{{Short description|People freely engaging in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex}} {{About||the religious rites of ancient Greece|Orgia|other uses|Orgy (disambiguation)}} {{Pp-semi-indef}} [[File:Édouard-Henri Avril (25).jpg|thumb|300x300px|Illustration of an orgy from ''De figuris Veneris'' by Édouard-Henri Avril]]An '''orgy''' is a sex party where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex.
Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swinger parties the sexual partners may all know each other or at least have some commonality among economic class, educational attainment or other shared attributes. Some swingers contend that an orgy, as opposed to a sex party, requires some anonymity of sexual partners in complete sexual abandon.<ref name="differences cited in Swinger Survey Results on Difference Between Orgies and Group Sex">{{cite web | url=http://www.swingersocial.com/the-swinger-blog/orgies-and-group-sex/ | title=Swinger Survey Results on Difference Between Orgies and Group Sex | publisher=The Swingers Blog | date=October 2010 | access-date=April 26, 2012 | author=Wojick, Helen}}</ref> Other kinds of "sex parties" may fare less well with this labelling.
Participation in an "orgy" is a common sexual fantasy, and group sex targeting such consumers is a subgenre in pornographic films.
The term is also used metaphorically in expressions, such as an "orgy of colour" or an "orgy of destruction" to indicate excess or overabundance. The term "orgiastic" does not generally connote group sex and is closer to the classical roots and this metaphorical usage.
==Ancient ''orgia''== {{Main article|Orgia}} [[File:Bacco - Mantegna, Andrea - Baccanale col tino -1470 ca.-.jpg|thumb|300x300px|''Bacchanal with a wine vat'' (c. 1475) by Andrea Mantegna]] [[File:Siemiradzki Orgy on Capri.jpg|thumb|Henryk Siemiradzki, ''An Orgy in the reign of Tiberius on the island of Capri,'' 1881]] In ancient Greek religion, ''orgia'' (ὄργια, sing. ὄργιον, ''orgion'') were ecstatic rites characteristic of the Greek and Hellenistic mystery religions. Unlike public religion, or the private religious practices of a household, the mysteries were open only to initiates, and were thus "secret". Some rites were held at night. ''Orgia'' were part of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dionysian Mysteries, and the cult of Cybele, which involved the castration of her priests in a frenzied trance. Because of their secret, nocturnal, and unscripted nature, the ''orgia'' were subject to prurient speculation and regarded with suspicion, particularly by the Romans, who attempted to suppress the Bacchanals in 186 BC. ''Orgia'' are popularly thought to have involved sex,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Shipley |first=Joseph T. |year=1963 |title=orgyan |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofearl0000ship_q7b8/page/472/mode/2up |url-access=registration |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Early English |location=Paterson, NJ |publisher=Littlefield, Adams & Co. |isbn=0-8065-2926-1 |pages=472–473}}</ref> but, while sexuality and fertility were cultic concerns, the primary goal of the ''orgia'' was to achieve an ecstatic union with the divine. The Adamites were also accused of participating in orgies.<ref name="Fudgé 2016 p. 192">{{cite book | last=Fudgé | first=T.A. | title=Medieval Religion and its Anxieties: History and Mystery in the Other Middle Ages | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US | series=The New Middle Ages | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-137-56610-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KO5NDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA192 | access-date=2023-06-20 | page=192}}</ref><ref name="Goodare 2016 p. 171">{{cite book | last=Goodare | first=J. | title=The European Witch-Hunt | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-317-19831-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eM4mDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA171 | access-date=2023-06-20 | page=171}}</ref>
==See also== * Bacchanalia * Gang bang * Khlysts
==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist}}
'''Bibliography''' * Adkins, Lesley and Adkins, Roy A. (1998). ''Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece''. {{ISBN|0-19-512491-X}}. * Alexander, Timothy Jay (2007). ''Hellenismos Today''. {{ISBN|978-1-4303-1427-1}}. * Alexander, Timothy Jay (2007). ''A Beginner's Guide to Hellenismos''. {{ISBN|978-1-4303-2456-0}}. * Burnet, John (2005). ''Early Greek Philosophy''. {{ISBN|1-4021-9753-5}}. * Dillon, Matthew (2002). ''Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion''. {{ISBN|0-415-20272-8}}. * Maffesoli, Michel (1993). ''The Shadow of Dionysus: A Contribution to the Sociology of the Orgy''. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-1239-8}}. * Persson, Martin (1970). ''The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion''. {{ISBN|0-8196-0273-6}}. * Wilson, Nigel Guy (2005). ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece''. {{ISBN|0-415-97334-1}}.
==External links== * {{Commonscat-inline|Group sex|Orgy}}
{{Human sexuality}}
Category:Group sex