All it takes is a trip to one of the many impressive temples that have stood the test of time for thousands of years to establish a lifelong admiration for the Ancient Egyptians. The Pyramids at Giza are but one testament to their ingenuity.
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And the more I learn about their society, the more impressed I am. When it comes to sexuality, equal rights and divorce, for instance, the Ancient Egyptians were surprisingly enlightened. Sure, there was their predilction for incest - but aside from that, they had some pretty forward-thinking ideas, especially for the time.
HOW DID ANCIENT EGYPTIANS VIEW SEX?
They most likely didn't have the same puritanical prudishness about sex that lingers in the West to this day.
“It seems clear, from references in the poetry and other sources, that there was no moral prohibition against physical love between young unmarried persons, nor was there any stigma attached to children born out of wedlock,” writes Barbara Mertz in Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt.
WHAT ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?
The signs point to Ancient Egyptians being OK with the gays. One case in point: There’s a Fifth Dynasty tomb at Saqqara that was jointly used for two men in the manner of a husband and wife. Though both were married with children, the men are depicted in a nose-to-nose embrace in one wall carving — a pose typically used for spouses.
“Were these men lovers?” Mertz asks. “Your guess is as good as mine, though I think the evidence points in that direction.”
WHAT WERE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MARRIAGES LIKE?
Well, it certainly wasn’t a major industry like it is for us. In fact, marriages might not even have been officially celebrated.
“We know very little about the ceremony of marriage, but most authorities agree that it was unimpressive, if indeed it existed,” Mertz writes. “Evidently, a man simply built a house and invited a woman to share it; when she moved in, the couple was considered to be married.”