Monday, October 30, 2006

Girls Gone Wild! Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites
"We are talking about a festival in which people come together in a community to get drunk," she said. "Not high, not socially fun, but drunk — knee-walking, absolutely passed-out drunk."

The temple excavations turned up what appears to have been a "porch of drunkenness," associated with Hatshepsut, the wife and half-sister of Thutmose II. After the death of Thutmose II in 1479 B.C., Hatshepsut ruled New Kingdom Egypt for about 20 years as a female pharaoh, and the porch was erected at the height of her reign.


Heh:
The writer Herodotus reported in 440 B.C. that such festivals drew as many as 700,000 people — with drunken women exposing themselves to onlookers.


If you think about it, it is kind of like Mardi Gras which is (loosely) based on Catholic theology. Okay, that's a stretch, putting it that way. But still, who knows what future archaeologists will make of film of Carnival in Brazil. I feel certain they will enjoy viewing a lot of the tape though.

Here's the illustration accompanying it:


Note the young lady apparently hurling in the top left panel.

The story is from The Book of the Divine Cow. You might be able to find the text online somewhere, but a cursory glance through Yahoo didn't locate any for me.

And no, I am not going to provide a link to the "Girls Gone Wild" web site for y'all.

Unless they give me a cut of any profits derived therefrom.

And no Artists' Conceptions either.