Sacred prostitution
[2] Historically mainstream historiography has considered it a probable reality, based on the abundance of ancient sources and chroniclers detailing its practices,[1][3] although it has proved harder to differentiate between true prostitution and sacred sex without remuneration.
[4] Beginning in the late 20th century, a number of scholars have challenged the veracity of sacred prostitution as a concept, suggesting that the claims are based on mistranslations, misunderstandings or outright inventions of ancient authors.
[10] Ancient Near Eastern societies along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers featured many shrines and temples or houses of heaven dedicated to various deities.
The 5th-century BC historian Herodotus's account and some other testimony from the Hellenistic Period and Late Antiquity suggest that ancient societies encouraged the practice of sacred sexual rites not only in Babylonia and Cyprus, but throughout the Near East.
The work of gender researchers like Daniel Arnaud,[11] Julia Assante[12] and Stephanie Budin[6] has cast the whole tradition of scholarship that defined the concept of sacred prostitution into doubt.
Budin regards the concept of sacred prostitution as a myth, arguing that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, or possibly even invented as rhetorical devices.
[6] Through the twentieth century, scholars generally believed that a form of sacred marriage rite (hieros gamos) was staged between the kings in the ancient Near Eastern region of Sumer and the high priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare, later called Ishtar.
Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants.
But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice.
[19]The British anthropologist James Frazer accumulated citations to prove this in a chapter of his magnum opus The Golden Bough (1890–1915),[20] and this has served as a starting point for several generations of scholars.
In particular, Cancho Roano features a sanctuary built with multiple cells or rooms, which has been identified as a possible place of sacred prostitution in honor to Astarte.
[38] However, the lack of solid evidence[18][39][40] has indicated that the word might refer to prostitutes who offered their services in the vicinity of temples, where they could attract a larger number of clients.
During the reign of King Josiah, Hilkiah, the High Priest of Israel, discovered it in "the House of the Lord" and realized that the people have disobeyed, particularly regarding prostitution.
[45][46] The Greek term hierodoulos or hierodule has sometimes been taken to mean sacred holy woman, but it is more likely to refer to a former slave freed from slavery in order to be dedicated to a god.
Greek writer-philosopher Strabo comments, "the Temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned a thousand temple-slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess".
Chameleon of Heracleia recorded in his book, On Pindar, that whenever the city of Corinth prayed to Aphrodite in manners of great importance, many prostitutes were invited to participate in the prayers and petitions.
[49] There is a report that was found of an epigram of Simonides commemorating the prayer of the prostitutes of Corinth on behalf of the salvation of the Greeks from the invading Achaemenid Empire in the Greco-Persian Wars of the early fifth century BCE.
Both temple prostitutes and priestesses prayed to Aphrodite for help, and were honoured for their potent prayers, which Greek citizens believed contributed to the repelling of the Persians.
The successive doors suggested privacy, and within the time period, was associated with two functions: storage of valuable goods and protection of the private moments of its residents.
A passage in Herodotus explains a Babylonian custom where before marriage, girls had to offer themselves for sex, presumably within a temple, as required by rites of a goddess equivalent to Aphrodite in their culture.
Herodotus records that a similar practice or custom took place within Cyprus, with girls offering themselves up for sex as required by the rites of Aphrodite.
On a marble plaque, it lists sacred prostitutes among other professions (bakers, scribes, barbers) that were part of ritual personnel at some Cypriot temples.
[59] The Roman emperor Constantine closed down a number of temples to Venus or similar deities in the 4th century AD, as the Christian church historian Eusebius proudly noted.
[60] Eusebius also writes that the Phoenician cities of Aphaca and Heliopolis (Baalbek) continued to practise temple prostitution until the emperor Constantine put an end to the rite in the 4th century AD.
[64] Human Rights Watch also reports claims that devadasis are forced into this service and, at least in some cases, to practise prostitution for upper-caste members.
The boys were dressed in girl's clothing, and chiefs and head men would have ritual sexual intercourse with them during religious ceremonies and on holy days.
[81] In Ventura County, California, Wilbur and Mary Ellen Tracy established their own temple, the Church Of The Most High Goddess, in the wake of what they described as a divine revelation.
[86] Ipsen speculated that academic currents trying to deny sacred prostitution are ideologically motivated, attributing them to the "desires of feminists, including myself, to be 'decent.
"[88] This opinion is shared by several schools of modern Paganism,[86][89] among them Wicca,[90] for whom sacred prostitution, independently from its historical backing, embodies the sacralization of sex and a celebration of the communion between female and male sexuality.
[90] Within secular thinking, philosopher Antonio Escohotado is a popular adept of this current, favoring particularly the role of ancient sacred prostitutes and priestesses of Ishtar.
