Sex and Religion

Revised Lecture on „Sex and Religion“ (2018)

„Sex and Religion“ is the title of this lecture. „Sex in the cult“ would be more to the point. Anyway, these words don’t seem to go well together.

At least in the mind-set of the Mono-God-believers, sex and religion is already a tense, if not contradictory connection. But sex as a part of religion, let alone sex in the cult, would be a completely absurd and obscene suggestion.

So, if something as „sex in the cult“ had ever existed, we’d be left to trace it back to ancient heathen religions.

„Sex in the cult“ – I wouldn’t know if it was more than a rumour when I first came across this alleged phenomenon during my studies of Theology, back in the 1980s. It was always a marginal note referring to an ancient pagan custom, respectably labelled as „The Sacred Marriage“. Indicating that there have been numerous, but nameless priest-kings and their High Priestesses, or vice versa, performing sex in the open on a special day (or night) of the year. First evidence: Ancient Babylon in Mesopotamia (present Iraq). Second evidence: Anywhere else, where heathens lived. Surely ancient heathens knew nothing of the original sin or sin in the flesh – so why not celebrate the power of love and fertility? Or the love for power and god-like sex?

These were the crumbs and bits of informations I could get a hold on. Nobody seemed to bother, if you wanted to know more. But then, why mention it at all? For simply vain reasons (like, I read Herodotus in original Old Greek, see footnote X) ? Or because it seemed opportune to recharge an image of heathenry which leaves heathens on a Stone Age level?

Surprise or not:

For hundreds of years, if not milleniums, „sex in the cult“ has been taken for real and treated as a fact, at home in remote cultures which stuck to their archaic roots. Not that anyone had witnessed what they reported. But story-telling and history hasn’t been much of a

difference for the longest time, and still today it sometimes seems

convenient to leave it at that.

A closer look at history, though, will reveal that sex and religion were never compatible elements in a meaningful context. Sex in the cult is an inherent contradiction, not because it is a taboo in monotheism, but because it is a taboo in heathenism. Sex in the cult has never played even a minor role in the developing of the early „One–God–Alone–Movements“, just because there has never been something like sex in the cult.

Now that I have given away the conclusion so soon, I owe you some explanations. First of all, it would be a waste of time to go through all the sources relevant in this discussion, to conclude that it has been a waste of time to talk about something which never existed. Secondly, there is a big discrepancy between a non-existing phenomenon and a steady stream of reference to it. Thus the „Sacred Marriage“ phenomenon (if only mentioned en passant) has never stopped to exist.

This discrepancy caused a shift in my dealing with the problem.

The main question coming up now is not, whether, how or why

„sex in the cult“ occured, but how and why the speech of „sex in

the cult“ could work as an unchallenged cliché – and a false cliché, at that.

A cliché is never meant to capture the essential traits of a given reality. A cliché is intentionally made up. It is useful, not because it pictures the nature of a person or a group or whatever, but because it shows what we want to see. It reduces a manifold reality down to a minimum, thus promoting a point of view and a judgement that suits our prejudices.

Talking of the cliché sex in the cult, it is worth underlining that it is (pretty much as sex’n drugs and rock’n roll) made up of male fantasies. It would not exist nor survive without applying double

moral standards. It allows, even demands, sex beyond all the norms of morale given in a society. At the same time, this trespassing bears no consequences on the men, while women will be left stigmatized as sex servants or prostitutes.

Now we are on the road of the history of a cliché.

The cliché of sex in the cult has been brought up first by some Old Greek authors, but it can’t be separated from cultures of the Ancient Near East. (Thus I spare you an argument with charlatans like G. Frazer, who used it to promote his discovery of a world–wide phenomenon, against all evidence.)

One premise of the sex in the cult –cliché is, that the goddess of Love demands a service of love. Who could be more appropiate then to play the main role in this scenario than the most prominent goddess of the Ancient Near East, Ishtar, the wide known goddess of Love? (Let’s ignore for the moment, some of her equally important traits, convieniently catalogued as her different aspects).

The cults of Ishtar were ubiquitous in Mesopotamia, and merged with those of many goddesses in her wake. Once the cults of Ishtar were the paramount stage-set for sex in the cult, the „Sacred Marriage“ appeared just as the tip of the iceberg. The whole thing, of course, must have been much bigger. Underneath the surface, we’re supposed to find the solid base: a well organized section of her temples, built for the training and maintaining of female sex-workers for the benefit of the institution. Thus the terminus technicus of „cult- or temple prostitution“ respectively „cult- or temple prostitutes“.

You may ask:

Why should prostitutes be an essential part of the temple personnel? What is the difference between profane prostitution and temple prostitution? Were cult prostitutes on stand-by, until the temple chief called for action? Or was their job basically identical with the job of the ordinary sex worker in the street, only that the wages went straight to the temple to raise the temple income? And if so, why would a woman apply for this kind of temple job ?

Here is an answer I found in a book (published in 2007):

„The only way to compensate for the stigma of her profession,

was to apply for the service as a temple prostitute, because then she was part of the religious cult.“ (Romina Schmitter, p. 18f.)

I find this explanation rather disturbing than convincing or reasonable. Schmitter draws her conclusion on the well known and unchallenged premises: A) Temple prostitution existed for real;

B) Ordinary Prostitution had a bad reputation, the temple service (i.e. sex in the cult) had a high reputation; C) the high reputation of cult prostitutes resulted of the eminent ritual of the „Sacred Marriage“; D) The eminence of the „Sacred Marriage“ is due to the most important and therefore most sacred Fertility rite which is due to magical thinking, i.e. Divine Sex to make the wheat grow.

Along the lines of these premises, you may well conclude that the shift from ordinary prostitution to temple prostitution was common and a slight relief for the women. You may rightly insist on rejecting the very term of temple prostitutes, because there is no exchange of money here, and speak of temple servants instead. That would save both the women’s reputation and the „Sacred Marriage“. It does not explain, though, why the ritual highlight of the year would require an army of women supposed to do their holy duty once in a year.

What is annoying me most, though, is the stubbornly repeated reference to the same old story-tellers whose authority on the matter is taken for granted, never questioned, even increasing every time they are quoted. Not that we have a big choice of those high ranking authorities. The first one is Herodotus, the second one Strabo.

At the core of the cliché of sex in the cult lies, naturally, the goddess of Love. I can’t help thinking of a Russian matryoshka: a cliché in a cliché in a cliché... The goddess of Love is the master of love. She wants sex in her cult, she loves sex. She knows all the magic spells, the weeds, the potions, to ensure she’ll get what she wants, to get whom she wants.

She is the woman in love, the power of love, the protector of woman love, baby love, man love, She chooses the king who will rule her land in the name of love.

Most of that is true, according to the stories and myths of Ishtar, but it is less than half of the truth. The goddess of Love – may she be called Ishtar in Mesopotamia, or, elsewhere in the Ancient Near East, Anat, Shaushka, Hebat, Ashtarte, or, why not, Freiya in Europe – is at the same time the goddess of War. Meaning death and destruction, triumph and defeat, bloodshed and slaughter.

It should not come as a surprise, when you think about it, that she is also the goddess of Fate. She can change your gender, can change your luck, change your life, change anything to its opposite.

Having that in mind, we will have a much broader access to the old cuneiform texts which deal with the cults of Ishtar.

The next matryoshka contains the ceremony of the „Sacred Marriage“. As we have seen, the central part of this ceremony is the copulation of the representative of the goddess of Love and her male consort. Now as the main reason for having sex is reproduction (don’t argue!), we gladly have a new label for our goddess of Love. We just add one word, and we have the goddess of Love and Fertility. Does it matter, that one typical trait of the goddess of Love is, that she has many lovers, but no children?

Already the next matryoshka is waiting. At the end of the ceremony

it becomes solemn. This is a small, but important part. Music has stopped, actors keep still, and the High Priestess resp. the goddess of Love and Fertility blesses the king (normally the local wheather god– representative), speaking: „I determine your destiny with favour!“ Meaning, in this minute the king has gotten all the power to rule the land. This is much more of a responsibility than fathering a child and keep the palace personnel running. The king is chief of

the administration, legislation, food chains, construction sites and, last not least, the army. Many of a king had been fighting in the

front line, the sword of Ishtar in his hands. And all this thanks to the goddess of Love, Fertility, War, Magic and Fate.

Lovely matryoshkas – you’d always think, this must be the last one.

Just one last look. There is still the army of lovers. I never found

out, what they were doing all the time, or doing at the ceremonies.

As this is wholly up to everyone’s fantasy, I might guess that they have been trained in dancing or playing music. That would explain their massive presence. Also, consider this: the duty of the High Priestess, i.e. the sex part in the ceremony, would require some woman not in her period. So with a big staff, you’re at the safe side. Otherwise the fertility rite would miss the point, lose its magic and degenerate to a purely symbolical act (like the Lord’s supper in a Protestant church).

Now, I think, you’re ready for the hard facts, as being reported by the authorities. The first say has Herodotus, a Greek writer and traveller, some say geographer, some say historian. He lived in the 5th century b.C. in S.W. Minor Asia and later in Italy. Although it is highly debatable, if he has ever been in Babylon, he wrote about the city and its culture and is still appreciated as an excellent expert on the Babylonian society.

The most oftenly quoted story of Herodotus refers to a Babylonian goddess named Mylitta (otherwise not known). In his eyes she is a „Assyrian“ equivalent to Aphrodite (most probably a forerunner of the famous Aphrodite of Greece).

The story goes like this (Herodotus, History, 1,99):

Every woman of Babylonia was obliged to prostitute herself once in her life time, in honor of the Goddess Mylitta. Thus masses of women crowded constantly extra–built pathways around the temple, and masses of men strolled around to pick up a woman after their favour. The women had no choice and had to accept whoever asked her first. The money for the deal went to the temple cashbox.

To round up the story, Herodotus let us know that unattractive

women spent four years waiting in the temple places until her religious duty was fulfilled.

This is all somewhat confusing. As to the goddess Mylitta, she might well have originated in Babylonia and have her cults in Assyria, as these countries overlapped in their territories and traditions. That leaves us to search for Mylitta’s temple somewhere in Assyria. But there is no way to tell, whether this story relates to conditions contemporary to Herodotus or those of a remote past. The link to Aphrodite makes it even harder to pin the story down to a particular time of history. Both the „Assyrian“ Aphrodite and the Babylonian Mylitta were loved by the Persians, as Herodotus remarks elsewhere. Here we are at least in the Persian era of his time. On the other hand, the „Assyrian“ Aphrodite and her disgusting cults would be different from the Greek Aphrodite and have at least different origins. This is confirmed by Herodotus himself, who states elsewhere that Aphrodite had her first cult in Askalon ( in modern Palestine). But all the search for a historical context for this story leads to nothing. Herodotus is not dealing with history. The whole point of the Mylitta/Assyrian Aphrodite story is that of a simple message: the tradition of cultic prostitution has a long history in far remote places. Herodotus’ writing is less concerned with facts and understanding than with pictures of the utmost strangeness of different cultures, which deserve disrespect and contempt. Thus he comments himself: „The obligation of Babylonian women is the most disgraceful of all customs of the Babylonians“ (Her., II,61).

As to the prostituion in the streets nearby Mylitta’s temple, it looks like a mixture of both ordinary and temple prostitution. What I don’t see, is any connection to sex in the cult, though. At the most

I find sex for the cult, but definitely no piece of evidence for the „Sacred Marriage“.

I can’t help to make you familiar with a modern theory of this special form of sex for the cult: Sex for the cult is nothing else than „apotropaic prostitution“, meaning: it’s an act of prostitution all right, but religiously motivated, even demanded, to ward off bad

luck. Obligatory for every woman who planned to get married. Because this very intention was „against the rules of the goddess of Fertility, which demand that no laws must regulate sexuality“. Take your time and think about it. There is a law for sexuality that there must be no law for sexuality... (Schmitter, p.17).

(These Assyrians... Either far ahead of their time or simply nuts)

Finally: Babylon.

As an expert traveller-journalist, Herodotus reported with an eye for details of Old Babylon’s fauna, architecture of houses, places and temples, including the famous ziggurat of the City-god Marduk .

Modern science, however, critizises that his report is due rather to fantasy than memory of an eyewitness, as it can’be confirmed archeologically.

Anyway, he presents some important details of the ziggurat’s sacred corners.

„On top of the tower“, he tells us, „there is a spacious temple, and inside a richly decorated bed, unusually big, a golden table next to it. No statue is to be seen, and nobody has access to this chamber at night except a chosen native woman. That’s what the Chaldean priests of this temple say. They also revealed that the god himself

would come to sleep on the bed... This is the same story told by the Egyptians as to what happens in the city of Thebes, where the woman spends the night with Jupiter of Thebes (Amun) all the time“.

Insider information by a Chaldean priest. Fair enough. They were known far and wide as experts in all ritual things. A big bed in a V.I.P. temple-room, a chosen woman, god personally, a twosome night at the top of the tower,... Just as in Egypt!

Hollywood factor: 10. Source evidence factor: thumb down.

Just one more quotation of Herodotus, just to show you his yellow-press-skills:

„All other peoples, except of the Egyptians and the Greek, copulate in the temples of the Gods, and after they had sex they walk

unwashed in the sanctuary, and they believe that humans were just like animals, because it was plain to see that animals and birds also

copulate in the temples and the holy groves. Now if the gods found that unpleasant, the animals wouldn’t do that at all. But they do it, and that’s the reason why people do it, too. That’s what I’ve been told; but I personally don’t like it...“¹

Here’s the next authority in our matter: Strabo.

Also a Greek historian, 1st.century b.C., he wrote a lot of books,

titled : „Remarks On History“, volume 1 – 43 ( most of them gone, though). He was decent enough to admit that he liked a rather journalistic style of writing. That’s to his credit, but I will focus on the informations given.

He came up with a story similar like that of Mylitta. Place of action is now somewhere in far away Armenia (no more details). The cult in question belongs to the Persian goddess Anaitis (or Anahita).

The women obliged to prostitution for her cult are the daughters of the Armenians.

As he is the only one who has ever heard of a cult of Anahita in Armenia ­– no matter which epoch – it looks pretty much like hear-say story-telling in the way of Herodotus serving the need für sensation.

Like Herodotus, Strabo refers to the temple of Thebes in Egypt.

He informs us that the most beautiful and prominent young girls of Thebes were being prostituted for the temple of Amun until they were grown up women. Then they would be married.

If this story of a cultic gang–bang that lasted for years, leaves a bad taste to the listener, it has probably served well the author’s intentions.

Another story tells us about the Hellenic seaport Corinthia, once one of the most important and richest cities of Greece. According to Strabo, there were more than 1000 temple–girls dedicated to Aphrodite’s cult. Dedicated seemed to have become a synonym for

women engaged in sex in the cult.

1000 temple-girls in a big seaport – I apologize for being cheap, but I can’t help thinking of an ancient religiously mantled Reeperbahn. Strabo himself was smart enough to give you only as much as a hint that the dedication to the goddess, sex and alcohol belonged together. He refers to Komana (in Asia Minor /modern Turkey) as a city of softies who used all their estates for wine–growing. By the way, he labelled Komana as „Mini–Corinthia“. Now you can imagine how Corinthia itself must have looked like.

Strabo, who visited Corinthia in 29 B.C., had never been an eyewitness of the scandalous phenomenon: the 1000 temple–girls of Aphrodite were already history to him and meant to illustrate the decadent richness of Aphrodite’s temple in the heyday of Corinthia. Apart from Strabo, there is no one else to confirm sex in the cult in Corinthia.

Tanja S. Scheer, a specialist in Greek Antiquity, concluded her investigations on that matter:

„Sacral sex in the temple’s area is inconceivable in Greece“ (Tempelprostitution in Korinth?, 2009, p. 221).

The main reason, which holds both for Greece and Mesopotamia, is

the absolute rule of purity for the whole temple area, including equipment and personnel. Even small injuries or skin infections sufficed to be suspended from sacral duty. Excretions of the body were per se considered to be impure. Women menstruating were not allowed to enter the temple. Sex in the temple would be a top sacrilege.

I spare you the contributions of Roman writers and Fathers of the Church, who used the same stereotypes as a stark contrast to their own moral codes. Suffice to say, that Herodotus and Strabo would have been very proud to see themselves quoted and taken serious for the next 2000 years.

Despite, or because, of the discoveries of the era of modern archeology and progress in science, professors of all faculties

seemed to be busy arranging the new facts around old premises and rather confirm than question old authorities.

One thing important for our topic is that we learn about a simple but effective trick which helps transporting and spreading the cliché of sex in the cult.

The trick consists in the art of picking up a widely unknown special term, then detach it from its original context and fill it up with a

new content suiting to the wanted cliché. Thus you have a fine new

technical term, which has an alibi-history and can be used as a key-

word to pimp up your theory.

The key-word wearing the coat of a technical term for sex in the cult, is „Sacred Marriage“. This is the translation of Greek „hieròs gamós“, open to interpretation, if taken out of the original context.

So let’s have a look at this. Originally, hieròs gamós was the name of a feast day during the long festival called „Marriage of the Gods“. It was the day when Hera and Zeus married. So hieròs gamós means, within ist original context:: „the divine (or holy) wedding day“.

So why then could this term be chosen and misused as a technicus terminus for practising sex in the ritual?

We may keep in mind that Herodotus and Strabo suggested real sex in the cult, taking „women’s dedication to goddess X“ and „prostitution“ as synonyms. But the new technicus terminus „Sacred Marriage“ has been distilled from a context, which has never been even slightly indicated before, because it didnt’t make sense at all. Marriage, sacred or not, divine or human, has always and foremostly been a matter of legitimate relations. Thus no point for Herodotus and others.

But the „Sacred Marriage“, taken out of its original context, could work as an unsuspicious term for a suspicious thing: sex as a driving force in religions of morally inferior cultures of the heathen past.

The same trick has been applied to denounce a group of temple women as sex-workers in the temple cult. The chosen term here is

„hierodules“, also taken out of the original Greek context. Here it is just the general term for the tempel personnel, both male and female. What their job was, exactly, remains unclear, but sex for or

sex in the cult would be an absurd assumption. Otherwise the early translators of the old Hebrew texts into Greek (known to us as the Old Testament), would never have used the term hierodules for the class of Jewish priest (Levites), who were exclusively male. It

would be out of question to speak of 200 hierodules who had been recruited for the new temple in Jerusalem (see Esra 8, 15-20).

Detached from their original context, hierodules could now be used as a technical term for any woman or group of women who were reported to be seen in or near a temple. Especially the temple of a goddess and her loathsome cults.

The qedesh (a group of cult servants) in Ancient Israel? Supposed to be hierodules, i.e. cult prostitues. Evidence from the texts: nil. They are mentionend only 8 times in the Old Testament, and from that we only learn: They were dedicated to a divinity, they were both men and women, and only once there is a reference to a specific women’s competence, namely „weaving garments for Ashera in the houses of the qedesh“.

Even the prophet Hosea, whose favourite word is „whore“ and the

„whoring of the Israelites“, mentions the qedesh only once.

Notably, it refers to real cult practice, but it’s not sex and whoring

which sets him up, it’s making offerings together with the qedesh.

The whoring of the Israelites is only a metaphor: Jahwe is the patriarch, and his bride (Israel) is fornicating with many lovers (other gods).

As the qedesh can be found also in much older Akkadian texts,

I would like to open the last chapter, which will focus on some relevant sources from Ancient Mesopotamia.

Here, the qedesh are deeply connected with Ishtar and her cults.They were concerned with singing, with purifying rituals and assistance at birth.

There we are, back to where it all began. But now we will not confine ourselves to stories of hear-say. Much better, we have

access to the ancient cuneiform inscriptions containing myths, hymns, ritual descriptions, incantations and charmings.

These sources can be filed into shape, for the benefit of the sex in the cult cliché, with a new trick in the repertoire: just cut a whole text- passage out of its context and use it to back up your own story.

For example: We have the description of a king’s ritual which contains a hymn to the gods. The whole ritual is meant to

legitimitize the king as the ruler of the land, but the goddess herself, the Queen of the gods, must give her O.K.

Now the hymn which is being recited during the ritual, praises the Queen and the king of the gods in the most erotical pictures and sexual connotations, certainly in the style of perfect poetry.

At the end of the hymn, the goddess proclaims her decision concerning the destiny of the king, still the king of the gods.

Of course, she would determine the king’s destiny „with favour“.

It should be clear that the description of a ritual is not the same as the ritual itself. A ritual description is a schedule for the performers of the ritual. It is concerned with the course of events and the texts which have to be recited. If a hymn was to be recited, it was still a hymn and not a stage direction.

There is no need to assume that the high priestess in person uttered the formula in favour of the king – maybe she did, we simply don’t know, as there is not a hint in the text. But it is out of the picture to suggest that she actually would mimic what the goddess did in the hymn, in order to validate her decision. It’s nowhere in the text, either.

If we detach the hymn from its context, though, forget about the king’s destiny, and take it as a blueprint for real action of the representatives of the divine couple – then we may talk about sex as the crucial part of a religious ceremony.

I would call it, very politely, a deliberate distortion of source material.

As to the human representatives of the divine couple – so badly needed for the sex in the cult cliché – there is neither much to gain from the fact that every king called himself „husband“ of the goddess and the woman chief of a temple „wife“ of the Weather god. Wouldn’t that be a perfect casting for a „Sacred Marriage“ show?

Bad choice, as there are 18 cases known from the Old Babylonian period telling us that the chief temple-priestess was a daughter or a sister of the king.

Again, it is too easy to jump from „marriage“ to „Sacred Marriage“,

no matter, who is involved (humans, gods, or both of them).

Instead, we should try to understand marriage as a commitment, important both to human relations and human-god-relations.

The reason, why the symbolism of marriage has been chosen to describe the human-god-relationship, is not sex (which would somehow overstretch our fantasy). The symbolism of marriage

(which you can also find in the bible or in Christian hymns) has been chosen, because it is the clearest metaphor of a legitimate relationship. Only through marriage the rights and obligations of the chief of the house (or the temple) – woman or man – were acknowledged.

The priviledged position of both kingdomship and temple institution were legitimitized by their relation with the highest goddess, mostly Ishtar, Goddess of the gods, Goddess of sky and earth, Goddess of fate.

That marriage is more than a valid ticket for sex, even for gods, becomes obvious in a Sumerian hymn which deals with the marriage of Enlil (the Sumerian weather god in the shape of a bull)

and Ninlil, the „mother“ and Queen of the gods. Here it says:

what the „bull fathered“ and „mother gave birth to“ were the „exalted me“, no less than destiny’s laws or an order on a higher

level, something we might call wyrd. It goes on: „The me that you can hand out (allot,) produce the certain destiny (lot in life), a matter

that cannot be destroyed“.² Apart from Ninlil of Nippur (the religious capital of the Sumerians) the Goddess of Fate is Ishtar.

Now we see what the king’s ritual is all about.

It’s not about the king and Ishtar, the goddess of Love. It’s about the king and Ishtar, the goddess of Fate.

The king, better the would –be- king, needs to meet Ishtar, not because of sex, but because he is part of the fate. If Ishtar were benevolent, he would be responsible for the wealth, the health, and the security of the land. He’d need to trust and rely on her, be indebted to her for the rest of his life.

There is one part in the king’s ritual, which illustrates the sheer power of Ishtar better than words can do. At night-time, a lot of actors, dancers and musicians are engaged in this part to give a spectacular performance.

Out of this group of performers stands a special group of men³, whose outfit and actions seem at first glance mysterious and contradictory. Their garments and hairstyle are typical female, but they brandish swords and knives or clubs, ecstatically dancing in the light of torches.⁴ It is a show of the might and power of the martial Ishtar. How could the force of fate which can change everything in a minute, be demonstrated better than in a wild dance of Ishtar’s bravest trans-gender warriors? A dance of life on the edge of doom and death.

All this is expressed in many a hymn or lament in one short sentence:

„She changes the right side to the left, the left side to the right“.

„She changes a man into a woman, a woman into a man“.⁵

„Without you no destiny is determined at all.“⁶

I want to conclude this lecture with a last look on the women of Ishtar. I will focus on one of the many groups in her cult, the harimtum, as they were called. What is known about them,

counts for the other groups, too.

Far more interesting than what they did⁷, is what they were.

Their special status can be summarized as follows: they were

independent, unmarried women or, as the people of Mesopotamia

would say: „neither the daughter of a man nor the wife of a man“. Her life and her sexuality were obviously not constricted by the norms of the patriarchal system, as it was the case for wives, mothers and daughters of the male citizens. If she wanted, though, she was free to marry (then her status changed to the one of a wife, and she was no longer a harimtu), or to have children, also as a harimtu. Her child would then be a legitimate heir of the father who was also obliged to care for the needs of the harimtu. The status of a woman who is in no way dependent of a male authority is reflected in the word harimtu, rooted in the Akkadian verb „to separate“.

Does that make her a „prostitute“? The dictionary of Akkadian says: yes. But then dictionaries are the most repetitive books I know. Julia Assante dissents strongly from this on the base of a thorough analysis of every text where the term is attested, concluding that harimtu (and the Sumerian equivalent) does not mean prostitute.

Anyway, the leap from „common prostitution“ to „temple prostitution“, is lacking in logic as much as the jump from marriage

to „Sacred Marriage“. It’s rather telling us about the fantasies and prejudises of those who jump. The cliché of sex in the cult could only be so firmly grounded on history, because the reasons to love it were always the same. The main reasons being: ignorance to facts, disrespect and discrimination of strange people and cultures, and sexist attitudes.

This small history of the sex in the cult cliché is not so important.

The reasons and patterns behind it, however, are working everywhere clichés substitue reality. That’s why asking questions is better than to keep silent.

(This lecture has been held by Günna Stienecke on July 30/2018 at the IASC in Gerolstein/Germany).

This lecture is based on an article with the same title (published in „Herdfeuer“ Nr. 38 /2014). Below you can find a list of literature that I used.

Assante, Julia: „Bad Girls and Kinky Boys? The Modern Prostituting of Ischtar, Her Clergy and Her Cults“, in: Tanja S. Scheer, 2009

Budin, Stefanie: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity“,

Cambridge:2008

Fleming, D.: „The Installation of Baal’s High Priestess at Emar“, Atlanta, 1992

Groneberg, Brigitte R. M.: „ Lob der Ischtar: Gebet und Ritual an die altbabylonische Venusgöttin“, Groningen: 1997

Ludwig, Marie–Luise: „Untersuchungen zu den Hymnen des Ischme–Dagan von Isin“ ,Wiesbaden: 1990

Marsman, Hennie J.: „Women in Ugarit and Israel: Their social and religious position in the context of the Ancient Near East“, Leiden: 2003

v.d. Toorn, K.: „Theology, Priests and Worship in Canaan and Ancient Israel“, in: CANE 3

Scheer, Tanja S. (Hrsg): „Tempelprostitution im Altertum“, Berlin: 2009

Schmitter, Romina: „Prostitution – Das älteste Gewerbe der Welt?“ hrsg. v.

Bremer Frauenmuseum e.V., Oldenburg: 2007 (2004)

Stark, Christine: „Kultprostitution im AT?“ (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 22 Göttingen, 2006

Yoffee, Norman: „Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of Earliest Cities,

States and...“, 2005.

1 Herodotus, History 1/99

2 quoted after Marie–Chr. Ludwig: „Untersuchungen zu den Hymnen des Ischme–Dagan von Isin“ ,Wiesbaden: 1990

3 Akkadian: assinnu and kurgarru

4 This part of the ceremony is carried out in the night

5 Cf. J. Assante, in: T.S. Scheer (ed.), 2009, p. 46

6 cf. J. Assante, in: T.S. Scheer (ed.), 2009, p. 49

7 They are attested in the profession-list of the temple along with the woman doctor, woman barber and woman cook. That doesn’t clarify her job, but it shows that her job was legally organized and paid.