Sacred prostitution , temple prostitution , cult prostitution , [1] and religious prostitution are general terms for a rite consisting of paid intercourse performed in the context of religious worship , possibly as a form of fertility rite or divine marriage hieros gamos.
Scholars prefer the terms " sacred sex " or "sacred sexual rites" in cases where payment for services is not involved. The historicity of literal sacred prostitution, particularly in some places and periods, is a controversial topic within the academic world. Outside academic debate, sacred prostitution has been adopted as a sign of distinction by sex workers , modern pagans and practitioners of sex magic. Ancient Near Eastern societies along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers featured many shrines and temples or houses of heaven dedicated to various deities.
The 5th-century BC historian Herodotus 's account and some other testimony from the Hellenistic Period and Late Antiquity suggest that ancient societies encouraged the practice of sacred sexual rites not only in Babylonia and Cyprus , but throughout the Near East.
The work of gender researchers like Daniel Arnaud, [12] Julia Assante [13] and Stephanie Budin [14] has cast the whole tradition of scholarship that defined the concept of sacred prostitution into doubt. Budin regards the concept of sacred prostitution as a myth, arguing taxatively that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, possibly even mere cultural slander.
Through the twentieth century, scholars generally believed that a form of sacred marriage rite hieros gamos was staged between the kings in the ancient Near Eastern region of Sumer and the high priestesses of Inanna , the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare, later called Ishtar. The king would couple with the priestess to represent the union of Dumuzid with Inanna. However, no certain evidence has survived to prove that sexual intercourse was included, despite many popular descriptions of the habit.
