A History of Sex Parties

How did it all begin? With whom, where, when, and why? Read about how sex parties became what they are today.

 

 

Group sex has been popular since time immemorial. (jlp)

What is an orgy, actually?

 

Let's begin our story with the original meaning of the word "orgia" which denotes secret worship. It all started in Ancient Greece with mythical night-time prayers and the worship of Dionysus or Orpheus. At first, sex played no role in these orgies. The worship of Dionysus involved dancing, music, drinking and eating animals' sacrifice. Considering these activities, no wonder the group indulgence in sexual thrills became inevitable in time.

The Romans adopted the orgy from Greeks. The worship of Saturn, god of death, and the worship of Bacchus, god of wine, were especially notorious (that's where the words Bacchanalia, or bacchanalian, and Saturnalia come from). The greatest connoisseur of the then sex parties was Tiberius Caesar. In Capri, Tiberius built several residential buildings where groups of people of both sexes indulged in collective sexual thrills to arouse the cold-hearted and cruel emperor.

Sexual parties were revived by the hippies. (jlp)

When Roman emperor Constantine the Great published the Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity stopped these sex parties without second thought. The Latin orgia became a synonym for something depraved, dirty and bad in general.

The word orgia passed into English in 1589, and evidence exists that the English were no slouches at group sex. Dancing around a Maypole in vast fields of wheat was a ritual phallus-worship. The 16th century puritan, Philip Stubbes, described the English fecundity worship in the following way: “What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slobbering one of another.”

In France, a well-known aristocrat, Marquis de Sade, inherited Château La Coste, where he created his most noted works of literature which include violent pornography. Along with his writing skills, De Sade is also known for the fact that he and his wife signed up young male servants and pretty girls and subjected them to group sex. No wonder he authored The 120 Days of Sodom.

 

At first, sex played no role in ancient Greek "orgies". (jlp)

 

Orgiasts then took a rest for a few centuries until sex parties were revived by the crazy 1960s and 70s, as hippie culture introduced the concept of "free love". Hippies promoted a version of sexual democracy and broke many taboos. For example, the staff of the then Suck magazine freely indulged in orgies during editorial meetings.

In 1972, the book “The Joy of Sex” was published, where the ‘Orgy’ chapter starts with a drawing that depicts bearded men and forty-year-old housewives enjoying group sex.

In 2010, after 2000-odd years, sex parties just don't seem such an exciting idea any more.

 

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