Temple prostitution

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Erotic-sexual scene at the Lakshmana temple in the temple district of Khajuraho - the male figure to the right of the elephant is identified as a brahmin by a cord hanging over his shoulder ; however, it cannot serve as proof of the often assumed temple prostitution in India.

Temple prostitution or cultic prostitution is a form of cultic sexual intercourse of priestesses or temple servants, usually a deity of sexual love, suspected in ancient times , especially in India (→ Devadasis ), Egypt , Babylonia ( Ištar cult), Lydia , Numidia and Cyprus . After the existence of this institution was taken for granted by science for a long time, it has recently been questioned.

Historical evidence

The Bible reports several times about temple prostitution in ancient cults. The royal books report several times that this practice was common in other cults, for example in 1 Kings 14.24 EU or 2 Kings 23.7 EU . This tradition is explicitly forbidden to the people of Israel according to Dtn 23,18  EU .

Furthermore, temple prostitution is only mentioned expressis verbis in Greek texts. Herodotus ( Historien 1, 199) reports that a Babylonian woman of the Persian era had to give herself to a stranger for money once in her life in honor of mylitta . According to Strabo , Athenaios and Pindar there was prostitution of temple slaves in Greece in the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth . Strabon, Ovid and Diodor describe hierodules in the cult of Aphrodite of Eryx in Sicily , which is said to have had an impact as far as Rome.

interpretation

From the religious studies the existence of the temple prostitution was provided and placed the attention on their interpretation. Alfred Bertholet writes in his dictionary of religions , St. Prostitution was "common" in Semitic and Asia Minor cultures and then explains it as an "expression of self-sacrifice to the godhead". Kurt Goldammer claims in his work The World of Forms of the Religious : "The temples of many oriental cults were filled with servants of various ranks within the framework of regular sacred prostitution." This was a mediating function of the priestly woman. In 2019, the Catholic Bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, used the traditional interpretation of the discussion about the ordination of women . In ancient times the female priesthood was well known. “Their ministry was often associated with temple prostitution as a representation of the fertility of the earth.

Renate Jost, on the other hand, believes that such texts "were written with a polemical or narrative-entertaining interest in the exoticism of other peoples" and that therefore "it can only be said that temple prostitution is historically guaranteed as a phenomenon here".

According to a recent study, the existence of temple prostitution in antiquity was established through numerous circular conclusions, in which the assumption of temple prostitution in other areas, which was considered to be certain, secured the local existence of this institution. A type of temple prostitution can only be proven in India, which did not take place with changing partners, but with one partner over a longer period of time, and which thus represented more of a mistress .

literature

  • Robert Rollinger : Herodotus Babylonian Logos. A critical examination of the credibility discussion using selected examples. Historical parallel transmission - argumentation - archaeological evidence - consequences for a history of Babylon in Persian times. Publishing house of the Institute for Linguistics of the University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1993, ISBN 3-85124-165-7
  • Simon RF Price : Prostitution, sacred . In: Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth (Eds.): The Oxford Classical Dictionary . 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-866172-X , pp. 1263-1264.
  • Julia Assante : The kar.kid / "harimtu". Prostitute or Single Woman? A Critical Review of the Evidence. In: Ugarit-Forschungen 30 (1998), pp. 5-96.
  • Julia Assante: From Whores to Hierodules. The Historiographic Invention of Mesopotamian Female Sex Professionals. In: Alice A. Donohue and Mark D. Fullerton (Eds.): Ancient Art and Its Historiography. Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-81567-3 , pp. 13-47.
  • Julia Assante: The Lead Inlays of Tukulti-Ninurta I. Pornography as Imperial Strategy. In: Jack Cheng and Marian H. Feldman, Brill (editors): Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context, Studies in Honor of Irene J. Winter . Brill, Leiden u. a. 2007, pp. 369-407. ( Table of contents )
  • Stephanie Lynn Budin : The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-88090-9 Table of Contents
  • Tanja Scheer , Martin Lindner (ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity. Facts and fictions (= Oikumene. Studies on ancient world history. Volume 6). Verlag Antike, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938032-26-8 .
  • Rebecca Anne Strong: The Most Shameful Practice: Temple Prostitution in the Ancient Greek World. Dissertation, University of California 1997.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Alfred Bertholet: Dictionary of Religions , 3rd edition, neubearb., Erg. U. ed. by Kurt Goldammer, Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, p. 472
  2. ^ Kurt Goldammer: The world of forms of the religious , Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1960, p. 162
  3. ↑ Bishop: “Jesus deliberately only called men as apostles” www.ramasuri.de
  4. ↑ Renate Jost: Hure / Hurerei (Old Testament) in: wibilex , 2007.
  5. ↑ Tanja S. Scheer with the collaboration of Martin Lindner (ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity. Facts and fictions. Berlin 2009.
  6. ↑ Renate Syed: Devadasis, servants of the gods. "Temple Prostitution" in India. In: Tanja S. Scheer with the collaboration of Martin Lindner (Ed.): Temple prostitution in antiquity. Facts and fictions. Berlin 2009, pp. 377-401, here: p. 399.