Prostitution has been practiced throughout ancient and modern culture. It has been described as “the oldest profession in the world” and, despite constant attempts at regulation, it continues almost unchanged.
Prostitution is the practice of having sexual relations with other people in exchange for money or other economic benefits. It is exercised mostly by women, while the clients are mostly men. There is also, to a lesser extent, male prostitution, where the clients are also generally male.
The term prostitution comes from the Latin prostitutio , which has the same meaning as the current one and which in turn comes from another Latin term, prostituere , which literally means to exhibit for sale .
prostitution and bible
The Bible also makes a reference in Genesis, 38, where Tamar pretends to be a prostitute on a road and is hired by Judah, although in this allegory she does not do it for any other reason than to get pregnant by him.
Prostitution was commonplace in ancient Israel. There are several references to prostitution in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38:14-26) provides a description of the prostitution practiced in that time period.
In this story, the prostitute waits by the side of a road for travelers to pass by. She covers her face to identify herself as a prostitute. Instead of being paid in money, she asks for a kid. This would have been the equivalent of a high price, showing that only the wealthy owner of numerous herds could have paid for a single sexual encounter.
The world of the eunuchs
According to this system, if the traveler does not take his cattle with him, he must give the valuables to the woman as a deposit until a kid is given to him. The woman in the story was not a legitimate prostitute, but she was actually Judah’s widowed daughter-in-law, who tried to trick him into impregnating her.
The Code of Hammurabi
However, since she managed to pass herself off as a prostitute, it can be assumed that her conduct accurately represents the behavior of a prostitute in society during that time period.
In a later biblical story, found in the Book of Joshua, a prostitute in Jericho named Rahab aided the Israelite spies by providing them with information about the current socio-cultural and military situation. Rahab was knowledgeable in these matters due to her popularity with high-ranking nobles.
The Israeli spies, in exchange for this information, promised to save her and her family during the planned military invasion, only if she kept the details of her contact with them secret.
He would leave a sign at his residence telling advancing soldiers that they would not attack people inside. When the people of Israel conquered Canaan, she converted to Judaism and married a prominent member of the people.
In the Book of Revelation, the whore of Babylon is called “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.” However, the word “whore” could also be translated as “Idolatress”.
The first Babylonian prostitute was in a place called Hinchinopolises, which grew out of Hinchin’s family. At that time, Hinchinapolis was the center of attraction for all the travelers who rested in the company of the women of the family, who perfected the art of satisfaction.
Some ancient scrolls could tell us that the meaning of Hinchin comes from the Hebrew Hinam, which means free, because the men of the family would offer themselves free.
Male and female harems
PROSTITUTION IN THE ANCIENT AGE
The Ancient Near East was home to many shrines, temples, or “sky houses,” which were dedicated to various deities. These shrines and temples were documented by the Greek historian Herodotus, where sacred prostitution was a common practice.
Since there are historical records, we find prostitution as a trade and its origin dates back to the 18th century BC in ancient Mesopotamia , where there were already certain ” laws ” that protected women who performed this work. Hammurabi’s Code already regulated the inheritance rights of all prostitutes. As we can see, in ancient Mesopotamia the need to protect the property rights of prostitutes was recognized. In the Code of Hammurabi there are sections that regulate the particular rights of the hierodules.
For their part, the ancient historians Herodotus and Thucydides document the existence in Babylon of the obligation for all women, at least once in their lives, to go to the Temple of Ishtar to have sex with a foreigner as a sign of hospitality, in return of a symbolic payment.
Sumerian records, dating back to 2,400 B.C. C., are the first recorded mention of prostitution as an occupation. These describe a temple brothel operated by Sumerian priests in the city of Uruk. This kakum or temple was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and was home to three grades of women:
- The first degree of women were only allowed to perform sexual rituals in the temple.
- The second group had access to the grounds and served visitors, and the third and lowest class lived on the temple grounds.
- The third class was also free to find customers on the streets.
In the Canaan region, a significant portion of the temple prostitutes were men. This was also widely practiced on the island of Sardinia and in some of the Phoenician cultures, usually in honor of the goddess Ashtart.
The Phoenicians and Greeks of the Bronze Age also practiced it in honor of Astarte , the goddess of fertility and mother nature. Even in Israel it was performed, although it was prohibited by Jewish law.
Phoenicia had a complex situation, since it attended to the religious beliefs of that Mediterranean civilization. According to tradition, certain ceremonies used to be held in honor of the goddess of fertility, where women beat themselves and then offered their hair to the goddess.
Those who did not want to lose her had to go to a reserved place, where only they and foreigners could enter . In that place they were obliged to give themselves the number of times that were required, and with the collection obtained, different offerings were acquired for the same goddess.
Presumably under the influence of the Phoenicians, this practice developed in other ports of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Erice on the island of Sicily, Locri Epizephiri, Croton, Rossano Vaglio and Sicca Veneria. Other hypotheses include Asia Minor, Lydia, Syria, and the Etruscans.
Also in ancient times, prostitution was very present on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, as well as in various Phoenician cultures, where it was practiced as a religious rite in honor of Astarte.
Sacred prostitution and similar classifications for women are known to have existed in Greece, Rome, India, China and Japan. Such practices came to an end when Emperor Constantine in 320 AD. C. destroyed the temples of the goddess and replaced religious practices with Christianity.
GREECE AND PROSTITUTION
Prostitution was, from the Archaic Period, a common activity in the daily life of the most important Greek cities. Particularly in the port areas, it gave work, legally, to a significant number of people, constituting a first-rate economic activity. Practiced by both young men and women of all ages, the clientele was mostly male.
The Topkapi Palace Harem
Both women and children engaged in prostitution in ancient Greece. The Greek word for a prostitute is porne , derived from the verb pernemi meaning to sell. The English word pornography, and its corollaries in other languages, derive directly from the Greek word porne .
The pórnai were usually female slaves owned by a pimp. This owner could be a citizen and also a metic, for whom that business was a source of income like any other and for which he had to pay a tax proportional to the profits it generated.
In classical times, the pórnai are slaves of barbarian origin; From the Hellenistic period, many young slaves joined the guild, who would only cease to be slaves when they were adopted by their master. His work took place in brothels, generally in neighborhoods known for this activity, such as Piraeus, which was the port of Athens, or the Ceramic of Athens. They are frequented by sailors and poor citizens.
Independent prostitutes worked directly on the street. These prostitutes are of diverse origins: meteca women who cannot find another job in the city of arrival, poor widows, former pornai who have managed to become independent.
In Athens, they had to be registered and pay a tax. Musicians and dancers who officiate at men’s banquets can also be included in this category. Aristotle, in the Constitution of the Athenians , mentions among the specific attributions of ten magistrates that they had the charge of ensuring that «flute, lyre and zither instrumentalists are not rented for more than two drachmas per night»; It is thus clear that sexual services were clearly part of the rent, the price of which, despite the control practiced by the astynomes , tends to be higher the more time passes.
Heteras constitute the highest category among prostitutes. Unlike the others, they do not only offer sexual services and their benefits are not punctual.
Prostitutes can be independent and sometimes influential women. They were required to wear distinctive dresses and had to pay taxes.
Some prostitutes in ancient Greece, such as Lais of Corinth, were as famous for their company as their beauty, and some of these women charged extraordinary sums for their services. She was known as the most beautiful woman in the entire region.
Solon instituted the first of the Athenian brothels in the 6th century BC. C, and with the profits from this business he built a temple dedicated to Aphrodite Pandemos, goddess of sexual pleasure.
On the island of Cyprus and in Corinth, a type of sacred prostitution was practiced, where the temple had more than a thousand prostitutes, according to Strabo.
In Greece in general, we see three categories of prostitution :
1 Chamaitypa`i – those who worked abroad.
2 Gephyrides – those who worked near bridges.
3 Perepatetikes – those who worked in the streets, where they found their clients and then went to their homes.
In the case of male prostitution , this work was mainly done by teenage men , who did it in Athenian brothels. However, they used to be slaves because free men could lose their rights if they did so in adulthood. However, homosexuality was not prohibited, only doing it for money.
In the fifth century, Athenaeus informs us that the price was one obolus, one-sixth of a drachma, which was the equivalent of an ordinary worker’s salary.
Vikings and their sexuality
Both in Ancient Rome and in Ancient Greece, sexual freedom allowed this subject not to be taken as a taboo, but with total naturalness. They were much more evolved civilizations than ours, understanding sexuality in all its senses , including homosexuality, since the human body was revered as beauty, regardless of being a man or a woman, and we can appreciate that in the art of the time.
In this period both young women and men engaged in prostitution and all could become totally independent and free, but it was necessary for them to wear different clothing from the rest , as it was also mandatory for them to pay taxes, something not discriminatory but an obligation of the workers. .
Both the city of Corinth and the island of Cyprus were not far behind and thanks to Strabo we know that there was a certain religious prostitution in the temples and according to his texts, there were more than 1,000 prostitutes.
The offering to the divinities in the form of women-prostitutes did not reach an extent in Greece comparable to that which existed in the ancient Near East; however, several cases are known.
On the one hand, within the Greek world itself, there was sacred prostitution in Sicily, in Cyprus, in the kingdom of Pontus or in Cappadocia; on the other hand, there was also one in Corinth, whose temple of Aphrodite housed an important servile troop, at least after classical times. Thus, in 464 a. C., a certain Xenophon, citizen of Corinth and winner of the foot race and the pentathlon at the Olympic Games, dedicated a hundred young women to Aphrodite, as a sign of gratitude, in the temple of the goddess.
