I hereby throw the sleazy Mesopotamian custom of sacred prostitution in the ring. Once in their life, each Babylonian woman had to offer herself for pay on the sacred grounds of the temple of Ishtar, the popular goddess of love and carnal pleasures.
It was an especially dire obligation for unattractive women, as they sometimes had to wait years for the process to be complete and were not allowed to go home before.
The 5th century BCE historian Herodotus was the first to report this custom to European audiences:
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 fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four.Herodotus, Histories, 1.199
Historical Authenticity Rating: 4/10
The Greek geographer Strabo repeated this narrative. Also, the Greek satirist Lucian mentioned a similar practice in a 2nd century BCE temple of Ishtar in Lebanon. However, we do not have any Babylonian sources on this matter, except with respect to the existence of prostitutes in society.
This means we are left with Herodotus as our sole source, as is often the case in that time period. While he reportedly did visit Babylonia himself, we still need to take this tale with a grain of salt.
There is no doubt, however, that the concept of sacred prostitution would have been consistent with the character of Ishtar, a goddess of carnal pleasure who used men and sex for her own higher purposes.S. Bertman, Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, 2003, p. 129
The rating is my subjective evaluation.
Reproduction of a Babylonian gate devoted to the goddess Ishtar.
No comments:
Post a Comment