Sexual intercourse a tergo in late antique lamps from Rhodos. Iconographic ambivalences. The literary and historical background
Abstract
The erotic theme in six moulded lamps of Asia Minor type found on Rhodes, in excavations of the ancient city are explored. The disc is decorated with a scene of anal sex (coitus a tergo) involving two beardless naked figures. The apparently apotropaic character of at least one of the lamps, as the scene is accompanied by a cross and the late dating, almost at the end of the Protobyzantine period (6th-7th century), is discussed. Τwo lines of interpretation exist: the pagan religious substrate of customers eager to buy such objects and the connection of the theme with mime spectacles. What emerges is a world of incomplete Christianisation where part of the population was attached to pagan aesthetic norms.
Article Details
- How to Cite
-
ΚΑΤΣΙΩΤΗ (Angeliki KATSIOTI ) Α., & ΠΑΠΑΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΥ (Dimitrios PAPANIKOLAOU) Δ. (2025). Sexual intercourse a tergo in late antique lamps from Rhodos. Iconographic ambivalences. The literary and historical background. Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society, 44, 343–362. https://doi.org/10.12681/dchae.40846
- Section
- Articles
The copyright for articles in the journal Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society (henceforth Deltion) is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal and to EIE/ EKT the right to store and communicate these articles to the public via its information infrastructures. By virtue of their appearance in this journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution for non-commercial uses under a ShareAlike obligation. The Christian Archaeological Society and EIE/EKT retain the worldwide right to reproduce, display, distribute, and use articles published in the Deltion in all formats and media, either separately or as part of collective works for the full term of copyright. This includes but is not limited to the right to publish articles in an issue of the Journal, copy and distribute individual reprints of the articles, authorize reproduction of articles in their entirety in another publication of the Christian Archaeological Society, and authorize reproduction and distribution of articles or abstracts thereof by means of computerized retrieval systems.
