Aphrodite was the Greek Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation. Her Roman Goddess Sister Venus and her share the symbols of myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows and swans. Her Priestesses lived in temples in Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth and Athens. Aphrodisia was her special festival celebrated in her honor by her Priestesses annually in midsummer. Aphrodite had temples throughout Greece and the Temple of Venus and Roma was thought to have been the largest temple in Ancient Rome. Most captivating is the thought that Aphrodite was considered the patron of prostitutes.
Scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries believed that the cult of Aphrodite may have involved ritual prostitution, an assumption based on ambiguous passages in certain ancient texts, particularly a fragment of a skolion by the Boeotia poet Pindar, which mentions prostitutes in Corinth in association with Aphrodite. Modern scholars now dismiss the notion of ritual prostitution in Greece as a “historiographic myth” with no factual basis.1
There were many temples to Aphrodite in the city of Corinth in south central Greece, the Temple at Acrocorinth, Temple of Aphrodite II, and others at Kraneion, Leachaion and Cenchreae. The Temple at Acrocorinth built in the 5th century BCE was the most famous. Among the ruins are a few columns of the original sanctuary venerating Aphrodite which are still standing.
Temple of Aphrodite at Acrocorinth is above all famous for the claims of the temple prostitution of courtesans, which were said to be dedicated to the service of the temple, and contributed to the attraction of visitors to the city of Corinth.2
Many Priestesses in Goddess cults were thought to be virgins. In the ancient Pagan and Goddess traditions the term “virgin” simply meant a woman who is not beholden to any man and free to love as she chooses.
Did cult or sacred prostitution really exist in the ancient world? It was normal practice for all Priestesses to channel the Goddess being her earthly representative of the sacrosanct. Did the ecstasy of transcendence in trance also allow the act of copulation to be Divine? Was it meant to empower a ruler, emperor or wealthy powerful politician of the time with the essence of Divinity and thus secure their godlike authority? It is likely that a Priestess had control of her choices of sexual partners with the High Priestess acting as a participant in the re-enactment of the sacred marriage between God and Goddess.
The idea or reality of a priestess in the guise of a ‘Divine Wife’ or ‘Sacred Prostitute’ seems nothing more than the definition of an enlightened woman who embraces her spirituality within her sexuality as she channels the revered missive of the Goddess. She allows the celestial ecstasy to fill her spiritual and physical being”. Within the aura of her mystical awareness, she would have become the architect of pleasure in that partnership between Feminine Divinity and man.3
The mysterious Vestal Virgins served in the temple honoring the Goddess Vesta, Goddess of the Hearth, in Rome. The name Vesta is the short Latin version of Hestia (Goddess of the Hearth) who was the daughter of the God Chronos (time) and Goddess Rhea (earth). Vesta represented the domestic hearth of the city.
As with many ancient Priestesses, the Vestals were free from the accepted social obligations of marrying and bearing children. Their story is a little more stringent because they took a 30-year vow of chastity in order to devote themselves to the study and correct observance of state rituals. They were chosen from between the ages of six and ten, had to be freeborn of respectable freeborn parents (though later the daughters of freedmen were eligible), have both parents alive, and be free from physical and mental defects.
Beginning the ceremony of initiation, a Vestal candidate’s hair was closely clipped (like the Christian nuns who take the veil). The Vestal was then robed in the white costume of the Vestals and her shorn hair was bound with a white woolen riband, or fillet called a Vitta.
The title of Pontifex Maximus was given to the chief Priest in Rome, who history describes as the religious teacher and authority, the interpreter of all sacred rites, ceremonies and offerings. He was also the person who inspected the holy virgins called Vestals and monitored their lives in all aspects.
The house of the Vestal Virgins where they lived was on the Roman Forum near the Temple honoring the Goddess Vesta. There they lived a lifestyle of responsibility, and the most important duty by far was tending the perpetual fire in the Temple of Vesta. Other duties like keeping their vow of chastity, fetching water from a sacred spring (Vesta would have no water from the city water-supply system) preparing ritual food, caring for objects in the temple’s inner sanctuary and officiating at the Vestalia (festival) from June 7-15, were important duties. But central and vitally important was tending to the perpetual fire. Romans believed that the chastity of the Vestals had a direct effect on the health and well-being of the state. When a Vestal entered the life of service to the Goddess Vesta, she left behind her father’s authority and became a daughter of Rome.
The sacred flame, the ever giving and ever receiving fire, held in the Holy of Holies within the Atrium was an emblem of purity. There were other things to keep in this most secret of places within the temple that were kept from the sight of all but the Vestals. Though it is said that the Pontifex Maximus actually re-kindled the sacred fire annually, it was the Vestals who not only assisted him but were required to perpetuate its flame. In addition to the various duties recorded, the Vestal Virgins were expected to attend certain annual Roman festivals that numbered at least twenty.
Much has been recorded and debated in reference to the punishment of Vestals who neglected their duties. Depending upon the offense, there might be a scourging or beating. This was carried out in the dark and through a curtain to preserve the Vestals modesty. But the most severe punishment was given when the vow of chastity was violated. History relates that this offense was punished by a live burial because the blood of a Vestal could not be spilled. Luckily there are only a few instances when this severe punishment was actually carried out. The many rules of conduct and duties performed had a specific purpose, to keep the Goddess Vesta appeased so that she would not withdraw her protection of the state.
But, for all the rigidity, the Vestal Virgins enjoyed many privileges that were not available to women in other religious cultures. And as with other Temple Priestesses, the Vestals held an important and honored social status, were completely emancipated from their families rule and in many documented cases owned and managed their own property.
Their 30 years of service was divided into three 10-year periods. The first was their time as students, during the second decade they became servants of the temple and the Goddess Vesta and during the last 10 years they finally became teachers
When the Vestal had passed all the grades as a Priestess and completed her 30 years of service, she became a High Vestal Virgin. Each Vestal would then retire to be replaced by a new initiate. And at that juncture she was given a pension and became free to take a husband. Marrying a Vestal was a very great honor and brought the spouse and his family very high-status, in addition to a good pension and good luck.
The Pontifex Maximus, acting as the father of the bride, would typically arrange a marriage with a suitable Roman nobleman.4
Vestal Virgins, in Roman religion, six priestesses, representing the daughters of the royal house, who tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. The cult is believed to date to the 7th century BCE; like other non-Christian cults, it was banned in 394 CE by Theodosius I.5
The ancient historians and authors Livy, Plutarch and Aulus Gellius all agree that King Numa Pompilius, who reigned circa 717-673 BCE was the creator of the Vestals as a state-supported Priestess cult. According to Livy, King Numa presented the Vestals and apportioned salaries to them from the public treasury. The 2nd century antiquarian Aulus Gellius writes that the first Vestal taken from her parents was led away in hand by Numa. Plutarch, (philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and a Priest at the temple at Delphi), ascribes the founding of the Temple of Vesta to Numa, who assigned the first two priestesses.
The Temple of Vesta was thought to be a circular structure with a doomed roof. Though legend says that it might have burned to the ground more than once, there is a certainty that during the Renaissance period in 1549 CE, the temple was demolished. Its marble was repurposed to build churches and papal palaces. Most of the information we have regarding the look of the temple comes from its depictions on coins and art.
A beautiful relief of this last Temple of Vesta exists in the Uffizi Palace at Florence. It shows the door with four columns on its right, facing toward the east, whilst it is approached by seven steps; the columns are fluted with composite capitals, peculiarly short, the lower part below the Ionic volute being composed of aloe leaves.6
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Aphrodite_at_Acrocorinth
3. Lady Haight-Ashton, 2019, The First Sisters: Lilith and Eve, Pagan Portals, Moon Books, pgs. 57, 58 John Hunt Publishing
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin
5. www.britannica.com/topic/Vestal-Virgins
6. T. Cato Worsfold, 2010, The History of the Vestal Virgins of Rome, Kessinger Publishing, LLC