OF NOTE:
This
article and subsequent series from K. J. Aaron 's Sexuality and
the Bible has been posted because it is EXCELLENT and
that it has value to help people understand the Bible. Please
note that Ex-minister
does not wish to imply that the author has left the faith.
A special thank you is due to Keith
Hunt for his
recognition of such rare Biblical study material and for
granting permission to re-post it here at this website. Keith
is a Christian and I heartily encourage you to visit his
intriguing website http://www.keithhunt.com/
where he has over 300 Biblical Study articles!
At
the conclusion of this first chapter there are links to other
chapters of the book posted at the end of this article.
SEXUALITY
AND THE BIBLE
by K. J. Aaron
The
reader may find himself asking,
as the author has, "is that
in the Bible?" Whores and
whoremongers; polygamists and
bigamists; homosexuals and
lesbians; incest, intercourse,
circumcision, castration,
menstruation, urination,
masturbation, perversion, wet
dreams, adultery, fornication -
all are mentioned. Sex, in one
form or another, was closely
interwoven with the beliefs and
practices of the Bible people.
As one writer has said:
"The Hebrews circumcised
the penis, they did not amputate
it!"
Biblical
Euphemisms for Sexual Activity
Why does the Bible say,
"Adam knew his wife"?
Asked a young man in a Sunday
School class. Someone answered:
"It seems obvious he should
know the woman to whom he was
married!"
Most people
realize, of course, that the
expression "Adam knew his
wife" means he had sexual
intercourse with her; for, as a
result, "she
conceived" (Genesis 4:1).
To say Adam "knew" his
wife (rather than to say he had
"sex" with her) is an
example of euphemism: the
substitution of an inoffensive
expression for one that may
offend.
A story is told about
Harry Truman giving a speech
before a delegation of farmers.
"I grew up on a farm,"
the president said, "and I
know that farming means manure,
manure, and more manure." A
friend of the president's wife
leaned over to her, saying,
"Really, Bess, you should
teach Harry to say 'fertilizer,'
not 'manure'." Mrs. Truman
shook her head and replied:
"Good lord! it has taken me
thirty years to get him to say
`manure'!"
Often euphemisms
are used as substitute words for
the sexual organs. A few of the
many listed in "A
Dictionary of Euphemisms and
Other Double Talk" for the
female organs are: field, ring,
furrow, cavern, pit, garden,
swine, slit, hold, trench,
sheath, cunnus, little boat,
vulva, and mouse-trap. For the
male organ: tail, stem, column,
pole, pike, groin, hanger,
nerve, stake, stopper, javelin,
tree, obelisk, shaft, rod, awl,
dart, beam, vein, private,
plowshare, prick, weapon, bat,
bone, horn, pecker, cock, mouse,
tool, peter, and dick.
In the
Bible, euphemisms for the sexual
organs include such terms as
"secrets" (Deuteronomy
25:11), "stones"
(Deuteronomy 23:1),
"loins" (Genesis
46:26), "thigh"
(Genesis 24:2), "privy
member" (Deuteronomy 23:1),
"fountain" (Leviticus
20:18), and "the place of
the breaking forth of
children" (Hosea 13:13).
As
the basis of an analogy, Paul
spoke of the various parts of
the human body, including the
head, eyes, ears, nose, hands
and feet, and "our uncomely
parts" (1 Corinthians
12:15-24). Elsewhere the Greek
word used here is translated
"shame" (Revelation
16:15), "unseemly"
(Romans 1:27), and is diectly
linked with a word meaning the
"pundenda (Strong's
Concordance, 808, 809). It seems
probable, then, that Paul's
analogy included the sexual
parts of the body, euphemized
into the expression
"uncomely parts."
Biblical euphemisms for sexual
intercourse, many of which are
listed in "Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible,"
include the following: Adam knew
Eve ... and she conceived
(Genesis 4:1). Go in unto my
maid ... obtain children by her
(Genesis 16:2). A man ... to
come in unto us (Genesis 19:31).
Jacob ... went in unto her
(Genesis 29:23). Abimelech had
not come near her (Genesis
20:4). Thou shalt not approach
to his wife (Leviticus 18:14).
When I came to her, I found her
not a maid (Deuteronomy 22:14).
I went unto the prophetess; and
she conceived (Isaiah 8:3). Thou
hast humbled her (Deuteronomy
21:14). He took her, and lay
with her (Genesis 34:2). The
manner of as the earth (Genesis
19:31).
The expression "lieth
carnally" (Leviticus 19:20
is from two Hebrew words - one
meaning to lie down for the
sexual act, and the other, to
ejaculate semen, the word
commonly translated
"seed" (Strong's
Concordance, 7902, 2233). A
similar meaning is evident in
the euphemistic phrase, "If
any man's seed of copulation go
out from him..." (Leviticus
15:16). When a woman becomes
pregnant, she has
"conceived seed"
(Leviticus 12:2), or is
"taken with the
manner" (Numbers 5:13). If
she miscarries, "her fruit
departs from her" (Exodus
21:22). Euphemisms for a woman's
menstrual flow include
"flowers" (Leviticus
15:33), "the custom of
women" (Genesis 31:35), and
"the manner of women"
(Genesis 18:11).
In the marriage
act, with the woman on her back,
the man would open her
robe-"uncover her
nakedness" (Leviticus
18:7)-and open his robe to
spread it over her. These
actions provided the basis for
the euphemistic way of speaking:
"1 spread my skirt over
thee" (Ruth 3:9; Ezekiel
16:8). Immorality is referred to
as "filthiness in her
skirts" (Lamentations 1:9)
and "chambering"
(Romans 13:13). Romantic love
play is called
"sporting" (Genesis
26:8). Homosexual intercourse is
called "going after strange
flesh" (Jude 7).
The words
"eateth" and
"mouth" (as used in
Proverbs 30:20) are listed as
euphemisms in Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible:
"Such is the way of an
adulterous woman; she eateth,
and wipeth her mouth, and saith,
I have done no wickedness."
Since no one links adultery with
the normal eating of food or
wiping the mouth, the terms are
clearly euphemistic for sexual
activity.
Today the word
"screw" is a vulgar
slang word for sexual
intercourse. A comparable word,
"grind," was
frequently used by the ancients
in the same sense. Writers such
as the ancient Horace provide
proof of this usage. In the
Bible, Job said: "If my
heart have been deceived by a
woman.. then let my wife
"grind" unto another,
and let others bow down upon
her" (Job 31:9,10). In his
famous early English translation
of the Bible, Coverdale put it
this way: "O then let my
wife be another man's harlot,
and let other lye with
her."
Jerome, noted
translator of the Latin Vulgate,
understood the word
"grind" in Isaiah 47:2
in the same way. Though the
expression "grind
meal" is used, the wording
of the context, "make bare
the leg, uncover the thigh
...thy nakedness shall be
uncovered, yea, thy shame shall
be seen," strongly suggests
a sexual meaning. It should be
remembered that captive women
taken as concubines were forced
to grind in both senses of the
word (Strong's Concordance,
2912).
After Samson was betrayed
by Delilah, "the
Philistines took him, an put out
his out his eyes, and bound him
with fetters of brass; and he
did grind in the prison
house" (Judges 16:21). This
is normally taken to mean he was
forced to labor at the mill,
grinding meal. But the rabbis
understood this as having a
sexual meaning - that he was
held captive for purpose of
"grinding" women! A
Talmudic tractate (Sotah 9b-10a)
explains that Samson continued
his profligate life in prison,
and the Philistine women set
aside all considerations of
marital bonds in the hopes of
gaining offspring who would
inherit his strength and
stature.
The word that is
translated "hinge" (1
Kings 7:50), is the same word
that is translated a woman's
secret parts" (Isaiah
3:17). This word is defined by
Strong as "a hole, i.e.
hinge or the female
pudenda" (Strong's
Concordance, 6596). All of this
seems quite strange until we
understand the
"design" of the
ancient hinge. As the
accompanying drawing shows, a
hinge involved a vertical pin
that turned in a hole. Since a
woman also has a hole (in which
a sexual partner
"turns"), the use of
"hinge" as an
euphemism is understandable -
and not radically different from
the modem term
"swinger"!
The ancient
hinge: a hole, usually in a
stone, in which a vertical pin
turned. The round hinge stone
shown here is from Tell Asmar.
Sometimes words are brought over
from another language, left
untranslated, and serve as
euphemisms. In time, though,
some of them become standard
words. Our word
"penis," which in
Latin simply means tail, is an
example. The Romans might have
refered to a dog (male or
female) as having a tail
(penis).
Interestingly, our word
"pencil" (from the
Latin penis) means a little
tail, the first pencils being a
brush of hair. A standard word
the Romans would have used for
the male organ would have been
membrum virile. If they wanted
to use an euphemism, they might
have called it a gladius
(sword). Naturally the gladius
(sword) fit into a vagina (the
Latin word for sheath)!
The
Latin word for acorn is "glans."
Because an acorn resembles the
head portion of the male organ,
it was a natural development to
bring "glans" over
into English to designate this
part of the male anatomy.
Because of this resemblance, the
ancients commonly regarded the
oak tree as "male."
superstitious and idolatrous
rites involved oak trees,
providing the basis for Isaiah's
rebuke about "the oak which
ye have desired" (Isaiah
1:29).
For the bodily part we
call testicles, the Greeks used
the word "orchis."
Since a certain flower has a
root with a similar shape, it
was called an orchid. By
bringing the word over into
English untranslated, a young
lady can wear a orchid (rather
than a "testicle")
pinned neatly on her dress!
We
are all familiar with a court
procedure in which a person
places his hand on a Bible,
swearing he will tell the truth
and nothing but the truth. An
earlier custom required a man to
place his hand on the sexual
organ, euphemistically called
the "thigh," as when
Abraham sent his servant to
secure a wife for Isaac"
"Put, I pray thee, thy hand
under my thigh: and I will make
thee swear by the Lord"
(Genesis 24:2). Such was an
established custom of the time.
Many years later, when he was
dying, Jacob said to Joseph:
"Put, I pray thee, thy hand
under my thigh ... bury me not
in Egypt" (Genesis 47:29).
"Thigh," when used as
an euphemism, refers to the
"generative parts" (Strong's
Concordance, 3409). This is
evident in the passages such as
Judges 8:30 "And Gideon had
threescore and ten sons of his
body [margin: going out of his
high]: for he had many
wives," And, Exodus 1:5:
"...the souls that came out
of the loins of Jacob [margin:
out of the thigh of Jacobl."
To put it plainly, as Clarke
explains, "In swearing, the
hand was often placed on
circumcised part," a custom
called Yemeen-ed-Dehhereh
Gedheeb, The Oath of the
Circumcised Penis.
This method
of taking an oath was known as
"giving the hand" as
the following scriptures show:
"And all the princes and
the mighty men ... submitted
themselves unto Solomon [margin:
gave the hand under
Solomon]" (1 Chronicles 29:
24). Ezekiel mentioned a king
who "despised the oath by
breaking the covenant, when, lo,
he had given his hand"
(Ezekiel 17:18). "We have
given the hand to the Egyptians,
and to Assyrians, to be
satisfied with bread"
(Lamentations 5:6). The time of
Ezra, swearing they would put
away foreign women "gave
their hands" (Ezra 10:19).
This custom, in one form or
another, has been practiced
among numerous tribes and
peoples. Among the Arabs, two
men might meet with this
greeting: "God so willing:
inch by inch, may thy firm stalk
increase in power and
sensitivity!" Then each
touched the fingers of his right
hand to chest, lips, forehead,
and his palm upon the generative
organs.
The accompanying old
drawing shows the Egyptian god
Osiris swearing by holding his
own penis. Such was not
considered indecent, but would
compare to the present-day
custom of placing a hand on the
heart while saying a solemn pledge.
In the Sudan, a
tribesman would salute a sheik
by touching his hands between
his thighs to affirm humility
and kiss his beard. The sheik
then might, if he chose,
acknowledge him by genital
examination. If he became erect,
he was obligated to entertain
him that night with concubines.
European captives brought before
El-Mahdi were compelled to place
their fingers upon his privates
while he guided them into the
faith. A Hindu custom required
men to touch between the thighs
or actually grasp the testes.
Putting the hand "under the
thigh" was considered
especially solem because it
involved the life force, the
means of producing offspring.
THE NEW BIBLE DICTIONARY says
that placing the hand under the
"thigh" was simply an
euphemistic way of saying
"place your hand on my
testes."
Because of this
custom, we derive the word
"testify" from the
Latin root "testis."
The word "detest,"
from the same root, means,
roughly, "to hate to the
bottom of one's balls."
Placing the hand upon the
testicles of another man while
taking an oath was not
considered improper - if done by
a MAN. But Hebrew law ordered a
woman's hand cut off if she
grabbed a man in this area
(Deuteronomy
25:11,12).
"When men strive
together one with another, and
the wife of the one draweth near
for to deliver her husband out
of the hand of him that smiteth
him, and puueth forth her hand
and taketh him by the secrets:
then thou shalt cut off her
hand, thine eye shall not pity
her."
(Now this I must say
gives me some trouble, as it has
other scholars of the Bible in
past times. Maybe it is possible
that a law such as this was
never enforced, or that it was
an eye for an eye law, which
meant just retribution. But
saving your husband from
possible death from another man,
you would think nothing would be
barred. I really do not have the
answer, it is one of those
"looking through a glass
darkly" of the apostle
Paul's words. I guess we can ask
the Lord about this law, when He
returns to earth. He has not
given me the answer at this time
- Keith Hunt)
This passage has
puzzled and embarrassed
commentators, for what purpose
could be accomplished by cutting
off a woman's hand? Could an act
committed in a few seconds be a
fair basis for losing a hand for
the rest of her life? Especially
strange is the severity here,
for the woman would have been
doing so, according to the text,
to help her husband when another
was trying to kill him!
(As I've
said above, this does seem to be
a strange and severe law. I do
not know of it ever being
applied in Israel in a literal
way - Keith Hunt)
"My
father hath chastised you with
whips," king Rehoboam,
Solomon's son, threatened.
"But I will chastise you
with scorpions.... My little
finger shall be thicker than my
father's loins"! (1 Kings
12:10,11). An expression about a
thick little finger, if taken
literally, would hardly
constitute a belligerent threat.
But, if we understand
"loins"
euphemistically (as in Genesis
35:11; Hebrews 7:5), these
words, as Brasch points out,
probably had a rough sexual
connotation; that is: "My
litte finger shall be thicker
than my father's [erect]
penis." Such language would
seem all the more emphatic since
his father, Solomon, was
recognized as quite a stud - a
man with a thousand women in his
harem (1 Kings 11:3).
Referring
to an unmentionable part of the
body, by naming another part in
the same vicinity, is known as
the Rule of the Displaced
Referent. We have seen this
usage in the words
"lions" and
"thigh." Even the more
unlikely word "feet"
has been so used. When a woman
gives birth, the baby
"cometh out from between
her feet" (Deuteronomy
28:57). Jacob, referring to the
offspring of Judah, said:
"The scepter shall not
depart from Judah, nor a
lawgiver from between his
feet" (Genesis 49:10).
Today, if we wanted to say
testicles, we would probably
just say testicles. Or if we
were speaking of one's
descendants, we would not feel a
need to explain what part of the
body they came from. Even Clarke
seemed a bit embarrassed by this
primitive way of speaking:
"I am sufficiently aware
that the literal meaning of the
original 'mibbeyn raglaiv' is
from between his feet, and I am
as fully satisfied that it
should never be so translated
... for reasons which surely
need not be mentioned."
In
a reference in which our King
James translators put the word
"piss" (which was not
an offensive word in 1611 A.D.),
the original actually used an
euphemism for urine, as given in
the margin: "the water of
their feet" (2 Kings
18:27). Since the
"water" here is urine,
there can be no doubt that
"feet" is an euphemism
for the sexual organs.
Israel,
destined to suffer the loss of
all things, was likened to a man
from whom all hair was shaved -
not only the hair of the head
and beard, but even the pubic
hair, euphemized as the hair of
the feet: "In the same day
shall the Lord shave with a
razor that is hired, namely, by
them beyond the river, by the
king of Assyria, the head, and
the hair of the feet, and it
shall also consume the
beard" (Isaiah 7:20).
Even
the expression "wash the
feet," used as an
euphemism, could have a sexual
meaning: When David told Urah to
go to his house and "wash
thy feet," his feet had
doubtless just been washed
before coming into the presence
of the king. It would not be
necessary to wash them again
upon entering his own house
(which was close - 2 Samuel
11:2), nor would such be
necessary for David to mention.
The setting makes it clear what
David wanted Uriah to do.
Apparently Uriah understood
these words in a sexual sense,
for he later explained why he
did not go to his house to
"lie with my wife" (2
Samuel 11:1-11).
"Foot" is a very
ancient and established
euphemism for the male organ.
"Shoe," consequently,
because a natural euphemism for
a man's sexual partner. This may
help us better understand a
Jewish custom about removing a
shoe. If a man refused to marry
his brother's widow, as
prescribed by the law of Moses.
then shall his brother's wife
come unto him in the presence of
the elders, and loose his shoe
from off his foot, and spit in
his face ... and his name shall
be called in Israel, The house
of him that hash his shoe loosed
(Deuteronomy 25:5-10).
Since a
foot going into a shoe was
emblematic of sexual
intercourse, the REVERSE - the
act of taking a shoe from the
foot - apparently symbolized
that sexual intercourse between
these two people would not
occur.
Even the word
"water," as Strong
points out, has been used as an
euphemism for semen (Strong's
Concordance, 4325). Isaiah 48:1
is an example: "Hear ye
this, O house of Jacob, which
are called by the name of
Israel, and are come forth out
of the waters of Judah..."
The Revised Standard Version
substitutes the word
"loins" for
"waters," but includes
a note that the Hebrew actually
says "waters." Either
way, there can be little doubt
that semen is meant.
The basis
for our word "semen"
is actually the Hebrew word that
is commonly translated
"oil" in the Old
Testament. Even in the name
Gethsemane, the place where
Jesus agonized in prayer
(Matthew 26:36), the basic words
are "gath" (press) and
"semen" (oil).
Gethsemane was a place where
olives were pressed to make oil.
We bring the word semen over
into English - linking it with
that oily substance whereby the
seeds of life are planted. Our
word seminary is formed on the
same basis - a place where
thoughts, like seed, are planted
in the mind. Even many seminary
graduates may not realize the
linkage between the words semen
and seminary!
Though scholars
are divided as to which beastly
animal is intended in Job
40:16,17, there can be little
doubt that its sexual powers are
euphemistically described:
Lo
now, his strength is in his
LOINS, and his FORCE is in the
NAVEL of his belly. He moveth
his TAIL like a cedar: the
sinews of his STONES are wrapped
together.
We have seen how
"loins" can be used as
a sexual euphemism.
"Strength" can mean
sexual vigor (cf. Deuteronomy
21:17). "Navel," here,
must be an euphemism for the
reproductive organ, for sexual
"force" is not in the
actual navel. The phrase about
MOVING his tail like a cedar,
quite obscure in the King James
version (a cedar not being
especially noted for moving), is
better understood in the
following: "He setteth up
his tail like a cedar" (Douay);
"his tail stands erect like
a cedar tree" (Lamsa);
"His tail stiff as any
cedar" (Moffatt).
The fact
that "tail" has long
been used as a phallic
euphemism, coupled with the
final phrase about
"stones" (or
"testicles," as the
Douay version has it), leaves
little room for doubt that the
reproductive organs are
euphemistically described.
When
primitive men observed that a
horned bull could impregnate
many cows, the horn was adopted
as the emblem of virility and
fertility. Even today. the
euphemistic slang expression
"horny" is commonly
used!
According to the Council
of Toledo in 477 A.D., the Devil
not only has a large penis, but
horns. In Scotland he is called
Auld Hornie. Horns have been
ornamentally worn in the East.
Zedekiah "made him horns of
iron" (I Kings
22:11).Fertility dancers wore
reindeer horns. Various
fertility gods and goddesses
were depicted wearing horns or
holding them. The cornucopia, a
fertility symbol, is known as
the horn of plenty. Horns,
ground into powder, have been
widely taken as a sex stimulant.
Animal horns have long been
considered a symbol of the erect
male organ.
In the Bible we
read: "The horns of the
righteous shall be exalted"
(Psalm 75:10). "I will make
the horn of David to bud"
(Psalm 132:17. "My horn
shall thou exalt like the horn
of an unicorn" (Psalm
92:10).
Since men do not have
horns in the literal sense,
there is strong reason to
believe the word
"horn" is euphemistic.
Though the male organ may not be
meant specifically, because the
idea of fertility is commonly
present in such passages, there
is a distinct linkage.
A passage
in Job, however, may be more
specific. When Job said, "I
have sewed sackcloth upon my
skin, and defiled my horn in the
dust" (Job 16:15), he had
already mentioned such bodily
parts as head, mouth, lips,
wrinkles, face, teeth, eyes,
cheeks, hands, neck, reins,
skin, and eyelids. When he then
mentions his "horn" -
considering the widespread use
of the word as a sexual
euphemism - it is certainly not
impossible that a phallic
meaning was intended.
For a man
to be virile - being of full
strength, capable of fathering
children even in old age - was
considered a great blessing.
This was, apparently, the
thought expressed by Job:
"One dieth in his full
strength ... his BREASTS are
full of MILK" (Job
21:23,24). The word that is here
translated "breasts,"
means "a container,"
and is not the word translated
breasts elsewhere (Strong's
Concordance, 5845). Since a male
does not have milk in his
breasts, there is a strong basis
for understanding the container
here to mean
"testicles" and the
"milk" to mean
"semen." In this
context, the man described was
still sexually potent, even in
old age.
Such was apparently not
the case of a man who testified
in a southern church:
"The
Father has given me
victory!" the old man
shouted.
"Victory over
what?" some questioned.
"I's gotten victory over
passion!"
"How old are
you now?"
"I's
96." "We think,
brother, that mother nature just
helped you out!"
Solomon,
possibly speaking from personal
experience, said: "Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth,"
for "youth and manhood will
not last" (Ecclesiastes
11:9, 10, Moffatt). He then went
on to describe the symptoms of
old age:
"The keepers of
the house shall tremble" -
the hands become paralytic;
"the strong men shall
bow" - the legs become
feeble and unable to support the
weight of the body; "the
grinders cease because they are
few" - the teeth become
decayed and gone, the few
remaining unable to carry out
their function; "those that
look out of the windows be
darkened" - old age brings
the loss of proper eyesight or,
as Moffatt translates it,
"...ladies at the lattice
lose their lustre."
He
shall rise up at the voice of
the bird" - he has trouble
sleeing, is nervous; "all
the daughters of music shall be
brought low - the voice becomes
feeble and the tone quality is
gone; "afraid of that which
is high" - fear of climbing
steps, of high places; "the
almond tree shall flourish [fall
off]" - fitting the words
of Hasselquist about the Judean
almond tree in full bloom
"like an old man with his
white locks." Having turned
white, the hair finally falls
out (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7).
With
this description of a man's
aging body in mind, we come now
to that portion (verse 5) which
says: "...and grasshopper
shall be a burden, and desire
shall fail." Grasshopper?
Desire? Clarke mentions various
explanation then adds:
"Another interpretation has
been given of grasshopper; but I
pass it by as impertinent and contemptible."
What is this
OTHER interpretation? Clarke
does not say, but it is probably
the belief that
"grasshopper" is an
euphemism for the male organ. In
youth, it would hop up with
desire, but now, in old age,
would fail to do so. Support for
this belief is confirmed by the
context which speaks of failing
"desire," a word that
actually means "caper
berry" (Strong's
Concordance, 35). As the ANCHOR
BIBLE points out, the caper
berry was used as a sexual
stimulant - but failed to help
the aged man described here. His
condition was like that of
Maevius, mentioned by the
classical writer Martial:
"Only in dreams you get
stiff, Maevius...in vain your
wearied fingers ply your
wrinkled member - rouse it as
you may, it will not raise its
drooping head" (Martial
11:47).
Plants that resembled
the genitals were believed to
confer sexual potency.
Mandrakes, having a split root,
sometimes appeared to have human
form with legs and sex organs,
but certainly not as well
defined as the old fifteenth
century drawing given here would
suggest! We know from the Bible
that Jacob and his wife believed
in the powers of the mandrake.
"And Jacob came out of the
field in the evening, and Leah
went out to meet him, and said,
Thou must come in unto me; for
surely I have hired thee with my
son's mandrakes. And he lay with
her that night ... and she
conceived" (Genesis
30:16,17).
Because the pod-like
capsule of the vanilla plant
resembles the female genitalia,
vanilla was also considered a
powerful aphrodisiac (sex
stimulant). We know it best as a
flavoring, but the word itself
comes to us from the Spanish
vainilla ("small
pod"), the ultimate source
being vagina, the word now
commonly used for the passage
between the vulva and uterus.
Other substances which have been
used as aphrodisiacs, include
almonds, anchovies, anise, ants,
artichokes, asparagus, bamboo,
bananas, brains, cabbage,
carrots, celery, cinnamon,
clams, crocodile, cucumbers,
eels, frogs, garlic, ginger,
ginseng, goat, goose tongues,
grapes, honey, horseradish,
liver, lizard, marijuana,
menstrual blood, mushrooms,
onions, opium, oysters, semen,
shrimp, snails, and
spinach!"
The word
"aphrodisiac" comes to
us, fittingly, from Aphrodite,
goddes of sexual love. The
Romans called her Venus, from
whose name we obtain
"venereal," as in venereal
disease.
The influence
of ancient mythology in the
development of our language can
also be seen in words such as
"cereal" which comes
from Ceres, goddess of grains
"Money" comes from
Juno Moneta, the Roman goddess
of national finances whose
temple included the mint.
The
word "Siren" comes
from the Sirens, half-woman and
halfbird creatures, who made
sounds that lured sailors to
their doom. "Echo"
comes from a nymph named Echo
who could only repeat sounds she
heard "Panic" comes
from the god Pan who went about
scaring people.
"Tantalize" comes from
Tantalus, from whose hands water
flowed, but could never quite
reach his mouth.
"Janitor" and
"January" both come
from Janus, the two-faced god of
beginnings and keeper of the
doors. "Atlas," the
word for a book of maps, comes
from the god Atlas who is
pictured as carrying the earth!
Links
to the chapters from K. J.
Aaron's "Sexuality and the
Bible"
Biblical
Euphemisms for Sexual Activities
Prostitutes
and Prophets
Nude
and Lewd: The Bare Facts
The
Sin of Onan: Birth Control and
More!
Baal
in the Bathroom
Rape,
Mutilation and Perversion
The
Price of a Dog: Temple Prostitution
The
Fertility Parade
The
Phallic Covenant
Marriage,
Morals and Manners
The
Intimate Garden: The Song of Solomon
