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No, but if you scroll down to the wikipedia page on "sacred prostitution" you'll see that more than a few people have tried to claim religious reasons for prostitution, it does not work.

In one of the ancient cultures weren't they called "Vestal Virgins." they were temple Priestsess and used for Sex for some reason or ritual.

I could see them being stationed on a Space ship that was scheduled for an extra long journey and some of the crew would probably enter Pon Farr.

Since these females (Priestsess) are there to satify a males Pon Farr are there male Priests to satify female Pon Farr or because the females satisfy the Males they themselves do not expierecne it but only respond to a males need. Thier Mates usualy but for males without Mates the Priestsess.

Also, since T'Pol mated with Trip and he is Human does that mean that she will avoid having to satisfy any males Pon Farr as she is now Mated and bonded to Trip. always thought that thier mating and bonding was a lifetime deal.

Vestial Virgins tended Hestia's shrine in Rome. Had an awful tendency of being killed if they were found out as being non-virgins. Rhea, a Vestal Virgin and the mother of Romulus and Remus, was killed after Mars raped her and got her pregnant....

I kinda see the priestess thing as a part time job. Ideally, every male would be able to make it home in time for his pon farr and a woman just sitting around waiting for the eventuallity that one won't would be a waste of resources on a big ship. I can kind of see it where it's like a "secret" preiesthood, and, if the guy knows he won't be able to make it home in time, he contacts a service who puts him in touch with a woman stationed close by who can "help" him, not knowing who that woman is until he gets there.... and being surprised when it turns out to be his boss or a coworker or someone else from his life, having had no idea that's what she did "on the side."

Hmmm....

Although I've heard that some temple prostitutes were also "virgins" for show, as far as I know, the Vestal Virgins of Rome were actually chaste and punishment was high if they lost their virginity. *You beat me to it, aadarshinah*

It's interesting that some scholars do consider the term "prostitution" to describe these rituals and the acts of the priests and priestesses to be a Victorian bastardization and that no money was exchanged and it was not prostitution as we understand it.

Now, if I remember correctly, in ancient Sumer were required to go to the temple of one of their goddesses and become "sacred prostiutes" for the night before their marriage, or when they came of age, or something along those lines....

From my class on Mesopotamian Archeology, I remember that most of their cultures, including Sumer, did not even have a concept of virginity as we understand it. They had words for unmarried woman and woman who has not had a child, but the texts make it clear that sex/sexual activity was encouraged before marriage. One text, associated with the Goddess Innana, did warn young women to avoid becoming pregnant by a man they did not wish to marry since it would be expected that she marry him if he knocked her up. But enjoying sexual activity was associated with the goddess Innana and was not considered a bad thing at all.

The holy virginity thing seems to have had its origins in Greco/Roman culture.

FYI, my now retired professor David Ferry wrote the definitive English verse version of Gilgamesh. He worked from literal English translations of the Akkadian and Sumerian.

http://www.amazon.com/Gilgamesh-New-Ren ... 0374523835


After I read that, I read a smutty novelization of Gilgamesh that portrayed his refusal to mate with the Goddess as a direct result of his love of Enkidu. The first epic poem in humanity, also being that first slash fiction! LOL

Goes to show what I know. However, it has been about 60 years since I read that stuff. so a memory lapse is allowed.

Pappy always said "don't have sex with any girl you would not want to spend the rest of your life with." Sage words. Pity I ignored that.

Well, again SB, you weren't entirely wrong. But it's also a function of mistranslation - the words virgin and prostitute were used in English translations of ancient texts.

So, the fact that some sacred prostitutes were also referred to as virgins (just not the Vestal Virgins) can be explained by the fact that some cultures had words for unmarried woman that did not imply lack of sexual experience but translators would have used maiden or virgin - which in English does imply lack of sexual experience. So, the temple priestesses were simply being referred to as unmarried, rather than virgins.

And again, some scholars believe that the word prostitute is the wrong word and it was simply the closest thing we had in English, since we don't have a word for sexual priestess.

Sometime in the dim past I read something about females in Rome who wore a chain between the ankles to signify that thy were Virgins. You know, couldn't open thier legs far enough. They walked with a minced step. I believe they were called virgin chains or some such. apparently they could be removed whenever. some "ahem" experienced females wore them in Public. Not sure if the story was true or not but sounded good.

Whew!! Silverbullet assures me his pappy statement is a little joke. He wouldn't call his father "pappy" among other things.

Personally, I thought "Pappy" had a really good point.

Distracted wrote:Personally, I thought "Pappy" had a really good point.

Ditto.