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Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a sexual ritual consisting of sexual intercourse or other sexual activity performed in the context of religious worship, perhaps as a form of fertility rite and divine marriage (hieros gamos). Scholars have long considered such practices to be customary in the ancient world; however, more recent scholarship has cast doubts on this picture, based on doubts about the reliability of ancient sources.〔Stephanie Budin, ''The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009); see also the book review by Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, (Bryn Mawr Classical Review, April 28, 2009 ).〕 Some scholars prefer the term "sacred sex" to sacred prostitution, in cases where a payment for services was not involved. The Greek term ''hierodoulos'' or "hierodule" has sometimes been taken to mean "sacred prostitute", but it is more likely to refer to a former slave freed from slavery in order to be "dedicated" to a god.〔 The Hebrew term qedesha is often translated as "temple prostitute". ==Ancient Near East== Ancient Near Eastern societies along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers featured many shrines and temples or "houses of heaven" dedicated to various deities. According to the 5th-century BC historian Herodotus, the rites performed at these temples included sexual intercourse, or what scholars later called sacred prostitution: The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger at least once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.〔Herodotus, ''The Histories'' (1.199 ), tr A.D. Godley (1920)〕 A number of other ancient authors corroborate Herodotus's account. By their testimony it appears that not only in Babylonia and Cyprus, but throughout the Near East, ancient societies encouraged the practice of sacred prostitution. The British anthropologist James Frazer accumulated citations to prove this in a chapter of his magnum opus ''The Golden Bough'' (1890-1915),〔J.G. Frazer, ''The Golden Bough'', abridged edition (1922), Chapter 31: Adonis in Cyprus; see also the more extensive treatment in the 3rd edition of ''The Golden Bough'', volumes 5 and 6 (published 1914). Frazer's argument and citations are reproduced in slightly clearer fashion by Fernando Henriques, ''Prostitution and Society: a study'' (3 vols., London : MacGibbon & Kee, 1962-1968), vol. I, ch. 1.〕 and this has served as a starting point for several generations of scholars. However, Frazer took his sources mostly from authors of Late Antiquity (i.e. 150 - 500 AD), not from the Classical or Hellenistic periods.〔Herodotus and Strabo are the only sources mentioned by Frazer that were active prior to the 2nd century AD; his other sources include Athenaeus, pseudo-Lucian, Aelian, and the Christian church historians Sozomen and Socrates of Constantinople.〕 This raises questions as to whether the phenomenon of temple prostitution can be generalized to the whole of the ancient world, as earlier scholars typically did. The research of Daniel Arnaud, Vincienne Pirenne-Delforge, and Stephanie Budin〔 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 simply never existed. A more nuanced view, espoused by Pirenne-Delforge, suggests that ritual sex did exist in the Near East, but not in the Greek or Roman worlds in classical or Hellenistic times.〔 Tradition distinguished two major forms of sacred prostitution: temporary prostitution of unwed girls (with variants such as dowry-prostitution, or as public defloration of a bride), and lifelong prostitution.〔Fernando Henriques, ''Prostitution and Society: a study'' (3 vols., London : MacGibbon & Kee, 1962-1968), vol. I, ch. 1.〕 According to the noted Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer, kings in the ancient Near Eastern region of Sumer established their legitimacy by taking part in a ritual sexual act in the temple of the fertility goddess Ishtar every year on the tenth day of the New Year festival Akitu.〔S.N. Kramer, ''The Sacred Marriage Rite: Aspects of Faith, Myth and Ritual in Ancient Sumer''.〕' The Roman emperor Constantine closed down a number of temples to Venus or similar deities in the 4th century AD, as the Christian church historian Eusebius proudly noted.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sacred prostitution」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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