Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a sexual ritual consisting of prostitution or other sexual intercourse performed in the context of religious worship, often as a form of fertility rite.
Read more about Sacred Prostitution: Ancient Near East, Asia, Central and South America, Revisionist Criticism of "widespread Sacred Prostitution", Recent Western Occurrences
Famous quotes containing the word sacred:
“I never drank of Aganippe well,
Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit,
And muses scorn with vulgar brains to dwell;
Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit.
Some do I hear of poets’ fury tell,
But, God wot, wot not what they mean by it;
And this I swear by blackest brook of hell,
I am no pickpurse of another’s wit.”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)