The 9 Strangest Ancient/Outdated Sex Beliefs

3150 BCE - 31 BCE

Creation myths are as old as time. According to Christianity: "In the beginning, God created the universe. At first, the earth was shapeless and covered in darkness, and God's spirit hovered over the waters. God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light." And there was a bunch of other stuff that culminated into a six-day period of creation and a single day of rest. 

While the Christian version is more PG, the ancient Egyptian story elaborates on just exactly how God enacted his creation. You see Chaos, the God of creation, got a little frisky one day and decided to bring himself some pleasure all by himself, so to speak. The result was the creation of the other gods from his byproduct. Since everything was started from that, it was believed that humans are all just God's seed.

The 1500s

According to some, the English ship of war, The Mary Rose, had an interesting means of combating STDs via injecting liquid mercury into the urethra. As effective as this method may sound, it is not believed that the use of mercury ever cured a single case of the infection.

770 BCE - 222 BCE

During the Zhou Dynasty of China (770 BCE - 222 BCE), the adopted doctrine was Taoist (although Taoism was not a formal religion yet). According to this doctrine, men and women were split up into the yin and the yang, which was basically the life essence of a person. Women were said to possess a limitless supply of yin essence while men were said to have a limited supply of yang essence.

It was strictly believed, then, that men should never use up their yang without first getting plenty of yin. Translation? Men were expected to climax only after their partner had (and preferably multiple times, thus obtaining more yin). If this was not adhered to, then what could be described as a man's life force would be drained from him until he eventually expired.

770 BCE - 222 BCE

Back to this whole yin and yang thing. That also meant that self-servicing for men was considered both unhealthy and forbidden. Females, however, were allowed to engage as freely as they wanted with one exception: no use of foreign objects, which was thought to injure the womb.

10th Century BCE

In ancient Mesopotamia, women visited the Temple of Ishtar (the primary deity of the era) at least once in their lives, usually right after marriage. When there, the women were required to sit in the temple until a stranger came and threw a piece of silver in their lap and declared: "I invite you in the name of Mylitta" (another name for Ishtar). Upon receiving the silver, the woman would leave the temple and copulate with the stranger, unable to refuse the offer, after which she could finally return home.

This union was meant to represent Ishtar's relationship with Dumuzid, and it was believed to bring fertility to the female.

The 1500s

In 16th-century Canada, an interesting means of female contraception was devised: the testicles of beavers were ground up and mixed with alcohol and then drunk. There are doubts as to whether this concoction ever prevented a single pregnancy.

Regardless, people of the time still hoped the unorthodox beverage could help them prevent procreation.