The Greeks gave sexual matters a fair amount of attention. Men raised monuments to their genitalia and had sex with the sons of their friends. Some had slave lovers. Naughty images were featured on vases and drinking cups. Sexual themes were common in Greek drama and actors routinely wore conspicuously short costumes with massive woolen phalluses hanging out the bottom.
The word "ecstacy comes from the Greek word ekstasis , which means to "stand forth naked. The Greek gods realized that sex was the driving force behind all things.
Hippocrates was one of the first to advise men to preserve their semen to boost vitality. The Greek poet Hero wrote in the 4th century B. The Greeks believed that the root of purple-flowered mandrake was an aphrodisiac. The root is shaped like a pair of human legs. The Romans and Greeks regarded garlic and leeks as aphrodisiacs.
Truffles, artichokes and oysters were also associated with sexuality. Anise-tasting fennel was popular with Greeks who thought it made a man strong. Romans thought it improved eyesight.
Ray Tannahill wrote in the History of Sex : "Masturbation, to the Greeks, was not a vice but a safety valve, and there are numerous literary references to it Miletus, a wealthy commercial city on the coast of Asia Minor, was the manufacturing and exporting center of what the Greeks called the olisbos , and later generations, less euphoniously, the dildo The imitation penis appears in Greek times to have been made either of wood or pressed leather and had to be liberally anointed with olive oil before use Among the literary relics of the third century B.
