The goddess Aphrodite was the protector deity of the city of Corinth.
It contained a famous statue of Armed Aphrodite, dressed in armour and holding a shield before herself as a mirror.
The work of gender researchers like Daniel Arnaud,[4] Julia Assante[5] 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 taxatively that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, possibly even mere cultural slander.
[7] Although popular in modern times, this view has not gone without being criticized in its methodological approach,[8] including accusations of an ideological agenda.