Editing Sacred prostitution (section)

===Phoenicia===
It has been argued that sacred prostitution, worked by both males and females, was a custom of ancient [[Phoenicians]].<ref name=Sai/><ref>{{Cite web|title = Las mujeres en la religión fenicio-púnica|url = https://archivoshistoria.com/las-mujeres-en-la-religion-fenicio-punica/|date = 2 November 2018|access-date = 28 June 2022|first = Christian|last = San José Campos|publisher = Archivos Historia|language = Spanish|archive-date = 2 July 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220702120306/https://archivoshistoria.com/las-mujeres-en-la-religion-fenicio-punica/|url-status = live}}</ref> It would be dedicated to the deities [[Astarte]] and [[Adonis]], and sometimes performed as a festival or social rite in the cities of [[Byblos]], [[Afqa]] and [[Baalbek]] (later named [[Heliopolis (Lebanon)|Heliopolis]])<ref name=Mone/> as well as the nearby Syrian city of [[Palmyra]].<ref name=Sai/>
[[File:Centro_de_Interpretación_del_Yacimiento_de_Cancho_Roano._Paneles_informativos_I_06.jpg|thumb|Complex of [[Cancho Roano]], [[Spain]], a proposed place of temple prostitution]]
At the Etruscan site of [[Pyrgi]], a center of worship of the eastern goddess [[Astarte]], archaeologists identified a temple consecrated to her and built with at least 17 small rooms that may have served as quarters for temple prostitutes.<ref name=St>Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, [https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar/ Sacred Prostitution in the Story of Judah and Tamar?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716134256/https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/sacred-prostitution-in-the-story-of-judah-and-tamar/ |date=16 July 2019 }}, 7 August 2018</ref> Similarly, a temple dedicated to her equated goddess [[Atargatis]] in [[Dura-Europos]], was found with nearly a dozen small rooms with low benches, which might have used either for sacred meals or sacred services of women jailed in the temple for adultery.<ref name=St/><ref name=Lipinski2013>{{harvnb|Lipiński|2013|pp=9–27}}</ref> Pyrgi's sacred prostitutes were famous enough to be apparently mentioned in a lost fragment of [[Gaius Lucilius|Lucilius]]'s works.<ref name=PuGa>Ana María Jiménez Flores, ''Cultos fenicio-púnicos de Gádir: Prostitución sagrada y Puella Gaditanae'', 2001. Habis 32. [[Universidad de Sevilla]].</ref>

In northern Africa, the area of influence of the Phoenician colony of [[Carthage]], this service was associated to the city of [[Sicca Veneria|Sicca]], a nearby city that received the name of ''Sicca Veneria'' for its temple of [[Astarte]] or [[Tanit]] (called [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] by Roman authors).<ref name=PuGa/> [[Valerius Maximus]] describes how their women gained gifts by engaging in prostitution with visitors.<ref>[[Valerius Maximus]], ''Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem'', II. 6.15</ref>

Phoenicio-Punic settlements in [[Hispania]], like [[Cancho Roano]], [[Gadir]], [[Castulo]] and La Quéjola, have suggested this practice through their archaeology and iconography. In particular, Cancho Roano features a sanctuary built with multiple cells or rooms, which has been identified as a possible place of sacred prostitution in honor to Astarte.<ref name=Mone>Teresa Moneo, ''Religio iberica: santuarios, ritos y divinidades (siglos VII-I A.C.)'', 2003, Real Academia de la Historia, {{ISBN|9788495983213}}</ref> A similar institution might have been found in Gadir. Its posterior, renowned erotic dancers called ''[[puellae gaditanae]]'' in Roman sources (or ''cinaedi'' in the case of male dancers) might have been desecrated heirs of this practice, considering the role occupied by sex and dance on Phoenician culture.<ref name=Sai>José María Blázquez Martínez, ''La diosa de Chipre'', Real Academia de la Historia. Saitabi. Revista de la Facultat de Geografia i Història, 62-63 (2012-2013), pp. 39-50</ref><ref name=PuGa/><ref name=Euro>Guadalupe López Monteagudo, María Pilar San Nicolás Pedraz, ''Astarté-Europa en la península ibérica - Un ejemplo de interpretatio romana'', Complurum Extra, 6(I), 1996: 451-470</ref>

Another center of cult to Astarte was [[Cyprus]], whose main temples were located in [[Paphos]], [[Amathus]] and [[Kition]].<ref name=Mone/> The epigraphy of the Kition temple describes personal economic activity on the temple, as sacred prostitution would have been taxed as any other occupation, and names possible practitioners as ''grm'' (male) and ''lmt'' (female).<ref name=PuGa/><ref>Julio González Alcalde, ''Simbología de la diosa Tanit en representaciones cerámicas ibéricas'', Quad. Preh. Arq. Cast. 18, 1997</ref>