The origin and development of the moral ideas

There is, moreover, a form of religious prostitution, just as there is religious celibacy. In fact, the two customs are sometimes very closely connected with one another. Among the Ew̔e-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast the chief business of the female kosi, or wife of the god to whom she is dedicated, is prostitution. “In every town there is at least one institution in which the best-looking girls, between ten and twelve years of age, are received. Here they remain for three years, learning the chants and dances peculiar to the worship of the gods, and prostituting themselves to the priests and the inmates of the male seminaries; and at the termination of their novitiate they become public prostitutes. This condition, however, is not regarded as one for reproach; they are considered to be married to the god, and their excesses are supposed to be caused and directed by him. Properly speaking, their libertinage should be confined to the male worshippers at the temple of the god, but practically it is indiscriminate. Children who are born from such unions belong to the god.”130 So also the priestesses on the Gold Coast, though not allowed to marry, are by no means debarred from sexual intercourse. They “are ordinarily most licentious, and custom allows them to gratify their passions with any man who may chance to take their fancy. A priestess who is favourably impressed by a man sends for him to her house, and this command he is sure to obey, through fear of the consequences of exciting her anger.

She then tells him that the god she serves has directed her to love him, and the man thereupon lives with her until she grows tired of him, or a new object takes her fancy. Some priestesses have as many as half a dozen men in their train at one time, and may on great occasions be seen walking in state, followed by them. Their life is one continual record of debauchery and sensuality, and when excited by the dance they frequently abandon themselves to the wildest excesses.”131 It seems that the “wife” of the Egyptian god at Thebes also in time became a libertine; Strabo tells us that the beautiful woman who was dedicated to him had sexual intercourse with any man she chose “till the natural purification of her body took place,” after which she was given to a man.132 In India every Hindu temple of any importance has its dancing girls, whose position is inferior only to that of the sacrificers.133 Thus at Jŭgŭnnat’hŭ-kshŭtrŭ in Orissa a number of women of infamous character are employed to dance and sing before the god. They live in separate houses, not at the temple.

The Brahmins who officiate there continually have adulterous connections with them, and these women also prostitute themselves to visitors.134 In the Canaanitish cults there were women, called ḳedēshōth, who were consecrated to the deity with whose temple they were associated, and who at the same time acted as prostitutes.135 At the local shrines of North Israel the worship of Yahveh itself was deeply affected by these practices;136 but they were forbidden in the Deuteronomic code.137 Perhaps this temple prostitution may be accounted for by a belief that it bestowed blessings upon the worshippers. According to notions which prevail to this day in countries with Semitic culture, sexual intercourse with a holy person is regarded as beneficial to him or her who indulges in it.138

Of a somewhat different character was the religious prostitution which prevailed in ancient Babylonia, in connection with the worship of Ishtar. Herodotus says that every woman born in that country was obliged once in her life to go and sit down in the precinct of Aphrodite, and there consort with a stranger. A woman who had once taken her seat was not allowed to return home till one of the strangers threw a silver coin into her lap, and took her with him beyond the holy ground. The silver coin could not be refused because, since once thrown, it was sacred. The woman went with the first man who threw her money, rejecting no one. When she had gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returned home, and from that time forth no gift, however great, would prevail with her.139 Several allusions in cuneiform literature to the sacred prostitution carried on at Babylonian temples confirm Herodotus’ statement in general.140 A cult very similar to this was also found in certain parts of the island of Cyprus,141 at Heliopolis in Syria,142 and at Byblus.143 In the worship of Anaitis the Armenians even of the highest families prostituted their own daughters at least once in their lives, nor was this regarded as any bar to an honourable marriage afterwards.144 Although such practices were generally excluded from the ordinary Greek worships of Aphrodite, unchastity in the temple cult of that goddess is reported to have occurred at Corinth145 and in the city of the Locri Epizephyrii, who, according to the story, vowed to consecrate their daughters to this service in order to gain

Various theories have been set forth to explain the religious prostitution of the Babylonian type. It has been interpreted as an expiation for individual marriage, as a temporary recognition of pre-existing communal rights at a time when “communal marriage” in the full sense of the term had already ceased to exist.147 It has been supposed to be nothing but ordinary immorality practised under the cloak of religion.148 It has been represented as a form of sacrifice, either as a first-fruit offering149 or as an act by which a worshipper sacrifices her most precious possession to the deity.150 To Dr. Farnell it seems to be “a special modification of a wide-spread custom, the custom of destroying virginity before marriage so that the bridegroom’s intercourse should be safe from a peril that is much dreaded by men in a certain stage of culture; and here, as in other ritual,” he adds, “it is the stranger that takes the peril upon himself.”151 But why should the stranger have been more willing than the bridegroom to expose himself to this danger?

Considering that the act was performed at the temple of the goddess of fecundity, I think its object most probably was to ensure fertility in the woman; this, in fact, is directly indicated by the words which the stranger, according to Herodotus, uttered when he threw the silver coin into her lap:—“The goddess Mylitta prosper thee!”152 And from what has been said in a previous chapter about the semi-supernatural character ascribed to strangers, about the efficacy of their blessings and the benefits expected from their love,153 we can see why a stranger was appointed to confer the blessing upon the girl.154