Prostitute Tumblr

Prostitute Tumblr

A blog dedicated to Ancient Near East religious and cultural studies with a focus on Mesopotamia. (Ancient Iraq)

#long post

#aphrodite

#venus

#sacred prostitution

#sacred sexuality

#herodotus

#mylitta

#ishtar

#inanna

#babylonians

#ancient near east

#ancient religion

#ane

#ane studies

#mullissu

#prostitutes

#prostitution

#priestesses

#priests

#old testament

#hebrew bible

#israel

#ancient israel

#hebrews

#qedesha

#qadesh

#fertility

#goddess

#goddesses

#fertility goddesses

The Babylonian Marriage Market by Edwin Long, 1875
(Please note: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST!!)
One of the most interesting yet hotly debated topics about the Ancient Near East is sacred prostitution . Sacred prostitution is
usually involved in cults surrounding fertility goddesses and consists of
sexual acts being performed for the purpose of worship to said goddesses. The purpose of the priestesses (and sometimes
priests) performing these sacred sexual acts was a variety of reasons including
honoring the goddess they worship and often recreating the copulation of the
goddess and her consort or instating a king as ruler. The latter two are often referred as hieros gamos , a Greek phrase meaning
“holy marriage”. It is debated whether
or not the hieros gamos actually had sexual intercourse involved or it was done
in a more symbolic way. Overall, there
is some debate as to whether or not sacred prostitution was actually practiced
in the Ancient Near East and other parts of the ancient world.
The
earliest source regarding sacred prostitution in the Ancient Near East comes
from the ancient Greek historian named Herodotus . In Herodotus’ Histories ( specifically Book 1, Chapter 199 ), Herodotus discusses the practices of the Babylonian priestesses of
which he deems foul:
“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.”(1)
You will notice that Herodotus uses two distinct
names for the goddess that the prostitute priestesses worship. The first is Aphrodite (called Venus
in Rome) who was worshiped in Greece as the goddess of love and beauty. The Greek Aphrodite was not worshiped by the Babylonians specifically, but rather Herodotus
sees the goddess that the Babylonians are worshiping as another face or
identity of the goddess he is most familiar with. The second name is Mylitta whom Herodotus sees as the Assyrian version of
Aphrodite. Mylitta is most likely the
Hellenized name of the Assyrian goddess Mullissu ,
whom in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 B.C.- 609 B.C.) was seen as the goddess Ishtar , also called Inanna (2).
There
were a multitude of Near Eastern fertility goddesses whom Herodotus saw as
Oriental versions of Aphrodite; he specifically believed that there was one
original goddess (Inanna/Ishtar) whom eventually had multiple diffusions across
the ancient Near East (3). Lady Xoc has
already made a post about how Inanna/Ishtar influenced Aphrodite and other
fertility goddesses .
Regardless of the goddess, it seems that all across the Ancient Near
East and the island of Cyprus there were cults of priestesses performing sexual
acts according to other ancient historians as well. Another detailed work, of which its
authorship remains unknown, is De Dea
Syria also known as Concerning the
Syrian Goddess (translated from Latin) which discusses the cult of the
goddess Atargatis , also called Ataratheh who was worshiped in northern
Syria. Interesting enough, besides
priestesses engaging in ritual orgy or sacred prostitution, the text also
mentions sexual practices amongst Atargatis’ male priests which hints that men
could have also been sacred prostitutes.
It can be read in full translation here . In a chapter of The Golden Bough , James Frazer gives details about sacred
prostitution on the island of Cyprus, it can be read here .
However
as stated before, the topic of sacred prostitution is hotly debated by scholars
as to whether or not it actually existed and if it did, how far the practice
spanned. Stephanie Lynn Budin has
published a work entitled The Myth of
Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity in which she states that sacred
prostitution never existed in the ancient world and was lie invented by ancient
historians and/or was believed to exist through misinterpretation of
texts. For example, Frazer’s chapter is
critiqued because he pulled sources from Late Antiquity (150-500 A.D.) rather
than sources from the Classical or Hellenistic B.C. eras, during which these
practices are said to have taken place.
Herodotus’ work is also critiqued because, well, he is an ancient Greek
historian. Herodotus has been called
both the Father of History and the Father of Lies as some of his findings have
been dis-proven due to lack of historical and archaeological sources to back him
up. Ancient Greek historians have been
known to write unsupported claims. One
popular example is their accounts of Amazon culture which they claim was
matriarchal and anti-male, but recent historical, anthropological, and
archaeological findings have dis-proven this.

Vincienne
Pirenne-Delforge, after reviewing Budin’s book, has a more nuanced view that
sacred prostitution existed in the Near East but did not exist in Classical or
Hellenistic Greco-Roman worlds, but possibly in Late Antiquity. Read Pirenne-Delforge’s review here . This questioning of sacred
prostitution also begs us to look at other sources and practices. The aforementioned hieros gamos (sacred marriage) was sometimes seen as a type of
sacred prostitution in which the king would copulate with a priestess of Inanna
to represent his ascent to the throne.
The basis of this practice comes from the myth of Inanna and her consort
Dumuzi whom becomes a king after he
has sex with Inanna. However, as
Rosemary Radford Ruether points out the priestess of Inanna would often be a
close female relative of the king, so it might not safe to assume that the hieros gamos was always done literally (4).
In the Old
Testament / Hebrew Bible , there
also several instances of sacred prostitution or sacred prostitutes being
mentioned. However, before these
instances are addressed I must point something out about the Hebrew language of
which the Old Testament is written in. There
are two specific Hebrew words that have been translated as prostitute. The first is zanah or zonah (זָנָה), and the second is qedesha
(קְדֵשָׁה). The second word qedesha has root in the Semitic word Q-D-Š which means “holy” or “sacred”;
subsequently qedesha has come to mean
“consecrated female” or “holy woman”.
The masculine or male form of the word is qadesh (קָדֵשׁ) and appears in the Old Testament as well hinting and corresponding to
the earlier reference from Concerning the
Syrian Goddess that there may have been male sacred prostitutes in service
to the love and fertility goddesses as well.
In some Bible translations, qadesh
is translated or transliterated as “sodomite” to refer a homosexual male;
whether or not the male temple prostitutes were heterosexual, homosexual, or
even bisexual is not known and the usage of “sodomites” may be used to incite
homophobia.

Returning to qedesha
and zanah , qedesha refers to a sacred prostitute whereas zanah refers to a simple common prostitute, much like the pornai of Ancient Greece. The word qedesha
is used four times in the Old Testament.
The first two are in Genesis 38:21-22, the entirety of Genesis 38 is the
story of Judah, one of the founders of the Twelve Tribes, having children with
his daughter-in-law Tamar . Tamar originally married the two eldest sons
of Judah named Er and Onan, but God killed them due to their wickedness and the
desire not to impregnate Tamar respectively.
As a result, Judah’s youngest son Shelah was supposed to marry Tamar
(through a practice called Levirate marriage), but Shelah was too young to
marry her so Tamar had to wait till he grew up.
After Shelah grew up, Tamar heard that Judah was going to shear his
sheep so she veiled herself and waited alongside the road for him.
Judah
didn’t recognize Tamar when he met her alongside the road due to her veil. He believes her to be a prostitute and after
making some payment arrangements, has sex with her and impregnates her. When he comes to deliver his payment to her,
a young goat, he cannot find her. He
asks others about her and specifically calls her a qedesha . I won’t continue
with the story, you can read the ending for yourself as the sacred prostitute reference
ends there. But for those of you who are
interested in the status of ancient Hebrew women I will say that the story has
an interesting end.
Some
Biblical scholars have debated why Tamar is specifically called a qedesha , as like Stephanie Budin, some
of them are skeptical of the existence of sacred prostitution in ancient Israel. It is known that during the days of Genesis
that the ancient Hebrews were not yet monotheistic, worshipping a pantheon of
deities instead. The only known
fertility goddess worshiped at this time would have been Asherah, however there’s
no evidence of Asherah having sacred prostitutes as priestesses. The very last time qedesha is used in the Old Testament in Hosea 4:14, however I will
skip that part as it serves no usage to the debate. So, the second-to-last Old Testament passage, which
includes both male and female prostitutes and which is the most curious of them
all in nature is Deuteronomy 23:17-18.
This particular passage is a
condemning law against the men and women of Israel becoming temple prostitutes
and that no one should bring the fees of the female and male temple prostitute’s
into the main temple (the one dedicated to God). Budin herself believes that this passage is
one of the many metaphorical or allegorical passages of the Bible saying that
the people of Israel themselves become prostitutes metaphorically by worshiping
other gods. But the original Hebrew
wording of this passage creates some issues.
Deuteronomy 23:17, uses the words qedesha
and qadesh , but Deuteronomy 23:18
uses zanah and keleb / kelev . Keleb
(כֶּלֶב) means “dog” in
Hebrew but is most likely a derogatory word for a male prostitute.
This
particularly passage might be specifically saying that no one should become a
temple prostitute nor should the fees or wages of common prostitutes, male or
female, be brought into the temple. The
possible influence of sacred prostitution on the Bible does not end there. In a set of specific Old Testament passages,
the city of Jerusalem and the entire kingdom of Israel by further extent is
personified as woman who is God’s wife but then quickly degrades into a
sexually voracious harlot and is subsequently punished by God or attacked by
the enemies of Israel. These passages
are Jeremiah 2-4:30; 13:20-27, Ezekiel 16:1-63; 23, and Hosea 1-3. These passages are very sexually explicit, so
just a word of caution to those who are sensitive to that stuff.
Due
to these promiscuous passages, it was originally interpreted that sacred prostitution
was the ultimate sin that God was condemning amongst the Israelites. The Israelites were worshipping other gods
and goddesses who had roles over fertility like Baal and Astarte / Ashtoreth , but whether or not their
cults and temples in Israel actually practiced sacred prostitution has little
evidence. As such, the aforementioned passages
as Jerusalem or Israel as God’s whoring wife has now been interpreted as
condemning Israel for worshiping these other deities and making political
alliances with foreign powers; therefore these passages may have not only
affected the common people of Israel and but also its rulers who made and
allowed these decisions (5).
So,
despite the question of for how long and far sacred prostitution persisted in
the Ancient Near East it still seems to have affected popular culture. Gustave Flaubert’s 1862 historical novel Salammbo is the story of the titular Carthaginian
princess in the 3 rd century B.C. who is also a priestess of the
goddess Tanit and the god Baal Hamon. It
is implied in the novel that the cults of Tanit and Baal Hamon have sacred
prostitutes, and Salammbo herself is sexually depraved and has an erotic encounter
with a snake. The novel is a very good
one but one should keep in mind that the novel has some inspiration off the
goddess Astarte and was written from an Orientalist’s imagination (6). Sacred prostitution in the Ancient Near East
is overall a very interesting topic that stimulates researchers.
1.
Herodotus,
Histories , trans. A. D. Godley (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1930).
2.
Patricia
Monaghan, Encyclopedia of Goddesses and
Heroines: Volume I & II (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010), 71.
3.
Albert
De Jong, Traditions of the Magi:
Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill,
1997), 107.
4.
Rosemary
Radford Ruether, Goddesses and the Divine
Feminine: A Western Religious History (Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 2005), 56.
6.
Zainab
Bahrani, Women of Babylon: Gender and
Representation in Mesopotamia (New York, NY: Routledge, 2001), 168.

511 | Uploaded on September, 16,

2014

Tags:
Alyssa Edwards

alyssa's secret

RuPaul's Drag Race

RPDR

gif

gifs

cat

cats

437 | Uploaded on September, 16,

2014

Tags:
La belle et la bete

beauty and the beast

lea seydoux

gowns

dresses

fairy tail

movie

film

gif

gifs

273 | Uploaded on September, 16,

2014

Tags:
there's a common denominator

cutie honey

cutey honey f

revolutionary girl utena

utena

sailor moon

sm

bishoujo senshi sailor moon

usagi tsukino

anime

gif

gifs

77 | Uploaded on September, 14,

2014

Tags:
michelle williams

destiny's child

family

questioning

breakfast club

video

lol

new car

626 | Uploaded on September, 13,

2014

Tags:
i hate the sun

me

sailor moon

bishoujo senshi sailor moon

sm

sailor moon super s

Leather Sex Stories
Jayden James Masturbating
Alexandra Daddario Tits

Prostitute Tumblr

Report Page