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The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity PDF

383 Pages·2008·2.05 MB·English
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THE MYTH OF SACRED PROSTITUTION IN ANTIQUITY In this study, Stephanie Lynn Budin demonstrates that sacred prostitution, thesaleofaperson’sbodyforsexinwhichsomeorallofthemoneyearned wasdevotedtoadeityoratemple,didnotexistintheancientworld.Recon- sideringtheevidencefromtheancientNearEast,theGreco-Romantexts, andtheearlyChristianauthors,Budinshowsthatthemajorityofsourcesthat havetraditionallybeenunderstoodaspertainingtosacredprostitutionactu- ally have nothing to do with this institution. The few texts that are usually invokedonthissubjectare,moreover,terriblymisunderstood.Furthermore, contrarytomanycurrenthypotheses,thecreationofthemythofsacredpros- titution has nothing to do with notions of accusation or the construction of a decadent, Oriental “Other.” Instead, the myth has come into being as a result of more than 2,000 years of misinterpretations, false assumptions, and faulty methodology. The study of sacred prostitution is, effectively, a historiographicalreckoning. StephanieLynnBudinreceivedherPh.D.inAncientHistoryfromtheUni- versityofPennsylvaniawithconcentrationsinGreeceandtheancientNear East.SheistheauthorofTheOriginofAphrodite(2003)andnumerousarti- clesonancientreligionandiconography.ShehasdeliveredpapersinAthens, Dublin,Jerusalem,London,Nicosia,Oldenburg,andStockholm,aswellas invariouscitiesthroughouttheUnitedStates. The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity STEPHANIE LYNN BUDIN CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB28RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521880909 © Stephanie Lynn Budin 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2007 ISBN-13 978-0-511-39317-4 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-88090-9 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. In Loving Memory of A. John Graham (cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:2)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:10)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:11)(cid:12)(cid:13)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:10) CONTENTS Acknowledgments page ix Abbreviations xi 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. TheAncientNearEasternData . . . 14 3. The So-Called “Evidence” . . . . . 48 4. Herodotos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 5. In the Footsteps of Herodotos: Lucian and “Jeremiah” . . . . . . . . 93 6. Pindar Fragment 122 . . . . . . . . . 112 7. Strabo, Confused and Misunderstood. . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 8. Klearkhos, Justinus, and Valerius Maximus . . . . . . . . . . . 210 9. Archaeological “Evidence” from Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247 10. The Early Christian Rhetoric. . .260 11. Last Myths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287 Bibliography 337 Index 357 Index Locorum 363 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Anumberofpeoplehelpedme,throughencouragement,feedback,and suggestions,tomakethisbookbetter.TothemIamtrulygrateful.Many thanksgoouttoJuliaAssante,T.CoreyBrennan,MichaelFlower,Daniel A. Foxvog, David Greenberg, Thomas Harrison, Victor Hurowitz, Kimberly Huth, Thomas McGinn, Aislinn Melchior, Rosaria Munson, Beatrice Rehl, James Rushing, Johanna Stuckey, Jean MacIntosh Turfa, andtheincrediblyhelpfulstaffattheCenterforAdvancedJudaicStudies in Philadelphia. My thanks also go to everyone at the Summer Session Office,RutgersCamden,fortime,compassion,andofficesupplies.Iam, of course, solely responsible for whatever is erroneous in the pages that follow. AdditionalthanksgotoSifuRommieRevellforalwaysprovidingme withsomethingtopunchduringstressfultimes,andfornevergivingup on the rather hopeless endeavor of telling me to relax. Finally,IsendallgratitudeandlovetomyhusbandPaulC.Butler,an eternal source of support and drawings. The images in Figures 7.1 and 7.2arebyhim.Heisvery,verytiredofhearingaboutsacredprostitution. ix

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In this study, Stephanie Budin demonstrates that sacred prostitution, the sale of a person's body for sex in which some or all of the money earned was devoted to a deity or a temple, did not exist in the ancient world. Reconsidering the evidence from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman texts, and
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