User:Douglas Coldwell/Sandboxes/51
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[edit] Ritual prostitution
A universal aspect of the cult of Aphrodite and her precedents that Thomas Bulfinch's much-reprinted The Age of Fable; or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855 etc.) elided[1] is the practice of ritual prostitution in her shrines and temples. The euphemism in Greek is hierodule, "sacred servant". The practice was an inherent part of the rituals owed to Aphrodite's Near Eastern forebears, Sumerian Inanna and Akkadian Ishtar, whose temple harlots were the "women of Ishtar", ishtaritum.[2] The practice has been documented in Babylon, Syria and Palestine, in Phoenician cities and the Tyrian colony Carthage, and for Hellenic Aphrodite in Cyprus, the center of her cult, Cythera, Corinth and in Sicily (Marcovich 1996:49). Aphrodite is everywhere the patroness of the hetaira and courtesan. In Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor, hierodules served in the temple of Artemis.
She is said to have devised public prostitution by putting up the brothels. She forced married women to enter them. Attesting to her invention was the centuries old tradition by the Cypriots. They sent their young ladies to the beaches to lie with foreigners. This way they made dowries for their future marriage. Later this deplorable practice reached Italy and was also done by the Locrians.[3]
