for sport, by a group of young soldiers.  The type of bondage used on  Encolpius and Quartilla forces her mouth into intimate contact with his, her breasts rubbing against his chest, and their thighs  each pressed into each other’s.  As a result of the aphrodisiac he consumed Encolpius becomes “filled with lasciviousness” and begins performing on Quartilla who “on fire with a similar wantonness” shows no reluctance for the game, to the great amusement of the soldiers.

At the same time as he is thrusting into his bound partner Quartilla, a gay man mounts the bound Encolpius from behind.  Though Encolpius is repulsed by this, he finds himself moving involuntarily in response to the intruder’s thrusts,  just as fast and furiously as Quartilla is wriggling under him.   The young soldiers find this spectacle quite ludicrous and burst into laughter, to the humiliation of Encolpius.

This is only a small sampling of the contents of the “Satyricon.”  It should be enough to demonstrate that pleasure in bondage, humiliation, and forced sex were part of the human psyche long before the Marquis de Sade.

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What are the origins of bdsm ?  How far back can we trace it?  The desire to control another human being — I suspect that is as ancient as human nature.   When did it become associated with sexual pleasure?  And when did it become voluntary and consensual?

We know about the so-called Old Guard and the gay leather subculture.  And before that we know of the 18th century imaginings of the Marquis de Sade.  But what about before that?

There seems to be a lack of written records in general, and a lack of female voices in particular.  The oldest written document that I am aware of is  the Kama Sutra, which is believed to have been written no later than 400 C.E. and possibly earlier.  The Kama Sutra mentions biting, scratching, and striking as ways of increasing passion.  It speaks disapprovingly of striking women, even in the context of sex play, but acknowledges that this is the custom in some places.  It does not mention bondage nor ritualistic submission and domination.  However it does associate striking, biting, and scratching with erotic excitement and pleasure, thereby proving that this was known to be part of human nature close to 2000 years ago.

Does it go back longer than this?  Most likely.  How far back?  Did hunter-gatherers practice bdsm?  Probably not within their kinship group, clan or tribe.  But perhaps when they fought with other groups?  Bride kidnapping seems to be an ancient custom.  The association between rape and war,  slavery and war, are quite old, though perhaps not 200,000 years old, when modern humans first began to appear.

Of course, rape in warfare is not the same as consensual bdsm, but it does suggest the possibility of sexual pleasure in association with the use of domination and force.  At what point did some people begin to realize that they could enjoy the pleasure of  sex that appeared “forced” by the mutual consent of both parties?

The answer to this will probably never be known, but I wish some academics would attempt to research this.  It is amazing how little inquiry there is into this topic.

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