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:
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)