Religious prostitution

Religious prostitution, sacred prostitution or temple prostitution is the practice of having sexual intercourse (with a person other than one's spouse) for a religious or sacred purpose. A woman engaged in such practices is sometimes called a temple prostitute or hierodule, though modern connotations of the term "prostitute" may or may not be appropriate, given the religious and cultic signification of the activities.

Ancient Near East

Sacred prostitution is often held to have been widespread across the Ancient Near East, [ See, for example, James Frazer (1922), "The Golden Bough", 3e, [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough/Adonis_in_Cyprus Chapter 31: Adonis in Cyprus] ] starting perhaps in Babylon with the Sumerians, in emulation of the "hieros gamos" (sacred wedding) custom of the king coupling with the high priestess to represent the union of Dumuzid with Inanna (later called Ishtar).John Day (2004), Does the Old Testament Refer to Sacred Prostitution and Did it Actually Exist in Ancient Israel? in Carmel McCarthy & John F Healey (eds), "Biblical and Near Eastern Essays: Studies in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart". Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 2-21]

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote:

The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. 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. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus. [Herodotus, "The Histories" [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0016%2C001&query=book%3D1%3Achapter%3D199%3Asection%3D1 1.119] , tr A.D. Godley (1920)]

The Canaanite equivalent of Ishtar was Astarte, and according to the contemporary Christian writer Eusebius temple prostitution was still being carried on in the Phoenician cities of Aphaca and Heliopolis (Baalbek) until closed down by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD. [Eusebius, "Life of Constantine", [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iv.vi.iii.lv.html 3.55] and [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iv.vi.iii.lviii.html 3.58] ]

Greece did not know sacred prostitution at the same scale that existed in the ancient Near East. The only known cases were at the fringes of the Greek world (in Sicily, Cyprus, in the Kingdom of Pontus and in Cappadocia), and the city of Corinth where the temple of Aphrodite housed a significant number of servants at least since the classical era. In 464 BC a man named Xenophon, a citizen of Corinth who was an acclaimed runner and winner of pentathlon at the Olympic Games, dedicated one hundred young girls to the temple of the goddess as a sign of thanksgiving. We know this because of a hymn which Pindar was commissioned to write (fragment 122 Snell), celebrating "the very welcoming girls, servants of Peïtho and luxurious Corinth" [, where the two words seem to be being used effectively interchangeably.

Tamar, left widowed and childless, disguises herself and tricks Judah into thinking she is a "zonah" ().

The meaning of the male form "kadesh" is not entirely clear. Some early English translations, following the Greek "porneuon", rendered it as a "whoremonger" - ie a prostitute-seeker; [Douay-Rheims Bible, Young's Literal Translation] but it may have been a closer analogue of "kedeshah", ie a male cultic attendant, apparently again with some sexual implication, hence the King James translation as "sodomite". Many recent translations simply say "cult prostitute". [For example, the New American Standard Bible] The Hebrew word "keleb" (dog) in the next line may also signify a male dancer or prostitute, [ [http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H03611&t=kjv Lexicon results for "keleb" (Strong's H3611)] , incorporating Strong's Concordance (1890) and Gesenius's Lexicon (1857).] perhaps a transvestite or eunuch. The cuneiform sign UR.SAL for "assinnu" (a male devotee of Ishtar who took on feminine characteristics) means both "dog" and "man/woman"; while in Greek the word "kinaidos" ("dog-like"; [But an alternative etymology is from "kineo" ("I move") + "Aidos" (the goddess of Shame)] Latin "cinaedus") was used for men who were flamboyantly effeminate and behaved as though they were on heat for homosexual advances. In the New Testament the word "dog" may have a similar meaning at .. The "kadeshim" are also mentioned four times in the Books of Kings (1 Kings [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=1Ki&chapter=14&verse=24&version=KJV#24 14:24] , [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=1Ki&chapter=15&verse=12&version=KJV#12 15:12] , [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=1Ki&chapter=22&verse=46&version=KJV#46 22:46] ; 2 Kings [http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=2Ki&chapter=23&verse=7&version=KJV#7 23:7] ), when they evidently rose to some prominence, until purged by Jahwist revivalist kings such as Jehoshaphat and Josiah. Again, ancient translations vary. At 1 Kings 15:12 the Septuagint hellenises them as "teletai" - personifications of the presiding spirits at the initiation rites of the Bacchic orgies. Aquila at all four instances translates them as "endiellagmenoi" ("changed ones"), while the Vulgate of St. Jerome renders them as "effeminati".

Revisionist views

Recently some scholars, such as Robert A. Oden, [Robert A. Oden (1987), "The Bible Without Theology: The Theological Tradition and Alternatives to It", University of Illinois Press, ISBN 025206870X. pp 131-153.] Stephanie Lynn Budin [Stephanie Lynn Budin (2008), "The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521880904. [http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/80909/excerpt/9780521880909_excerpt.pdf Preview: pages 1-10] . [https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2005-October/020307.html Mailing-list discussion on some classical and near-East references] .] and others, [ [https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2005-October/019708.html Recent papers skeptical of cult prostitution in the Ancient Near East] ] have questioned whether sacred prostitution, as an institution whereby women and men sold sex for the profit of deities and temples, did in fact ever actually exist at all. Not all authors are convinced, however.

Christian saints forced into prostitution

Christian hagiography records the nearly-identical stories of the two pairs of saints, Theodora and Didymus and Antonia and Alexander, centering on a Christian virgin being sent to a brothel against her will, saved by a virtuous man pretending to be her "customer" and culminating with both undergoing martyrdom.

Central America

Bernal Diaz del Castillo (16th century), in his "The Conquest of New Spain", reported that the Mexica peoples regularly practiced pederastic relationships, and male adolescent sacred prostitutes would congregate in temples. The conquistadores, like most Europeans of the 16th century, were horrified by the widespread acceptance of sex between men and youths in Aztec society, and used it as one justification for the extirpation of a native society, religion and culture, and the theft of the lands and wealth that belonged to the indigenous people of the lands; of all customs of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples, only human sacrifice produced a greater disapproval amongst the Spaniards in Mexico. The custom died out with the collapse of the Aztec civilization.

India

The practice devadasi, as it has come to be seen, and similar customary forms of hierodulic prostitution in Southern India (such as basavi), [Anti-Slavery Society. [http://anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/hieroras.htm Child Hierodulic Servitude in India and Nepal] ] involving dedicating adolescent girls from villages in a ritual marriage to a deity or a temple, who then work in the temple and act as members of a religious order. Human Rights Watch claims that devadasis are forced at least in some cases to practice prostitution for upper-caste members. [Human Rights Watch. [http://hrw.org/campaigns/caste/presskit.htm Caste: Asia's Hidden Apartheid] ] Various state governments in India have enacted laws to ban this practice. They include Bombay Devdasi Act, 1934, Devdasi (Prevention of dedication) Madras Act, 1947, Karnataka Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1982, and Andhra Pradesh Devdasi (Prohibition of dedication) Act, 1988. [United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. [http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw37/responses/cedaw.c.ind.q.3.add.1%20single.pdf Thirty-seventh session: 15 January – 2 February 2007] ]

Recent Western occurrences

In the 1970s and early 1980s some religious cults were discovered practicing sacred prostitution as an instrument to recruit new converts. Among them was the alleged cult Children of God/The Family who called this practice "Flirty Fishing". They later abolished the practice due to the growing AIDS epidemic. [cite book
last =Williams
first =Miriam
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Heaven's Harlots
publisher =William Morrow/ Harper Collins
date=1998
location =New York
pages =320
url =
doi =
id =ISBN 978-0688170127]

ee also

*Raëlism
*Deuki
*Sex worker
*Devadasi
*Primitive promiscuity
*Hetaera

References

External links

* [http://anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/hieroras.htm Hierodulic Servitude]
* [http://www.matrifocus.com/SAM05/spotlight.htm#1 Stuckey, H. Johanna. "Sacred Prostitutes".] MatriFocus. 2005 vol 5-1.
* [http://members.aol.com/queen0fhades666/prostitution.html Prostitution ]
*, and a [http://www.homepages.ihug.com.au/~kimkemmis/bibhom/Deut.htm discussion]
* Jenin Younes (2008), [http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/nes275/studentproj/jy84/index.html Sacred Prostitution in Ancient Israel]