Human–goat sexual intercourse
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- See illustration from De Figuris Veneris by F.K. Forberg, illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril
Human-goat sexual intercourse is one of the more common types of bestiality. Of male zoophiles, 28% admitted sexual attraction to goats, ranking fourth. In female zoophiles sexual attraction to goats is very rare or non-existent. Actual levels of sexual use of goats were lower than this however. The act is usually performed by a male human upon a goat of either sex. Male goats do not commonly take the initiative to copulate with a human female although some cases have been reported.
History
In Ancient Egypt, at the temple in Mendes, the goat was viewed as the incarnation of the god of procreation. As a ritual of worship, the male priests would use female goats for sex, and the female priests would do likewise with male goats. Similar activity was also witnessed in Ancient Greece. In the Middle Ages, the goat was associated with the Devil as one of his preferred forms, often in connection with sexual deviance. Women under trial as witches were forced to confess that they had sexual contact with the Devil in the form of an animal. In this regard however the goat was of the minority of forms the devil was cited to have taken.
There is the famous statue, The Satyr And The Goat, of the mythological satyr Pan using a goat for sex, which was found in Pompeii. As with the rest of the erotic art in Pompeii, it shocked the Victorian sensibilities of the time.
In 1188, Gerald of Wales published Topographia Hibernica, an illustrated manuscript. In addition to depicting a king mating with a mare then drinking its blood, the manuscript depicts a woman using a goat for sex. The manuscript is one of history's earliest propaganda tracts.
In 2006 a Sudanese man was caught using his neighbor's goat for sex. As punishment the village elders forced the man to marry 'Rose the goat' because "he used it as his wife".
Popular culture
In the 2002 play The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia? written by American playwright Edward Albee, the character Martin, a famous architect, falls in love with a goat named Sylvia. Martin's use of the goat becomes known to his best friend. The best friend tells Martin's suburban wife, Stevie, and their 17-year-old son, who become devastated.
In the 2004 comedy/horror film Club Dread, the Juan character admits to using a goat for sex.
In 2007, American artist Paul McCarthy displayed Cultural Gothic, a technologically complex installation of wigged, mannequin-like figures. Cultural Gothic shows a father helping his son use a goat for sex, with a strangely distanced and robotic look. The work is "a deliberately ugly reflection of the base, dehumanizing and machismo instincts in popular culture." Cultural Gothic served to indict of those instincts.
See also
- The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia? - A play about a man who falls in love with a goat.
- Sudanese goat marriage incident
