The Naked Country: Sexual Freedom in Ancient Greece

Over a thousand prostitutes served in the Temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, and it was a mark of great piety if a woman went there and coupled with a stranger. Sex was at the heart of life in ancient Greece, and so was the beauty of the human body – which was why completely naked servants served at banquets, and athletes and wrestlers trained and competed in the nude – watched often by an enthusiastic audience of women none of whom were averse to a closer encounter. The Greeks loved to look at a beautiful naked body, and were not averse to a close encounter with one. In an exchange of letters, brother and sister Arsenius and Ligeia frankly describe their enthusiastic entry into adult life in Corinth (described by historians as sex-mad) and the more sophisticated capital, Athens. Their tastes developed quickly, and are surprisingly similar to those of today.