Part of a series, including the previously reviewed In Bed with the Romans. Author Charlotte Booth has a somewhat more difficult time with the ancient Egyptians; while Latin is a well known language, ancient Egyptian hasn’t been written in 1800 years or so. Thus a lot of the grammar and vocabulary is uncertain, especially for rarely used words. An example Booth gives is two translations of the same text by two different scholars:

1. “I did not wish to love a youth. As for the respectable son who does it, his father shall abandon him in court.”
2. I haven’t aimed my desires at a married woman. I haven’t desired the beloved of a citizen.”

The key here is whether a particular ancient Egyptian word refers to homosexual or heterosexual sex; thus one scholar believes the text refers to sex with “a youth” while the other argues it refers to adultery.

Booth also notes that, historically, Egyptologists have been middle-aged white men of European ancestry, who thus bring their own perspectives with them. As an example here, she discusses tattoos. Until relatively recently, only women on the fringes of Western culture got tattoos; Egyptologists unconsciously assumed that the same was true in ancient Egypt and thus women depicted with tattoos were prostitutes or exotic dancers or something similar (there was some confirmation bias, admittedly; some women shown with tattoos in Egyptian art do seem to be engaged in sex work). However, more recent scholarship suggests tattoos were common among women of all social classes and had religious rather than (exclusive) sexual significance.

After acknowledging some of these difficulties, and with repeated cautions about alternate interpretations, Booth covers ancient Egyptian attitudes toward beauty, marriage, childbirth, homosexuality, prostitution, gynecology, and religious aspects of sexuality. She notes that Egyptian standards of physical attractiveness seem rather similar to modern Westerners; women are slim, men are broad-shouldered.

Marriage was a civil union rather than a religious sacrament; one partner showed up with their worldly goods (an euphemism for marriage was “bringing a bundle”) and the couple set up housekeeping. Either could initiate divorce. Booth notes that women, married or not, could own property in their own name, appear in court, or have a profession (although professional women are quite rare, female scribes and female doctors are documented; many religious professions – temple singers, for example – were only open to women). Marriage contracts become increasingly detailed during Egyptian history, with later ones going to great lengths to describe what property each partner brought into the marriage.

Booth discusses some things that more popular works on ancient Egypt tend to gloss over: polygamy and consanguineous marriage. I think this is again due to the historic attitudes of Egyptologists. Ancient Egypt is an attractive culture compared to some of the others; the Egyptians aren’t as gloomy as the Mesopotamians or as horrific as the Aztecs. Egyptian religious ideas resonate with us; if you’re a good person during your lifetime you’re rewarded in the afterlife. I suspect Egyptologists get defensive about some of the things that seem less pleasing. In popular Egyptology books, polygamy is often dismissed as something only the Pharoah did; Booth notes that the actual situation is more complicated. There are only a few cases where there’s unequivocal evidence of a man having two wives; however suspect ones – for example when men are shown with multiple women identified as “wives” in tomb paintings – are pretty common. Booth cautions that these may be deceased, and things will get sorted out in the afterlife. Similarly, popular books dismiss consanguineous marriages as something only royalty did, but Booth is able to document a few uncle/niece and aunt/nephew marriages; however again she cautions the Egyptian language has no words for relatives except father/mother, brother/sister, and son/daughter. Thus relations have to worked out from tomb biographies. To further confuse matters, “sister” and “brother” are terms of endearment for lovers as well as indicating actual relationships.

Booth has a long chapter about homosexuality; her contention is the rather than it being a “sin” or aberration the Egyptians saw it as a waste of time that would be better spent in procreation. There did seem to be a difference in attitude between active and passive homosexuals, with more disparaging comment toward the later. There are some famous textual relations of homosexual conduct between the gods Horus and Set, with each trying to prove in divine court that he’s penetrated the other (with the assistance of his mother Isis, Horus comes out on top).

An easy but enlightening read; I was especially taken with Booth’s cautions about the exact meanings of dubious texts and the possible prejudices of Egyptologists. A plate section; lots of endnotes but no bibliography (references are mentioned in the notes the first time they’re used but after that there’s a lot of ibids). The index seems sparse, I couldn’t find some things I wanted to look up. ( )