the part of an ‘‘insider’’ must form part of our own ‘‘external’’ investigation. Once
again, the web of mythical imagery comes to support and enhance our investigation:
fertilizing moisture, conceived on the model of the sexual union between the sky and
the earth, may come distinctively under the competence of Aphrodite (cf. Aeschylus,
above). The image of her nimble feet which cause the first plants of the world to
shoot up (Hesiod,Theogony194–5) is not merely poetic: it is truly ‘‘theogonic.’’ The
birth of the goddess gives rise to a paradigmatic vital impulse that brings with it the
fecundity of creatures and the fertility of the earth. Epic plays with the same theme in
associating the sexual union between Zeus and Hera on Ida with the growth of
vegetation (Iliad14.346–51; Calame 1996:173–85; Motte 1973).
Therefore, even without sufficient evidence to reconstruct actual cult practice in
connection with ‘‘black’’ Aphrodite, the mythical background allows us to assert the
importance of her patronage of vital humors in this particular context.
The desiring impulse is the very image of life and of its drive, creative and
potentially destructive. This impulse and its fulfillment in sexual union constitute
the frame on which images and actions are woven, the imagery of the cults
concerned withaphrodisia(on the various cults of Eros, cf. Pirenne-Delforge 1998).
Sacred Prostitution and Oriental Influence:
Some Historiographical MythsAphrodite presides over all forms of sexual union, matrimonial and extra-marital,
heterosexual and homosexual, with concubines, courtesans, or prostitutes. The
respective statuses of courtesans and prostitutes, male and female, were subject to a
wide range of variation, from the free and educated courtesan to the slave whose
room for maneuver was non-existent. Dedications by courtesans and prostitutes to
Aphrodite are well attested, particularly in thePalatine Anthology: there is no doubt
that the goddess was the official patron of this professional guild!
Sacred prostitution?
On the subject of sex for sale, no study ofaphrodisiaand the sacred in Greece can
avoid mentioning the ‘‘sacred prostitution’’ associated with the city of Corinth
(MacLachlan 1992). I embarked upon the study of this a decade ago, building on
the work of C. Calame (1989) and H.D. Saffrey (1985), and arrived at negative
conclusions (Pirenne-Delforge 1994:100–26). Since this question continues to hin-
der contemporary analyses of ‘‘the religion of women’’ (Dillon 2002:199–202), even
though the argument against sacred prostitution is never confronted, I shall allow
myself to present the basics of this case afresh.
The data bearing upon this question falls into three groups, to which one must add
the argument for oriental influence upon the cult, which we will tackle in conclusion:
1 Three texts mentioning the supplication that Corinthian women, married women,
and prostitutes addressed to Aphrodite of the Acrocorinth on the eve of the battle
of Salamis in 480 BC and that Simonides immortalized in an epigram (Plutarch,
Moralia871a; Athenaeus 13.573c–d; scholiast Pindar,Olympians13.32b).
Ta Aphrodisiaand the Sacred 319