Discovering Erotic Art

Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed and buried by a sudden volcanic eruption in AD 79. Houses and artifacts have been preserved for centuries. For its extraordinary state of conservation, this settlement has been acknowledged as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This archaeological site has provided experts with invaluable data about the city and the people that lived there and new findings are still happening.
But there is something that is often omitted: the gay erotic art of Pompeii.
Many pieces of the artwork found in Pompeii and Herculaneum are sexually explicit, and
showcase images of sexual acts between members of the opposite sex and of the same sex.
People were fascinated by an image: the erect penis, a symbol of power and pleasure.

If you walked through the city of Pompeii around 100 B.C., you would see amphitheatres, temples…and giant penises all around!
For a Roman man sex was legitimate and accepted but with someone socially inferior, as a slave, or a woman. Sex, was everywhere — it was considered natural, and spiritual and totally appropriate between all genders