[136] but of a
specialized and ritualized development of that primitive cult of the
generative forces of Nature which involves the belief that all natural
fruitfulness is associated with, and promoted by, acts of human sexual
intercourse which thus acquire a religious significance. At a later stage
acts of sexual intercourse having a religious significance become
specialized and localized in temples, and by a rational transition of
ideas it becomes believed that such acts of sexual intercourse in the
service of the god, or with persons devoted to the god's service, brought
benefits to the individual who performed them, more especially, if a
woman, by insuring her fertility. Among primitive peoples generally this
conception is embodied mainly in seasonal festivals, but among the peoples
of Western Asia who had ceased to be primitive, and among whom traditional
priestly and hieratic influences had acquired very great influence, the
earlier generative cult had thus, it seems probable, naturally changed
its form in becoming attached to the temples.[137]

The theory that religious prostitution developed, as a general
rule, out of the belief that the generative activity of human
beings possessed a mysterious and sacred influence in promoting
the fertility of Nature generally seems to have been first set
forth by Mannhardt in his _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (pp. 283
et seq.). It is supported by Dr. F.S. Krauss ("Beischlafausuebung
als Kulthandlung," _Anthropophyteia_, vol. iii, p. 20), who
refers to the significant fact that in Baruch's time, at a period
long anterior to Herodotus, sacred prostitution took place under
the trees. Dr. J.G. Frazer has more especially developed this
conception of the origin of sacred prostitution in his _Adonis,
Attis, Osiris_. He thus summarizes his lengthy discussion: "We
may conclude that a great Mother Goddess, the personification of
all the reproductive energies of nature, was worshipped under
different names, but with a substantial similarity of myth and
ritual by many peoples of western Asia; that associated with her
was a lover, or rather series of lovers, divine yet mortal, with
whom she mated year by year, their commerce being deemed
essential to the propagation of animals and plants, each in their
several kind; and further, that the fabulous union of the divine
pair was simulated, and, as it were, multi