Archaeologists were shocked to learn about the 2000-year-old Pompeii man’s history of “masturbation.”
If you were suddenly frozen in time, there are a few things (I’d imagine) you would rather not be caught doing. This is the unfortunate fate many believe to have befallen the “masturbating man” of Pompeii. In 79 BCE, the ancient Roman city of Pompeii was buried in the volcanic ash of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located in Italy’s Gulf of Naples. The bodies of over 1,000 inhabitants have been frozen in the moment of its eruption—including one suspected to be having his own eruption at the time. The plaster-cast body of this 2, 000-year- old man can still be seen clutching himself tightly with his right hand. The photo was initially shared on Archaeological Park of Pompeii’s Instagram in 2017 and quickly exploded across the internet. The masturbating man became an immortalized meme. But was this man truly caught getting a hard-on while the volcano was getting its hot-on? The horny city of Pompeii Pompeii is remembered as a place of surprising liberality. Tourists continu...