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A mosaic depicting Leda and the swan, circa third century AD, from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Palea Paphos; now in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.Explicit erotic art was common in ancient Greece and Rome. Sex is everywhere on Athenian black-figure and red-figure vases of the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The Romans too were surrounded by…
Rarely does L.P. Hartley’s dictum that “the past is a foreign country” hold more firmly than in the area of sexuality in classical art. Classic erotic art, erotic images and depictions of genitalia, the phallus in particular, were incredibly popular motifs across a wide range of media in ancient Greece and Rome.
Simply put, sex is everywhere in Greek and Roman art. Explicit sexual representations were common on Athenian black-figure and red-figure vases of the sixth and fifth centuries BC. They are often eye-openingly confronting in nature.
Sex and love were major themes in classical art, as can be seen in this ancient Roman fresco in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy. (