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[Article revised on 25 April 2020.]
Ancient Egyptian sources are largely silent on the subject of same-sex love.
Our insights into the matter mostly come from just three areas:
• A myth about the gods Horus and Seth,
• A historical tale about Pharaoh Neferkare and his general Sasenet, and
• The tomb of court officials Nyankhkhnum and Khnumhotep.
In the Contendings of Horus and Seth, a myth with several versions, Seth and his nephew Horus vie for the throne of Egypt.
Seth tries and tries to get the better of Horus. At last, he decides to subjugate him by inebriating, seducing, and inseminating him.
‘How beautiful are your buttocks, how vital!’ This line, used by Seth on his nephew, is probably the oldest recorded chat-up, gay or straight, in all of history.
In the event, Horus is not all that drunk, and succeeds in catching Seth’s semen in his hand.
The next day, he shows his manky hand to his mother Isis, and then washes his hands in the Nile.
Together, Horus and Isis plot their revenge on Seth.
Horus goes to find Seth’s lunch and masturbates into his lettuce.
After enjoying his dressed salad, Seth puts his case before the tribunal of the gods, but, of course, Horus disputes his claim.
When Thoth calls forth their semen, that of Seth rises from the Nile, while that of Horus pours out of Seth’s mouth.
The myth suggests that, in Ancient Egypt as in Ancient Rome, the sticking point, if you’ll forgive the pun, was not so much with same-sex love per se, as with a male playing a passive or receptive role.
In 46 BCE, Cæsar was rumoured to have submitted to Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, and mocked as ‘Queen of Bithynia’. A popular quip ran: Gallias Caesar subegit, Caesarem Nicomedes (Caesar subjugated Gaul, and Nicomedes Caesar).
It is notable that Horus had no qualms about being seduced by Seth, or even with bedding him, but only with being inseminated by him.
From three extent fragments, it is possible to reconstruct the twenty-third century BCE story of the clandestine nocturnal visits paid by Pharaoh Neferkare (the long-reigning Pepi II) to General Sasenet.
One night, a spy observed Neferkare going on his own from the royal palace to Sasenet’s house.
Once before the house, Neferkare ‘threw a brick after stamping with his foot. Then a ladder was lowered to him (and) he climbed up.’
Neferkare spent four hours in the house with Sasenet, leaving only ‘after his majesty had done that which he had wanted to do with him’.
One fragment specifies that there was no woman, or wife, in Sasenet’s house, and the same incomplete sentence also contains the word ‘love’.
Lastly, the spy confirms to himself that ‘the rumours about [Neferkare] going out at night are true’.
Although the tale is censorious of Neferkare’s conduct, this is more because it does not befit a king and god than because it involves same-sex love.
In the twenty-fifth century BCE, Nyankhkhnum and Khnumhotep shared the title of ‘Overseer of the Manicurists’ at the court of Pharaoh Nyuserre Ini.
As with the Gentleman of the Bedchamber at the royal court of England, the title was much more prestigious than it sounds, since Nyankhkhnum and Khnumhotep would have been granted the rare privilege of touching the person of the pharaoh, and would have had unparalleled access to him.
When they died, Nyankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were buried together in a mastaba tomb.
In this tomb, they are severally depicted embracing and, in one instance, even touching noses, which in Egyptian culture generally signified kissing.
That their wives and children also feature in the tomb has led some to conclude that they were brothers rather than lovers—but having a family of their own need not have precluded them from being lovers, and in the tomb they are represented in the same manner as husband and wife.
As far as the record goes, Nyankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are, I think, the oldest gays in history.
Like all ancient peoples, the Egyptians valued fertility and dominance, and disapproved in particular of men who played a passive or receptive role.
But they did not have a rigid convention of sexuality as either heterosexual or homosexual, and, at least at certain times, and in certain strata, may have tolerated and even celebrated same-sex love.
Like all ancient peoples, the Egyptians valued fertility and dominance, and disapproved in particular of the passive or receptive male role. But they did not have a rigid convention of sexuality as either heterosexual or homosexual, and, at least at certain times, and in certain strata, may have tolerated and even celebrated same-sex love.
See my related article, Love, Sex, and Marriage in Ancient Egypt
Neel Burton is author of For Better For Worse and other books.
References
Griffiths JG (1960): The Conflict of Horus and Seth… Liverpool University Press.
Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, Divus Julius.
Papyrus Chassinat I [P. Louvre E 25351].
