A
university course explores the ancient Egyptian notions of divine
experience and the ritual magic that assisted with it
Sex,
Drugs and Rock & Roll in Ancient Egypt
by Amy Cowles
A university course
titled “Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll in Ancient Egypt” is now offered to
freshmen at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. The course
explores the ancient Egyptian notions of divine experience and the
ritual magic that assisted with it. The means of experiencing the gods
in ancient Egypt often involved rituals that included drunkenness and
music.
The instructor, Betsy
Bryan, is a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology and chair of the
Near Eastern Studies Department. Bryan says, “Sexuality helped to
guarantee the maintenance of world order and was important to all
notions of life and death.”
Bryan specializes in
the Egyptian New Kingdom (18th to 20th dynasties), spanning the time
from 1567 B.C.E. to 1085 B.C.E. Photos from Bryan's excavations and her
related travels throughout Egypt are important teaching tools in the
course. Using her laptop computer and a projector, Bryan lights up one
wall of the classroom with slides of tomb art. Parsing the images, she
helps her students see that the paintings are rich with sexual
symbolism. For example, students learn that lettuce is featured in
several scenes depicting feasts because the vegetable was considered an
aphrodisiac. Figs appear in the paintings to echo love poems of the
day, when the fruit was often shared between lovers. Actions associated
with amorous behavior are also all over the tomb walls; women fixing
their hair, beds being made and wives handing arrows to their husbands
are all considered to be sexual gestures, Bryan says.
A web site that
chronicles Bryan’s excavation each January at the Temple of Karnak in
Luxor, Egypt, garners thousands of hits each winter. To see a
day-to-day account of the 2005 excavation and to find links to digs
dating back to 2001, go to
http://www.jhu.edu/neareast/egypttoday.html
Amy Cowles is a news and information officer at Johns
Hopkins University. For more information visit
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news.
Sex, drugs, and
rock and roll was popular in Ancient Egypt and is still popular today.
Unfortunately, some people take this lifestyle a little too far and can
get addicted. Substance
abuse is a dangerous thing and sometimes entering into a drug rehab
program at a reputable drug
treatment center is the best thing a person can do in order to have
another chance at a healthy, sober life. Drug rehab is
becoming more and more common so why not look into it? The life you
save may be your own.
