Sex in Ancient Egypt

Marie Antoinette famously spent quite a lot of money and time on her outfits and make-up. But what would it feel like to actually wear it?Joining Kate in this episode is the amazing Casta Hex, historical drag queen, embroiderer and textiles artist for film and TV. Casta creates a ...  Show more

In the midst of the most hostile period in Scottish history, comes a passionate lesbian love story.Set against post-Reformation Scotland, with Mary Queen of Scots on the throne, is Marie Maitland whose erotic lesbian poetry gives us a rare and significant insight into same-sex lo ...  Show more

This episode contains some strong language references to sexual content.

Pompeii is shrouded in myths and legends about it's vibrant, after hours, night life. With theories of carved stone penis' pointing towards brothels, frescoes of graphic images, and baw ...

What would an average ancient Egyptian citizen's relationship have been with the pyramids? Why did they wear gooey wax cones on their heads? And what was it like to attend an Egyptian religious ritual? In this third episode of our series Ancient Egypt: the big questions, Emily Br ...  Show more

Warning: this episode contains explicit language.Medieval people weren’t prudish—far from it. Dan is joined by medieval historian Dr Eleanor Janega to explore sex, marriage, and desire in the Middle Ages. They delve into the beliefs around sodomy as “non-procreative sex”; pilgrim ...  Show more

We’ve covered bloody battles, we’ve covered stunning cities, we’ve covered civilisations far away from the ancient Mediterranean. But in some 120 episodes of The Ancients we hadn’t covered one of the most popular topics in the world: sex. That is, until now. In today’s episode, s ...  Show more