Religion was also of little importance to the people of Pompeii and in addition to the fact that they did not even express an exceptional interest in their gods; they were not connected in any way to Christianity, which greatly influenced the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. "The locations of much of the erotic art, which will be discussed, were discovered within patrician villas, bathhouses, brothels, and taverns" (Hnut, 3). The brothels in particular contained open eroticism, most probably with the purpose of arousing clients. One can consider the erotic art present in brothels to be a form of advertisement, meant to attract customers, given that most would be unable to resist the temptation of entering such a place consequent to seeing the erotic artistic character in it (Hnut, 4).
The Byzantine world was nothing like Pompeii when concerning its dedication to exploiting eroticism. The Eastern Roman Empire is actually believed to have put across an innocent character in regard to sexuality, considering that some of the first recognized erotic works of art appeared as late as the twelfth century A.D. It is certainly surprising how a nation formed through the bonding of several nations committing to promoting eroticism was not actually interested in supporting the concept for several centuries. Even with that, it is difficult to claim that the Eastern Roman Empire was in point of fact untainted from an erotic artistic perspective...
As described by James (10), the account relating to when "Symeon the Fool attempted to enter the women's baths naked in order to demonstrate his apatheia, show a highly self-conscious erotic awareness."
Western Roman art in the first centuries A.D. was the materialization of several decades during which people lost most of their cultural values and became dedicated to serving other purposes, namely promoting eroticism through every mean possible, including art. The people of Pompeii differed from those in the Byzantine Empire through the fact that their system was corrupt and everyone was only concerned about their personal interests. Individuals in the Eastern Roman Empire were motivated to create art because of a series of reasons, sexuality being one of them. However, they were aware that eroticism could be used in more than one way and they consequently exploited it with the purpose of promoting art.
Works cited:
1. Hnat, Ryan. (2009). "Eroticism of Pompeii: Allegory, Absurdity, and Advertisement." Retrieved October 21, 2010, from the Ryan Hnat Website: http://ryanhnat.com/papers/pompeii.pdf
2. James, Liz. (1997). "Women, men, and eunuchs: gender in Byzantium." Routledge.
