k there were three grades
of harlot priestesses, and there the temple consecration of women was
practiced in recognition of the connection between the service of Ishtar
and civilization. At first the goddesses of life and of love were the
same. The Venus of reproduction and the Venus of carnal lust were later
distinguished. At some periods the distinction was sharply maintained.
At other times the former Venus was only an intermediary to lead to the
latter. The Mexicans had two goddesses,--one of chaste, the other of
impure, love. The festivals of the former were celebrated with obscene
rites; those of the latter with the self-immolation of harlots, with
excessive language and acts. The goddess was thought to be rejuvenated
by the death of the harlots. The obscene rites were at war with the
current mores of the people at the time. The demons of license became
the guardians of good morals. They concealed the phallus. Sins of
license were confessed to the gods of license.[1895] Teteoinnan, the
maize-mother, also became a harlot through the work of furthering
growth, but in the service of the state she punished transgressions of
the sex taboo.[1896] This is as if the need of the taboo having been
learned by the consequences of license and excess, the goddess of the
latter became the guardian of the former. In the Semitic religions the
beginning and end of life were attributed to supernatural agencies
dangerous to man.[1897] The usages to be mentioned below show that this
was not an abstract dogma, but was accepted as the direct teaching of
experience.

+590. The Adonis myth.+ There was in the worship of Ishtar wailing for
Tammuz (Adonis). He was either the son or the husband of Ishtar. She
went to Hades to rescue him. His death was a myth for the decay of
vegetation, and his resurrection was a myth for its revival. The former
was celebrated with lamentations; the latter with extravagant rejoicings
and sex license.[1898] This legend, which under local modifications and
much syncretism existed until long after Christianity was introduced in
the Greco-Roman world, coincides with the laws of Hammurabi as to harlot
priestesses.

+591. Sacral harlotry.+ Three things which later reached strong
independent development are here united,--religious ritual, religious
drama (with symbols, pantomime, and mysteries which later came to be
considered indecent), and harlotry. Sacral harlotry was the only
harlotry. It was normal and was no