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Talk:Religious prostitution

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In ancient Rome, the priestesses of goddess Vesta had the two duties of always maintaining lit the goddess' fire, and to initiate young boys to sex at the moment of tonsura. The famous Rea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, was one of these. The use of maintaining an always lit fire has been recorded in many coastal temples, and has been ideally connected with the preference (or exclusive licence) granted to sailors to use these services. It has been supposed that these fires should indicate the route to sailors, exactly like modern lighthouses.

This whole paragraph is dubious. The first half of the first sentence is at least accurate, but:

  1. tonsura means "shaving", which was part of a Roman boy's initiation into manhood, but they called it depositio barbae. The ceremony further involved putting on the toga virilis for the first time, but where does this idea of sexual initiation come from? I can't find any support for this. . . well, anywhere.
  2. Rea Silvia was killed for breaking a vow of celibacy -- so either Vesta went through priestesses very quickly, or there's something wrong here.
  3. What does the stuff about coastal temples (assuming it's true) have to do with this? Vesta has been fairly conclusively identified as the goddess of the hearth, and her perpetual flame with the practice of keeping the house's fire constantly burning, which was easier than relighting it every day. This practice survived into the 20th century in some places.
  4. Furthermore the whole idea doesn't jibe with the extremely male-centric Roman concept of sexuality. Granted that this mindset changed somewhat in the later years of the Empire, under influences from other cultures, but Vesta's cult dates back to pre-Republican times.

The Romans may have had some fertility cults, such as those of Isis and Cybele, but the worship of Vesta was not one of them. --67.69.188.80 19:15, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Incorrect

With the use of the loaded term prostitution rather than hieros gamos, and without mention of transgenderism in any way, this article is totally biased and fails to present its subject in proper context. Christianity has a long history of completely failing to understand transsexuality, and this is one of the examples. --Eequor 16:03, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Not entirely sure what transsexuality has to do with it. Granted, there were transsexual temple prostitutes, but many hierodules in many cultures were garden-variety females. As for the word itself, it's not technically accurate (some cultures' hierodules were paid for their services, some were not), but that is nevertheless a widely-used anthropological term describing precisely the range of phenomena addressed by this article. "Hieros gamos", in contrast, describes a narrower class of rites (narrower still if you interpret it to refer only to the original rite of that name, and not simply to any mating/wedding of man and god). I'd advise either adding a section to the article explaining that many forms of what's called religious prostitution were not actually prostitution, or... well... coming up with a more accurate name than "hieros gamos", I suppose. Can't think of any alternatives, really. Then again, I have been awake for about 34 hours, maybe it'll come to me when I wake up. 82.166.53.176 04:45, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Error

From the original: "The Hebrew original employs the word "qedsha" in Judah's question, as opposed to the standard Hebrew "zonah". The word "qidsha" is derived from the root Q.D.Sh, which signifies uniqueness and holiness; thus it probably represents a religious prostitute, a term uncommon among the Israelites,"

The word is Qidosha which means "holy woman"... Qidsha means "She bless'/blessed"

Strongs Gen 38:21 interpretation of "harlot" "H6948 קדשׁה qedêshâh ked-ay-shaw' Feminine of H6945; a female devotee (that is, prostitute): - harlot, whore."


This is obviously an incorrect interpretation, however it may be a contextual interpretation...

So is this qedsha or qidsha, anyway? Cema 03:30, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Qedesh in Athens?

Quoth the article:

In Greece, Solon instituted the first Athenian brothels (oik`iskoi) in the 6th century BC, and with the earnings of this business he built a temple dedicated to Aprodites Pandemo (or Qedesh), patron goddess of this commerce.

Why is that non-Greek name used as a synonym for Aphrodite? Did the Greeks consider that to be another name for her? --Jfruh 03:00, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Prophet

Didn't some Jewish prophet marry a prostitute to teach Hebrews a lesson?

The prophet Hosea was instructed to marry a harlot, whom he later divorces. Both the marriage, resulting children and divorce are used as object lessons to the Jewish people. I don't think this qualifies as religious prostitution though.--Dunedan 18:48, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Citations? Any at all?

[edit] Biblical references

I altered language in this section to reflect that the interpretations associating phrases like "the price of a dog" are euphememisms for homosexuality represent somewhat speculative hypotheses, which should be attributed and sourced. Removed claim that this is "according to the Bible" since it's according to a particular school of commentary's interpretation of the Bible. Also removed this passage

these passages are often cited by conservative Christian denominations as indication of proscription against same-sex relations (homosexuality and bisexuality) [citations needed],

This claim has no cited sources and I question whether any traditionalists hold it. Conservative Judaism, in an otherwise comparatively liberal recent opinion on homosexuality (See Conservative Halakha#Homosexuality, expressly rejected claims that these passages concern the subject on grounds that the hypothesis is pure speculation. The passages commonly cited by traditionalists in Judaism are Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13. Suggest that conservative Christian editors (there are quite a number of them on e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity be consulted to see if this claim correctly describes what conservative Christian opinonmakers actually believe. Best, --Shirahadasha 07:36, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

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