Pornography

Unambiguous depictions of the sexual act were already common among the Greeks of the archaic and early classical periods. The cult of Dionysus (the god of wine) inspired much erotic imagery. Cups and vases from around the 5th century BCE depict ithyphallic satyrs while bawdy songs accompanied the frenzied Dionysian festivals. Classical cups, medallions and vases which have no obvious cultic significance frequently portray heterosexual and homosexual combinations as well as acts of fellatio rift gold and bestiality. Satyrs and hermaphrodites are recurring participants in these revels. Greek art influenced that of the Etruscans who commonly painted erotic scenes in tombs. A typical example is a wall-painting from the Tomb of the Bull, Tarquinia, which shows a human-faced bull charging towards a copulating couple. The Romans also displayed a lively interest in the lascivious. The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (known as Ovid, 19 bce–18 ce) wrote a poem entitled Ars amatoria (the art of love), a treatise on the art of seduction and deceit. A more serious approach to the erotic is that evinced by the frescoes found in the Villa of Mysteries at Pompeii, from around the 1st century ce. These illustrate episodes from the Dionysiac rites such as a girl unveiling a symbolic phallus and semi-nude figures engaged in flagellation (although the significance of the acts is by no means clear).
In India, too,rift gold classical art readily embraced enticing images. The sculpted torso of a yakshi (a nature spirit concerned with fecundity) from the 1st century bce has sensuous curves and is more voluptuous than her Greek counterparts. By the 10th century ce temples had espoused the full repertoire of the erotic. The carved facade of the Kandarya-Mahadeva Temple in Khajuraho (10th–11th century ce) is a mass of entwined divinities and seductive females as is the 13th-century temple at Konarak. India also produced the ancient sex manual, the Kama Sutra, a text that considers the spiritual aspects of sexuality and explores the many sexual positions and techniques that enhance lovemaking. Indian miniature paintings produced at Indian courts from the end of the 16th to the mid-19th centuries provided illustrations for the Kama Sutra as well as for the ragas, the modes of Indian music, many of which celebrate the erotic adventures of the god, Krishna.