When “Slutty” Was Sacred: The Lost History of Prostitution

Ancient Sex Workers Weren’t Shamed. Prostitution Was Celebrated.

Dear reader, what if I told you that once upon a time, the most revered women in town weren’t virgins or wives, but sexual priestesses? That offering your body in service of the divine wasn’t considered shameful but holy. It's true. Or at least, mostly true. The idea of prostitution, where sex was ritual, spiritual, and socially accepted, wasn’t a fringe kink. It was mainstream religion. And if that sounds wild, just wait until we get to the part about gender-bending priests and orgasm as worship. Like everything sexy and subversive in history, it’s a little bit myth, a little bit fact, and a whole lot more honest about human desire than what we’re told today.

Sex as Spiritual Service (Seriously)

In ancient Mesopotamia, goddesses like Inanna and later Ishtar reigned over love, fertility, war, and yes, sex. Temples dedicated to her weren’t just places to light candles. They were buzzing with ritual. Women served as priestesses who, according to some interpretations, embodied the goddess through sensuality. Their presence wasn't scandalous. It was sacred.

Now, before we paint a pornographic mural of Babylonian orgies, let’s get something straight. The historical record surrounding sacred prostitution is messy. Some scholars say that “Sacred prostitution involved temple priestesses of Inanna/Ishtar having ritual sex with male visitors to the temple, again releasing the divine fertile energy.” However, the idea that women performed ritual sex with temple visitors has been debated for decades. Other scholars argue it was more symbolic than literal.

Others suggest it was misinterpreted by ancient Greek historians like Herodotus, who loved a spicy story. According to Herodotus, the rites performed at these temples included sexual intercourse, or what scholars later called sacred sexual rites: “The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite (Ishtar) and have intercourse with some stranger at least once in her life.”

Still, even with scholarly caution, there’s enough evidence to believe that temples were not sexually repressed spaces. Inanna’s worship included erotic hymns, fertility rites, and ritual roles that tied spirituality to the body in explicit ways. It wasn’t selling sex. It was serving spirit.

Whores or Holy? Depends on the Century

Look at cultures from ancient Greece to South Asia, and you’ll see a pattern. Before the Shame Police arrived, sexuality was often treated as a sacred force.

In ancient Greece, the hetaerae weren’t working in temples but were elite courtesans educated in music, politics, and seduction. They had more freedom than the average Athenian wife and often held influence in public life. They didn’t serve gods, but they knew how to make men feel divine.

In India, devadasis were ritual dancers married to gods and dedicated to temple service. Whether or not sex was part of that role is still debated, but there’s no question their position was spiritual and respected; until colonialism and patriarchy dragged it into the gutter... Over time, missionaries and moral reformers obsessed with purity rather than reality rebranded a once-sacred institution as immoral.

Queer, Trans, and Totally Divine? Absolutely.

One of the biggest historical plot twists is how much ancient spirituality included gender fluidity and queerness.

In Inanna’s temples, gala priests used feminine language, wore feminine clothing, and performed in rituals. Some ancient Sumerian texts describe them in erotic or receptive roles. It’s not a stretch to say they were a recognized third-gender or gender-nonconforming presence within official religious life. There is a Sumerian proverb which reads, "When the gala wiped off his anus [he said], ‘I must not arouse that which belongs to my mistress [i.e., Inanna]’." They were servants of the goddess, celebrated and needed.

Before modern society had words like nonbinary or trans femme, ancient religion already had room for them. It didn't just tolerate them. It exalted them.

The Death of the Divine Slut

As monotheism took root, the sexual aspects of ancient spirituality were erased or demonized. Pleasure became a threat to purity. Feminine power became something to suppress, not channel.

Temple sex work, or anything that looked like it, got recast as sin. Female spiritual leaders vanished from the origin narratives. Mary Magdalene got demoted. Lilith got demonized. And sex became something you were supposed to endure, not enjoy.

Today’s sex workers are still fighting an uphill battle, not only against legal systems but against centuries of bad press. The words “prostitute” and “slut” have been used to marginalize and brutalize, when they were once associated with divine presence. However, maybe the divine slut didn’t disappear. Maybe she just went on OnlyFans.

Pleasure is a skill. Level yours up.