Warren Cup - Imagery

Imagery

See also: Sexuality in ancient Rome and Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Representations of sexual acts are widely found in Roman art, although in contrast to Greek art, male-female scenes greatly outnumber same-sex couples. Illustrated drinking cups, often in pairs, were intended as dinner-party conversation pieces.

One side of the Warren Cup depicts a mature bearded man (the active participant or in Greek terms the erastes) engaging in anal sex with a young man (the eromenos, "beloved"), who lowers himself onto the erastes using a rope or support from the ceiling in roughly the modern sexual position of reverse cowgirl. Meanwhile a boy, eagerly watches from behind a door.

The other side depicts a younger adult male now as the "erastes" engaging in anal sex with the boy (now the "eromenos") . The boy's hairstyle is typical of the puer delicatus, a servant-boy or cup or armor bearer chosen for his good looks to serve as his master's favorite. The adult wears a wreath, perhaps indicating his role as "erotic conqueror." Roman same-sex practice differed from that of the Greeks, among whom pederasty was a socially acknowledged relationship between freeborn males of equal social status. Roman men, however, were free to engage in same-sex relations without a perceived loss of masculinity only as long as they took the penetrative role and their partner was a social inferior such as a slave or male prostitute: the paradigm of "correct" male sexuality was one of conquest and domination.

Both scenes show draped textiles in the background, as well as a kithara (a string instrument) in the former scene and an aulos (pipes) in the latter. These, along with the careful delineation of ages and status and the wreaths worn by the youths, all suggest a cultured, elite, Hellenized setting with music and entertainment.