A Schlong Time Ago: Oral Sex in Art and Literature

Call it what you like, head, eating out, carpet munching or sneezing in the cabbage*, humans have pretty much never been able to keep our mouths off each other. Oral sex has a broad history in art and literature. Culturally speaking opinions regarding oral sex have changed a lot across societies. Fellatio (men receiving oral) and cunnilingus (women receiving oral) are also often thought of differently across cultures. These is by no means an exhaustive list, just some of my favourites from ancient history. Let us know if you'd like a part two with more modern examples!

Lets start with my two favourites, the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Understanding Greek and Roman  attitudes to fellatio, means you need to understand queer sex for them as well. Having gay sex was absolutely fine, even expected and dare I say encouraged HOWEVER the role a man played in that dynamic was the most important. We would understand it in terms of being a top or a bottom. Being a top (the giver) was super normal and fine, however being a bottom (the receiver) was considered demeaning and left you open to ridicule. The same was true of blow jobs. Receiving them? Good on you Biggus Dickus. Giving them? Yikes…embarrassing, don’t get too close, they've got bad breath. The bad breath joke also extended towards anyone who went down on women. Thankfully however, these social hang ups didn’t stop the Greeks and later the Romans from giving sloppy toppy, and subsequently putting pictures of it on everything. So enjoy this selection of oral from Ancient Greece and Rome. 

Depiction of fellatio on Attic red-figure kylix, c. 510 BCE

An Eiffel Tower seen in The Tomb of the Whipping. Etruscan. 490 BCE. An impressive 2377 years before the Eiffel Tower was built.

Cunnilingus Fresco in a brothel. Pompeii. 79 CE

One of my favourite Roman things are these sex tokens/coins called Spintria. Their use isn't known for certain, but some scholars theorised that they were tokens that got you entry into brothels or were used to pay sex workers. This one shows a BJ but theres a huge range of them showing a variety of sex acts.

When I went to the Machu Picchu exhibit at the Australian Museum, the main thing I gravitated to (to absolutely no one's surprise) was their erotic pottery. Which led me down a rabbit hole about the Moche culture; in northern Peru between 100-800 CE. Looking into those more, their pottery has pretty much every sexual position you can imagine including oral! Enjoy: 

Larco Museum example

Stirrup vessel with fellatio scene. Peru, Moche civilization, 300-600 CE 

In Ancient China, Taoism taught that cunnilingus and specifically consuming vaginal secretions (need a hotter way of saying that fr) would increase mens lifeforce. At the same time, male ejaculation was strongly discouraged because they believed losing semen would weaken this life force, basically they’re trying to hang onto as many bodily fluids as possible and giving all kinds of head.  

Erotic painting from the Qing dynasty: Obsessed with how thrilled they both look. Good for them.

When they weren’t busy building pyramids, the Ancient Egyptians were incorporating oral sex into their mythology. In Book of the Dead of Henuttawy frame 2, we see the God Geb, performing an act on himself I think most people would try if they were flexible enough. 

© The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Kama Sutra (c. 3rd century CE) is arguably the most famous text on sexual pleasure of all time, so of course it covers the topic of oral. It is worth pointing out that the Kama Sutra is not just a titillating ‘how to’ guide of sex positions It is a deeply spiritual text that focuses on Hindu philosophy, eroticism and emotional fulfilment. That also spends a lot of time on the subject of Head. Auparishtaka or Mouth Congress as it is discussed in chapter 9 was not regarded highly by the author Vatsyayana. Firstly it was emphasised that oral was performed by eunuchs and “...also by unchaste and wanton women” (me af) That being said the chapter does at least give a run down on the typical sequence of events;

1. The nominal congress
2. Biting the sides
3. Pressing outside
4. Pressing inside
5. Kissing
6. Rubbing
7. Sucking a mango fruit
8. Swallowing up

The chapter also briefly goes into details about cunnilingus and 69ing:

“Some women of the harem, when they are amorous, do the acts of the mouth on the yonis of one another, and some men do the same thing with women. The way of doing this (i.e. of kissing the yoni) should be known from kissing the mouth. When a man and woman lie down in an inverted order, i.e. with the head of the one towards the feet of the other and carry on this congress, it is called the "congress of a crow"” 

Overall the author seems to believe that the practice of oral is generally ‘unclean’ but acknowledges that people are going to do it regardless and its justifiable in some circumstances. Though a “wise man” should not participate. 

Anyway here is some 19th Century illustrations from some editions of the Kama Sutra that show some very flexible blow jobs. 

And because these blogs are in fact supposed to tie in with products we sell, and are increasingly becoming my excuse to yap about my latest hyperfixation, did you know there are a bunch of products that will improve your skills? Top of that list is the Doc Johnson Deep Throat spray. An oral anaesthetic that numbs the back of your throat and your gag reflex allowing you to put whatever appendage you desire further down your throat than you otherwise would. I’ve tried this one personally, and let me tell you that stuff WORKS (it does taste a bit like medicine but not too bad). 

On a similar note, Doc Johnson also has a range of “Pussy Licker” sprays in heaps of flavours which you spray (as the name suggests) on a pussy before you go about munching to change the flavour. They are glycerine and sugar free as well to protect the pH balance and leave the skin nice and moisturised. 

Funtasia Sexpert and Sneezing in the Cabbage Enthusiast* 

Verin Sampson 

 *I swear on my life this an actual expression for cunnilingus I learned from the amazing Dr. Kate Lister in her her book the Curious History of Sex, apparently it originated in the early 20th century and I desperately want to bring it back