Harbingers of BDSM in Classic Literature and Arts

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May 2012

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May 28 - Memorial Day

[Shikhandi Panthar]

A thought provoking comment was posted earlier in the Gorum about ancient authors being the forerunners of D/S sexual practices... Right now, apart form some scattered passages, I can't remember reading anything blatantly kinky in roman texts, for instance in Ovid's Ars Amatoria. But, then again, I read that long ago and I am sure these things were not invented yesterday. In fact, I believe they have existed in all times, with more or less stigmatization from religious or political authorities.

In classic oriental literature, there are definitely some explicit passages about D/S practices, before the concept was invented. For example, in the Kāma Sūtra, there are chapters on "The Art of Scratching", "Biting", "On Copulation and Special Tastes" (i.e. group sex, sodomy, homosexual practices, etc.), "Blows and Sighs" (ways of hitting and causing suffering), "Virile Behavior in Women" (inversion of roles)...

I would also guess that the bacchanalia of ancient Greece and Rome would have included some sort of sexual submission or "torture". I do remember some passage in Apuleius The Golden Ass, where a donkey would be fucking women. There is also a reference in Tertullian's Apologeticus, where the early christian communities were accused of devoting themselves to impious sexual practices during their secret banquets. Around the same period, Irenaeus of Lyon lambasted the sects of Gnostics, in his book Against Heresies, as being sexual libertines...

If you have more references in earlier literature or art forms, please, do share!

[Randall Reich]

Yes, too, there is the book in the Gor series deemed too hot for publication, "Teutonic Twats of Gor" about the Alar people. 

[Elle Couerblanc]

Although it is not sexual in its nature "The Taming of the Shrew" is a classic example of the mental submission of a woman - the unhappy woman is led down the path of submission through denial of food and sleep.  In the end Kate submits to Petruchio and they live happily ever after.  The End.

[Shikhandi Panthar]

Although it is not sexual in its nature "The Taming of the Shrew" is a classic example of the mental submission of a woman - the unhappy woman is led down the path of submission through denial of food and sleep.  In the end Kate submits to Petruchio and they live happily ever after.  The End.

Indeed, Kate's last declamation in that play is a beautiful plea in favor of a wife's submission to her husband! More generally, it seems the topic of woman submission is a leitmotiv in Shakespeare's work (see quote below), albeit many female characters are often shown as being much stronger than men (Lady Macbeth being the paragon of the dominant and demonic creature). But there is no doubt that female submission was at the heart of the Zeitgeist, although, perhaps, not so much, as you mention, related to sexual practices.

LUCIANA
Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing situate under heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.

W. Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act I, Scene 2.

[Elle Couerblanc]

@Shikhandi - Ah yes, Lady Macbeth was another who came to mind when I was mulling over the topic.  As a side note, the Macbeth sim in SL is pretty fantastic

Foul Whisperings Strange Matters (MacBeth) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Macbeth/55/73/5

http://ellecouerblanc.com/fantasy-fashion/moon-and-stars/

[Isobel Mynx]

. In fact, I believe they have existed in all times, with more or less stigmatization from religious or political authorities.

I would say that rather than a stigmatization from the religious and political authorities, it was from there that it most likely evolved, mostly hidden in the temples and sanctuaries of the ancient mystery cults of Rome, Greece and Egypt via older indo-european fertility practices, which were certainly hedonistic

However,  with these ancient civilisations, any depictions of sado-masochism,  both in art and literature,  such as Petronius's Satyricon,  are controversial due to the nature of the society, the  balance of power, and their  innate violence and cruelty (by todays standards),  where its impossible to assume that anything is consensual. 

Medieval, Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry all contain symbols of sadism/masochism (eg Shakespeares Cleopatra talking about death “Its stroke is as a lover's pinch, which hurts, and is desired" and a birch over the bed in a brothel in Hogarth's series of 'The Harlot's Progress, but it was around the time of the renaissance that sado/masochism became more prolific in the Arts due to western culture becoming more individualistic and its pretty easy to find references from that era to the present.

[Moon Firegrave]

Marquis de Sade.They say the cruelties depicted in his works gave rise to the concept of sadism especially sexual violence, incest, sadomasochism, pedophilia, overt eroticism, sodomy, rape and torture with an emphasis on the psychological approach.

[Shikhandi Panthar]

Actually, I have a tendency to believe that one of the early references that carry a considerable weight underneath our modern concepts of sadomasochism is the religious idea of sacrifice and martyrdom.

It takes its roots in Antiquity, where the value of a human life was not measured against the same standards as it is today: slavery, torture, female oppression, etc. were common practices. But christianity gave this a whole different meaning through the Passion of Jesus, where submission and torture, associated with a strong emphasis on sexuality --in this case, a sort of inverted emphasis, where the stigmatization and extirpation of sex was the rule-- and the idea of reaching some heavenly bliss, brought images of suffering to it's utter exaltation. Later practices of flagellation of the penitents confirm this, in my view. And most of religious art in the West henceforth has been a sort of glorification of suffering. A classic example:

Andrea Mantegna, Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian:




This influence, of course, has been instilled in most of later ideas on sexuality, and I guess Sade is no exception: all his work is a sort of attempt to demolish the christian moral system. The same is true of Nietzsche, who, in turn, has a great influence on Norman's work. But it remains that, these authors, even if they turn around the ethical views of christianity, retain a lot of its imagery.

[Isobel Mynx]

You are right of course, there is a plethora of what could be classed as sadomasochistic images in Christian Art.   As I said in my post, I firmly believe it was from the religious sects of all societies that these practices were started all the way back to the fertility rites of our ancient ancestors.  Women were often depicted with serpents or toads or other creatures feeding on or eating their breasts and genitals, Saint Jerome often dreamt (or fantasised) about a whole host of angelic beings whipping him, even that BDSM favourite of dropping wax on bare skin was practised by St Brigit.  Then there was Saint Mary Magdalena who liked to roll around naked in nettles and hit her breasts with a pointy rock.  But, is there is a difference between this type of religious ecstasy and BDSM for sexual pleasure in itself ?

Followers of the the Eleusinian Mysteries, starting around 600BC and lasting almost a thousand years used ergot,  a type of LSD, to attain the same religious ecstasy that perhaps these saints were trying to find.  Even Aristotle wrote of them "that the initiates were not going to learn anything, but they were to suffer, to feel, to experience certain impressions and psychic moods”.  Suffering and sacrifice has been part of religion since the dawn of civilisation, but was it always for sexual gratification ?  – which to me is what BDSM is in its classical meaning.

And of course going back even further, many believe Christ is just another cycle myth following on after the Egyptian God Osiris – whom is almost always shown holding a flail in hieroglyphics.  The worshippers at his festivals whom were said to  "beat their breasts and gash their shoulders..” 

Are we seeking a type of enlightenment and expansion of the soul when bound and tied to a cross in the modern world as these willing and unwilling saints were?  I know I am not.  Perhaps these types  of saints really were just sexual deviants and used religion as an excuse to indulge in their kinks.. or maybe they really were seeking a union with their God.  Does the psychology of why we have these kinks, and the depth of that desire to either cause pain, or receive pain matter when we are discussing BDSM?   I suppose there are many different types of pleasure and satisfaction other than sexual.

Just as a side note – the Malleus Maleficarum of 1486, used to educate magistrates during the witchcraft trials and Inquisition in Europe in how to test if someone was a witch is one of the most sadistic pieces of ancient literature –  some of the  acts included pulling out all a woman’s hair, using red hot pincers on nipples, piercing the skin with a fork, and an instrument called an intestinal crank, which I shudder to think how that was used. etc etc...  This movement used to be thought of as a kind of religious sexual sadism for pleasure within the repressed Church , but most now agree that in fact it was an excuse to extinguish those with knowledge of birth control ( most were women that practised healing and midwifery) at a time when the population of Europe was destroyed by the plague, and it did indeed lead to a population explosion of early modern Europe that allowed it through imperialism and colonialism to conquer 90% of the world.  Not all is ever as it seems with history, is I suppose my point

But then again  - it might just be that simple....   

The Scourging of penitents might well have fulfilled a twofold purpose, enabling the priest to indulge a taste for sadism and the penitent a penchant for masochism
George Riley Scott, A History of Torture

[Keth Saunders]

I guess you like history very much, and especially the darker side of it 

and an instrument called an intestinal crank, which I shudder to think how that was used

Just like the name suggests: it's a crank... for intestines. Used to extract confessions and information (along with intestines by turning the crank) from the gastrointestinal cavity of a conscious person.

[Shikhandi Panthar]

The Scourging of penitents might well have fulfilled a twofold purpose, enabling the priest to indulge a taste for sadism and the penitent a penchant for masochism
George Riley Scott, A History of Torture

Thank you so much for this very erudite answer, Isobel, as always. No further comments from me at this point. Let me add a couple of illustrations to what you just stated.

Matthias Grünewald, Temptation of St. Anthony




Hieronymus Bosch, The Last Judgment (a few torture scenes in there, if you take a magnifying glass to see them)

[Shikhandi Panthar]

Another possible reference: children's fairytales (as odd as this might seem).

Many of the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault stories are stuffed with ogres and cannibal women. But one of the most significant ones is definitely Bluebeard, the man who kept the murdered bodies of his former wives in a secret dungeon, within his château. This probably takes its roots in former oral or literary traditions. It is also said to have been inspired by the historical figure of Gilles de Rais, a companion of Joan of Arc who, after the execution of the pucelle, retreated into his castle and devoted himself to snatching, torturing and abusing children sexually before he would murder them.

I would guess this story has a similar pattern to the legend of Dracula, inspired by the figure of Vlad the Impaler…

Gustave Doré, lithograph illustrating the Bluebeard fairy tale

[Isobel Mynx]

I guess you like history very much, and especially the darker side of it 

and an instrument called an intestinal crank, which I shudder to think how that was used

Just like the name suggests: it's a crank... for intestines. Used to extract confessions and information (along with intestines by turning the crank) from the gastrointestinal cavity of a conscious person.

Argh... I was trying not to think of that Keth!   It makes me.... *clench* 

[Keth Saunders]

Argh... I was trying not to think of that Keth!   It makes me.... *clench* 

What, this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4yQLPekJNc&NR=1 

[Loredana Varonia]

well, maybe first it should be defined what "kink" is... then, I would like to draw your attention on the wall paintings of pompeij, the pictures on greek "ceramics".  de sade of course, and his ancestors as the bathory, vlad tepes - in latter cases i am quite sure that there is a "sexual" aspect in what they did. not to forget what is told of the popes in the past and marozia, who was lover of several popes and mother of others.

i am quite sure that D/s and other kink has always existed, at least in the more peaceful times.  when times were bad, people are supposed to have had other problems.so oyu could find everything that exists today, even in the past. but most probably not as "public" as it is now.