us to an explanation of the custom in question. The original motive
may very well have been in every case the consecration of the maiden’s
virginity to the goddess,[41]—Hieroduli (Temple hand-maids) in the
earlier meaning. Further again the maiden was bound to pay her tribute
to the goddess of sexual Pleasure[42], so as to co-operate with the
husband with a view to the procreation of children. Little by little
the custom lost its purer character. After a time it ceased to be any
longer one of universal obligation, and became binding only for the
poorer classes, who found in it an opportunity of earning a dowry[43]
for their daughters. Meantime the rich adopted the habit of presenting
female slaves to the temple of the goddess, thereby giving occasion
for the establishment of the regular Hieroduli,—who subsequently grew
into _filles de joie_ in the proper sense, and laying the foundation
of the brothel system (see later). Out of the idea of consecration
was subsequently developed on the one hand that of initiation for the
married state,—an idea found again in the “proof-nights” custom of the
Middle Ages, and on the other the idea of bondage that grew into the
“Jus primae noctis” (Right of first night).
As second factor then must be reckoned the belief in the harmfulness
of the blood resulting from rupture of the hymen at defloration; and
connected with this the actual injury that the man’s genital organs
are occasionally exposed to in deflowering a maid with narrow vaginal
orifice, or at any rate the effort necessarily called for to perforate
the hymen, a motive not without actual weight amongst indolent
Asiatics[44]. To this day the bridegroom at Goa gives thanks to the
_Priapus_ (Lingam), that has loosed his bride’s virgin-zone, with
marks of the deepest adoration and gratitude for having performed this
honourable service and so relieved him of a heavy task[45].
For the maid defloration is yet more painful, and as she had to go
through it once and once only with a stranger, she might readily get
the idea that it was the stranger alone that was to blame; consequently
that every surrender to a stranger must involve the same sufferings.
This would deter her from a second experience of the kind, and all the
more so because the subsequent embraces of the husband stirred in her
only pleasurable sensations. So the wife had no inducement to break the
marriage vow.
§ 5.
When and under what circumstances the cult of Venus first came into
_Greece_ can hardly be discovered, though indeed _Pausanias_ states in
the passage quoted above that it was Aegeus (Erechtheus) who brought it
to Athens. For a long period it played only a subordinate part, being
kept under by the primeval god Eros (Love)[46]. No doubt the physical
element may have come in early times from abroad[47], but before long
the stamp of the spiritual was strongly impressed upon it (the Graces
were added as handmaidens to Aphrodité!),—so strongly that the idea
of the procreating power fell henceforth into the background, to give
place to that of Love, an idea that was entirely foreign to Asia. The
amalgamation of Eros and Aphrodité, who was now first hallowed by him,
or as the poet puts it, now first brought forward into the assemblage
(Order) of the Gods, came about so gradually and imperceptibly that
it would hardly be possible to obtain a clear conception of the views
of the Greeks on the point. In consequence of the growing intercourse
with the peoples of Asia, and particularly the Phoenicians[48],
foreign customs and usages came to be introduced and adopted with ever
increasing frequency; and during the flourishing period of Greece
we see the Asiatic character of the Venus ritual come into ever
greater prominence, and the goddess herself in a sense re-introduced.
Especially was this the case in the Islands and the seaport-towns,
where as a rule the worship of Aphrodité first arose. Hence she was
entitled the goddess “born of the (Sea) Foam”, and temples were built
to her as “Protectress of Havens.”[49]
But the Greek genius found this physical Cult too strongly opposed
to its own spirit. The Greek could not bring it into unison with his
Eros-worship; and accordingly distinguished his goddess, under the name
of Aphrodité Urania (Heavenly Aphrodité)[50], from that worshipped by
other Peoples as Aphrodité Pandemos[51] (Aphrodité Common to all Men).
The latter was relegated to the Islands[52], and particularly Cyprus;
and never properly speaking became a national Deity.
It is very interesting as a general fact that the Venus Urania always
belongs, so it appears, to the inland regions, the Venus Pandemos on
the contrary to the sea-ports and islands[53]; for it was as a rule
from East to West along the coast-lines that the Asiatic form of the
Cult spread, a thing that could not have happened except through the
instrumentality of a people early practising navigation, such as the
Phoenicians.
It cannot fail to have an important bearing on our subject to make
a more precise acquaintance with the geographical distribution of
the Venus-cult. We propose to give here a brief enumeration of the
localities where she had her temples. The passages in evidence for this
will be found given with tolerable completeness in _Manso_,—p. 46, also
pp. 158 sqq.
In _Cyprus_: at Paphos, whither came yearly a great concourse of people
at the festival time[54]; in _Pamphilia_; _in Asia Minor_; along the
_Coast-line of the Aegean_; in Caria (Cnidos); Halicarnassus; Miletus;
Ephesus; Sardis; Pergamus; Pyrrha; Abydos (Aphrodité πόρνη—harlot); in
_Thessaly_; at Tricca; in _Boeotia_, (Tanagra—on the Sea); in _Attica_,
(Athens, Colias, Pera[55], on the Cephissus); in the Islands of the
_Aegean Sea_, (Ceos, Cos, Samos, where the temple was built from the
earnings of the Hetaerae); in the _Peloponnese_: at Argolis, Epidaurus,
Troezen, Hermioné, (was visited by maids and widows before their
marriage); in _Laconia_, (Amyclae, Cythera); _Arcadia_, (Megalopolis,
Tegea, Orcomenus); _Elis_, (Olympia, Elis); _Achaia_, (Patrae,
Corinth); on the _Coast of the Corinthian Gulf_. From Greece we come to
_Sicily_, where the temple of Venus on Mount _Eryx_ was hardly inferior
to that of Paphos, also at Syracuse[56].
Not without importance for our purpose is the statement of
_Strabo_[57], that in the island of Cos in the temple of Aesculapius
was an effigy of Venus Anadyomené (coming from the bath), while
according to _Pausanias_[58] in a wood near the temple of the same god
at Epidaurus was built a chapel of Aphrodité, since very possibly this
may throw some light on the question of the knowledge of complaints of
the genital organs possessed by the physicians of Cos. _Böttiger_[59]
is of opinion that it was from the infirmaries and lazarettos of
the Phoenicians that the earliest medical science of the Greeks was
introduced—to the island of Cos; to Aegina, on the Peloponnesian
coasts, especially at Epidaurus. Probably these establishments were
originally under the protection of the national deity, until the latter
was superseded by the god Aesculapius.
As regards the cult of Aphrodité itself and the manner in which it was
celebrated in Greece, there appears to be a great lack of particulars
capable of supplying a general knowledge of the subject, and especially
so where the Pandemian Aphrodité is concerned. Accordingly we will
limit ourselves here to mentioning the female _Hieroduli_[60] who as
bondswomen of Aphrodité dwelt within the precinct of her Temple, and
performed the necessary observances in her honour. These were, as
already pointed out, of Asiatic origin, and to be found in greater
numbers particularly at Ameria[61] and Comana[62] in Pontus, where
they united with the temple-service the traffic of their bodies, (τῶν
ἐργαζομένων ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος—of women who traffic with their body), just
as in later times male Hieroduli gave up their persons for Paederastia.
When the cult of Venus came into Greece, the Hieroduli were introduced
along with it. But they stripped off in Greece their Asiatic character,
which they assumed again only in particular sea-port towns at the
period of the decline of the moral greatness of the Nation, in places
where the temple of Aphrodité Πόρνη (Harlot) was found. Specially was
this so at Corinth[63], in which city were more than a thousand female
Hieroduli, who were presented as slaves to the Temple. These attracted
a great concourse of strangers to the place, and in particular used
to prey upon sea-faring visitors. Possibly however in this case as in
others a confusion took place between the Hieroduli properly so-called
and the Hetaerae (Lady-Companions), who were euphemistically entitled
Priestesses, Handmaids of Aphrodité, because they were under the
patronage of that goddess, just as in a general way sexual enjoyment
was called an offering to Venus.
This would offer the best solution of the question, early debated, of
the morality of the Hieroduli. It was quite opposed to Greek feeling to
worship Aphrodité after the Asiatic manner in her temples; and so the
Greek distinguished his Venus Urania from the Venus Pandemos, and on
the same principle separated her temples into two categories, and made
the temples of Aphrodité Pandemos, Porné and Praxis (Common to All,
Harlot, Sexual Intercourse) into the οἰκήματα τῆς Ἀφροδίτης (houses of
Aphrodité) serving as ordinary brothels, the latter being only intended
for Foreigners originally.
How and under what form the cult of Venus came into Italy is uncertain,
but the legend represents Aeneas as having brought it from Troy to
Lavinium and Laurentum[64], and already in the time of Romulus a Venus
Myrtea (Venus of the Myrtle) was venerated at Rome. In addition a
Venus Cloacina, Erycina, Victrix, and Verticordia (Venus—the Purifier,
of Mount Eryx, of Victory, the Turner of Hearts) are mentioned, as
also a Venus _Calva_ (bald), whose worship King Ancus is said to have
introduced, at a time when the Roman women had lost their hair through
a plague and it had grown again by the help of Venus[65]. Not only are
the notices as to Venus worship in Italy very scanty, but everything on
the subject points to the fact that what there was of it in later times
showed little of the Asiatic impress; and we can conveniently leave
the matter where it is. Some questions belonging to the subject will be
discussed later under the heading _Brothels_. In Spain too the worship
of Venus was so unimportant that there is no need to enter more closely
into the point.
The Lingam and Phallic Worship.
§ 6.
Whilst the cult of Venus sprang up in the interior of Asia and was
disseminated from thence over other parts of the world, it is in
India that the Lingam ritual took its rise, a ritual more closely
corresponding with the egotism of man. The idea that was early
formed as the result of observation, that the man’s genitals were
the determining element in the process of generation, was bound to
conceive these organs themselves as being, in the prevailing system of
Pantheism, under the Government of a Deity, and therefore as specially
holy[66]. Now how could this Deity be represented to the eyes of men
otherwise than by that organ whereby he pre-eminently showed himself
efficacious? The later legend it is true put the matter into another
shape; and we find in _Sonnerat_[67] the myth of the Lingam-ritual
amongst the worshippers of Vishnu related in the following form:
“The Penitents had by means of their sacrifices and prayers attained
great power; but their hearts and their wives’ hearts must ever
remain pure, if they would continue in possession of it. Now Siva
had heard the beauty of these latter highly extolled, and formed the
determination of seducing them. With this aim in view he took on him
the form of a young mendicant[68] of perfect beauty, bade Vishnu
transform himself into a fair maiden and resort to the spot where the
Penitents dwelt, in order to make them fall in love with him. Vishnu
betook himself thither, and as he passed through their midst threw them
such tender glances that they were all enamoured. They left all their
sacrifices to follow after the youthful fair one.[69]
Their passions grew all the fiercer, till at last they seemed all
lifeless and their languishing bodies resembled wax that melts near the
fire.
Siva himself hied to the dwelling-place of the women. In mendicant
guise he carried in one hand a water-bottle, and sang as he went, as
beggars do. Now his song was so entrancing, that all women gathered
round him, and thereupon under the gaze of the fair singer fell into
complete distraction. This was so great with some that they lost their
ornaments and clothing, and followed him in the garb of nature without
noticing the fact.
When he had marched through the village, he left it, but not
unaccompanied, for all followed him into a neighbouring thicket, where
he had his will of them. Soon afterwards the Penitents became aware
that their sacrifices no longer possessed their former efficacy, and
_that their power was no more the same as before_. After a period of
pious contemplation they now learned that it had been Siva who in the
form of a Youth had seduced their wives into profligacy, and that they
themselves had been _led astray_ by Vishnu in the likeness of a Maid.
Accordingly they determined to slay Siva by means of a sacrifice.
(After many vain attempts), ashamed to have lost their honour without
being able to avenge themselves, they made a last desperate effort;
they united into one all their prayers and expiations, and directed
them against Siva. It was the most terrible of their sacrifices, and
God himself could not withstand the effects of its operation. They went
forth like a flame of fire and fastened on Siva’s organs of generation
and severed them from his body. Enraged with the Penitents, Siva now
resolved to set the whole world in conflagration to punish them.
The fire was already beginning to seize all around, when Vishnu and
Brahma, on whom it was incumbent to save the living creatures in the
world, thought of means to put a stop to it. Brahma took the form of a
pedestal (?) and Vishnu that of the female organs of generation, and in
this way copied Siva’s organs of generation, and thereby the universal
conflagration was stayed. Siva suffered himself to be appeased by their
prayers, and promised not to burn up the world, if men would pay divine
honours to the dissevered organs.”
Now if we consider this myth, as related here, more closely, we can
scarcely avoid the suspicion that it is one of those that in later
times were fabricated in many forms and foisted in as genuine. For
it is entirely adapted to explain the origin of the Venereal disease
in a way that leaves little to be desired; for which reason it was
used by _Schaufus_ as the basis of his argument that the Venereal
disease was introduced into Europe from India. But on the other hand
this particular story is so accordant with the ancient creed of the
Hindoos in general that, if it is of later origin, it must have been
put together with the assistance of older legends. The continued union
with the god, the power which the Penitents owed to him, was connected
with purity of heart, with avoidance of sensuality[70]; directly they
indulged in the latter, they were deprived of the divine influence,
just as in the Mosaic legend resulted from the Fall of Man. This is
one part of the legend,—manifestly a double one, while the other
includes the punishment of the being who wrought this profanation. His
genitals were destroyed by burning, which was attacking the World (i.e.
men through the women seduced by Siva?), and ceased only through the
prayers of the Penitents, which again became efficacious; thereupon the
organs thus happily made sound again were suspended as thank-offerings
in the temple of the god.
It would seem then that it was the sickness of the male genitals which
gave occasion for their consecration and worship; and this is so far
not inconsistent with reason, as the external position of the sexual
parts in the male make every affection and injury perceptible at
once with but little trouble, while the female organs lie in a more
concealed situation. So that to the present day diseases of the male
genitals are far more precisely known and appreciated than those of the
female.
Should the enquirer push his search for an explanation further still,
he might, arguing from what is said as to Vishnu’s having copied
Siva’s sexual organs that had been blighted by the fire under the
form of female genitals, allege a sort of natural cause for the
conflagration, to wit the suggestion of a mode of cure which was
frequently recommended and practised in the Middle Ages, when persons
thought to drive away the clap by coition with virgins. But this is
surely nothing else than an explanation of the Lingam[71] superimposed
on the symbol of the _Juni_, the feminine principle, in the form of the
triangle, which Böttiger holds to be identical with the navel-stone of
the Paphian goddess.
_F. G. Klein_[72] professes to have proved from annals of Malabar that
long before the discovery of the West Indies Venereal disease was
known in the East Indies, for the Malabar physicians _Sangarasiar_
and _Alessianambi_, who lived more than nine hundred years ago, and
other physicians even before them, make mention he says of the Disease
and its cure by means of Mercury. But in Antiquity affections of the
genitals must have certainly been rarities amongst the inhabitants of
India, for the Greeks[73] count them amongst the longlived peoples,
as owing to their moderation they were subject to few diseases. Again
the climate of India is by no means to be considered as a factor
favourable to the disease, _Munro_[74] assuring us that simple herbs
and moderate mode of life make the Hindoo recover, when no European
could fail to succomb.
§ 7.
Whether the Phallus ritual in Egypt, where it is supposed to have
arisen from the generative organs of Osiris cut off by Typho, have
an Indian origin or no, it is impossible to decide[75]. But that it
existed is certain, for not only are miniature Phalli often found
with Mummies, but it was also portrayed in the Temple of Karnak[76];
and Herodotus[77] mentions it, and adds at the same time that in the
statutes the Phalli were _movable_. Perhaps from it was developed in
part the cult of _Mendes_, of which we shall speak later. Although
_Herodotus_[78] declares that the Egyptians were the first people
who had forbidden the accomplishment of coition in the temples, yet
_Strabo_[79] writes that they dedicated to Zeus the fairest and
best-born maidens, whom the Greeks called Pallades, and compelled them
to give themselves to men until their menstruation began for the first
time, whereupon they were married.
As regards Greece on the contrary there is scarcely a doubt that
the worship of Bacchus, and with it the Phallic ritual[80], was
transplanted to that country from India. To explain the occasion of
this introduction there is a legend related in the highest degree
worthy of attention in connection with the history of affections of the
genitals. It is told by _Natalis Comes_[81] in the following terms:
“Fuerunt et Phallica in Dionysi honorum instituta, quae apud
Athenienses agebantur, apud quos primus Pegasus ille Eleutheriensis
Bacchi cultum instituit, in quibus cantabant quem ad modum Deus hic
morbo Athenienses liberavit et quem ad modum multorum bonorum auctor
mortalibus extitit. Fama est enim quod Pegaso imagines Dionysi ex
Eleutheris civitate Boeotiae in Atticam regionem portante Athenienses
Deum neglexerunt neque, ut mos erat, cum pompa acceperunt: _quare
Deus indignatus pudenda hominum morbo infestavit, qui erat illis
gravissimus_: tunc eis ab oraculo, quo pacto liberari possent
petentibus, responsum datum est: solum esse remedium malorum omnium,
si cum honore et pompa Deum recepissent; quod factum fuit. Ex ea re
tum privatim tum publice lignea virilia thyrsis alligantes per eam
solennitatem gestabant. Fuit enim Phallus vocatum membrum virile. Alii
Phallum ideo consecratum Dionyso putarunt, quia sit autor creditus
generationis.”
(There were Phallic rites too established in honour of Dionysus,
(these were observed among the Athenians; for it was at Athens that
the far-famed Pegasus first established the worship of Eleutherian
Bacchus)[82], at which men chanted hymns telling how the god freed the
Athenians from a plague, and how he was the giver of many good gifts
to mortals. For the story relates that Pegasus brought the images of
Dionysus from Eleutherae, a city of Boeotia, to the land of Attica; but
the Athenians slighted the god, and did not, as was the wont, receive
him with a procession. _Wherefore the god was wroth, and afflicted the
men’s private parts with a disease that was most grievous to them._ So
they consulted the oracle, asking in what way they might be freed from
the plague, and received the answer: there was one only remedy for all
their ills, viz. that they should welcome the god with due honour and
fitting procession. And this they did accordingly. And in commemoration
thereof they used to bind _virilia_ (male generative organs) of wood to
the thyrsi (Bacchic staves), and carry them thus at the solemnity in
question; and this was done both privately and publicly. For _Phallus_
is the name given to a man’s privy member. Others again considered that
it was consecrate to Dionysus for this reason, because he was deemed
the author of procreation).
Still more striking is the legend which the same author, _Natalis
Comes_[83], gives of the introduction of Priapus worship into
Lampsacus, though it bears so great a resemblance to the preceding that
the one might almost be thought to have been taken from the other.
Aphrodité, he says, on the occasion of Bacchus’[84] progress to India
was made pregnant by him, and on her return to Lampsacus was brought to
bed of _Priapus_, whose deformity was caused by the goddess Juno[85],
who afforded succour to the mother at the time of his birth:
“Deinde, cum adolevisset (Priapus) pergratusque foret Lampsacenis
mulieribus, Lampsacenorum decreto ex agro Lampsaceno exulavit.—Fuerunt
qui memoriae prodiderint Priapum fuisse virum Lampsacenum, qui cum
haberet ingens instrumentum et facile paratum plantandis civibus,
gratissimus fuerit mulieribus Lampsacenis. Ea causa postmodo fuisse
dicitur, ut Lampsacenorum omnium ceterorum invidiam in se converterit,
ac demum eiectus fuerit ex ipsa insula. At illud facinus aegerrime
ferentibus mulieribus et pro se deos precantibus, post cum nonnullis
interiectis temporibus _Lampsacenos gravissimus pudendorum membrorum
morbus_ invasisset, Dodonaeum oraculum adeuntes percunctati sunt an
ullum esset eius morbi remedium. His responsum est: morbum non prius
cessaturum, quam Priapum in patriam revocassent. Quod cum fecissent,
templa et sacrificia illi statuerunt, Priapumque hortorum Deum esse
decreverunt.”
(Subsequently when he—Priapus—had come to man’s estate, and was now
exceedingly pleasing to the women of Lampsacus, by a decree of the
Lampsacenes he was exiled from the territory of Lampsacus.—Some there
are to tell the tradition that Priapus was a man of Lampsacus who had
a huge “instrument” ready and willing for the making of new citizens,
and who on that account was most pleasing to the Lampsacene women.
Wherefore it is said afterwards to have come about that he incurred the
envy and hatred of all the rest of the men of Lampsacus, and eventually
was expelled from the island altogether. But this was a disaster that
the women most bitterly regretted; so they prayed to the gods to help
them, and after some interval of time had elapsed _a most grievous
disease of the private parts attacked the men of Lampsacus_. Then they
reported to the oracle of Dodona, and enquired of the god if there
were any remedy for this plague. The reply was to the effect that the
disease would not cease till they had recalled Priapus to his native
land. This they did; and furthermore built temples and established
sacrifices in his honour, and decreed that Priapus should be the god of
gardens).[86]