
2009
In the beginning was sex. To the ancient cultures, sexuality, love and sex were inextricably connected with the creation of the earth, the heavens and the underworld. To the citizens of the ancient civilizations that gave birth to ours, sensuality and sexuality were an integral part of society. This series exploration of Egyptian and Roman sexual practice allows viewers the opportunity to see how attitudes and beliefs about sexuality functioned in the early civilizations, and how those attitudes reveal the unspoken rules that defined public and private behavior. Episodes cover human sex and sexuality from a historical perspective, and examines in detail different texts and images which provide us with evidence about sexual practices, beliefs and ideologies in the ancient world – from erotica on pots to legal texts, phallic votive objects, fertility ceremonies, prostitution, female and hermaphroditic creator deities, from religious rituals to sex manuals.

Philip Gardiner
Narrator

Basquiat

Alexander

Original Sin

Egypt's Lost Cities

Riddles of the Sphinx

Skin. Like. Sun.

Like It Is

The Doors

9to5: Days in Porn

No Escape

Secret of the Ninth

Agora

The Passage

Cairo from 5 to 7

Norma Jean & Marilyn

In Our Hands: The Battle for Jerusalem

The Last Days of Pompeii

Spring Fever

Private House of the SS

The Last Days of Pompeii