The Plough-slave
Due, no doubt to my own slave's nature, I have long been fascinated by the idea of slaves being used as "beasts-of-burden" in place of ponies made to pull carriages, yoked together in teams and driven under the whip to haul heavy wagons and best of all, yoked to a plough like a docile ox.
Countless times, I have pictured myself in these situations and this picture captures the mood of my erotic "slave fantasies".
Who among us, who say we are slaves, doesn't appreciate the image of this yoked slave with a pained expression, sweat stained body and bearing the bloodied marks of the lash on his near naked torso, straining under the whip of his driver to pull a heavy iron plough through the resisting earth?
Who among you who are masters, wouldn't take the opportunity to use a slave in this role and to unrelentingly drive him for hours under the constant scourging of your whip?
This picture has always been a favourite of mine by one of the true artists of the genre, GaryRo who used to own the now discontinued and sadly missed site - "Chained Muscle".
Chained Muscle was unique in that it attracted the best artists and writers who showcased their true talents on the site. Among the best of these was GaryRo himself whose pictures are works of art and whose stories of the male under stress were second to none.
GaryRo's muscular models always showed the true beauty of the male body and interestingly, as in this picture, he rarely, if ever, showed his subjects fully nude. Personally, I love loincloths on slaves as they cover very little and leave even less to the viewer's erotic imagination. To me this is the mark of a true artist.
GaryRo is one of my all time favourite artists and I remain one of his greatest admirers.
Picture by GaryRo of Chained Muscle. Text is mine.
NB. After the demise of Chained Muscle, many of its contributors now post to another site known as "Gay Bondage Fiction" which is a pay to view site.
Chris,
ReplyDeletethank you very much for recalling the unforgettable Chained Muscle and the Art of Garyro, of which in particular this magnificent image (part of a longer series) is one of the highest and most memorable examples.
I also have been always greatly fascinated and excited by the sadism of using slaves as substitutes for animals, e.g. in farm hard-labours like turning heavy millstones and water-wheels, or, as you say, for pulling carts or for being yoked to ploughs.
However let me underline that while we have not certain historical evidences that e.g. ancient Romans …… for sure the most ruthless owners of slaves and the most merciless exploiters of their physical labour up to the very last drop of sweat ….. used their strongest male slaves in the place of ponies for pulling carriages, or in teams to haul heavy wagons in farms (probably they did in mines) …… we have certain evidences that they used really their muscular slaves, in the place of mules, horses or oxen, for pushing and turning heavy grindstones or also (yoked in groups of two or four) even for hauling ploughs.
The use of teams of yoked strong slaves for hauling ploughs, in the place of oxen or horse, is witnessed in as many as three famous Roman books on Farms and Farming, i.e. the “DE RE RUSTICA” (About Agriculture) by Columella, another book with the same title by Marcus Terentius Varro, and the treatise “DE AGRICULTURA” by Cato the Elder.
The wide use of this very cruel exploitation of slaves’ labour …… especially after victorious wars, when the price of strong male prisoners of war was very low ….. is also mentioned by Pliny in his “Natural History” as well as in the medical works by Galen.
Interestingly I know at least two historical movies in which this ruthless habit of yoking strong slaves to ploughs is showed, i.e. “BARABBA” (1961) and “THE LAST GLADIATOR” (1964).
Karel