A Plague Upon the House of Plantagenet

"If the subject of a Poem is obscure, or not generally known, or not interesting, and if it abounds with allusions, and facts of this improper, and uninteresting character, the writer who chuses the subject, and introduces those improper, and unaffecting allusions, and facts, betrays a great want of poetical judgment, and taste. Mr. Gray had a vitiated fondness for such insipid fable, narrative, and references."

Based on a Thomas Gray poem, inspired by a Welsh tradition that said that Edward I had put to death any bards he found, to extinguish Welsh culture; the poem depicts the escape of a single bard.

THE BARD. A PINDARIC ODE18 EXPLANATORY, 13 TEXTUALSKIP TO NEXT LINE

The following Ode is founded on a Tradition current in Wales,

that EDWARD the First, when he compleated the conquest of

that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands,

to be put to death.

I. 1.

1'Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

2'Confusion on thy banners wait,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

3'Though fanned by Conquest's crimson wing2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

4'They mock the air with idle state.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

5'Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

6'Nor even thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail1 TextualSkip to next line

7'To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

8'From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!'3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

9Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

10Of the first Edward scattered wild dismay,Skip to next line

11As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

12He wound with toilsome march his long array.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

13Stout Gloucester stood aghast in speechless trance:3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

14'To arms!' cried Mortimer, and couched his quivering lance.5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

I. 2.

15On a rock, whose haughty brow2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

16Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,4 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

17Robed in the sable garb of woe,2 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

18With haggard eyes the poet stood;6 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

19(Loose his beard, and hoary hair4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

20Streamed, like a meteor, to the troubled air)6 ExplanatorySkip to next line

21And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

22Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.Skip to next line

23'Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

24'Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!Skip to next line

25'O'er thee, oh king! their hundred arms they wave,Skip to next line

26'Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

27'Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

28'To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.12 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

I. 3.

29'Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,9 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

30'That hushed the stormy main:10 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

31'Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed:8 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

32'Mountains, ye mourn in vain5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

33'Modred, whose magic song10 ExplanatorySkip to next line

34'Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topped head.5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

35'On dreary Arvon's shore they lie,5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

36'Smeared with gore, and ghastly pale:1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

37'Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail;2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

38'The famished eagle screams, and passes by.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

39'Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

40'Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes,3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

41'Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

42'Ye died amidst your dying country's cries—2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

43'No more I weep. They do not sleep.4 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

44'On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

45'I see them sit, they linger yet,3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

46'Avengers of their native land:1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

47'With me in dreadful harmony they join,4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

48'And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.'5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

II. 1.

49"Weave the warp, and weave the woof,8 ExplanatorySkip to next line

50"The winding-sheet of Edward's race.1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

51"Give ample room, and verge enough4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

52"The characters of hell to trace.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

53"Mark the year and mark the night,1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

54"When Severn shall re-echo with affright3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

55"The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roofs that ring,6 ExplanatorySkip to next line

56"Shrieks of an agonizing King!6 ExplanatorySkip to next line

57"She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

58"That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

59"From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

60"The scourge of heaven. What terrors round him wait!4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

61"Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

62"And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.2 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

II. 2.

63"Mighty victor, mighty lord,1 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

64"Low on his funeral couch he lies!3 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

65"No pitying heart, no eye, afford1 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

66"A tear to grace his obsequies.1 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

67"Is the sable warrior fled?3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

68"Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.Skip to next line

69"The swarm that in thy noon-tide beam were born?4 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

70"Gone to salute the rising morn.2 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

71"Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,7 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

72"While proudly riding o'er the azure realm7 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

73"In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes;6 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

74"Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;7 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

75"Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,8 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

76"That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening-prey.6 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

II. 3.

77"Fill high the sparkling bowl,3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

78"The rich repast prepare,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

79"Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast:3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

80"Close by the regal chair3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

81"Fell Thirst and Famine scowl3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

82"A baleful smile upon their baffled guest.5 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

83"Heard ye the din of battle bray,3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

84"Lance to lance, and horse to horse?2 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

85"Long years of havoc urge their destined course,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

86"And through the kindred squadrons mow their way.2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

87"Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,5 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

88"With many a foul and midnight murther fed,2 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

89"Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame,Skip to next line

90"And spare the meek usurper's holy head.4 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

91"Above, below, the rose of snow,5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

92"Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

93"The bristled Boar in infant-gore5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

94"Wallows beneath the thorny shade.2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

95"Now, brothers, bending o'er the accursed loom,Skip to next line

96"Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

III. 1.

97"Edward, lo! to sudden fate2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

98"(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun)2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

99"Half of thy heart we consecrate.7 ExplanatorySkip to next line

100"(The web is wove. The work is done.)"1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

101'Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn4 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

102'Leave me unblessed, unpitied, here to mourn:4 Explanatory, 7 TextualSkip to next line

103'In yon bright track, that fires the western skies,1 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

104'They melt, they vanish from my eyes.1 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

105'But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height1 Explanatory, 8 TextualSkip to next line

106'Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll?3 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

107'Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

108'Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

109'No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail.5 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

110'All-hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail!8 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

III. 2.

111'Girt with many a baron bold3 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

112'Sublime their starry fronts they rear;4 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

113'And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

114'In bearded majesty, appear.2 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

115'In the midst a form divine!7 ExplanatorySkip to next line

116'Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line;6 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

117'Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,3 Explanatory, 6 TextualSkip to next line

118'Attempered sweet to virgin-grace.2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

119'What strings symphonious tremble in the air,2 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

120'What strains of vocal transport round her play!1 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

121'Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

122'They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.1 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

123'Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings,3 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

124'Waves in the eye of heaven her many-coloured wings.1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

III. 3.

125'The verse adorn again1 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

126'Fierce war and faithful love,4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

127'And truth severe, by fairy fiction dressed.4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

128'In buskined measures move6 Explanatory, 3 TextualSkip to next line

129'Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

130'With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.2 Explanatory, 4 TextualSkip to next line

131'A voice, as of the cherub-choir,5 ExplanatorySkip to next line

132'Gales from blooming Eden bear;2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

133'And distant warblings lessen on my ear,2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

134'That lost in long futurity expire.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

135'Fond impious man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud,4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

136'Raised by thy breath, has quenched the orb of day?4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

137'Tomorrow he repairs the golden flood,7 ExplanatorySkip to next line

138'And warms the nations with redoubled ray.3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

139'Enough for me: with joy I see2 ExplanatorySkip to next line

140'The different doom our fates assign.4 ExplanatorySkip to next line

141'Be thine despair and sceptered care;1 ExplanatorySkip to next line

142'To triumph, and to die, are mine.'2 Explanatory, 1 TextualSkip to next line

143He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height3 ExplanatorySkip to next line

144Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.4 Explanatory, 3 Textual

Gray's annotations

4

Mocking the air with colours idly spread.
    Shakespear's King John. [V. i. 72]

5

The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail, that sate close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

9

— [By] The crested adder's pride.
    Dryden's Indian Queen. [III. i. 84]

11

Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract, which the Welch themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden[,] speaking of the castle of Conway built by King Edward the first, says, ''Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery [At the source of the River Conway on the slope of Mt. Erery];'' and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283,) ''Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniae fecit erigi castrum forte [Near (or at) Aberconway at the foot of Mt. Snowdon, he caused a fortified camp to be constructed.].''

13

Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

14

Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. They both were Lords-Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the King in this expedition.

18

['... haggard, wch conveys to you the the Idea of a Witch, is indeed only a metaphor taken from an unreclaim'd Hawk, wch is called a Haggard, & looks wild & farouche & jealous of its liberty.' Letter to Wharton, 21 Aug. 1755, T & W no. 205.]

19

The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel: there are two of these paintings (both believed original), one at Florence, the other at Paris.

20

Shone, like a meteor, streaming to the wind.
    Milton's Paradise Lost. [i. 537]

35

The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the isle of Anglesey.

38

Cambden and others observe, that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welch Craigian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called the eagle's nest. That bird is certainly no stranger to this island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.] [John Ray (1627-1705) published (1676) and translated (London, 1678) the Ornithologia of his patron Francis Willughby (1635-72).]

40

As dear to me as are the ruddy drops,
That visit my sad heart—
    Shakesp. Jul. Caesar. [II. i. 289-90]

47

See the Norwegian Ode, that follows. [Fatal Sisters]

54

Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-Castle [in 1327 near the Severn River in western England].

57

Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen.

59

Triumphs of Edward the Third in France.

64

Death of that King, abandoned by his Children, and even robbed in his last moments by his Courtiers and his Mistress [Alice Perrers, in 1377].

67

Edward, the Black Prince, dead some time before his Father [in 1376].

71

Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard, and other contemporary Writers.

77

Richard the Second, (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and the confederate Lords in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsingham, and all the older Writers)[,] was starved to death [in 1400]. The story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon, is of much later date.

83

Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

87

Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murthered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Caesar.

89

[Consort] Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her Husband and her Crown.
[Father] Henry the Fifth.

90

Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the Crown.

91

The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster [presumably woven above and below on the loom].

93

The silver Boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of the Boar.

99

Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her Lord [she is supposed to have sucked the poison from a wound Edward I received] is well known. The monuments of his regret, and sorrow for the loss of her, are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places.

109

It was the common belief of the Welch nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-Land, and should return again to reign over Britain.

110

Both Merlin [Myrddin] and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welch should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor [1768].
Accession of the House of Tudor [1757].

117

Speed relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, Ambassadour of Poland, says, 'And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert Orator no less with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes.' [John Speed (1552-1629) published his History of Great Britaine ... to ... King James in 1611.]

121

Taliessin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the VIth Century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his Countrymen. [His Book exists in only a thirteenth-century version and many of the poems in it may not be by Taliessin.]

126

Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song.
    Spenser's Proëme to the Fairy Queen [l. 9].

128

Shakespear.

131

Milton.

133

The succession of Poets after Milton's time.

Works cited

• The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
• Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
• Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
• Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
• The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i.
• Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
• The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
• The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
• Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894.
• The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
• The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
• Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

Victory by Definition : No Legitimate Regime Would Gas it's Own People

Victory by Definition : No Legitimate Regime Would Gas it's Own People

Okay, fine - was the Committee of Public Safety, the French Directory, or the Dictatorship of Napoleon a legitimate government?

What about the dictatorship of Sparta? They practiced ritual infanticide. 

I honestly wonder if anyone has really thought this through - what Trump clearly THINKS he is doing is punishing the Assad government for their use of chemical weapons.

And if they use them again, he will strike them again as further punishment to get them to stop.

But they are not using them, and cannot use them because they no longer have them, and that's verifiably true - we have the documentation.

So, what is all of this actually meant to achieve, and how is this intended to help make that happen? 

I don't see how this can actually succeed, because it is entirely built upon delusional false-consciousness.

Dark Crystal : The Book of Enoch (Done with Muppets)

You know - for kids!

ARMUS: 

You do not understand.

I do not serve things evil. 

I am evil. 

PICARD: 

Oh, no, you are not. 

ARMUS: 

I am a skin of evil left here by a race of Titans who believed if they rid themselves of me, they would free the bonds of destructiveness. 

PICARD: 

Yes. So here you are. 

Feeding on your own loneliness. 

Consumed by your own pain. 

Believing your own lies.

VI-XI. The Fall of the Angels: the Demoralisation of Mankind: the Intercession of the Angels on behalf of Mankind. The Dooms pronounced by God on the Angels: the Messianic Kingdom (a Noah fragment).

CHAPTER VI.
1. And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters.

2. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.'

3. And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.'

4. And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' 

5. Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

6. And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.

7. And these are the names of their leaders: Sêmîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl.

8. These are their Chiefs of Tens.

1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. 

2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl,

Zuul

THERE IS NO DANA ONLY ZUUL

"The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus, and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads- and here there is always a great crowd, some coming and others going; lines of cord mark out paths in all directions the women, and the strangers pass along them to make their choice. A woman who has once taken her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws a silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy ground. When he throws the coin he says these words- "The goddess Mylitta prosper thee." (Venus is called Mylitta by the Assyrians.) The silver coin may be of any size; it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by the law, since once thrown it is sacred. The woman goes with the first man who throws her money, and rejects no one. When she has gone with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she returns home, and from that time forth no gift however great will prevail with her. Such of the women as are tall and beautiful are soon released, but others who are ugly have to stay a long time before they can fulfil the law. Some have waited three or four years in the precinct.[*] A custom very much like this is found also in certain parts of the island of Cyprus.

Such are the customs of the Babylonians generally. There are likewise three tribes among them who eat nothing but fish. These are caught and dried in the sun, after which they are brayed in a mortar, and strained through a linen sieve. Some prefer to make cakes of this material, while others bake it into a kind of bread."

* This unhallowed custom is mentioned among the abominations of thereligion of the Babylonians ** in the book of Baruch (vi. 43).

** Sumerian, Not Babylonian.

Did Prostitution Really Exist in the Temples of Antiquity?

"Holy harlots" in Jerusalem, temple sex in the service of Aphrodite? Many ancient authors describe sacred prostitution in drastic terms. Are the accounts nothing but legends? Historians are searching for the kernel of truth behind the reports.

Matthias Schulz

Sex in the Service of Aphrodite

Corbis

Friday, 3/26/2010   03:13 PM 

The "ugliest custom" in Babylon, the historian Herodotus wrote (who is believed to have lived between circa 490 to 425 B.C.), was the widespread practice of prostitution in the Temple of Ishtar. Once in their lifetimes, all women in the country were required to sit in the temple and "expose themselves to a stranger" in return for money.

"Rich and haughty" women, the ancient Greek historian railed, arrived in "covered chariots."

The Persians on the Black Sea were apparently involved in similarly nefarious activities. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, "virgin daughters," hardly 12 years old, were dedicated to cult prostitution. "They treat their lovers with such friendliness that they even entertain them."

There are many such reports from classical antiquity. Tribes from Sicily to Thebes are believed to have indulged in perverse religious customs.

The Jews were also involved in such practices. There are about a dozen passages in the Old Testament that revolve around "Qadeshes," a word for female and male cult practitioners. The Bible calls them "lemans" and "catamites." In the Fifth Book of Moses, male prostitutes are prohibited from donating their "dogs' money" to the House of Yahweh.

Twentieth-century researchers eagerly seized on the references, which were often mysterious. Soon it was considered a fact that priests in the Eastern World performed forced defloration. It was said that there was "dowry prostitution" and "sexual copulation at the cult site."

Temple sex, according to the "Encyclopedia of Theology and the Church," was a "moral and hygienic plague spot on the body of the people."

But is this true? More and more academics are now questioning the erotic fables of the ancients.

Were Erotic Tales Exaggerated?

Newly discovered cuneiform tablets paint a more defused picture, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the academics of earlier decades exaggerated the subject. For example, there is not a single piece of evidence proving that the ritual of forced defloration existed.

A fraction of female gender researchers take a more radical view. They dispute holy prostitution altogether, calling the whole thing a pack of lies.

According to a new book on the subject, it all began when a few Greek writers concocted defamatory, dirty customs about foreign peoples, as evidence of their moral "damnability." In the modern age, the author writes, this filth developed into a "research myth."

Julia Assante, an American scholar of the ancient Orient and the leader of the movement, is convinced that sacred whores are merely products of "male fantasy."

But for moderate scholars, this interpretation goes too far. Although they also question some of the overblown academic opinions of the past, they insist that the phenomenon existed. They believe that there were once:

Temples that operated brothels on the side; 

Temples in which girls held the highest offices of the priesthood, even before their first menstruation; 

Professional harlots who donated their own money to cult sites, such as a site devoted to the goddess "Aphrodite Porne."

A bitter debate is unfolding, as Assyriologists with feminist leanings squabble with old-school professors. While the former consistently denounce the theories of temple prostitution as nothing but lies, the latter, citing Sumerian grammar, seek to defend their supposedly "patriarchal perspective."

Street Prostitution in Ancient Times

There is, however, agreement on the subject of ordinary street prostitution in ancient times. Wearing garish makeup and yellow shawls, the whores of Athens advertised their charms at the foot of the Acropolis. Special "flute girls" offered to play the aulos for their customers before boldly getting down to business.

Rome's street prostitutes charged four aces (the equivalent of about €10, or $14). Messalina, a famous call girl, became empress when she married the Emperor Claudius.

Page 2 of 3

Sex in the Service of Aphrodite

Part 2: Mesopotamia Was Particularly Known for its Loose Morals

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Friday, 3/26/2010   03:13 PM 

The pious land of the Pyramids also offered sinful pleasures. Its prostitutes rubbed ointment onto their customers' bodies. "Your phallus is in the Chenemet women," an ancient papyrus text reads. "A man can copulate better than a donkey. It is only his purse that holds him back."

Mesopotamia was particularly known for its loose morals. A whore named Shamhat ("The Voluptuous One"), who appears in the Gilgamesh epic, beguiles the wild man Enkidu: "She unclutched her bosom, exposed her sex, and he took in her voluptuousness."

There were few objections to the profession in the Euphrates Valley. A clay tablet tells the story of a young woman who receives her customers in the house of her parents. She was paid with the meat of a piglet.

The Whore of Babylon

But what happened at the holy sites? What happened behind the walls of the Temple of Ishtar? This is a source of contention among scholars.

The Orient devoted enormous buildings to its goddess of sex and love. Hymns praised her as a "Mistress of Women" with "seductive charms." "In lips she is sweet; life is in her mouth" -- Whore of Babylon.

The Ishtar cult soon spread to the north, first to Cyprus, where Greek settlers came into contact with the goddess and renamed her Aphrodite. According to Greek myth, the beautiful Aphrodite rose from a bloody spot in the sea, where the water was colored red and full of sperm. It was the spot where Cronos, the ruler of the Titans, had thrown his father's severed genitalia into the sea.

The goddess, "born of the sea foam," was never innocent, but filled with lust and an orgy of the senses. In Uruk, an orgiastic Carneval-like festival was celebrated in her honor 5,000 years ago. Ancient lists show that female dancers and actresses worked in the Temple of Ishtar.

No Signs of Sex Acts at the Altar

Nevertheless, there are no signs that sex acts and fertility rites took place directly at the altar, as scholars once claimed. "There is no evidence whatsoever of such magical practices," explains Gernot Wilhelm, an Orientalist at Julis Maximilian University in Würzburg, Germany.

Did Herodotus invent his story of forced sex among the women of Babylon? Gender researchers think so.

Nevertheless, there is probably more to the story than meets the eye. The temple of the sex goddess also included a special cult personnel, the "Harimtu," or "prostitutes."

Some time ago, Wilhelm discovered a fascinating legal document. It is about 3,300 years old, and it recounts how a man delivered his own daughter to the Temple of Ishtar to serve as a Harimtu.

According to the document, the man wanted a loan from the priests and was offering his daughter as collateral.

But what exactly did the pawned daughter do for her new employers? Wilhelm speculates that the young girl worked as a prostitute, "but outside the temple."

As evidence, the professor cites the "Book of Baruch" in the Old Testament. It describes prostitutes standing "along the paths" between the dusty houses of Babylon. They too were somehow associated with a sacred organization.

An Academic Dispute

The skeptics are having none of it. Harimtu doesn't mean prostitute, says gender studies scholar Assante. She claims that Assyriologists simply translated the word incorrectly for 150 years.

Instead, says Assante, the word refers to a "single woman," who served as a cultish official and was not part of a male household.

Assante's adversaries cringe at her interpretation, accusing Assante of transferring her own social status into the pre-Christian era.

Her reinterpretation of the word Harimtu doesn't make semantic sense, says economic historian Morris Silver. He insists that the Harimtu were clearly "professional prostitutes with cultic connections," who offered a "sexual service" on behalf of the temple. Priests acted as pimps and collected some of the profits.

These sacred brothels probably also existed in Greece, specifically, as scholars believe, at the Temple of Aphrodite in Corinth. It was perched on a rocky promontory 575 meters (1,890 feet) above the sea.

Sex Workers, Flimsy Dresses, Garish Makeup

It is indisputable that the city itself was a raucous place. Corinth was a hub of maritime trade, with hundreds of ships docked at its jetties. Sex workers, wearing flimsy dresses and garish makeup, were lined up along the docks to offer their charms.

But the temple to the goddess of love, high up on the cliff, also appears to have been a hub of sexual activity. "The Temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned more than a thousand temple slaves, courtesans," Strabo writes.

Hordes of sailors and sea captains, "hungry for sex," clambered up to the cliff temple, says British academic Nigel Spivey.

Tanja Scheer, a professor of ancient history at the University of Oldenburg in northern Germany, now proposes a better solution: "The reports of a sacred brothel in Corinth are all based on an ode by Pindar," she explains. Pindar writes that a wealthy Olympic champion dedicated the temple to a "hundred-limbed" throng of prostitutes in 464 B.C.

But, as Scheer points out, it is unlikely that the prostitutes lounged directly at the altar. Instead, she says, the wealthy athlete probably offered the temple financial assistance in the form of female slaves. "The proceeds from the sale of their bodies could serve as a regular and ongoing source of income for the temple."

Scheer's theory is supported by the fact that the Athenian statesman Solon, who established government houses of pleasure in Athens around 590 B.C., imposed taxes on the prostitutes. The city used the revenues to build a temple to the goddess of love.

As a fragment from an old comedy reveals, very young girls apparently lived in the brothel. The text describes the "foals" of Aphrodite standing naked in a line," and notes: "From them, constantly and securely, you may purchase your pleasure for a little coin."

It is also possible that things were even worse for child prostitutes in the ancient world. Some scholars speculate that there may have been sacred sex between children.

Again, the trail leads to Babylon and its 91-meter, pyramid-shaped tower, one of the wonders of the ancient world. According to some sources, there was a shrine at the top of the tower that contained a bed, where a chosen girl slept at night, constantly prepared for a "sacred wedding" -- the symbolic sex act with the god Marduk.

Child Abuse on the Nile?

Farther afield, in the main temple of Thebes, in the land of the Pharaohs, there was a "godly consort of Amun."

This priesthood was occupied by "a maiden of greatest beauty and most illustrious family," Strabo writes, "and she prostitutes herself, and cohabits with whatever men she wishes until the natural cleansing of her body takes place" (menstruation).

Child abuse on the Nile? There are many historical clues that have led to speculation among academics, particularly now that a new document has fueled the debate even further.

It is a worn fragment of an Egyptian scroll, which also addresses the subject of young priestesses.

According to the text, girls are permitted to work in the temple until their first menstruation. After that, however, "they are cast out from their duties."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan