Slave-Boys for Sexual and Religious Service

Images of Pleasure and Devotion

Bibliographic Data

ID20063612
AuthorsJohn Pollini (corresponding author)
Year2003
Pages149-166
Publication date2003-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueFlavian Rome (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/9789004217157_006
OpenAlexW842711408
ISBN9789004217157
LanguageEN
Citations received8

From the literary, epigraphic and archaeological record, we know much about the institution of slavery in the Roman period, but far less about the way in which slaves were represented in art. This chapter concerns principally with images of slave-'boys' in the later Julio-Claudian and Flavian periods. Besides designating a male as opposed to a female, the Latin word for 'boy', puer, has essentially two meanings: a prepubertal free-born boy or a male slave, who may be a boy, a teenager, or a mature male. The chapter focuses on a type of slave-boy in the Roman period called a delicatus , who was generally a favourite, pretty-boy, 'pet' slave. The use of pretty long-haired slave-boys not only for sex but also for religious ministry was in accord with the Roman custom to have present at sacrifices that which was beautiful and pleasing to the gods. Keywords: archaeological record; delicatus ; Flavian periods; religious ministry; Roman period; sex; slave-boys

Art · Business · Pleasure · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing

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