The Sex Life of Ancient Greece On Display

An unusually frank art exhibition has opened in Athens.  The Museum of Cycladic Art is hosting a show of 272 objects dating from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD.  The top floor of the museum is off limits to unattended children under 16:
There in three rooms reserved for artistic renditions of sexual congress, pederasty (socially accepted in ancient times), homoerotic love, and the quaintly named "bucolic love affair", viewers are bombarded with what the ancients were clearly good at: being bawdy. From scenes of anal copulation to mutual oral sex, to lucky charms of giant phalluses and engravings of frenzied sex with the half-man, half beast satyrs and silens, Eros is depicted in all its glory.

Some of the images in the exhibition reportedly contain material that in many countries would result in the arrest and incarceration of the owner (or viewer).  It is interesting how, once the items are designated as objets d'art, official attitudes seem to be modified.  Or perhaps the legal code of Greece is just more permissive.

Link.  Photo of sleeping Eros credit Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

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Farily mild stuff. I've been to the "secret cabinet" in the Naples Museum, where all the erotic stuff is stored. It pales in comparison to modern-day porn, although there are a number of eyebrow-raisers.
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"We felt it prudent for children under the age of 16 to be warned," said the professor. "By the age of 16 they've heard about everything that they see here and read about it in magazines or on the internet."

Heheh, yeah. That sounds about right.

@Skipweasel

Maybe they had to amputate due to abnormally excessive hair growth on the palms of his hands that his limbs became gangrenous.
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