Glassblowing

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Orgies conjure in our imagination the world of Greek and Roman Antiquity, thanks to more or less titillating films portraying debauched emperors, or maybe specifically Fellini’s Satyricon. The term is also used today to signify all sorts of excess. For us, the orgy stands for the ultimate celebration of the pleasures of the flesh, in an ancient world free from moral constraint. But what were they like in reality?

From orgia to orgies

• The word comes to us from the Greek orgia.
• This denotes rites practised in honour of gods such as Dionysus, whose cult celebrates the regeneration of nature.

Prostitutes… and fish

• As well as picking up courtesans, eating very expensive fish was a detail particularly noted by 4th century BC orators.
• In 346 BC, the city of Athens had sent ambassadors to King Philip II of Macedon, who was threatening Greece with his troops.
• But the ruler had corrupted some of the Athenian ambassadors, to the point that they supported his imperial ambitions.

Roman debauches

• Roman historians also described sumptuous feasts, pairing sex and food.
• In the decade 89-80BC, the tyrant Sylla was the first Roman political leader to convene erotic drinking parties.
• Incestuous and exhibitionist, he thus broke two Roman taboos at once.
• But these decadent banquets were no more commonplace during the Roman Empire than they are today.

Christian denunication

• There’s a good example in St. Augustine’s work (16th Sermon, on the beheading of John the Baptist).
• The portrayal of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee’s banquet, with food piled high, underlines the gluttony of the guests.

From Rome to Babylon

Breaking with classical texts, Damien Chazelle’s film Babylon confronts the viewer with a huge orgy scene without casting clear moral judgement over it. That’s perhaps one reason that reactions have been strongly polarised, between detractors calling it an outrageous film, and admirers hailing a miraculous “visual orgy”. Translation from French to English by Joshua Neicho.