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The Turin Erotic Papyrus (Papyrus 55001, also called the Erotic Papyrus or even Turin Papyrus) is an ancient Egyptian
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to ...
scroll-painting that was created during the
Ramesside Period The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
, approximately in 1150
B.C BC most often refers to: * Before Christ, a calendar era based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth * British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada * Baja California, a state of Mexico BC may also refer to: ...
.David O'Connor
Eros in Egypt
'' ''Archaeology Odyssey'', September–October, 2001A A Shokeir and M I Hussein.

" ''International Journal of Impotence Research'' (2004) 16, 385–388. Discovered in
Deir el-Medina Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom ...
in the early 19th century, it has been dubbed the "world's first men's mag". Measuring by , it consists of two parts, one of which contains twelve
erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scu ...
vignettes depicting various
sex position A sex position is a position of the body that people use for sexual intercourse or other sexual activities. Sexual acts are generally described by the positions the participants adopt in order to perform those acts. Though sexual intercourse ge ...
s. It is currently housed by the
Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio ( Italian for Egyptian Museum) is an archaeological museum in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, specializing in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, with more than 30,0 ...
in
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy.


Animal section

The first third depicts animals performing various human tasks. This part of the scroll-painting has been described as satirical and humorous.Erotic papyrus of Turin
" egyptancient.net


Erotic section

The final two thirds of Turin Erotic Papyrus consist of a series of twelve vignettes showing men and women in various
sexual position A sex position is a position of the body that people use for sexual intercourse or other sexual activities. Sexual acts are generally described by the positions the participants adopt in order to perform those acts. Though sexual intercourse g ...
s. The men in the illustrations are "scruffy, balding, short, and paunchy" with exaggeratedly large genitalia and do not conform to Egyptian standards of physical attractiveness. The women are nubile, and they are shown with objects from traditional erotic
iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
, such as
convolvulus ''Convolvulus'' is a genus of about 200 to 250''Convolvulus''.
Flora of China.
leaves and, in some scenes, they are even holding items traditionally associated with
Hathor Hathor ( egy, ḥwt-ḥr, lit=House of Horus, grc, Ἁθώρ , cop, ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ, Meroitic: ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky ...
, the goddess of love, such as
lotus flower ''Nelumbo nucifera'', also known as sacred lotus, Laxmi lotus, Indian lotus, or simply lotus, is one of two extant species of aquatic plant in the family Nelumbonaceae. It is sometimes colloquially called a water lily, though this more often re ...
s, monkeys, and
sistra A sistrum (plural: sistra or Latin sistra; from the Greek ''seistron'' of the same meaning; literally "that which is being shaken", from ''seiein'', "to shake") is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient ...
. The scroll was probably painted in the Ramesside period (1292-1075 BC). Its high artistic quality indicates that it was produced either for a wealthy audience or by and for a group of
scribes A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promin ...
or contour artists. No other similar scrolls have yet been discovered. Depictions of sexual intercourse were not part of the general repertory of ancient Egyptian formal art, but rudimentary sketches of heterosexual intercourse have been found on pottery fragments and in graffiti. The various male images have also been interpreted as a single protagonist, who has several encounters with a courtesan.


Uniqueness

The severely damaged Erotic Papyrus is the only known erotic scroll-painting to have survived. Modern audiences often misconceive that ancient Egyptian art is devoid of sexual themes. After
Jean-François Champollion Jean-François Champollion (), also known as Champollion ''le jeune'' ('the Younger'; 23 December 17904 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in t ...
saw the papyrus in 1824 in
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, he described it as "an image of monstrous obscenity that gave me a really strange impression about Egyptian wisdom and composure."The quote in th
original French
"Ici un morceau du rituel funéraire,... et là des débris de peintures d'une obscénité monstrueuse et qui me donnent une bien singulière idée de la gravité et de la sagesse égyptienne..."


Purpose

The real significance of the images is yet unknown since those fragments of text that have survived reasonably intact have so far not yielded any clear purpose for the Erotic Papyrus. The text appears to have been hastily written in the margins and would seem to express enjoyment and delight: According to French egyptologist
Pascal Vernus Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fre ...
, the papyrus is not intended to produce sexual excitement. Indeed, the apparent continuation between the animal section and the so-called "erotic" section suggests that the papyrus was intended to amuse members of the aristocracy by portraying absurd transgressions of aristocratic standards of behaviour. Pascal Vernus' lectur
Turin Erotic Papyrus: a codified transgression
at the Université Lille 3 on December 21, 2012.


See also

*
List of ancient Egyptian papyri This list of ancient Egyptian papyri includes some of the better known individual papyri written in hieroglyphs, hieratic, demotic or in Greek. Excluded are papyri found abroad or containing Biblical texts which are listed in separate lists. ...


References


External links

* ; includes line art reconstruction of the scroll * {{imdb title, 1495937, Sex in the Ancient World: Egyptian Erotica (2009, History Channel) Museo Egizio Egyptian papyri containing images