Sculptures of sexual intercourse with animals. Cohabitation with animals

The shocking art of ancient Rome

The inhabitants of ancient Rome liked art full of violence and sex. Some cultural objects of that era may seem to us full of obscenity and cruelty, but the Romans may have looked at them with different eyes.

The 18th century turned out to be truly successful for archaeologists. It was then that the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum were discovered - Roman cities that died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. In the Villa of the Papyri alone, not far from Herculaneum, between 1750 and 1761 85 ancient sculptures were dug out from under a layer of ashes.

But there were also awkward moments. Imagine how the members of the search party must have felt in the spring of 1752, digging out, in the presence of the ruler of the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VII, the most infamous of the sculptures found in the villa. Carved from a single block of Italian marble, it represented Pan, the god of fertility and cattle breeding, making love to a goat. With his right hand, Pan firmly holds the goat by the tattered beard, pulling the head of the animal towards him and looking straight into his eyes. Such a frank find, to put it mildly, embarrassed the king.

Unlike most of the objects found in the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century, this sculpture was hidden away from the public. It was possible to look at it only with the permission of the monarch. However, in addition to horror, the find also aroused curiosity. The rumor about the indecent sculpture spread throughout Europe, and it quickly became an object of pilgrimage for the British, who made the Grand Tour (educational trips that are mandatory among European aristocrats). The British sculptor of the time, Joseph Nollekens, recreated the sculpture from memory as a terracotta replica, although in his performance the bug-eyed goat is rather surprised by Pan's attention, while the animal from the Roman original looks almost submissive.

One of the most scandalous ancient works is the statue of the god of shepherding and cattle breeding Pan with a goat, discovered on the ruins of Herculaneum in 1752.

Unwittingly, Nollekens emphasized aspects of lasciviousness and sexual violence in his line, although the original may have seemed much less provocative to the Romans. Different cultures perceive the same phenomena differently. Works of art that we consider shockingly erotic or violent were perfectly acceptable in ancient Rome.

In our time, the sculpture of Pan with a goat again raises the public's pulse. It can usually be seen in the Secret Cabinet of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, along with a number of other erotic examples of Roman art. And in 2013, Pan was temporarily loaned to the British Museum in London as part of the Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition. A discreet sign at the entrance warned visitors that the exhibit "includes explicit material."

sinister gardens

It's tempting these days to classify a scandalous find into the category of low-key erotica, but let's not rush. The Villa of the Papyri also housed a library of hundreds of scrolls. Probably the owner of the sculpture was educated and well-read.

Of course, it can be assumed that for all the sophistication of the owner of the villa, he took pleasure in shocking guests with obscenities. However, even with a superficial acquaintance with ancient Roman life, it becomes obvious that such an explanation is not enough. Nowadays, people often place decorative figures of gnomes in their garden. And the Romans preferred more sexual and bloodthirsty images. At the same exhibition in the British Museum, two marble sculptures of impeccable execution were shown - a pair of deer roaring in horror, besieged by snarling hunting dogs. The dogs gnaw on the victims' ears, digging their claws deep into deer flesh.

A typical example of cruelty in ancient Roman art, dating from 1-79 AD. AD and found in Herculaneum: two deer attacked by a pack of dogs

Although there is no obscenity in these sculptures, they nevertheless represent a very cruel sight. And, despite the undoubted skill of the sculptor, by today's standards, such disturbing scenes of the imagination may not seem quite appropriate as garden decorations. As well as the marble figurine of a tipsy pot-bellied Hercules, who was about to relieve himself, which stood at the exhibition in the same hall.

But the Romans liked this kind of art. One of my favorite ancient Roman sculptures is the bearded satyr Marsyas tied to a tree and awaiting a terrible punishment. He is about to be flayed for a daring challenge to a musical duel thrown to the god Apollo. Several statues depicting this scene have survived to our time - including those carved from marble with pink veins, the color of which gives goosebumps. So you imagine the bloody flesh that the executioner's knife is about to expose.

One of the few surviving statues of the satyr Marsyas tied to a tree. After losing a musical contest to Apollo, Marsyas was sentenced to death by flaying.

Similar feelings are evoked by the well-known marble sculptural group "Laocoön", discovered in Rome and placed in the courtyard of the Vatican Belvedere Palace by Pope Julius II in 1506. The faces of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons, distorted by suffering, lightning bolts, sea snakes, haunt the imagination of Western man for centuries. This sculpture has inspired countless artists and writers, from Michelangelo to Dickens.

Marble figurine dating from 1-79 AD. AD, depicts Hercules in an unsightly urination scene after a drinking bout

It is not so surprising that the ancient Romans, who revered service to the state and the authority of power as great virtues, at the same time gravitated towards the manifestation of primitive instincts in art. After all, the gladiatorial games they organized, in which wild animals and convicted criminals took part, were nothing more than a variant of ritual human sacrifice. Ancient Rome was a curious mixture of civility and barbarism.

scandalous sculpture

As can be seen from the example of the sculpture of Pan and the goat, sex played no less important role in Roman culture than violence. A few years ago, while filming for the BBC a documentary series called Treasures of Ancient Rome, I visited the excavations of Pompeii. The fact that one of the city's brothels had explicitly erotic murals didn't really surprise me, but I found it strange that many buildings were decorated with signs depicting an erect penis.

Marble sculptural group depicting the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons, trying in vain to free themselves from the suffocating embrace of sea snakes, which Poseidon sent to them

One of the original theories was that these tablets pointed the way to the nearest brothel, of which there were plenty in Pompeii - according to some estimates, at least 35 establishments per city of about 12,000 people. But now most researchers are inclined to believe that the phallic symbol played in antiquity the role of a kind of amulet, a talisman against evil forces.

This version also explains the prevalence of the phallus in other contexts of ancient Roman culture: at an exhibition in the British Museum, for example, one of the exhibits was a curious object known as tintinnabulum - a winged phallus equipped with its own phallus, as well as lion's paws and tail, suspended from the limbs. five bells. Although this tintinnabulum was found in Pompeii, it probably wouldn't be too out of place to complement the setting at the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, chirping in the garden in the breeze as visitors view a sculpture of Pan having sex with a goat.

Tintinnabulum is a winged phallus with lion's paws and bells tied to them.

Exhibitions such as "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" give us an exciting sense of closeness to our ancient ancestors. The bronze bust of a Roman banker is made so lifelike that it seems that one can catch the character traits of the depicted. The bone vessel still contains the remains of a pink pigment, which, perhaps, an unknown Roman matron once used as a rouge.

But it is worth looking at works like Pan with a goat, and the ancient world is again relegated to the darkness of centuries, and the two millennia separating our civilizations turn into an insurmountable abyss. We will never be able to fully understand exactly what impression this sculpture made on the Romans. Perhaps what we perceive as depravity and violence caused them fits of laughter. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that the attitude of the ancient Romans towards sex and violence was radically different from ours.

Alastair Sook is an art columnist for the Daily Telegraph.

In a rural area of ​​the Turkish province of Izmir in January 2010, a lamb endowed with a strange appearance was born. He had no hair on his body, and his nose, eyes, mouth, tongue and teeth were similar to human ones, and his whole muzzle completely resembled the face of a bald man.

Who is responsible?

The same picture

The appearance of the newborn struck the veterinarians, who, however, quickly explained the phenomenon by insufficient intake of vitamins to the fetus during the pregnancy of the sheep, which led to the underdevelopment of the lamb's head and the acquisition of an unusual shape resembling a human face.

The lamb died a few hours after giving birth, although his sister, who was born at the same time with no visible abnormalities in appearance, is now feeling great.

Well, what of it? - the skeptical reader will exclaim.

And he will add: an ordinary genetic freak, one of dozens, and maybe even hundreds of freaks, regularly born in animals of various species. Nobody argues. Although the topic for discussion is quite interesting.

"He is disgusting to the point of horror," said the inhabitants of one of the Chinese villages. Indeed, instead of a piglet, which became the sixth in a litter of a nine-year-old pig living on a Feng farm, a creature with a monkey face, two thin lips, a small nose and two large eyes was born. Its hind legs were twice as long as its front legs.

Scientists have long puzzled over what could lead to this kind of mutation in the body of a pig, because the cases of crossing this animal with a monkey have not yet been recorded by specialists, and, in the end, they attributed everything to environmental pollution and the same beriberi.

Human-looking puppy was born dead a few years ago in Brazil

In the fall of 2009, in the Zimbabwean village of Madoleni, 40 miles from the Midlands city, a goat gave birth to a goat with human characteristics. Vitamin deficiency again?

Unfortunately, the terrified owner of the goat, Mr. Nuoni, burned the mutant before it could fall into the hands of scientists. Only photographs remain, showing what appears to be a human head, nose, mouth, neck and shoulders, complete with goat legs and tail. Back and chest like a human - hairless.

According to local residents, the creature was so scary that even dogs were afraid to get close to it. Perhaps this strange creature is the result of bestiality.

Plutarch saw the fruit of the love of a man and a mare

Experts say that sexual contact between a human and an animal cannot lead to the conception of a new creature. This is completely out of the question. Even monkeys very similar in anatomical terms to humans, such as chimpanzees, gorillas and gibbons, have never been crossed with humans.

Moreover, scientists explain, it would also be impossible to cross a modern man with a medieval man, if such an opportunity arose. Since with the development of mankind, the set of chromosomes changes, and now we are very different not only from goats, sheep and pigs, but also from our ancestors 400 years ago.

Nevertheless, both in the distant past and to this day, many people believed and believe that such "unions" are possible, and even believe that various animals were their ancestors. The Malgashians, for example, believe that they are descended from the zebra, the Tibetans - from the monkey, the Dahomeans - from the leopard. Hindus and Tatars believed in horse ancestors. The Ainu believe in their descent from a dog.

Plutarch in "Paradoxes" tells the following story: "A young shepherd showed me the child he had from his mare. The upper part of the newborn's body was completely human, but the lower part was horse. The child was crying like an ordinary newborn."

Did centaurs really exist?

With the spread of the Christian religion, attitudes towards sex with animals have changed. It began to be interpreted as a serious sin, but, despite the taboos and prohibitions, copulation with animals continued to be ubiquitous among both women and men.

The famous Paracelsus and Fortunio Liceti, an Italian obstetrician of the sixteenth century and a kind of great expert in the affairs of deformed children, list numerous cases of the birth of human children by animals and the birth of animals or hybrids by women. "Fathers" were, as a rule, horses, dogs, lions and even unicorns.

The famous physician Ambroise Pare in his notes tells how in Verona a mare, impregnated by her master, gave birth to a centaur. A case was also cited of a woman who gave birth to a child with the body of a dog below the waist. In 1685, the great anatomist Bartholin claimed that he himself saw a woman who, after intercourse with a cat, gave birth to a child with a cat's head.

Even at the end of the 19th century, some British researchers considered it likely and wrote that black women intermarried with gorillas. The women allegedly taught the monkeys how to use fire and do many simple household chores. And their children - half-humans, half-monkeys - were even able to speak

This amazing Oliver

Today, no one can definitely say that he met the offspring of the "marriage union" of an ape and a man. But those people who happened to see a male chimpanzee nicknamed Oliver make an unambiguous conclusion that the existence of such offspring is quite possible.

This amazing creature was caught in the impenetrable jungles of the Congo and sold in South Africa to the Barger couple, who trained wild animals for various shows. Oliver immediately struck the imagination of the spouses. He walked only on his hind legs, was distinguished by restrained behavior and amazing quick wit.

The chimpanzee copied the behavior of people so accurately that it seemed that he did it meaningfully. If Oliver was given a coin, he would go to the soft drink machine and fetch a bottle of Coca-Cola.

He fed the Barger dog, a burly dog ​​who treated the ape like a human. In the house, he went to the toilet and flushed the water after him. Most of all, the spouses liked it when Oliver, like Frank Barger, sat at the TV in the evening with a glass of whiskey in his hands. Copying the owner, he mixed alcohol with orange juice, sipped the cocktail in small sips and squinted blissfully at the TV screen.

Outwardly, Oliver also differed from other monkeys. The hairless head and chest, lighter than usual, the color of intelligent eyes, the weighted lower jaw and ears, more like a human in shape, made an unusual impression on everyone who saw him. The monkeys shunned Oliver, and he often sat sadly alone.

Scientists have shown great interest in the amazing chimpanzee. Specialists at the University of Chicago did a blood test on Oliver and were amazed that he had 47 chromosomes. This is one chromosome less than usual in monkeys, and one more than in humans.

Biologists have put forward several hypotheses about the origin of Oliver. Some argued that this was a mutant that appeared as a result of a human violation of the ecology of Central Africa, others believed that an unusual chimpanzee was the result of a love affair between a pygmy and a monkey.

Peace reigned in the family of the Barger spouses until Oliver reached puberty. He began to show interest not in female chimpanzees, but in Jeannette Barger. No pants were put on Oliver, so Jeannette saw that when she appeared, his whole being rebelled. He quickly ran up to the hostess, climbed under her skirt, tried to knock her to the ground. However, in the presence of Frank, the male behaved modestly.

At first, this behavior of Oliver amused, but then not. kinda scared. One night, when Frank was not at home, Oliver entered through the window into his wife's bedroom. She almost lost her senses when, suddenly waking up, she saw the grinning mouth of a monkey, who had already torn off her nightgown and spread her legs with powerful hairy paws. Jeannette miraculously escaped from the inflamed animal.

After this incident, the Bargers sold the monkey to one of the medical laboratories in Pennsylvania, where he was studied quite carefully. Whether sexual experiments were carried out with the participation of women is unknown ...

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, a cow was sacrificed to the gods of the sea after she became pregnant by... a village elder. This elder, who a few months ago publicly had sex with a cow in a barn, took an active part in the rite of sacrifice. When they started to drown the cow, he tore off all his clothes and threw them into the water, thus symbolizing the cleansing from sins.

It should be noted that the sex of an elder with a cow and the subsequent sacrifice of an animal - the so-called rite of "gamya gamana" - is one of the most ancient rituals regularly performed in Indonesian villages.

Quite a rare variety prodigal sin; a common motif of folk fairy tale and mythological prose, also found in legends, songs and texts of comic genres.

The motif of human cohabitation with animals is most often realized in folk mythology and folklore tradition, where the images of animals are largely mythologized. Cases of real S. with. in rural life, although they were recorded (provincial newspapers wrote about them in the “Mixture” section), they were practically not reflected in the folk ritual and folklore tradition. Newspaper reports usually dealt with the bestiality of the village shepherds, Who were expelled from the village for this; the animal (heifer, goat) was slaughtered and buried because it was considered unclean and unfit for food. It is possible that cases of bestiality were associated with a number of sexual taboos, which, according to custom,

Many shepherds took over at the beginning of the pasture season. Among these taboos, in particular, were the obligation not to live with wife do not participate in girls' games and round dance, do not let bare-footed and simple-haired people into the herd Bab and so on.

In folklore, the motif of the cohabitation of a woman with a bear, a snake (a snake or a fiery serpent - a mythological creature) is common; less often, a hare (in songs) or other animals acts as a lover.

The bear in traditional representations looked like a man more than other animals. Hunters it was said that after removing the skin, his body is very similar to a human - bears have clearly visible breasts that look like women's, and paws resemble human hands. It was said that the look of a bear is similar to a human. Often, these stories were supplemented by a mythological motif of the discovery of a sundress, a belt and other elements of human clothing under the skin, which, according to the narrators, served as proof of the transformation of a person into a bear. Related to this is the prohibition, known in the Olonets and Vologda provinces, to eat bear meat. The reason for turning into a bear was seen as witchcraft or punishment for sins. In the Arkhangelsk province, for example, a legend was recorded about the transformation of a man into a beast for the murder of his parents, in Olonets - for greed and a desire for power. According to the Olonets legend, the sacred tree (linden) gives old man at his request firewood and bread; Old woman sends him back - ask the linden to make their "people afraid"; as a result, he and the old woman turn into bears. Legends about the transformation into bears of the villagers who refused to accept for the night were quite widespread. wanderer or monk. According to the beliefs noted in Belozersky district. Novgorod province. (now the Vologda region), they turned into a bear sorcerers; In the Vologda and Vyatka provinces. there were also stories about how a sorcerer turned guests into bears on wedding, Then they ran into the forest.

The belief about the bear's ability to cohabit with women is also associated with the idea of ​​​​the closeness of a bear to a person. According to the stories of hunters, this beast copulates in the same way as people. Guide bears performed in the villages and city squares, forcing the beast to show the public for fun, “how a man persuades a woman (a master’s lady, a gypsy gypsy, etc.)”, “how he kisses her, dances with her”, “how a bride sleeps with fiancé, etc. At the same time, the bear took the most obscene poses, according to eyewitnesses, very similar to human ones.

Both Russians (in the forest areas) and other Slavic peoples know stories (legends, traditions, bylichki) about the cohabitation of a bear with a woman. Cohabitation with a bear was sometimes explained by the appearance of illegitimate children, adopted on the side. In the vicinity of Bear

Shimsky district, Novgorod region a legend about the origin of one of the local families was recorded: “As if a woman went into the forest, and the bear took her, and fed her with raspberries, and lived with her as with his wife.” The old people said that after several years of absence, the woman returned home with her son, only his hands were covered with hair, like bear paws, which is why the family that descended from him received the surname Lapins. A similar story was recorded in other places, for example, in the Perm region.

There was another explanation for such cases of the return of a woman with an illegitimate child after a long absence from the village - her cohabitation with the goblin. In folklore, in a number of its functions and features, the bear is close to the goblin: the peasants said that “the bear is the goblin’s favorite animal” or he is “the goblin’s brother”, and in a number of places of the Russian North the bear was allegorically called “leshak”, “goblin”, "forest devil". In Melenkovsky u. Vladimir province. boletus (i.e. goblin) was depicted as a tailless bear.

The idea of ​​cohabitation of a person with a bear was reflected in the healer's tradition, in particular in esoteric beliefs associated with receiving a healer's gift. sorceress from the village Kulotino, Okulovsky district, Novgorod region she told her granddaughter about how she acquired healing power: in her youth her lover left her, she cried, painfully experienced a breakup. Then at night (in a dream) a bear came to her, turned into a sorcerer and took her as an assistant, after which she became a sorceress. In this story, the bear acts simultaneously as a mythological lover and spirit - the patron of the healer.

The ability to influence the fertility of man, livestock and land was attributed to the bear. According to beliefs known in the Yaroslavl and Bryansk regions, as well as in some regions of Belarus and Ukraine, young woman, having seen a bear in a dream, he will soon get married. In the Novgorod province. with the help of a tame bear, infertility was magically treated: for this, the bear had to step over a barren woman (a completely transparent imitation intercourse). In with. Medvedikha Rameshkov - district of the Tver region. old-timers told about how infertility was treated by the leaders (guides) of bears who walked through the villages at the beginning of the 20th century. A guide with a bear, stopping in a village, announced his ability to treat women for infertility; a woman was brought to him, with whom he spent a whole week alone. Since then, she seemed to have given birth. Belief in the magical abilities of the guide is the result of transferring to him the ideas associated with the bear.

Another character often used in folklore as a lover or husband - snake: real creature (already) or mythological character (flying fiery

622 cohabitation with animals

Serpent). The image of a beloved snake most often appears in fairy tales and proverbs: “A snake, yes, a wife and a husband.” The symbolism is based both on the consonance of words (already - husband), and on the parallel with the phallus, associated with the shape of the snake body. According to a Kaluga proverb, for example, the peasants have "desks full of snakes." It is characteristic that in Belarusian and Western Russian ideas it already acts as a male symbol: to see a snake in a dream - to the birth of a son. In the Arkhangelsk region, in order to bewitch a lover or bring home an unfaithful spouse, they gave him water to drink, which was secretly poured from the “snake casing” (that is, skin shed during molting). Wishing to turn away the unloved from the house, the casing was burned. In both cases, the shed snake skin symbolized the sexual partner.

In mythological stories about cohabitation with women, a flying serpent also appears - this is a demon (devil, goblin, lyatavets, fiery, staring), which was represented as a fiery sheaf flying in the sky, a broom, a ball with a tail. Beliefs and stories about cases of cohabitation of this creature with women are still widespread throughout Russia, as well as in Belarus and Ukraine. “One widow lived three kilometers from us,” they said in the village. Vorobieva Gora, Kirov region - They said that the eye flies to this one. Her husband died and she missed him. They said, do not grieve, otherwise he will fly. Fire flies, with a tail, with sparks, then turns into a husband, and he treats her with gingerbread and goes to bed with her. And in the morning she gets up - and there is nothing, but horse balls on the bed. This happens to young women whose husbands have recently died. Mythological stories about the fiery serpent, like the one above, are similar to folk stories about cohabitation with the goblin and other demonological characters. According to popular beliefs, evil spirits flew to women who yearned for a dead husband or lover. Similar cases allegedly occurred during the long absence of her husband, who left and disappeared in a foreign land. The fiery serpent in this kind of stories is the personification of female longing. His visits were considered dangerous for a woman whom he torments, crushes, and she dries up, mourns, abandons her household and dies after a while. In addition, this woman, as a result of communication with evil spirits, could become witch, which posed a threat to the entire community. In the Novgorod region I have heard of witches, whom fire snakes (they were called "nosaks" here) wore milk and money, stealing it all from the neighbors. The villagers, noticing a sheaf of fire above the pipe of a lonely woman, or simply suspecting her of cohabitation with a fiery serpent, took measures to ward it off. To do this, they performed special rituals under the guidance of healers: they put a woman to sleep between her children or two strong men, or next to an elderly relative; they sprinkled the floor in the hut and the bed with flax or poppy seeds, stuck thistles, rowan leaves (because they are “like crosses”, the devil is afraid of them) behind the jambs of doors and window frames, they put a boiler with spring water under the chimney, a woman was put on a shirt turned inside out , a belt consecrated in a church or sewn from a priest’s robe, an Easter candle was left lit at night, etc. The fiery serpent, appearing at night and noticing these precautions, exclaimed: “Ah, I guessed it!” (about the fact that he is not her real husband, but an unclean spirit) - clapped his hands, laughed and disappeared with a crash and a roar, but at the same time he could burn the house in revenge. Stories about the fiery serpent served as explanations for female anguish and related ailments, violations in the household, as well as cases of illegal cohabitation, the appearance of illegitimate children and the death of single women in working age.

1. Gura A. V. The symbolism of animals in the Slavic folk tradition. M., 1997; 2. Vinogradova L. N. Human sexual relations with demonic beings; 3. Shumov K. E., Chernykh A. V. Pregnancy and childbirth in the traditional culture of the Russian population of the Kama region // Sex and erotica in Russian traditional culture. M, 1996; 4. Shchepanskaya T. B. Kulyura road. Based on the materials of the Russian folk mythological and ritual tradition. XIX-XX centuries M., 2002; 5. Archive of the MAE RAS, f. K-I, on. 2, 1292, 1337, 1508, 1570.

Homosexual behavior has been observed in over 1500 species and is well documented for 500 of them.

mammals

The frequency of homosexual courtship and mating among male giraffes even exceeds heterosexual contacts in this species.

Male domestic cats often use each other to satisfy sexual needs.

Lions, cheetahs and other cats do the same.

Homosexual behavior has also been observed in the shrew.

Russian scientists have established a relationship between prenatal stress and the subsequent level of sexual desire and sexual orientation in male mice. Prenatal stress causes males to increase the likelihood of preferring another male as a mating partner.

Studies of the sexual behavior of bonobo pygmy chimpanzees have documented a large number of homosexual encounters between group members. In addition to heterosexual sex, homosexual sex is common, especially between females, in the form of tribadism (genital-genital rubbing), although this type of sexual activity also occurs in males.

Homosexual behavior in natural conditions has also been recorded in orangutans. Scientists have observed these great apes in natural settings and documented homosexual behavior. Based on these data, it was concluded that the homosexuality of orangutans is not the result of captivity, but a component of sexual and sociosexual behavior.

A number of studies show homosexual behavior in female Japanese macaques. This monkey species is an excellent model for the study of sexual orientation because females exhibit both heterosexual and homosexual behavior. There is evidence that this behavior is sexual rather than sociosexual. It is also shown that the homosexual behavior of females is not caused by a lack of males. Interestingly, females may prefer individual females and individual males to other relatives in the group. Based on these data, the researchers concluded that female Japanese macaques are bisexual.

In some flocks of gray geese, up to 15% of males form same-sex pairs, while this behavior is not observed for females. Such behavior has a social nature, that is, it is homosocial: the hierarchical status in the flock of a male in a pair is higher than that of singles at the bottom of the hierarchy - as a result, males who failed to form pairs with females form same-sex pairs. The status maintenance mechanism also operates in the event of the breakup of the “trio” of a female and two males competing for mating with her: in the event of the female leaving or dying, these males form a same-sex pair for some time.

Homosexual couples make up to 25% of all pairs in black swans. Two males may temporarily attract a female to lay eggs and then drive her out of the nest.

Albatross females often form pairs to raise their offspring together.

lust for a white bull

All this happened in the 2nd millennium BC on the beautiful Greek island of Crete (part of the Schengen zone, from 25 thousand rubles per week, here could be your advertisement).

The local ruler Minos Zeusovich had a clear algorithm for governing the state - he prays and sacrifices (in the Russian Federation he has many followers among government officials, definitely). But even with such a simple matter, he could not cope properly (in the Russian Federation he has a lot .. etc.).

Gustav Moreau. Pasiphae. 1880s

To clarify: in those wild times, believers did not donate candles or money, but killed animals.
It’s just that money had not yet been invented, candle factories could not be opened (the infrastructure was a little underdeveloped), and with the sacrifice of animals everything was very conveniently arranged.

After a cow or a goat was killed on the altar, its inedible offal and bones were burned, i.e. "telegraphed" their respect to the gods with the help of smoke. And delicious brisket, chicken legs, etc. were fried and divided among everyone who did not miss this subbotnik.
Arranging thus abs. a non-vegetarian lunch - that in that period of constant shortage of meat food there was a big profit.

Therefore, sacrifices were such holidays for the whole people.

Sacrifice scene. Red-figure painting, 5th century BC
(Skewers and lighter fluid, as you can see, have already been invented).

So, the god Poseidon sent a huge white bull of extraordinary beauty to Crete with the aim that Minos would sacrifice this animal to him. Strange recursion, but oh well.

In Crete, in general, there was a particularly strong veneration of bulls.
and, judging by the frescoes, with sacred animals they arranged something like a bullfight, only with elements of acrobatics.
Read more in the purely realistic novel by Mary Renault "Theseus", where there is no magic-deity at all, just surprisingly, a person tried to interpret myths, dodge. I recommend.

Bull dance. Fresco from the Cretan Palace of Knossos, 1450 BC.

However, King Minos felt sorry for putting such a luxurious animal under the knife, and he, thinking not as a king-priest, but as a zealous head of a collective farm, wanted the bull to still live in his herd and work as an inseminator. And instead of him he sacrificed the second most beautiful bull of his herd, so to speak, vice-miss.

God Poseidon, who sent a white bull cash on delivery for a specific purpose, was very offended and sent rabies on the bull. He began to run around the island, trampling crops, butting goats, village women and illegally parked cars.
And this bull was so powerful that just his capture (not even a kill!) became the whole Feat of Hercules (No. 7), who was just traveling in that area.

A. Kriesman. Hercules and the Cretan bull. 1853.

But before Hercules came and saved everyone, as a bonus, Poseidon decided to send another nuisance to the royal family.
He made Queen Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, fall in love with this bull.

However, according to another version of the myth, it was not Poseidon who cursed, but Aphrodite. Because Pasiphae's father, the sun god Helios, told Aphrodite's husband about her betrayal.

In general, the version that Aphrodite set up this dirty trick seems to me more plausible.
Firstly, the dirty trick is too complicated, feminine.
Secondly, Poseidon is the god of the ocean, so he sent earthquakes and floods. And Aphrodite is the goddess of love. Lust is her professional tool.

So Pasiphae fell in love with a bull.

Margarita Kolobova. Pasiphae. 2010s.

And, as happens with women in love, she terribly wanted to have sex with the object of her love.

With the sex life of the queen in marriage, apparently, there were complete seams: her husband Minos cheated on her so often that she harbored black malice.
When an ordinary woman harbors black malice, it can lead to bromine in the soup, a scratched car, huge loans and a grumpy divorce.
When Pasiphae harbors black malice, the sister of the sorceress Circe and the aunt of the sorceress Medea - to women who reject "Domostroy" and Vedic femininity for the sake of sulfuric acid and the dismemberment of men with a hacksaw (here you need to include the song "The Case in Elanskaya" by the Tuzlov brothers), it turns out much more interesting.

Pasiphae, who, according to family tradition, was a sorceress, cast a spell on her husband - everything remained excellent with frictions, but there were problems with ejaculation. As soon as Minos finished, his sperm turned into poisonous snakes and scorpions, stinging his partner to death.
(No, I don't know the exact recipe for the spell.)

Cesare Zocchi. Minos. 2nd floor 19th century

Minos himself, in principle, did not really interfere - he still couldn’t do it more than once a night.
But word of mouth worked well, and after a while Minos had a shortage of partners, even though he was a king.
No matter what urologists and, just in case, proctologists, he was observed - all to no avail.

It was not proctologists who helped him, but Procris, who was in the telephone directory with the next line - an Athenian princess who fled to Crete when her husband caught her with her lover. In Crete, she apparently wanted to push Pasiphae out and become queen herself, but the absence of such a tool of manipulation as sex made this mission difficult for her. The recipe for curing Minos from a "venereal" disease was given to the girl by the sorceress Circe, Pasiphae's sister.
Probably, she wanted to do something nasty to her sister.
Quite a life situation.
The recipe for the cure consisted in the fact that the princess ordered Minos to cum in the bladder of a goat (the topic of the post, let me remind you - bestiality), and then go have sex with his own wife.
It seems to me that the goat in the list of components was simply because of the harmfulness of Circe, and he was cured because for the first time he tried to sleep with Pasiphae, so she cast a spell on him herself in order to survive.
The night was hot.
The Athenian princess was sent with a whistle to her homeland, paying in advance for a taxi, but not allowing her to steal silver spoons.

But it was I who digressed into a false novel. Let's go back to the bull.
So Pasiphae fell in love with him.
(Sister Circe, let me remind you, turned all men into animals. According to the official version - so as not to be molested, but now I have doubts on this issue).

Dmitry Ilyutkin. Pasiphae

Pasiphae suffered.
Women are usually worried about psychological incompatibility with a loved one, but here - a rare case, there was a physiological incompatibility.
The Cretan bull was a completely standard bull, an artiodactyl animal of the bovid family, without any human-sized details and dimensions.
Never match up!

Fortunately for Queen Pasiphae, the brilliant artisan Daedalus lived in exile at the Cretan court, such a local Leonardo da Vinci, a master of all trades.
He was hiding on the island because in Athens he deliberately killed his young nephew and student when it became clear that he had surpassed him. He took me up the mountain and pushed him into the abyss.
Considering that Daedalus' son Icarus would later also die, falling from a height - according to the official version, due to a technical flaw in Daedalus - the wax that held the feathers in the wings melted ("oh, I'm an old fool, I didn't think that the sun was hot !"), then the modus operandi is viewed and the question arises, maybe Icarus was also too smart?

In general, the questions of morality of this inventor Daedalus, as you understand, were not very burdensome, and he perceived the problem of the queen simply as a technical challenge.
And he came up with: he made a wooden cow.

Daedalus makes a "cow". Pottery of the 16th century

Pasiphae climbed inside, and the "cow" was towed to the field, where the bull was located.

Giulio Romano. Pasiphae climbs into the "cow". 16th century

The "cow" had a hole in the right place.
And also the right ones, as BDSM and shibari experts tell me from the spot, hard bindings.
And pillows! as the humanists tell me.

Like Leonardo, Daedalus was not only a brilliant technician, but he also knew how to create amazingly beautiful things.
The "cow" was distinguished by its extraordinary beauty, and when he saw her, the bull immediately got excited, climbed on her, and satisfied Pasiphae's desire.

Andre Masson. Pasiphae and the bull. 1937

It is not very clear whether this was a one-time thing - and whether Pasiphae was cured of her obsession after that.
Or the procedure was repeated several times.
Or maybe the lovers were simply separated by Hercules, who urgently needed to accomplish feat number seven.

Maggie Hambling. Pasiphae and the bull. 1897.

Pasiphae was pregnant, and after the due date, she gave birth to a monster with a human body and a bull's head - the Minotaur.

My favorite freaks are supporters of the theory of paleocontact, they consider it a hybrid, the result of a genetic experiment that the gods Olympians (alien spacemen) put on earthlings. Human DNA doesn't cross with animals, does it? only in labs, right? and look how many there were in that era - centaurs, fauns, tritons. Like the aliens tried! Hello Dolly Sheep.
I love freaks and their flight of imagination.

Pasiphae with the baby Minotaur in her arms, 4th century BC

What King Minos said when he found out that his wife gave birth to an unknown little animal is unknown. But he did not kill her. She is his too. That for the Colchis princess is an example of great willpower, by the way.

And the Minotaur was enclosed in a labyrinth so that it would not shine.
Beautiful boys and girls were thrown into the labyrinth to feed him (and probably something else).
Wait! for what food? According to his father, he is a ruminant herbivore! Uh-oh, the chances are getting smaller.

Pablo Picasso. Minotaur and sleeping woman

And then Theseus wormed his way among them, who did not want to be torn to pieces, nor the title topic of this post.
And slaughtered the poor Minotaur.

Morality: if you went to have sex with a temperamental sexual partner who does not want to be puzzled by contraceptive issues, take care of it yourself. The consequences can be unpredictable.

Sh.E. Shez. Theseus' victory over the Minotaur. 1790s

Plotless Interlude

Pan and goat. 1st century BC - 1st century AD

Now some painted pottery from the 5th century B.C.

Well, what to take from fauns and satyrs - they themselves are hybrids.
It has no hooves, but notice it has a tail.
Here the tail hangs down.

And then the tail proudly waving

Here come the real people.

A woman (Bacchante) and some kind of donkey

Blowjob dog and anal fisting

Amazing Pose Variation 69

What entertainers, these ancient Greeks!

Relief depicting a temple with a phallus inside. Found during the excavation of Pompeii

Of the literary works, the theme is fully disclosed in the novel by Apuleius "The Golden Ass" (second century AD).
The main character of which, a man turned into a donkey, is used by noble ladies for a very specific purpose.

she began to kiss me and speak to me as to a person she loved, grabbed me by the reins and pulled me to the bed. I did not need the least insistence for this: intoxicated with old wine, drunk in large quantities, and excited by the smell of perfume, seeing a young and in every respect beautiful woman in front of me, I lay down, but was very confused how to cover the woman. For since I became a donkey, I have not experienced the love of donkeys and have had no dealings with donkeys. Moreover, I was led into considerable difficulty, as if not to mutilate her and not be punished for the murder of a woman. But I did not know that I was afraid unnecessarily. The woman, seeing that I did not hug her, with kisses and all sorts of caresses attracted me to her, lying as with a man, hugged me and, rising, accepted all of me. I still did not dare and, out of caution, quietly moved away from her, but she tightly squeezed me in her arms, did not let me move away and caught the departing. Having at last fully understood what was lacking for her enjoyment and pleasure, I did the rest without fear, thinking to myself that I was in no way worse than Pasiphae's lover.

At the end of the novel, he turns back into a human. And he goes to the same woman.
But she drives him away in indignation, because he has lost the main donkey sign, for which she welcomed him.

Jean de Bosschere. Illustration for The Golden Ass, 1930s

HOW ELENA IS BEAUTIFUL

God Zeus was very fond of cheating on his wife Hera.
She tried to somehow stop this, but she was far from the ingenuity of the Colchis princess Pasiphae. Shitted on trifles.
Therefore, Zeus practically did not limit himself to anything.

But this permissiveness bored him, and he began to glue the women under different avatars.

LIKBEZ! An avatar is not just a profile icon! In Hindu mythology, the word "avatara" means the form of incarnation of God in another being. The pioneers of the Internet were educated and humorous people. For example, the yahoo search engine is in honor of the Yehu from Gulliver's Travels - humanoid stupid creatures. Hello schoolboy!

J. Ingres. Zeus and Thetis. 1811

To breed a woman for sex, Zeus turned into: a) a snake; b) a bull; c) a cloud; d) an eagle; e) a swan; e) quail; g) an ant; h) a dove; i) a stallion; j) fire; j) golden rain; k) a woman; m) satire; m) a shepherd, and so on.

Really, such ingenuity, as if he is the founder of pickup courses and he needs to promote his channel on YouTube.

Correggio. Zeus seduces Io by taking the form of a cloud. 1530s

But the science fiction writers Oldie in the "Achaean Cycle" (very recommend) have a completely convincing theory that somehow Zeus had sex in an ordinary human form, but he did not succeed. A psychotrauma arose, a psychotrauma entrenched.
And from then on, he got up only if he took the form of an animal, etc. (google for plushophilia, furry and petplay).

Francois Bush. Leda and the swan. 1740

The rationalistic explanation looks like this: Zeus chose not just anyone, but queens and princesses, who were guarded very seriously. It was impossible to just get close to them. That's why he turned into someone harmless to sneak up on.
But that seems like a pathetic excuse for a god with teleportation technology...

Leda and the swan. Ancient Rome, ca. 130 AD

Leda was also the queen - the city of Sparta, one of the most powerful political centers of that era.
Once she was walking with her maids on the banks of the river Evros and saw a swan of extraordinary beauty (and size).

Leda and the swan. OK. 330 AD BC.

In general, in those days, given the population density, if you are a queen and a beauty, you should be suspicious of the phenomena of non-standard animals, see points a) b) c) and so on above. But the naive Leda did not think anything bad, she began to play with a cute bird, feed her with bread, which she brought to feed the ducks on the pond.
In fact, how was she not scared? Such birds with a huge beak are generally very scary in real life.

Jerzy Hulewicz. Leda and the swan. 1928

They played hugging, cooing... But then a giant swan with its bird-like erection pounced on Queen Leda and began to trample her, in the slang of a young naturalist.

Rubens (copy from a lost original by Michelangelo). Leda and the swan. 1600.

Ancient Roman relief, 1st-2nd centuries. AD

As they clarify here in the comments, Saltykov-Shchedrin would have approved the rubric. He wrote about this event:
"... once, dressed as a swan, he swam up to one bathing girl, the daughter of noble parents, who had only a dowry, that beauty, and at the time when she stroked his head, made her unhappy for life"

Artist Heinrich Lossow, 2nd floor. 19th century

Federico Beltran Masses. Leda and the swan. 1920s(?)

Paul Matthias Padua. 1965
(here is clearly a joyful cry)

Botero. Leda and the swan, 2006

After that, the tired and satisfied queen returned home to the palace.
And her lawful husband, the king of Tyndareus, had sex with her.
She became pregnant by both men at once (hello telegonii).

And in due time she gave birth to 4 children, two boys and two girls.
Moreover, from Zeus, a boy and a girl, and from a mortal person, it is similar.
The children from her god were Elena the Beautiful (whose beauty will burn Troy) and Polydeuces, and from her husband - Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon with an ax, read the tag issue 1) and Castor.

To be more precise, it did not "give birth", but carried it in an egg.

Baby Helen of Troy in an egg, ancient Greek sculpture of the 5th century. BC.

Bacchiac. Leda and her children, 16th century

How it ended, see Wolfgang Petersen's director's cut of Troy (2004, Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana).
Well, or read Homer if you want to show off in front of fellow travelers in the subway.

Morality: do not lose vigilance on the banks of reservoirs, especially if you are in a state of intoxication! No matter how white and fluffy the seekers of one-time sex pretend to be.

G. Klimt. Leda and the swan. 1917

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