The paths of civilization, from the complete promiscuity of sexual intercourse to the lofty ideal of life-long monogamic union, has not been a straightforward one, but has been marked by various aberrations of sexual relationship; hetairism, prostitution, polyandry, incest, rape, the _jus primae noctis_, etc. The anthropologist is able to trace the successive stages of the development of the institution of monogamic marriage; the community of wives within the clan; free sale of wives and daughters; bestowal of a man’s wife or concubine for the honour of a guest; ritual prostitution for the honour of the gods and at numerous religious festivals; æsthetic and literary hetairism, with bestowal of favours according to free inclination; community of wives among all males of the same family; the claim of the wife to as many as five or six husbands; the right of brothers to their sisters; the defloration of virgins by the priests in heathen temples; the temporary possession of the wife by the chief of the community, prior to her possession by her permanent husband; defloration of the bride by the bonze before her marriage; the feudal right of the mediæval seigneur to the _prima nox_ of the bride of his retainer. In the lower stages of civilization, copulation appears so natural an action that it is performed in public entirely without shame. Thus, _Cook_, in his first voyage, describes having seen an indigen engage in sexual intercourse with a girl of eleven years, under the very eyes of the queen, with whom _Cook_ was then having audience; the sexual act was, according to _Cook_, the favourite topic of conversation between the sexes. _Herodotus_ reports that many peoples of antiquity had no regard for privacy in sexual intercourse, but that, like the lower animals, they had connexion in any company. In the _Bible_, also, it is recorded that sexual intercourse was practised in public: “So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.” (II. _Samuel_, XVI. 22.) According to _Athenaeus_, the Etruscans, at their public banquets, were equally unrestrained. _Plutarch_ reports that among the Spartans the maidens and the young men went about naked together. Even, indeed, after the sense of modesty had begun to develop, it was long before any secret was made about the act of intercourse. In classical antiquity, it was very frequently the subject of pictorial and plastic representation. Even in more recent days, there have been artists who have not hesitated to depict the sexual act: thus we have the _Venus with a Faun_ by _Caracci_; the _Jupiter and Io_ of _Correggio_; the _Leda and the Swan_ of _Tintoretto_; and similar pictures by _Luca Giordano_, _Rubens_, _Titian_, and _Franceschini_.