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THE MYTH OF SACRED PROSTITUTION IN ANTIQUITY

In this study, Stephanie Lynn 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. Recon-

sidering the evidence from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman texts,

and the early Christian authors, Budin shows that the majority of sources that

have traditionally been understood as pertaining to sacred prostitution actu-

ally have nothing to do with this institution. The few texts that are usually

invoked on this subject are, moreover, terribly misunderstood. Furthermore,

contrary to many current hypotheses, the creation of the myth of sacred pros-

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

historiographical reckoning.

Stephanie Lynn Budin received her Ph.D. in Ancient History from the Uni-

versity of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Greece and the ancient Near

East. She is the author of The Origin of Aphrodite (2003) and numerous arti-

cles on ancient religion and iconography. She has delivered papers in Athens,

Dublin, Jerusalem, London, Nicosia, Oldenburg, and Stockholm, as well as

in various cities throughout the United States.

THE MYTH OF SACRED

PROSTITUTION IN

ANTIQUITY

STEPHANIE LYNN BUDIN

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org

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.

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521880909

BUDIN - The myth of sacred prostitution in antiquity.pdf