ArdorS of AphrodItE IthEll Colquhoun

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Daughters of Lilith: A Gathering of Women
present
Ardors of Aphrodite
È É
by Soror 207*
In astrology, Venus is the planet of sensuality and forgiveness. These words stem from the
and love and is traditionally the ruler of desire, Latin root vener- in which love and lust is associ-
beauty and relationships. She is not confined ated with and it is no accident that the words
solely to sexual partnerships and extends to venerate, venereal and venery are etymologi-
relationships with friends and in business. Venus cally connected; stemming from the name of the
rules over the arts, culture, aesthetics, posses- Roman love goddess, Venus, for sex has played
sions, charm, good taste, sentimentality, sweets a vital role in religion, magic, mysticism, occult-
and sugar, color, poetry, paintings, jewelry, ism, symbolism and the whole range of human
singing, drama and music. Venus governs emo- dealings with the supernatural. Venus may repre-
tional contacts, tenderness, moral character, sent the function by mortals to win the favors of
marriage and unions of all kinds. Venus presides the divine with honors and gifts. Such acts can
over sociability, disposition, luxuries, pleasure be interpreted as the enticement, seduction or
and appreciation. Venus’s action is gentle and charming of the gods. The ambivalence of this
harmonious; and is considered essentially be- role is suggested in another related Latin word
neficent, a force making for friendship, reconcili- venenum which means poison, venom, drug,
ation, peace, affection, love of beautiful things, potion, magic charm or philter.
and physical attractiveness. Love goddesses traditionally are inclined
Venus originally had a neuter grammatical to be the best known, most popular and most
gender and became feminine in the process frequently petitioned divinities of any pantheon.
of becoming a deity with functions seemingly They usually share a number of common char-
appropriate to women. Venus became the em- acteristics such as beauty and sex. They are
bodiment of female allure and sexuality. Beauty, generally linked to water; they have a particular
charm, sexual intercourse, sex, sexual desire, affection for bright or colorful objects and are
mating, beloved, love, attraction, and delight often swathed in jewels. Also a certain degree
are some of the meanings for the Latin common of vanity and the delight of flattery are part of the
noun venus, which comes from the Indo-Euro- love goddess’s nature.
pean root word wen- and is related to the English Turan is the name of an Etruscan goddess of
words of wish, win and venom. Venus’s deriva- vegetation, gardens and sexuality; she is often
tion verb venerari means to venerate, to revere, depicted on Etruscan mirrors as a beautiful
worship, pray to, to implore, beg, to pray for, to woman sometimes fully naked, naked to the
honor, as well as to try to please; it signifies the hips or in Greek female apparel; her hair is flow-
sacral act of alluring or enticing something from ing in ringlets or artistically bound up and she
beyond humankind’s power. Venus is also con- is wearing much rich jewelry. She is regarded
nected to the word venia which denotes grace, as comparable to Venus, the Roman goddess
favour, kindness, goodwill, permission, pardon, of beauty and love, from whom Venus inherited
* The information laid before the reader, doctrinal, illustrative or dialectical is drawn from many different sources. Little is
attributed to myself personally, except the manner of presenting it. In any case the truth belongs to all equally, in proportion
to each person’s power and willingness to assimilate it; there is no room for claims of human originality in respect of the
truth itself. Thanks to Frater Doug Blake for editing, proofing this article and his other contributions.
Page 2
some aspects.
The Venus who appears in Roman myth was probably
at one time a primeval goddess. The mythological Venus’s
celebrated role as the goddess of love is explained by
her identification with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Al- “THE CIRCLE OF THE
though she also has the full set of functions connected HORIZON IS THE EARTH
with any great goddess, including those of mother and AND SKY’S EMBRACE”
bringer of death. By the 5th century BCE, she was already
turning into a minor deity. Most of Venus’s cult remains
SKY’S EMBRACE
unknown to us, originally she was of minor importance
VOLUME 3
and there is speculation that Venus had not been univer-
sal to the Latins of central Italy. Her cult began in Ardea ISSUE 2
and Lavinium, Latium. Although she became a tutelary SUMMER SOLSTICE 2010
deity of Rome, she had a sanctuary in Ardea long before
the city was founded. She seems particularly Roman RELEASED BY
and therefore contrasts with Jupiter whom all the Indo-
HORIZON OASIS O.T.O.
European speakers knew, or with Mars although native to
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Venus as a goddess of gardens and pot-vegetables
began as the physical activity of coaxing and luring, but
was early assigned the responsibility of looking after the CONTACT THE EDITOR AT
vegetable plot. In some parts of central Italy the same [email protected]
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patrician, Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges on 19 August
Orientis and respective author(s)
during the wine festival called the Vinalia Rustica. At this
and may not be reproduced
celebration the Romans consecrated gardens to Venus
without expressed written consent.
and vegetable gardeners kept the day holy. The temple
was built with fines exacted from female debauchery,
The views and opinions expressed
which harkens back to the temple prostitution cults of
are the responsibility of the individual
the Near East. Although it stood at least 600 years, this
temple’s activities are rarely mentioned. Venus’s epithet author(s) and do not necessarily
Obsequens (‘compliant’, ‘graceful’ or ‘indulgent’) and the represent the views of Horizon
source of the building funds point to an already existing Oasis or Ordo Templi Orientis.
identification of the goddess with the Greek Aphrodite
and the Etruscan Turan, who were definitely goddesses
of female sexuality. Venus developed into one of the major
characters in classical myths through this identification
with the Greek Aphrodite.
Continued on Page 4 Page 3
Continued from Page 3
Reflecting Venus’s aspects she inherited from her role as protector of seafarers. Venus inherited
such Near Eastern goddesses such as Astarte these places as Roman rule spread.
and Ishtar via Aphrodite, her divine destructor Some Romans maintained that the month of
qualities occasionally resurfaced. In 217 BCE, April was named after Aphrodite. Venus is con-
the Sibylline oracles suggested that a temple nected with the month of April by the dedication
be erected on the Capitoline Hill to the Sicilian in 181 BCE of a third temple of the spring Vinalia
Venus Erycina, a renowned sexual goddess who festival that is celebrated on the 23rd of April.
is the embodiment of impure love and the pa- This Venus, another Erycina, had been promised
tron goddess of prostitutes from Mt. Eryx on the a temple during a war with the Ligurians of north-
western tip of Sicily, because she had directed ern Italy, whom the Romans considered distant
the Roman triumph in the First Punic War against relatives of the Sicilians. Located just outside the
Carthage. At the time, the Second Punic War city, the new shrine reproduced the temple on
was going badly for Rome for they were defeated Mt. Eryx, where temple prostitution still thrived.
at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in the opening Late April and early May had become holidays
confrontations of the war. After consecutive de- given over to sexual promiscuity and stage
feats from Carthage’s great General Hannibal, a plays. Since the 3rd century such rites, intro-
direct descendant of Fabius dedicated a temple duced under the influence of the Greek Sibylline
to Venus Erycina in 215 BCE. By this gift Fabius books, had been consecrated to Flora, the spirit
and the Romans placated the deity. of blossoming. The likely model was the cult of
One tradition explicitly equated Venus Ery- Aphrodite Antheia, Flora in Latin. For centuries
cina to Aphrodite. She was the ancestress of the Floral Games provided notorious spectacles
the Roman people, through her son the Trojan of sexual license. Venus herself was not directly
prince Aeneas who came to Latium and founded worshipped with Flora; nevertheless as divinity
of produce and prostitution Venus belongs to the
Romulus’s line; and therefore became the patron
same kind of religious mindset.
deity of Rome. The Trojan hero brought her cult to
Cyprus, to Sicily and to Latium. Aphrodite some- A sacred grove called Libitina, where corpses
times had the epithet Aineia, which was interpret- were prepared for interment by the mortician
ed to commemorate her maternity. The maritime (also known as libitina), once stood nearby the
route of Aeneas’s legendary travels can be traced great cemetery on the Esquiline Hill. Worship in
from one to another of Aphrodite’s shrines. As for groves was rather ordinary but a grove cult for
the seafarers, the stars provided the first nautical the dead was atypical. The word Libitina appears
chart, for they lit the way and guided the sail- to have entered Latin from Etruscan, where it
ors. The Babylonians deemed the Morning and meant ‘dead’. Libitina was not necessarily an
Evening Star, the Star of Ishtar whose luminosity Etruscan goddess, but a euphemism for death.
surpasses any other heavenly body except the From the name of the grove or from its tutelary
sun and the moon. The planet’s brilliance usually deity, the Romans conceived the goddess Libi-
links it to goddesses of love and beauty. Although tina. At some later time they could not intellectu-
there is no myth that directly links Venus with the ally put up with the excess of minor divinities. The
Evening or Morning Star this connection to the Romans also believed Libitina governed sexual
planet is a legacy that originated in the Near desire (libido); thence the traits of Libitina were
East in which Venus became the beneficiary. To incorporated into Venus and to rear a temple to
secure the aid of the sea goddess Venus who this goddess of lust. By the time of the Imperial
had arisen from the sea foam in one of her birth Age the Grove of Libitina was no longer existent
stories, many seamen might have a star tattooed and had become just the name of a street.
on one arm. Some place-names of the western Venus Murcia ‘of the Myrtle’ was an appella-
Italian coast preserved indications of Aphrodite in tion that amalgamated Venus with the obscure
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deity Murcia. The myrtle-tree was linked with to the 4th century BCE. The appellation refers to
Murcia, as her name comes from the Greek the hair as a significant means of feminine at-
myrtea, ‘myrtle’; and since this shrub was sa- traction. There are two traditions concerning the
cred to Aphrodite, Murcia came to be another source of the epithet. One was the sacrifice of
name for Venus. The Myrtle is an evergreen tree their tresses by the Roman matronae to make
that is associated with death and resurrection; cables for war machines during the siege laid by
and when the Greek emigrants founded a new the Gauls. An alternative suggests when under
colony they carried myrtle boughs with them as king Ancus Marcius an affliction had caused the
a symbol of the end of one life and the beginning queen and other women to become bald, the
of another. The myrtle is sacred to love god- matronae shaved their heads to appease the
desses in the Mediterranean area, and is usually goddess and hopefully to grow new hair.
considered lucky in Europe and connected with
The goddess’s popularity extended through-
fertility, love and marriage.
out Italy and the Latin-speaking western Empire
In early times the Romans knew the Little as Roman dominance extended. Venus was eas-
Aventine Hill as Mt. Murcus. The valley between ily identified with minor local divinities and her
the Aventine and Palatine Hills was named the characteristics are universally adoptable in nu-
Murcia and eventually the construction of the merous localities; as well as Venus being able to
enormous Circus Maximus encompassed a adopt the qualities of the indigenous deity. Which
number of old religious sites, among which was is illustrated when the Romans entered Carthag-
an altar to Murcia. The turning posts at that end inian Africa, they easily recognized the native
of the racecourse in the Circus Maximus bore goddess as being Venus Caelestis, ‘heavenly’
Murcia’s name. As with Libitina; Murcia’s identity Venus equated with the little known Greek deity
was integrated into Venus and Murcia’s cult no Aphrodite Ourania. This primed the introduction
longer played a part in Roman religion. of her association with the planet Venus. The
Venus Cloacina ‘the Purifier’ was a synthesis possible connection of the Morning and Evening
of Venus with the Etruscan water goddess Clo- Star with the goddesses of love is because its
acina. The Romans believed that cloaca was de- appearance marks the limits of night, the time
rived from a verb of cleansing. They also thought of love-making. Venus is the only planet named
that the goddess of cleansing must be Venus, for a female deity and its astrological symbol is
because the local plant used for sacral cleansing widely used outside astrology as a symbol of the
was the same as the myrtle. The Roman’s need female, the corresponding male symbol being
for a deity to oversee every place and structure that of Mars, the god who was the paramour of
resulted in a shrine to Cloacina and a sculpture Venus in classical mythology. The outcome being
of Venus that was put up in the Forum in close that Friday (connected with the word friend) is
proximity to the Cloaca Maxima, Rome’s main the day of the love goddess thus keeping alive
sewer system. The statue was erected on the Mesopotamian astrology in Italy, France and
spot where peace was concluded between the Spain, where Ishtar’s planet is memorialized in
Romans and Sabines. Both Cloacina’s shrine Venus’s day. The well known phrase ‘Friday’s
and Murcia’s altar were located over running child is loving and giving!’ is an expression Venus
water. By spontaneity peculiar to the Roman’s, has contributed to human culture.
Venus became mistress of funerals, racecourse In the Greek East subject provincials of the
turning posts and sewers. Roman Empire, Venus was reunited with Aph-
Venus was venerated under additional cult rodite although Venus eclipsed Aphrodite as
names in Rome, such as Placida, ‘pleasing’; Alma, the populace religiously demonstrated their al-
‘nurturing’; Pudica, ‘demure’. Venus Calva, ‘bald’, legiance to the Empire and to the imperial house
is an obscure appellation. Calva’s cult dates back which Caesar had generated. Expression of the
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extensive loyalty of the Empire convenes during earth; the waves of the sea laugh; she moves
the reign of Hadrian (117-128 AD). To augment in radiant light. Without her there is no joy nor
imperial unity Hadrian built Rome’s largest and loveliness anywhere”.
prettiest temple to Venus and Roma, which he
Aphrodite, one of the twelve Olympians of the
located beside the Colosseum. Adoration of
Greek pantheon, is one of the most celebrated
Roma, a provincial concept, remained unique
deities of the ancients and her cult was prevalent
to this temple. Each goddess had her own pre-
throughout almost the entire Greek world. She is
cinct, placed back to back. By universal practice
known as the goddess of beauty, mother of love,
this twofold temple was called the City’s Shrine.
queen of laughter, mistress of the graces and of
Hadrian chose to dedicate the temple on 21
pleasures, patroness of courtesans, of marriage,
April, the feast of Parilia, in order to honor Venus
generation and fertility.
in her month and Roma on her birthday in the
Despite her great popularity and important
city’s 888th year. Her state cult was a factor to
status in Greek religion and culture, Aphrodite
the magnificence of the Roman Empire and the
was not in origin an indigenous Greek goddess.
glory of certain elite families.
Aphrodite as a sea goddess descends from an
Venus presents diverse modes of divinity.
earlier tradition. She was originally a Near East-
The goddess of pot-vegetables developed into
ern goddess, possibly an aspect of the Ugaritic
the Venus of female sexuality, whose birth, myth
Asherah, ‘Lady of the Sea’.
and cult are founded upon Greek and Near
Aphrodite’s cult came to Greece via Cyprus
Eastern precedents. No matter what the cult of
to which she was particularly connected with.
the abstract venus had consisted of, the feature
Aphrodite was most likely a local Cypriot form of
of charm and allure was transferred to a female
goddess of procreation. Love and war have an the great mother goddess, whose worship under
affinity in myths; and the warlike qualities that Ve- numerous names was nearly universal through-
nus’s predecessors possessed were separated out the Near and Middle East in ancient times,
from her but kept connected to her through her and was of great antiquity. The scores of primi-
recurrent liaisons with the war god Mars and ac- tive idols found in Cyprus, representing a nude
cording to some traditions was married to him. female figure with the sexual traits exaggerated,
are possibly archaic images of this mother god-
In magic the energy of Venus is linked prin-
dess, to whom the ancient inhabitants of Cyprus
cipally with love and sex, with fertility and the
gave the name of Aphrodite.
abounding life of Nature. Copper, as the metal
of Venus, is useful in love charms and Cyprus Some legends say that Aphrodite was brought
a major center of her worship is an important forth from the foam of the sea near Cyprus or
source of copper. Operations of love, lust, plea- Cythera. Hesiod in his Theogony tried to explain
sure and friendship should be timed in the hour Aphrodite’s name as deriving from the Greek
and day of Venus. As with Aphrodite her favorite term aphros, ‘foam’, in the sense that she was
birds are sparrows, swans and doves; and from ‘foam-born’ and he relates the story of her birth
the sea – dolphins, mussels, scallops and shells. by recounting the origin of the universe. In his
The plants sacred to her were the rose, the cy- version, Gaea the embodiment of Earth bore nu-
press, pomegranates and the myrtle; and the merous beings through cohabiting with Uranus,
apple is also ascribed to Venus as well as to the the personification of Heaven.
Graces. Her accessories are the mirror and the Uranus demonstrated that he was a tyrannous
girdle. father and confined his issue within the body of
The Romans wrote of Venus: “With her, Gaea, so that she groaned with the burden. Re-
beauty comes. The winds flee before her and lease came at last when Cronus, with the partici-
the storm clouds; sweet flowers embroider the pation of his mother Gaea, castrated his father.
Page 6
Cronus threw the severed genitals of Uranus into deformed fire-god and divine craftsman, who is
the sea and Uranus produced a last mighty ejac- of oriental origin, is her husband. She is occa-
ulation. White foam gathered around the genitals sionally associated with Ares the warrior, and he
and coagulated into the goddess Aphrodite. appears as Hephaestus dangerous adversary.
This conceivably is a representation linking the Her love affair with Ares calls to mind the fact
foam of orgasm with the overwhelming tides of that some eastern goddesses, including Ishtar
desire. First she drew near to Cythera, and from of Babylon, the Canaanite Anath and Astarte of
there the zephyr wafted her along the waves to Phoenicia, combined the function of goddess of
the sea-girt Isle of Cyprus. And when she came fertility with the goddess of war.
ashore the grass grew up about her beneath her
Aphrodite is infamously adulterous; her in-
shapely feet, she was then received and attired
trigue with Ares is well-known. In the Odyssey, a
by the Seasons; then led to the assembly of
humiliating episode is recorded where a minstrel
the gods. All were enamored with her beauty;
sings of the illicit love of Ares and Aphrodite. The
each one demanded her for his wife. Aphrodite
story tells how Helios or Apollo, the sun god,
refused Zeus and so for her stubbornness and
informed Hephaestus of their liaison. Infuriated
in gratitude to Hephaestus, god of the forge, for
at the news and fed up with her constant infi-
crafting thunderbolts, Zeus gave her in wedlock
delities, Hephaestus plans the punishment of the
to his ugly, crippled and deformed artisan son.
guilty pair. Hephaestus takes revenge by forging
So the most beautiful of the goddesses became
a net so fine as to be invisible but too resilient
the wife of the most ill-favored of gods.
to be broken, and spreads it about the bed in
She was venerated in Cyprus where the seat his house. Stating that he is leaving to visit his
of her oldest cult in the Greek world was estab- favorite sanctuary the island of Lemnos he lays a
lished. The island was ever after sacred to Aph- snare for the lovers. Ares seizes the opportunity
rodite, where she was known as Kypris (Lady of of the husband’s departure to join Aphrodite.
Cyprus); she was called Cytherea or the Cyprian Warned by Helios at dawn Hephaestus turns
as often as by her proper name. Aphrodite was back and discovers the lovers together in his
also called Philommedes ‘member-loving’ be- bed. Hephaestus captured her as she lay with
cause she sprang from genitals. She was in due Ares. While they are enmeshed together by the
course integrated into the Hellenic system, but invisible but imprisoning bonds of the gossamer-
remained unruly like her source, the sea. It is light metal mesh, Hephaestus invites the rest of
possible that she became the divinity of sexual the gods to observe the shameful scene, but the
love because of a symbolic link between the sea goddesses keep demurely away. Amid much
and desire each being unpredictable, mysterious ribald mirth Hephaestus demands that Zeus pay
and potentially overwhelming. back the bridal gifts before he releases Aphro-
Hesiod’s version of Aphrodite is very sig- dite and her paramour. The sea god Poseidon
nificant because, though somewhat later in date induces Hephaestus to let his prisoners go, by
than Homer, he is aware of Aphrodite as a new- promising the payment of the customary dam-
comer among the Greek deities. In Homer’s Iliad ages to the injured husband by Ares. The story
and Odyssey she has already been integrated ends by describing the ‘laughter-loving’ Aphro-
in the company of the Olympian gods. Homer dite departing to Paphos in Cyprus, where her
makes her the daughter of the supreme god demesne and fragrant altar is located. There she
Zeus by his consort Dione, an obscure goddess was anointed with immortal oil and clothed in a
whose name is the feminine form of dios, the lovely raiment, a wonder to behold.
genitive of Zeus. Aphrodite gave birth to Eros as a conse-
The Iliad preserves some tradition of Aphro- quence of this enmeshed mating. Eros a minor
dite’s eastern origin. Hephaestus, the lame and deity having a local cult at Thespiai in Boeotia. In
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Continued from Page 7
the early legends, however, Eros was not Aph-
rodite’s son but her intermittent companion. It
would seem that the ancient Greeks previously
had a god of sexual potency, a driving force
in the creation of the universe, by the name of
Eros before Aphrodite entered their religion. In
later poetry she became the mother of Eros, the
god of love. Hesiod emphasizes the fundamental
sexual significance of Aphrodite by associating
her with Eros, the older deification of the myste-
rious force that prompted the union of the sexes.
He was her constant companion; and, armed
with a bow and arrows, he shot the darts of de-
sire into the bosoms of both gods and men. Eros
is a powerful creative force, described by Hesiod
as one who ‘unnerves the limbs and overcomes
the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all
men’.
The deity named Anteros, the god of pas-
sion, was a brother of Eros. He was sometimes
represented as the avenger of slighted love, and
sometimes as the symbol of reciprocal affection,
mutual love and tenderness. A myth revolving
around Anteros is of Aphrodite complaining to
Themis that her son Eros constantly behaved
as a child. Themis told her that it was because
he was solitary, and that if he had a brother he
would grow swiftly. Anteros was soon afterwards
born, and Eros immediately was seen to grow
quickly in size and strength. Himeros, another
son of Aphrodite by Ares, was the god of desire,
personification of the longing of love and an at-
tendant of Eros. Aphrodite’s union with the wine
god Dionysus resulted in the birth of Priapus,
the god of fertility in nature and man, with his
perpetually engorged penis. By Ares, Aphrodite
bore Phoebus, the god of alarm, fear, dread and
terror, Deimos, another god of horror and fright,
and a daughter, Harmonia.
Aphrodite is often attended by the three Grac-
es or Charites; Aglaia ‘the radiant’, Thalia ‘the
flowering’ and Euphrosyne ‘joy’, personifications
Venus at the Bath (Detail)
John William GoDWarD
oil on canVas
1901
Page 8
of charm, grace and beauty. The Hours (Horae), was Corinth, a trading town and open to foreign
goddesses of the seasons – Dice ‘justice’, Eirene influences where she was known in Corinth as
‘peace’ and Eunomia ‘wise legislation and order’ Aphrodite Porne ‘the Harlot’. The temple housed
are Aphrodite’s companions as well. sacred harlots in the oriental fashion, any one of
All through the Near East and Europe, when- whom could embody the goddess while lying
ever a Mother Goddess is worshipped, there is with a man. At the Corinthian temple of Aphro-
typically a cult surrounding a god whose annual dite Pandemos, men lined up to select a young
death and resurrection commemorated the life- woman. The rite began when the woman, taught
cycle of the harvest. He is simultaneously her by priests and priestesses, bathed the man
son and young lover. Such cults have existed and together they bowed in homage. The man
since at least the 6th century BCE, in the Catal placed a silver coin on the lap of the prostitute as
Huyuk civilization of Turkey, as well as in Syria, a consecrated offering to the goddess. Sexual
Iran, Egypt and Western Europe. The Mother intercourse, with the couple representing the di-
Goddess is the constant root, her son the fruit vine male and female principles, completed the
who is sacrificed, consumed and reborn. This process of purification.
familiar motif of the fertility cults in the Near East, The direct successor of Inanna in Mesopota-
expresses itself by the lamentation and a search mia was Ishtar, the great goddess of love and
for the dead god by the fertility-goddess. The war in the Akkadian pantheon. In the Babylo-
legend of Aphrodite and Adonis parallels those nian Ishtar a change happened in the balance
of the earlier myth of the Babylonian Ishtar and between the virginal and promiscuous poles of
Dumuzi, the dying and rising god of vegetation, her nature: her virginal aspect was underplayed,
whom Ishtar seeks in the underworld in his pe- while her promiscuity was emphasized to the
riod of decline. This theme recurs in Canaan in degree of making her a divine harlot. Sacred
the search of the goddess Anath for the dead prostitution was a prevalent, honourable form of
Baal, with Astarte and Tammuz from Phoenicia religious worship and was observed in the Na-
and in Egypt with the search of Isis for Osiris. ture cults in many ancient civilizations through-
Little, regrettably, is known of the nature and out the Mediterranean, such as the Near East,
structure of the rituals which were performed Greece, Rome and where goddess worship had
in the various temples of Aphrodite. Because never been eradicated. The great goddess was
ancient love goddesses were instilled with the also known as Qodshu ‘Holiness’, which could
responsibility of creation, they are sexual. Nev- be interpreted as ‘sacred prostitute’ and refers to
ertheless, the meaning of their love had always the licentious fertility rites which were practiced
been wide, including motherly love and agape, in her sanctuaries. In ancient Mesopotamia, the
the love of a friend, as well as eros, or sexual love. qadishtu were thought of as servants of Ishtar,
Coming to Greece, Aphrodite to some degree at and would sleep with any worshipper for a fee.
least fall within Greek ideas. Her cult was more An Egyptian rendering of the mother/fertility-
subdued than her oriental predecessors. As fe- goddess Qodshu in a sculpture from the 19th
male promiscuity gradually became increasingly Dynasty, shows her nude between the Egyptian
taboo in many societies, the goddess experi- fertility-god Min offering him the lotus and the
enced some redefinition, although her enormous Canaanite Reshef, the god with power of life or
popularity ensured that no specific aspect of death to whom she presents serpents which is
her could be dispensed with. The Greek phi- indicative of her fertility function. The goddess
losopher Plato differentiate between Aphrodite stands on a lion, the cult-animal of Mesopota-
Urania whose love was spiritual or divine and mian Ishtar. Ritual prostitution was a trait also of
Aphrodite Pandemos ‘of the people’ who rep- the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis, in its devel-
resented secular or profane love. An exception opment as a Mystery religion in Ptolemaic Egypt
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and in Rome, where it was introduced at the end practice of religious prostitution survived in Lydia
of the 3rd century BCE. But the great seat of the as late as the 2nd century BCE.
worship of Aphrodite and Adonis was Paphos in At Paphos the custom of religious prostitution
Cyprus. The sanctuary of Aphrodite at Old Pa- is said to have been established by King Cinyras,
phos was one of the most renowned shrines in and to have been practiced by his daughters, the
the ancient world. Her image was a white cone sisters of Adonis. Cinyras was a favorite of Aph-
or pyramid, that shape and the licentious char- rodite and is said to have been renowned for his
acter of her rites were shared by her with other exquisite beauty and to have been pursued by
Asiatic deities. In like style, a cone is the emblem the goddess. The kings of Paphos participated
of Astarte. Astarte was generally depicted in art as the divine bridegroom and on certain festivals
as nude, with the sexual attributes emphasized. each of them had to mate with one or more of the
In Cyprus she was served by sacred pros- sacred harlots of the temple, who was Aphrodite
titutes and it seems that before matrimony all to his Adonis. Chiefs were frequently represen-
women were formerly required by tradition to tatives of the deity, in which case the process
prostitute themselves to strangers at the sanctu- was believed to be a type of ritual purification,
ary of the goddess. This connection with ritual an idea which persists in the practice of the
prostitution demonstrates Aphrodite’s eastern sacred prostitute. Virgins of most distinguished
origin; for the custom prevailed at the cult- heritage were offered to the god, and then had
centres of many eastern goddesses. Similar sex until the natural purification of her body was
customs prevailed in many parts of the Near accomplished.
East. It is likely that prostitution in the cult was The sacred prostitute was in essence the em-
practiced as a rite of imitative magic as well as bodiment of a goddess. The word for the prosti-
that the prostitutes were also considered to rep- tutes hierodule in Greek, indicates a ‘servant of
resent the goddesses of fertility. It was thought the divinity’. The hierodule or sacred servant of
she was the giver of vegetation. A hymn to her goddesses such as Aphrodite was subject to a
contains the words ‘In the heavens I take my strict code of behavior, living by her goddess’s
place and send rain, in the earth I take my place laws, tending to the cleanliness of the temple
and cause the green to spring forth’. She created and participating completely in its rituals. As a
the animals. And she enveloped all aspects of standard, a girl was offered to the temple once
sexual love, marriage and maternity. The practice she had passed puberty, and had to have sexual
was regarded, not as an orgy of lust, but as a intercourse with at least one man before she
sincere religious responsibility performed in the could leave. Not only did the temples receive
service of that great Mother Goddess. Sacred their devotees from the populace; addition-
prostitutes could gain enormous power. Accord- ally, triumphant generals in antiquity may have
ing to the law they were entitled to inherit from dedicated their female captives to temples of
their fathers and brothers and participate in the the Goddess. It is also possible that the practice
selling and management of family property. They integrated the tribal system of jus primae noctis,
were generally well-educated and considered whereby a chief had the right to take the maid-
the equals of men. At Babylon every women had enhead of a new bride. It is generally considered
once in her life performed sex with a stranger that the sex act of the Goddess in the sacred
at the temple of Ishtar and made a contribution matrimony with her son-lover was being emu-
to the goddess with the wages earned by this lated by her worshippers and consecrated to her.
sanctified harlotry. And in Phoenician temples The progeny of their union would rank as sons
women prostituted themselves in the service and daughters of the deity, and would in time
of religion, thinking that by this behavior they become the parents of gods and goddesses,
propitiated the goddess and won her favor. The like their fathers and mothers before them. In
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