The Brothels name comes from the word Lupa, meaning She-wolf, the Latin term for a prostitute. Just like in other Roman brothels the prostitutes were mainly slaves from Greek or Oriental origin, some became quite famous. Like the prostitute Myrtis, who even had her own sign outside her room explaining that her specialty was oral sex. Other prostitutes became immortal by roman graffiti, their name and services were written on the walls of the building. It's not sure if Romans were selling themselves as well, we do know that Roman women sometimes visited male prostitutes.


Priapus, god of fertility and protector against
evil spirits, weighting his penis.

The erotic fresco's were mainly used to advertise the Brothels services to it's visitors, but I guess they were for decoration purposes as well. The roman people had a very liberal and open mind towards sex, and erotic frescos are also found in "normal" houses and several public places. Other sex scenes have a more religious background, like the famous scene on a sarcophagus, where a female Satyr has sex with the statue of Priapus. This scene is intended to ward of evil spirits, Priapus will penetrate the evil ones with his enormous penis, ouch!