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Sex Toy History
Exploring the History of the Adult Toy Product

Finding a detailed history of human sexuality is difficult enough, but finding a detailed history of sex toys and adult toy products is next to impossible. One thing is clear though, and that is this this...

Image of a cave girl and a cave didlo to express the history of sex toys.

Sex toys have been with us for thousands of years!


Overview of the History of Adult Toy Products

Sex toys were first used some 30,000 years ago, probably by Dildo Betty here to the right of us....

Today, thanks to the Internet and online sex toy and adult product retailers, such as the Adult Supermart online sex toy superstore, you can easily order up your favorite dildo, vibrator, butt plug or favorite adult novelty right from the comfort of your own home!

Then there were Sex Toys

The history of sex toys did not begin with the modern day rubber, silicone, latex and cyberskin adult sex toys that we are familiar with today. In fact, mankind has been using some very basic erotic devices as sex toys for pleasure from the very beginning.

Many people assume that sex toys are an Asian invention. Asians have used sexual aids for more than 1,000 years. Ben-wa balls are clearly Asian. And today many sex toys are manufactured in Asia. But two of the most popular sexual aids, dildos and vibrators, have surprisingly Western roots.


The Common Dildo

Dildos (shaped like a human penis) have been discovered in Upper Paleolithic art that dates back more than 30,000 years. These dildoic depictions are unquestionable as to what their subject matter was intended to be. Pleasuring oneself, or another, with what is plainly a dildo, apparently predates even the invention of the wheel.

I dare you to do a spot on that thought Martha!


Sex, Dildos, Rape and the Ancient Greeks

Photo of ancient stone dildos...

The history of sex toys as we think of them today, begins with the Greeks and what can be referred to as the common dildo. Dildos, known by the Greeks as olisbos, appeared in their art and literature from the third and fourth centuries BC. That's some 2,400 years ago. We have found among numerous ancient Greek artifacts of the time, a vase on to which a double-headed dildo has been painted.

Since the ancient Greeks did not classify themselves as we do today, into sexual preferencial groups such as straight, gay, bi-sexual, lesbian, or some other label, the use of dildos was a common practice. Greece was a patriarchal society where the average wife was ten to twenty years younger than her husband and men enjoyed sex with concubines. Thus, the common dildo served them well in whatever relationship they found themselves.

Greek Dildos

Photo of phallic wind chimes from ancient greek...

Historians don't know for sure who was the first to use a dildo, but the world certainly owes its popularity to the ancient Greek port city, Miletus, on the west coast of present-day Turkey. Miletan traders sold what the Greeks called olisbos (dildos) around the Mediterranean. Today's dildos are often enjoyed by couples, but in ancient Greece, the common dildo was generally considered a sexual refuge for lonely ladies.

A Greek literary fragment from the third century BC tells the story of a young woman named Metro, whose husband is away. She visits a friend, Coritto, to borrow her olisbo (dildo), only to learn that Coritto has lent it to another lonely maiden. Metro departs crestfallen.

Read more about the History of the Common Dildo.


Ancient Greece and the Penis

In Ancient Greek art, there is a lot of phallus or penis worship by men. Men are generally depicted naked, including soldiers. Married or virtuous women are depicted clothed, even if depicted in the same artwork with their naked husbands. Prostitutes were generally depicted naked with naked men.

Depiction of the ancient Mercury Penis God of ancient Greece...

Men liked to depict their own penises as dainty little penises in later Greek art, while early Greek art, such as around the 5th century BC, tells a different tale. In this early Greek artwork, men gave themselves oversized phalluses. Sometimes they had double penises. They even depicted plants as being penises in the ground and animals as having penis features, such as a horse with an erect penis for a head or birds with erect penises for heads.

To Ancient Greece, the penis was the main symbol of fertility and they even created dildos constructed from leather and marketed them. The male idea of female sexuality was that Greek men believed that women envied their penises. Men created artwork displaying women with dildos. Female homosexuality and female masturbation are rarely depicted unless seen with a dildo.

Brief History of Sex and the Ancient Greeks

In Ancient Greece, fertility was taken from the women and given to the men both in their religion and through phallic iconization. Zeus' penis became the womb for the gods and according to Greek mythology it was Zeus who gave birth to the gods.

Photo of the book, Love in the Ancient World...

Men owned everything. They owned property, women, and slaves. A Greek woman had no rights in marriage and her father gave a dowry or paid another man to take their daughter off their hands. Male children were sent to private schools which their father paid for, while women were not to be educated.

Rape was common in Ancient Greece and seen by men as a "right of domination" by Greek men. Zeus, the god, was the master rapist who raped many women. He raped Leda in the form of a swan. He raped Danae disguised as the rain. He raped Alkmen disguised as her own husband. Zeus even raped other men, such as Ganymede. To the common man, they usually staked out water wells and then raped the women when they went to get water. It was also common to rape prostitutes, slaves, and their own wives.

A wife's sole responsibilities and duty in life was to bear the legitimate children and to labor in the home. Women were expected to give birth to male children and female infantcide was common. In other cases, female babies were sold to brothel owners or sold into prostitution at birth.

Man, have you come a long ways Baby!


History of Sex Toys and Ancient Egypt

It is a well known fact that Cleopatra (69–30 B.C.) herself shared her bed with a whole regiment of men immediately following her tryst with Caesar!

Unfortunately, history says little about the sexual appetites of ancient Egyptians, but evidence does exist to prove without question that the dildo was a familiar and appreciated sex toy of the day. It doesn't take much to imagine what the Queen of the Nile was doing to entertain herself while all the men were away at war.


Sex Toy History in the Arts

It is no surprise that most sex toy history comes from the erotic art of each culture and era.

Sex Toys in Hong Kong

For example, the Hong Kong Museum of History has an ancient Chinese bronze sex toy on display which dates back to the Han Dynasty (approximately 2000 years ago).

Sex Toys in Amersterdam

The Sex Museum in Amsterdam houses some fabulous true works of erotic art which display sex toys as part of the subject matter.


Sex Toys in Rome

We know that the Roman Empire was flagrantly excessive regarding wild sex orgies. It is no wonder the very word “sex” comes from the Latin word “sexus”. Both their written and artistic histories include numerous references to dildos and other simple sex toy innovations.


Sex Toys in the Middle Ages

Photo of New Guinea ancient stone dildo statue with large phallus.

In the Middle Ages, (476 A.D. to 1453) sexual pleasures were called “the Devil’s work”. Religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Church was brought down upon people who gave free rein to their sexual lusts and many ended up in shackles or burned at the stake.

The clothing of the time for both men and women covered most of their bodies from neck to feet. Sexy female lingerie was not allowed for fear of punishment. Sexual urges were best kept to oneself under the threat of serious physical punishment. Even whispering the word "dildo" may have been punishable by death.


Sex Toys in 12th Century A.D.

In the 12th century, European men used chastity belts to keep their women faithful. These chastity belts were made of leather with metal bands which could be tightened or loosened at the husband's whim and were secured with padlocks for which he kept the key. There are now chastity devices for men, too!

Hmm, kinky. Anyone up for a little BDSM play?


Sex Toys During Renaissance Italy

In Renaissance Italy (14th through the 16th centuries), dildos were called diletto (meaning “delight”). Made of leather, stone, ivory or wood, the diletto was primitive, but functional. Skilled and trusted craftsmen were comissioned to produce custom dildos. Those who used them employed olive oil for lubrication.


Sex Toys in Victorian England

Of course, sex toys were taboo in Victorian England. So too, were books that contained any hint of human sexuality.

Non the less, it was during the Victorian Era, (mid 19th century) that rubber dildos, butt plugs, and vibrators (1869) were introduced!

Photo of the Steam Vibe, one of the first commerdial vibrators ever built...

It was 1869 that the very first vibrator was introduced. Developed by an American physician, George Taylor, M.D., it was a large, cumbersome, steam-powered apparatus pictured here to the right.

Taylor recommended his new sex toy invention, not for pleasure, but for treatment of an illness known at the time as "female hysteria".

These sex toys of the Victorian Era were much more sanitary and comfortable than their predecessors. Sex toys had become more realistic.

Vibrators were popular and sold on the open-market as “massagers”. Even health spas of the day offered more “elegant” alternatives to manual paroxysm through steam-powered vibrating devices and water jet massage. Men and women flocked to these spas “for the medicinal waters”.

Sounds more like a sexual orgy than a health spa!

Sex Toys for Better Health

With the introduction of vibrators as a prescription to treat “hysteria”, we see a trend towards a typical sex toy of today. Powered by an electric cord in a wall plug, and the battery operated by 1880. Invented by a British doctor, the first battery-operated, electric vibrator was actually the first "high-tech" sex toy in use and is the predecessor to our modern day battery-operated vibrators, dildos and other electronic sex toys.

Surprisingly, there is more modern-day, sex toy history from the Victorian Era than from any other era in history except our own. Not bad for a society superstitious of their own shadow and about as anal as you can get!

It was during this same Victorian Era that butt plugs in the shape of wooden eggs were invented by a European doctor. They were prescribed to “help prevent the loss of sperm through wasteful ejaculation”. The eggs supposedly helped send semen back to the female reproductive organs. They believed that by plugging the anus, sperm loss would be alleviated.

Today of course, there are butt plugs of all shape, size and design.

Sex Toys for Hysteria

The term hysteria comes from the Greek word “hystera”, which means “uterus”. Hysteria, from the Greek for "suffering uterus," involved anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies, "pelvic heaviness" and "excessive" vaginal lubrication -- in other words, sexual arousal. Or in some cases, perhaps what we now refer to as PMS...

At the time, it was believed that female psychiatric infirmities had their roots in uterine imbalances reflected in the above listed symptoms. Doctors of this era treated the “hysteria” by massaging the suffering female’s vaginal lips until they experienced relief via paroxysm” (orgasm). Because it was believed at the time that only men were sexual creatures, the vibrator was prescribed to calm down these “hysteric” women.

Unfortunately, hysteria was a recurrent condition and repeated treatment was often necessary. Taylor touted his steam-driven massage device as speeding treatment while reducing physician fatigue.


Sex Toys from Sears Roebuck

As we entered more modern times in 1918, the Sears Roebuck catalog offered a vibrator as a “very satisfactory marital aid that every woman appreciates.

Photo of the Steam Vibe, one of the first commerdial vibrators ever built...Hmmm, so Sears was the first commercial sex toy enterprise... interesting to say the least!

I wonder what Grampa and Gramma have to say about this?.

A 1921 issue of Hearst’s magazine boldly marketed vibrators toward men as Christmas gifts for their wives. There buy line was that their vibrator would insure they remained “young and pretty” and free from the scourge of “hysteria”.

During the 1920s, “blue” movies (erotic cinemas) with women using vibrators as sexual stimulators became quite common. No longer were vibrators socially camouflaged as strickly medicinal in nature, but were being accepted as tools for sexual stimulation and pleasure.

By 1930, they were openly advertised and made available to anyone that wanted one.


Sex Toys and Kinsey Report

In 1948, Sexologist, Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, shocked the world with his international bestseller "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," This study is commonly known as the Kinsey Report. This sexual survey reported that 94 percent of the men and 40 percent of the women interviewed admitted that they masturbated to orgasm. This was a remarkably large proportion of the populous considering the perceived prudishness of that particular time.

Today, the Kinsey Institute declares that "the vast majority" of people masturbate: both sexes, all ages, single, married, divorced and widowed.


Sex Toys in the 60's

During the 1960s, “Free Love” was the rage, and sex toy history becomes even more interesting because people could obtain sex toys through special retail outlets and through magazines. The Hippies of that time period became the parents of today. Thus, sex toys have become even more numerous and varied. Even though sex toys can be easily obtained in specialty sex toy stores throughout the country and in most cities, they are now sold in vast quantities via the Internet, in all colors, sizes, types, brands and designs.

Photo of a big black double ended dildo...

Check out our main category pages to learn more about the diversity of vibrators, dildos, vibrating dildos, butt plugs, anal beads, sex toys for men, sex toys for women, adult novelties, sexy jewelry, blow up dolls, penis pumps, cock rings, bdsm toys and a whole lot more!.

You just might find yourself the satisfied owner of your very own "olisbos," "diletto," or "buttius pluggius."


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