The Early Christian Rhetoric

Abstract

E ven more numerous than passages from strabo in the his toriography of ancient sacred prostitution are the references that appear in the early Christian literature. Although different scholars cite different passages as referring to sacred prostitution, a “complete” list includes no fewer than 10 authors: Paul of Tarsus, Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius of Sicca, Lactantius, Eusebius of Caesaria, Athanasius of Alexandria, Firmicus Maternus, Augustine of Hippo, Sokrates Scholasticus, and Sozomen. Each one of these has been used to support the notion of sacred prostitution existing in one of the regions mentioned previously in this work – St. Paul for Corinth, Clement and Lactantius for Cyprus, Athanasius and Augustine for Phoenicia. Nevertheless, the evidence derived from the early Christian sources is not entirely credible. Although St. Paul does discuss the problems of pornoi and porneia in the congregation at Corinth, he himself never refers to any links with the local cult of Venus. Furthermore, as recent scholars such as R. Kirchhoff and K. Gaca have discussed, Paul's definition(s) of the terms pornos and porneia are quite distinct from the traditional pagan (and modern) meanings, and thus must be categorized and studied differently. Then there is the biased nature of the writings. With the (slight) exception of Eusebius and his “followers” Sokrates and Sozomen, who were composing church histories, each of the remaining texts supposedly referring to sacred prostitution is accusational, ranging in genre from apologetic, as with Lactantius, to polemic, as with Firmicus Maternus.