Sacred prostitution , temple prostitution , cult prostitution , [ 1 ] and religious prostitution are purported rites 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. Sacred prostitution has many different characteristics depending on the region, class and the religious ideals of the period and the place, and consequently can have many different definitions. One definition that was developed was due to the common types of sacred prostitution that are recorded in Classical sources: sale of a woman's virginity or rinni [ clarification needed ] in honor of a goddess or a once-in-a-lifetime prostitution, professional prostitutes or slaves owned by a temple or sanctuary, and temporary prostitution that occurs before a marriage or during certain rituals.
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, [ 11 ] Julia Assante [ 12 ] and Stephanie Budin [ 6 ] 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 that the practices described in the sources were misunderstandings of either non-remunerated ritual sex or non-sexual religious ceremonies, or possibly even invented as rhetorical devices.
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.
