There’s no doubt that giving and receiving a blowjob can be extremely exciting. However, it’s important to communicate what you want and are not into with your partner.
Blow jobs are a form of oral sex that involves licking and sucking on someone’s penis for pleasure. The Kama Sutra even has an entire chapter dedicated to this sexual act.
Arthur Blow (1023-1079)
Blow jobs are a staple in (and out of) the bedroom but have you ever thought about the rich history behind this most famous form of foreplay?
Oral sex has been around for millennia but it didn’t make the jump from brothels to bedrooms until the 20th century. Then, it became all the rage. But who was the first person to get the idea to replace coitus with oral caresses?
Some experts believe that fellatio dates back to prehistoric times. It’s believed that mammals have an instinctive desire to explore their environment through their mouths. Oral sex was commonplace among the Greeks who referred to it as “playing the flute.” Spartan soldiers also used it to keep their morale high on the battlefield.
The Dark Ages were a harsh and unforgiving time to be alive. Going down on your neighbor went against biblical instructions to “be fruitful and multiply.” Oral sex was forbidden by the church and doing so carried the same penalty as murder.
It wasn’t until 1894 that the word ‘fellatio’ was coined by sexual researcher Havelock Ellis in a clinical piece. A few years later, the term ‘blow job’ appeared in pulp fiction paperbacks. Then in the 1930s it started to pop up more and more in popular culture. Interestingly, there’s no actual ‘blowing’ involved in oral sex, so the name is a little confusing!
Ancient Greeks
Whether it was taboo or not, men have loved giving head through oral sex for millennia. The first known account is documented in the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis. When Osiris was murdered and chopped into pieces by his brother Set, Isis put him back together but couldn’t find his penis. So she crafted one out of clay, stuck it in his crotch and “blew life into him” by sucking on it. This is probably the earliest real-life example of fellatio.
The ancient Greeks had a different view of oral sex. The Hellenistic playwright Aristophanes used cunnilingus in many of his works to portray characters as immoral and effeminate. He wrote that anyone who practiced oral sex was not only menstruating, but “gloating in vice”. And there are plenty of other jokes involving rug munching from the time.
Oral sex was common among the Pompeiians whose frescoes are downright pornographic. There are pictures of men in their underwear, a sex toy called an olisbos and even a blowjob! And this is not a coincidence. The phallus was a symbol of masculinity in the Greek world. For instance, a well-known Greek god was Priapus, who was famous for his extremely long and permanent erect penis. And they worshipped it in temples. The sexy Pompeiians also practiced oral sex to please their lustful deities.
Romans
While it’s hard to pin down the exact date of fellatio, this oral fetish did make its way from Ancient Greece to the Roman Empire. According to legend, Cleopatra was renowned for her ability to drive men crazy not with her external beauty but with her expert blowjob techniques.
In Roman times, oral sex was generally reserved for slaves, prisoners of war and lower class women, but it was still a sexual practice that was viewed as degrading by the Romans. Interestingly, the Romans had no specific verb to describe this act, only the noun fellatus or cunnilingus. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans did not consider this act to be sexually arousing or desirable and instead viewed it as something disgusting, polluting and unmanly.
Flemming notes that a punishment of forced fellatio was often used to keep the hands of petty criminals off certain men. For example, a husband might warn a peasant that he could end up with a forceful blowjob if he steals his onions.
Despite this degrading reputation, the Romans did not stop this fetish from spreading. During this time, there was also a rise in “blowjob clubs,” places where men gathered to blow on each other. This era was when the term “blow job” first started to appear in literature. The term was then further popularized by the sexual liberation movement in Victorian times.
19th Century
The American Civil War and the Puritanical roots of America left its mark on oral sex, which didn’t make the leap from brothels to bedrooms until the 20th Century. This is likely because, until then, it was a taboo and homosexual act.
Oral sex was known as ‘fellatio’ and performed by women called fellators or fellatrixes. Fellatio was condemned by churchgoing killjoys who considered anything that didn’t lead to babies a mortal sin, and this included oral sex. According to Green, the term ‘blowjob’ didn’t appear until the turn of the 20th Century and appeared in pulp fiction paperbacks. It’s also possible that the term is a derivation of ‘dicklicker’, which dates back to prehistoric times. 3.2 million years ago to be exact. That’s a long time to wait for a blowjob!
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