temple prostitution

[tleilaxu]

i don't remember who posted about the greek prostitutes (i forget the word for it as well) but i would appreciate some links to good info on that...

edit: hetaira

 

[Alzrius]

i don't remember who posted about the greek prostitutes (i forget the word for it as well) but i would appreciate some links to good info on that...

I wasn't the one who posted that bit of info, but I did look it up a bit since it looked interesting. Here's the best resource I found (a site with links to various articles on that): http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/greekprostitution/index.htm

 

[Dragongirl]

dragongirl and snoweel, i request you move the war of the sexes to a different thread

Don't worry, I am not going to debate Snoweel. Can't see his posts anymore anyway.

Anyway . . . back to the topic, yes I think there was one once. . .

I think there can be several answers, one I have already given . .

1) If the temple is just running a brothel type thing then the price could be value for the following. Priestess rank + charisma + act wanted.

new ideas (from me anyway) . .

2) If the temple does this for a specific occasion instead of all the time then .
a) Maybe they don't charge at all since it is purely a ceremonial thing.
b) They have an auction for who will play the love or conquering or what have you god(s).
c) Have a special test (use your imagination for types of tests) to choose the male participants.

 

[Snoweel]

Alzrius - as you stated, we're going around in circles. And I apologise for insulting you. My intentions were at least in part comedic, but I do apologise.

However, I'm frustrated that you keep missing my point.

Namely, that the promiscuity of women was traditionally seen as a threat to mens' paternity.

Women, as the childbearer of the two genders, never saw male promiscuity as such a threat, since they were assured in their claim to motherhood of their children.

Actually, looking at my argument in light of these two sentences, it seems I may have been the one to confuse cause with effect...

Either way, I feel that matrilineage is intrinsically linked to a weakening of father-child relationships, while nothing, certainly not patrilineage, can weaken the bond a mother has with the babies she carried to term.

Edit: Sorry if I don't respond to your posts, Dragongirl, but I've got you on "ignore".

 

[Alzrius]

Apology accepted Snoweel. Thanks. That's big of you.

I still disagree with some of the things you mentioned, but its getting beyond the scope of this thread, so I quit the debate here.

That said, it'd be interesting how temple prostitutes look at the issue of pregnancy and childbirth. Do they use magic to ensure they won't conceive? Or do they simply let nature take its course, trusting their deity to decide when they will and will not become pregnant (and, to a degree, who knocks them up)? Do the visitants get to claim rights to their children later, or is it implied that they surrender the child to the church if its conceived when the priestess is being paid for her ministrations?

 

[Wayside]

i don't remember who posted about the greek prostitutes (i forget the word for it as well) but i would appreciate some links to good info on that...

edit: hetaira

Not prostitute, properly, but a woman who accompanied men at Symposia. Sex was usually part of the deal, but it was very much a cultural event, not a guy going to a whore house. Remember that to the Greeks sex with women was mostly for reproduction and most men had sex with other men as well. In Plato's Symposion (Xenophon had one too) the debate on Love moves to the position that the greatest possible love is between two men (hence Platonic love..). Anyway, back to the drinking parties (hetairea is the plural I think, my Greek is bad): the men reclined on couches and drank wine (mixed with water) and philosophized, taking turns at speeches. Sort of like a formal debate. The serving women/men did other things like play musical instruments. It wasn't unknown for the participants to get roaring drunk and go %^&% the town up either.

If you do a simple search for Greek symposium/symposion on a search engine I'm sure it'll turn up some more detailed information. I'm pretty sure this isn't the kind of prostitute you were interested in though.

 

[Wayside]

Sex is different from sexuality and gender roles. You can have male or female reproductive organs, but there is nothing at all inherent in how that will make you behave. Society shapes gender, and those roles are not necessarily tied to sex at all.

That's ONE position. Please don't pass it off as fact. I'd hoped to be rid of Judith Butler and this area of Feminist/Queer/Gender Theory when I graduated.

 

[Wayside]

the worship of some ancient babylonian, sumerian and persian goddesses (such as ishtar) involved the practice of temple prostitution (IE for a charge the priestesses of the temple were availible). I am interested in incorporating this into a DND game. Has anybody included a similar goddess in your campaign worlds? if so do you have any advice? one more question: what would be a reasonable price for said priestesses?

Have you posted the campaign specific information yet? If so I missed it.

All the gender role debate has made me realize that basing a religious kind of prostitution, in a fantasy campaign, on something from the real world (like the Sumerian practice) might be a bad idea. I mean, these practices were a part of a society VERY different than your typical fantasy region. In my games, anyway, people tend to be more or less 'enlightened,' if you will, to the idea of sexual equality.

In an 'enlightened' society, prostitution (like stripping) is for many a kind of sexual freedom (there are always people who just need the money, whether for legitimate reasons, or to support drug addictions, etc. too), a way of making a living (doing something you like) off of your sexuality, like you might your intellect or skill in a particular craft or trade.

What I'm getting at is, if I were going to use prostitutes in a fantasy campaign, I think I'd make them feminists, serving a goddess big on sexual freedom. It would be a very orgiastic thing. Dionysian even. They would be intelligent, liberated women, not women required by custom to become or sold into slavery as prostitutes. Having such a priestess as an important NPC or even a PC could make for all kinds of interesting roleplaying situations, as they would certainly practice on the adventuring road as they did in the temple. Now that I think of it that would make her sort of like the Companion girl on the show Firefly. It can be difficult for traditional men to deal with women who think this way

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hmmm...Temple Prostitutes could serve as a symbol to the community of expressing the goddesses' love for her worshippers, and of course, the children born to them are considered sacred, and are raised in the temple nurseries and schools, where the boys and girls are provided a home, educated, and tought skills and professions, even more so than the typical city citizen, in order to try and compensate for the child not being born into a normal homelife with a mother and father. This would serve to provide the children with some social advantages, as that of being well educated and well trained, and it would also blunt some of the effects of poverty because not only would the children born to the temple prostitutes be raised in this environment, but children that were abandoned or orphaned in the community at large could be taken in and raised in this fashion. Through such efforts, the temple could build not only a good reputation for doing good, but it would also attract additional and regular donations in order to support the good work that they do for the whole community.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[LostSoul]

I'm thinking of doing something similar in a campaign setting that I'm slowly writing up.

The big difference is that the "prostitues" don't charge for "it". They treat it as a mystical ritual that helps them both to rid themselves of the illusion of the self. The women are taught how to break down the walls of the ego. They also help teach new couples who are going to be committing to a marriage how to bring their partnership closer through sex. I don't think they'd "serve" a married person though.

As far as Snoweel's debate goes, I'm on his side. I've heard the same things before. But I guess that's not important, eh?