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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2009

Stephanie Lynn Budin
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

Sacred prostitution never existed in the ancient near east or Mediterranean. This book presents the evidence that leads to that conclusion. It also reconsiders the various literary data that have given rise to the sacred prostitution myth and offers new interpretations of what these may have actually meant in their ancient contexts. I hope that this will end a debate that has been present in various fields of academia for about three decades now.

What is sacred prostitution, also known as cult, cultic, ritual, or temple prostitution? There are, as one might imagine of a topic that has been the object of study for centuries and the object of debate for decades, a number of different answers to that question. If we were to approach the topic from a classics perspective, we might come across the definition in the second edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, where sacred prostitution

existed in two main forms. (1) The defloration of virgins before marriage was originally a threshold rite, whereby the dangerous task of having intercourse with a virgin was delegated to a foreigner, since intercourse was in many, if not all, cases limited to strangers … (2) regular temple prostitution, generally of slaves, such as existed in Babylonia, in the cult of Ma at Comana Pontica, of Aphrodite at Corinth, and perhaps at Eryx, and in Egypt. […]

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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  • Introduction
  • Stephanie Lynn Budin
  • Book: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 18 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497766.002
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  • Introduction
  • Stephanie Lynn Budin
  • Book: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 18 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497766.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Stephanie Lynn Budin
  • Book: The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
  • Online publication: 18 August 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497766.002
Available formats
×