Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros passionate, romantic or sexual relationships intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. Other common elements are satire and social criticism. Much erotic literature features erotic art , illustrating the text. Although cultural disapproval of erotic literature has always existed, its circulation was not seen as a major problem before the invention of printing, as the costs of producing individual manuscripts limited distribution to a very small group of wealthy and literate readers.
The invention of printing, in the 15th century, brought with it both a greater market and increasing restrictions, including censorship and legal restraints on publication on the grounds of obscenity. The oldest located love poem is Istanbul , [4] an erotic monologue written by a female speaker directed to king Shu-Sin.
In ancient Sumer, a whole cycle of poems revolved around the erotic lovemaking between the goddess Inanna and her consort Dumuzid the Shepherd. In the Hebrew Bible , the Song of Songs , found in the last section of the Tanakh , celebrates sexual love, giving "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".
Many erotic poems have survived from ancient Greece and Rome. This poem is a part of the Nizami's Khamsa.
The original title Haft Peykar can be translated literally as "seven portraits" with the figurative meaning of "seven beauties. During the Renaissance period, many poems were not written for publication; instead, they were merely circulated in manuscript form among a relatively limited readership.
