Suburban Baths (Pompeii) - Erotic Art in The Suburban Baths

Erotic Art in The Suburban Baths

See also: Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum For more details on this topic, see Sexuality in ancient Rome.

The erotic wall paintings in the Suburban Baths are the only set of such art found in a public Roman bath house. Explicit sex scenes (such as group sex and oral sex) are depicted in these paintings that can not be easily found in collections of erotic Roman art. The paintings are located in the apodyterium and each scene is located above a numbered box. These boxes are thought to function as lockers in which bathers put their clothes. It is speculated that the paintings possibly served as way for the bathers to remember the location of their box (in lieu with the numerical numbering). The presence of these paintings in a public bath house shared by men and women gives some insight into Roman culture and suggests that people would not have found this offensive.

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